Snoozeweek

OK, it's just past midnight and the new Newsweek.com has arrived.

Compare the pre-designed (top) and re-designed versions for yourself. (Click on each image to view them full-sized.)




We read the explanation page -- that handy guide to the new look and new features -- and frankly it made us nervous.

It sounds as though the thrust of the editorial material will be aggregation and reader feedback (aka "citizen journalism," Twittering, etc.), at the expense of fresh original reported content. See if you get the same vibe:

We will embrace the best work of other journalists around the Web and the most thoughtful questions and comments of our readers. Our mission is to create a forum for a continuous – and continuously worthwhile – conversation about key events and issues...

Every day, journalists, thinkers and pundits from around the world publish work that is worth reading. Part of our mission, as we see it, is to provide our readers with easy access to the best of that content ...

Taking advantage of the instantaneous nature of the medium, we will feature comments, questions and thoughts posted by Newsweek readers to our Twitter feed...

Every day, Newsweek editors will select people, groups or concepts in the news and ask you, our readers, to weigh in...Express your opinion and then join the discussion on each topic.

You know the Web is full of informational gems ...Every day, Newsweek editors will seek out those jewels and deliver them to you, whether they were published on a site here in the U.S. or halfway around the world...

Need we go on?

Is this what the Web really needs more of? Another site to collect everyone else's opinions?

And what about our high hopes that Newsweek will jumpstart its half-hearted video efforts? The homepage video box has been pushed down "below-the-fold," making it even more difficult to find, and it's been lumped under an increasingly meaningless "Multimedia" umbrella -- sandwiched between Photo Galleries and Interactive Graphics.

And the lead video story is still a six-week-old on-camera Q&A ... with Bob Saget.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Awaiting the New Newsweek

We're eager to see the new Newsweek.com, which is debuting tomorrow (Friday).

According to assistant managing editor Kathleen Deveny:

The redesigned home page will be easy to navigate and introduce new features, such as an interactive version of "Conventional Wisdom." We'll be offering a mix of our own content, aggregated content and content generated by our users. If we were to do a magazine piece on nukes in Iran, for example, we would post it along with links to the best stories we can find at other Web sites—including our direct competitors'—while encouraging our readers to ask questions and comment via Twitter.

All that is in anticipation of a major overhaul of the print publication, to be unveiled on Monday:

Nearly everything about the way the magazine looks will change. Our new design is meant to be less daunting, more entertaining and easier to navigate. It will be divided into four clear sections: short newsy items, essays and commentary, longer features and cultural coverage. It will be printed on higher-quality paper, which instantly will make it feel better in your hand.

The print publication will be deliberately going after a smaller and more demographically desirable audience (translation: advertiser-friendly affluent niches), with an eye toward jacking up the subscription price. The Website, on the other hand, will be reaching out to a bigger audience:

The site already has 6.8 million unique monthly visitors, according to Nielsen, which means more people read Newsweek stories online than in print. We'd like to increase that number significantly, while keeping users on the site longer.

Naturally we're especially keen to see how Newsweek plans to bolster its videojournalism, which so far has been sparse and unremarkable (a FOUR-part Bob Saget interview?!?!). ...

In an era when the 24/7 Web news cycle has made the newsweekly concept itself obsolete, it would seem that distinctive hard-hitting video stories -- which a mighty media organization like Newsweek has the resources to deliver -- would be one surefire way for the struggling magazine to pull ahead of the rest of the pack.

Standing by...