Local Television Websites Report Card

Recently, I was watching Channel 5’s (WTVF-Nashville’s CBS affiliate) news, when it suddenly occurred to me that I had not seen a regular reporter on their newscasts in some time. So, in an effort to determine if my suspicion that this reporter was no longer with the station was true, I did what every web savvy viewer would do. I went online to their website to view the station’s staff bios. After five minutes, I was still digging through all the pages and navigation and could not find the bios of even the station’s most recognizable personalities. I finally found the station’s bios, two days later when I was looking for something else. I stumbled upon it which is a terrible way to find something after the fact.

As a disclaimer, I should confess, I come across hundreds of web sites every day. Most through my work as a product manager for a social network, but also as a user of social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Rarely do I come across sites that are less user-friendly for their audiences than local television web sites. Often, these stations pack too much information into their pages or overload them with ads. It seems like user experience is a secondary concern for these stations.

All of this leads me to this blog post. Rating these web sites is long overdue. We’ll start with the best and work our way down to the worst.

WKRN - Channel 2 (ABC Affiliate) Grade: B Review Breakdown Design: B Content: B Video Player: B+ Structure: B SEO: F

This web site’s is the tale of two homepages.  The top half of the homepage is clean and easy to navigate.  The lower half is jumbled, with uneven blocks of content that are a complete withdrawal from the clean theme displayed at the top of the page.  Over all, WKRN’s web site is as good a user experience as any local television web site in Nashville.

WSMV - Channel 4 (NBC Affiliate) Grade: B Review Breakdown Design: B Content: B Video Player: B Structure: B SEO: F

This web site’s layout is classic yet functional.  There is the obligatory banner ad right under the masthead of the homepage.  It is intrusive and breaks the flow of the web site.  It’s to be expected, since tv stations rely very much of advertising revenue.  The three column content layout is easy enough to navigate and the menu on the left is very easy to use.

WZTV - Channel 17 (FOX Affiliate) Grade: C- Review Breakdown Design: F Content: C Video Player: F Structure: B SEO: A

The FOX 17 web site is different.  The content modules with blue backgrounds and white text set the tone, with orange elements offsetting the blue, its a different approach to a serious news web site.  Parts of the homepage are very professional, other parts are very campy.  The biggest downfall of this site is the lack of an integrated video player.  The absence of this feature really sets it back.  Of all the TV station sites reviewed, this web site actually hits the mark with their SEO efforts.

WTVF - Channel 5 (CBS Affiliate) Grade: D+ Review Breakdown Design: F Content: B Video Player: B+ Structure: D- SEO: F

It saddens me to put NewsChannel 5 at the bottom because it is my preferred station for news, but after spending an excessive amount of time trying to find a reporter’s bio, I realized this web site is a bit of a train wreck.  I noticed a common theme between WKRN and WTVF’s web sites.  Both use a content management service called WorldNow.  Both sites are using last generation markup for the site structure and overall design is a bit scattered.  The lack of a true sitemap only adds to the misorganization.  My biggest pet peeve with this web site is when the anchors say visit our website for more details about a story and you can’t find the story without scanning several pages.  This is a very poor user experience.  Add a true search, not the watered down Google site search.

If you have opinions about local television’s web sites, please leave a comment.  I would love to hear what you think of these four websites.

Symbols of the Downfall of U.S. Automakers

Much has been made of the recent bailout loans granted to GM and Chrysler.  The response from most Americans is similar to getting the news that your least favorite relative or in-law is coming to visit, you shudder at the idea but you also know the ramifications of not letting them visit might not be good so you grin and bear it.  Rather than continue to bitch about the bailout, lets look at a few motor city products the epitomize the downfall of Detroit.

GM

GM is probably hurting worse than any other carmaker at this time.  You could make the argument that GM has entirely too many brands and if their product line was more concentric, like Ford, they might be in a better position.  So, what would be the symbol for GM’s demise?  Well, there are centainly plenty of qualified candidates.  You have the Chevy Suburban that can haul a whole choir to the chapel and get 13 mpg in the city.  The Chevy Cavalier was the 90’s version of a lemon on wheels.  The Geo brand was an poor attempt to emulate European products, without the European quality.  All of these are likely symbols, but for GM, nothing some gas-guzzling gluttany like the Hummer H1.

