Competitor Analysis

Mainstream Media

The Daily Express

The Daily Express makes use of the Internet as an effective forum for delivering its content in numerous ways.

I think the easiest way of analysing the papers website, is to directly discuss what I do and do not like about it.


Likes:

The home page has a simple, yet very aesthetically pleasing, flash animation that cycles through the main headlines of News, Sport, and Features. It's smooth and gives the viewer a simple, yet comprehensive overview of the site.

The site features an RSS feed link which would enable users easy access to the newest headlines and again, is an effective tool. By making their news headlines as easy to access as possible, the Daily Express hopes to keep their regular viewers through ease of use more than anything else. Again though, in the online realm where it has become so easy to clutter and over complicate web content, this is a very effective method for keeping subscription rates.

The site features immediate, up-to-date news feeds, meaning that as soon as a story breaks the viewer is given instant access to that story. This is typical of all news sites, however it cannot be classified as a 'dislike', because it does feature it and not having it would be truly sub-standard.

The site is divided into key-sections, each with its own relevant sub-sections, which enables easy navigation.

Users can post comments against stories and in various forums. Again, this is a feature of almost all news-sites, but cannot truly be discarded as a dis-like, because it is an important aspect of the site.


Dislikes:

As stated by Martin Belam in his analysis of the Express site, the blogging content does seem somewhat forced. Reading the content, it strikes me that the authors are writing more because they have to than an actual desire is compelling them to.

Additionally, though I realise in order to generate enough revenue to enable a free online form it is necessary, the adverts present on the site are rather irritating in terms of both size and placement. This can easily put users off using the site.

Furthermore, subscription to blogs does seem to give the user subscription to ALL blogs. This is quite an annoying feature, especially if the user is only interested in one topic.


Student Sites

For my analysis of a student magazine/newspaper online presence, I chose to look at the Cork Institute of Technology Student Union's site. There is no particular reason for this choice, it just happened to be the first online magazine site that I came across having conducted a search on Google.

To analyse the site, I will use the same system as before, 'Likes & Dislikes', though for variety I will start with 'Dislikes'.


Dislikes:

First impression? I don't like the site. This is probably due to a personal bias. I favour images quite heavily in my work and take great pride in taking my own photographs, editing, and presenting them myself. As a result, these are the first elements of a site that I notice. In the case of the CITSU site, the images are terrible. They are pixelated beyond belief. Even the small images that would not take up much space if presented in full quality are heavily compressed and pixelated. The first impression is an important one, and gives a lasting impression of a site. In this case, it's a bad one.

The site features a calendar. The calendar, when a date is selected, will display all union events for that particular day. When I first saw this, I thought it an effective and well presented feature of the site. However, when I looked through various dates, almost every single one had 'There are no events on this day'. Meaning? Pointless.

The site is divided into several sections, however each section often has little to no content, instead linking the user to several sub-sections within the section. In my opinion it would be more user-friendly if the sections at least had a slightly larger welcome/introduction to the section.

There is no section on news stories through which viewers can post comments. This is a common feature of almost all websites, especially news and magazine sites, yet CITSU does not feature it.

Finally, a small point perhaps, but the navigation bar across the top of the page features an 'underling' bar that highlights which button the cursor is hanging over. This underlining bar doesn't just 'appear' when a button is crossed with the cursor, it travels across the nav-bar from its previous position. However, the previous position is almost always the default position of 'Contact Us'. Perhaps I just have a child's mind, but I spent the majority of my time on the site playing with the bar. It's AI movement reminded me of 'Pong'!


Likes:

The site seems fairly well-presented. The nav-bars across the top and down the left side of the page are easy to navigate and provide simple access throughout the site.

The content of the site is well written. It is easy to understand and its form is light and pleasing.

A viewer poll has been well integrated into the site, and analysis can be easily obtained.

The site features relevant links and again, these are easily accessible and straight-forward.



Overall, The Daily Express site has some room for improvement, yet seems to be on the whole a well represented forum.

The CITSU site on the other-hand has a lot of room for improvement. My apologies for such a blunt sentiment go out to Vicky O'Sullivan (General Manager of the CIT Student's Union).