When you go to CNN.com are you "often overwhelmed" by it? Does it "sometimes seem like a machine that spits out breaking news?" I sort of think that CNN's website is pretty okay, actually. I mean, there are those odd occasions where CNN announces on its website that there is an ongoing debate over the Confederacy, but these occasions are rare.
Nevertheless, as TVNewser reports, CNN Digital Senior Vice President KC Estenson believes that the site is overwhelming and like a spitting-machine. And so CNN is aiming to change it because, in Estenson's opinion, the site "needs to pay off like the real human beings that are creating this stuff."
Now, I will confess that I do not really know what those words, used in that combination, actually mean. But TVNewser goes on to explain that CNN is going to make its digital offerings more consistent across platforms, and work cultivate a closer relationship between its television and digital newsroom. The news organization also plans on enabling greater personalization, so users can see content tailored to their interests. This sounds great! But if you detect the scent of an oncoming gimmick, guess what? You are right.
There are a number of changes that will be obvious to users. The focus will be on photos and video (including photo and videos that are “full bleed” and take up most of the screen), and there will be much more color. In fact, the colors of the site will change throughout the day based on the news. In the morning CNN.com will have softer colors, shifting to blues and grays during the day. If there is urgent breaking news–such as a bombing–the entire color scheme for the site will shift to red.
I mean, you know how every morning starts out feeling sort of baby blue and pastel yellow, but by lunch time you are like, "Ugh, I feel so magenta right now?" And then as the sun sets in the west you get the overwhelming feeling that everything is all blue-gray? And you are like, "News website! I wish that you would do more to capture the essential cerulean-ness of modern existence!" And then there is a bombing and it totally feels red? Finally, there will be a website that responds to these feelings.
What would be glorious is if someone at CNN actually got the job of altering the color of the website depending on what's happening. If there is violence in Egypt, they would be tasked with selecting the right hue of red. If Scotland secedes from the United Kingdom, they would switch to Black Watch tartan. If the Elder Gods rise from R'lyeh to re-establish dominion over our plane of existence, they would switch to the Color Out Of Space. (And Piers Morgan would get the exclusive interview with Cthulhu.)
Anyway, this changes everything, etc.
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