Evolution of The New York Times on the web
The New York Times webpage has evolved drastically from when it first appeared on the web in the year 1996 to our current day in 2015. The New York Times website started off with a small layout of news to now bringing an expanded venue of topics that reaches out to readers interested in local and worldly news. Their webpage reveals the growth that was necessary to have in order to keep up with other media websites and also staying up to date with the latest cultural trends and news layouts to satisfy the needs of the reader.
The New York Times displayed their first webpage on Tuesday, November 12, 1996. It was a very small and short layout of news on the cover page which primarily focused on the topic of people in Zaire who were in search of food because of poverty. On the right hand side of the page, mentions the “Late News Update” of a two airplane crash that killed 350 people in Delhi, India. There is a short section of listed topics on the left hand side of the page that the reader can click on and look at, but the cover page is very limited which may also be limiting to the interests of many readers. This layout includes the basics of media coverage. It only shows the major issues going on in other countries during that particular time. It also only shows the events that are happening in different parts of the world instead of including national and local news. The design of the webpage is basic with the black italicized title “The New York Times: On The Web.” It also has a logo which says “All the News That’s Fit to Print” which explains that all of the important news is in their newspaper. This short appearance of news on the webpage could be because of their new experience of putting their news on the web. Possibly, during 1996 there was a need only for the basic types of headlines on the front page.
The display of content and design of their webpage stayed the same until 1998. After the coverage of limited news on the front cover of the webpage and use of basics for the world news, the length of the webpage grew with a variation of other news coverages. The New York Times webpage started its expansion during the year 1998. Its change in format includes many links to articles. The “Quick News” links for international and national news, politics, business, technology, science, weather and opinion pieces. There is an organized structure of a column for quick news and a splash of color of orange. There are also video links for the coverage of the judiciary committee and a video clip of Former President Bill Clinton apologizing to Americans for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Listed toward the bottom of the page are sections announcing film reviews, sports news, arts such as Museum of the Arts Institute and popular books that are on the market. This layout change that includes video links may have been influenced by the new ways of giving the reader visuals that helps tell the story. Another influence that caused the addition of linked videos was that videos were being downloaded on the web and searchable on Google during 1998.
Until the end of 2011 leading into 2012, there was a significant change in the webpage due to the historical campaign event of 2012 when President Obama ran for his second term. The news of the Obama campaign is the leading story with multiple articles about the campaign. The headlines and wording is patriotic with blue and red. This may have been used to symbolize the campaign. The structure of the webpage is sections that separate the stories. There is a link that leads to writing a blog in response to the articles. This shows the addition of using new media to express one’s opinion such as writing a blog post. It also reveals the trend of using Facebook, Instagram and WordPress. Because of the popularities of these programs, it is necessary to utilize the newest resources. The page reaches an expansion in length with more photos of topics and description of each article about the topic. It is a lot more visual with advertisements with spatial layout. The visuals and spatial layout makes the page eye catching and intriguing for the reader.
The design and content of today’s New York Times webpage has not changed much since 2012. The use of new media is still a steady demand as it was a few years ago. The evolving webpage gives more options to research and to find more information on various topics.
