From the Publisher’s Desk: The new look of My Edmonds News

Welcome to the redesigned My Edmonds News.  As I mentioned in an earlier column, we have been working on this new layout for quite some time, and have been testing it for several months on our sister sites, Lynnwood Today and MLTnews.

Change is never easy, so I wanted to explain the reasoning behind the new look.

This is the third redesign since My Edmonds News was launched six years ago, and the main catalyst for the change is simple: The vast majority of our readers are accessing us via mobile devices — tablets and cell phones. Our former layout with its vertical format did not serve our readers or our advertisers well. On mobile screens, the advertising wasn’t well-spaced throughout content and tended to show up all at once, frustrating readers who had to scroll through many ads prior to reaching the stories they wanted to read.

We are hopeful that this the new layout will be cleaner for all involved, providing a better experience for our readers and a cleaner look that benefits our advertisers.

What you will notice as you test drive our new look:

  • Stories are now filed in categories, rather than appearing in one long column down the center of the page. Within those categories, the stories do appear in the order that they have been posted, and once you have have looked at the first five that appear in each section, you can access additional ones by pushing the forward arrow at the bottom of each category. (And the backward arrow to return to where you started.)
  • Any general story that doesn’t happen to fit one of those categories will now appear at the bottom of the page in the “More Stories” category.
  • Comments are now located on the right side of the home page, instead of on the left. As always, we require all commenters to use  their real first and last names.
  • The latest photos and videos can be viewed in Photo and Video “slider” panels located on the home page. If you want to see the photo at a larger size or watch a video, click on the headline of the item in the slider. In addition, all videos and photos can be easily accessed by clicking the “Video” or “Photo”  menu items at the top of the home page.
  • The search box is located at the top of the page, to the right of the menu bar. When you press the search icon, a blank box will automatically appear directly under the icon. As you type your search words, you will see any relevant headlines appear just below the box. If you hit return, you will see all the relevant stories appear on the page.
  • You will notice at the top of the home page links to our sister sites in Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace. There is also a link to the My Neighborhood News Network home page, which highlights the top stories on all three of our websites — in one place.
  • The link to sign up for our daily newsletter can be found directly below the two boxed ads on the upper right of the home page. Simply enter your email address to sign up, and a confirmation link will be sent to you via email. If you have trouble with this function, email your request to be added to myedmondsnews@gmail.com. We will make sure a confirmation link is sent to you.
  • To voluntarily sign up for a paid subscription to My Edmonds News or make a one-time donation, you can click on the Support Us With a Subscription link on the second line of the menu bar. If you have trouble accessing this, you can click the link here.

As always, I welcome your feedback about what you like — and don’t like — about our new look, as well as anything else that is on your mind.

Sincerely,

Teresa Wippel, Publisher

  1. this new layout is very confusing to me I cant tell what is new and what isn’t – with the old site all your stories were right in order with the date published and with a short lead in. now I get nothing and have to scroll through what seems as too many and bigger ads. put the date published and maybe that will save me some time. I enjoy the site but find this to be a little too distracting to sort through. i get that you are trying to make it work for tablets and smart phones but I didn’t have any problems looking at the site on either my phone or tablet??
    sorry

  2. Hi Tom:
    The most recent story in each category is the one featured at the left, followed by the next ones to the right of the featured one in order of when they were posted. A good way to make sure you know what is new every day is to subscribe to our daily email newsletter, which pulls in all the story posted from the day before, in the order that they were posted. Know that I am tracking all comments made and we will make adjustments if needed to address ongoing concerns.

  3. Love the new layout. Works well on my phone. Ads display better and text wraps around images flow well. I read My Edmonds News everyday. Thank you for your effort and commitment.

  4. Good for My Edmonds News to be brave enough to continually look for ways to improve content and delivery of this important community service. I’m not a phone or tablet user, so didn’t experience those problems, but happy to adjust if it makes it easier for them.

  5. Thanks for the upgrade it works nicely at my desk and my phone. And Tom how about giving yourself a little time to catch up with the rest of us.

  6. I am sitting on my balcony on Newport Beach Harbor, scrolling the MEN on my iPhone……..PERFECT! Good Job!

    1. Also note that, thanks to a suggestion from our roving reporter/photographer Larry Vogel, we were able to add a “Classic Format” button to the home page that allows you to review the stories in a scrolling format in the order posted. I’m hoping that this will help those who miss the old format. You can find it here: https://myedmondsnews.com/home-classic/

  7. First of all, I love the new mobile web experience, it’s a great improvement — and as always, I value the service you provide to Edmonds I will be glad to donate to your site to support your efforts and suggest others do the same. I know that no contribution is not too small (or too big)!

    Some general feedback on the new design:
    * The menu/navigation header plays peekaboo on the mobile web experience, it disappears when you scroll into the page, which makes sense, but it sometimes lags to reappear or sometimes only half the menu header appears, so that’s a little wonky.
    * I’m not really seeing any ads on the iPhone-formatted mobile web experience. Always glad to see some local ads that support your efforts, as any other reader should gladly accept for the value of the content they receive.
    * If possible, it would be nice to see the article publish date in italics for the article list items that appear below the featured content (i.e. the article links with the images/titles/date/subtitle).
    * The “Recent Comments” feature is confusing on each article page since it’s showing recent comments on articles across the whole site, but tucked right below all comments only on the article itself. I would argue the “Recent Comments” is contributing to page load, but not providing value to 99% of your readers. If someone is eager to see what users are saying for comments across all articles, maybe there should be a separate destination for that view.

    1. Thanks for your comments, Scott. Believe it or not, I think that most readers come just to scroll through all the various comments. At least that’s what they tell me.

  8. Congratulations on the changeover Teresa; I know migrating a web site can be a nerve wracking experience. This is just a general comment, my comment also applies to the previous version…

    I don’t consider myself old, I’m 51, but the rotating images on the pages are beyond distracting. I know people older than myself who use flashing icons and other fancy things on their sites, so maybe it’s an ADD thing, but I can’t read or focus when I’m being asked “hey! look over here here’s some interesting photos or twinkling diamonds.” It’s maddening. I’m clearly a minority because no one seems to mention it but me….

    If this message is a little garbled it’s because there’s a constantly rotating window of images immediately to the left, I mean right, of this comment box, and I can’t focus.

  9. The recent comments section is not updating with comments on individual articles. The last comment listed is Jan 29 and comments have been made today…hope you see this.

    1. Bylines are at the bottom of stories from contributors. If there is no byline it’s usually because it’s item we’ve been emailed (like a news release) or a very short item that has been compiled from several sources. I have to admit that sometimes I forget to byline my own city government stories (like city council coverage).– Teresa

  10. MEN – It appears that clicking on the “Reply” link under each poster’s comment no longer puts the new comment under that poster – it falls to the bottom. Is that accurate or is my browser just messed up.

  11. Ok, thank you. My browser (Chrome) must not process the link correctly, because your reply is directly under mine and indented, but mine will appear at the bottom and not indented.

  12. I’m using Internet Explorer and it also no longer works for me. I tried Firefox and it doesn’t work there either.

    1. I have Firefox as well and it works for me. I’ve asked our tech person to see if he has any insights.

  13. In case it helps your IT folks… looking back at posts from all over MEN since the update, the only posts I see indented and under another poster’s comment is from MEN.

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