Who ever thought bringing the Hummer to American suburbs was out of their mind.  Wait.  It was Arnold Schwarzenegger who first outfit a military issue Hummer for city street use.  Just because it works for one Hollywood movie star doesn’t make it a sensible option for American drivers and certainly not to the level where GM should have spent millions on outfitting a plant to mass produce these vehicles that get 8 mpg and take 2 parking spaces in most parking lots.

Chrysler

Next in line is Chrysler, for the second time.  Lest we forget this automaker was in the same situation about 30 years ago.  Why you might ask?  At the time, very poorly conceived products proved to be costly for the automaker.  Chrysler brands include Jeep and Dodge, each of which enjoy success in the 80’s and early 90’s but have fallen on very hard times recently.  Following the GM model with the Hummer, the Jeep Wrangler is a fun automobile to have, but completely impractical for most. But I’m not going the way of the gas hog on this one. No, were going the opposite direction and choosing the vehical that showcases what American automakers have done best over the past 20 year — make a cheap car that bears the earmarks of a cheap car, the Dodge Neon.

The inspiration for this post was at a redlight recently when i was beside a new Dodge Neon.  Most first reaction was “hmm, the still make neons”.  Then my next thought was “why do they still make neons”.  There is nothing inspiring about the Neon.  Nothing against any owners of Dodge Neons out there, but when I see a Neon the first thing I think is there should be a sticker in the back that reads “Because my credit sucks and I couldn’t qualify for a Toyota.”  Neons tend to wear down rapidly and you rarely see one on the road that is over 5 years old.  In the Neon’s defense, it the least expensive way to trick out a car to look like you belong in the fast and the furious, with the oversized spoiler and lame paint job.

Ford

Comparitively speaking, Ford is in the best shape of the big 3.  That’s not saying much, but it does need to be recognized that as of today, Ford has not received any government assistance from the bailout funds approved by Congress.  But, everyone recognizes that Ford is wounded as well.  Ford has its share of ill-conceived products, with the Ford Excursion sucking up gallons of gas at an alarming rate and the Ford 500, which had to be renamed Taurus to succeed.  But for Ford, we’re not even going with an automobile as the symbol for the company’s futility.  No, you might say this is guilt by association, but for the Ford family nothing symbolizes downward spiral like the Detroit Lions.

The Detroit Lions completed the perfectly imperfect season recently, largely due to organizational decisions and poor management put into place by Lions owner William Clay Ford, Sr.  Ford is notorious for making poor decisions with the team and its management and being slow to react when it becomes apparent to everyone that the organization is not taking steps in the right direction.  Lions fans had been campaigning for the removal of Lions GM Matt Millen for more than 4 years.  Ford finally removed Millen in October of 2008 and has recently named Martin Mayhew the new GM for the organization.  Mayhew was a part of the organization throughout the Millen era, which leaves most questioning why Ford would choose someone from the organization that struggled enormously to lead their resurgence when their are many much more qualified proven winners out there (i.e. Bill Parcells of the Miami Dolphins and Floyd Reece, formerly of the Tennessee Titans).  This wonderful oversight of the Lions shows what might be a flaw of the auto industry in Detroit, failure to quickly identify when something is not working and hesitation to change it.

Now that you have seen my choices for the symbols of the downfall, let us know what your symbols would be.

Smoking Nurses in the Parking Lot

Where I work there is a healthcare company that occupies a floor of our office building. Within that company there has to be at least 40 nurses that come to work everyday in their scrubs. I am not exactly sure what they do, but it must be stressful because they smoke a lot.

From the looks of things, they need a smoke. Today it was 95 degrees out, not exactly “I think I will go out and enjoy this beautiful afternnoon” weather. The management of this particular office building has instituted a policy where smokers must stay at least 100 feet from the building to smoke. What resulted is this single bench area that is covered with cigarette butts.

The aftermath.

And if you notice from the first picture above, smoking and text messaging now go hand in hand. I am sure there is going to be some federally funded study in the future that proves this theory to be true.