LJWorld.com

The Lawrence Journal World newspaper serves Lawrence, Kansas, and the University of Kansas. The paper owns both Lawerence.com, a website especially designed for college students, KUSports.com, the website that follows the university’s sports, and 6NewsLawrence.com, the television station that covers the same area as the newspaper. I think that they spend more time and money having many websites to cover all of their demographics, than on their own website. There’s very little, if any, layering on the site, but their use of multimedia is interesting.

When you go to the World’s webpage, the entire left column is filled with different sections of the site, including the Local section, which includes everything anyone could ever want to know about the community, including “school news,” “Crime, fire, courts,” “Kansas Legislature,” and “Politics,” just to name a few. The section descriptions are very detailed, so the people who go to the site looking for something specific can find what they need quickly.

The story pages are even more interesting. They have features that I haven’t seen on a news site before. First, along with the standard, “E-mail Story” and “Printer-friendly” options, they also list “iPod Friendly” and even “E-mail Editor” options. These interactive two features are really interesting. The news story was probably also covered on either television or radio stations, so I assume that by “iPod friendly” they mean that it is the story as it was presented on either of those stations since they would produce the audio content easily. Then, the “E-mail Editor” feature gives you the ability to ask questions or send comments directly to the editor through your email system, right from the text of the story, making it easier for the reader to quote directly from the story when creating their email.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much layering in their local stories, or at least any of the 15 stories I looked at. The site gives you the ability to post comments directly to the story, but there are no links to any other stories or other content that links directly to the subject of the story. One of the stories in the sports section breaks the trend, titled “Extra Minutes: Kansas 88, Texas 84 (OT),” and includes links to other interviews of the players and coaches, and press conferences. Unfortunately, the trend continues beyond this one story. Other sports articles have no layering whatsoever, just like the local sections. It appears that when the story is about a specific game, they include the same links to the same interviews with each story. They may use layering in some places, but it isn’t much, and when it is there, it is a very poor quality of layering.

The multimedia is a different story. The site has some very interesting multimedia options. One option is the online chats they offer with members of the community. For the next few weeks, the people being chatted with are all candidates for the upcoming school board elections. Each week, they have a different candidate and the public can go to the online chat site to submit questions before the chat begins. I’m not sure if that really qualifies it as a chat, since usually chatting means a two-way conversation where one person is asking a question and another is answering it with spontaneous responses, but I think it is a great feature because it gives the public a way to get their questions answered, especially with elections. There are always questions from the public asking about the candidate’s stance on a certain issue because they never cover it in any of their public appearances, or even that the candidate didn’t think it was important. It also gives the candidate a way to be able to talk to their supporters or those that may oppose them, and find out what they have to do to make everyone happy, which can be very beneficial in a campaign, especially one for the school board (my mom was on our school board for years, and was even elected as president during one of their most tumultuous periods because she knew what the people wanted and the public knew that they could trust her).

Another great multimedia feature is their Discussion Boards. On some news websites, the discussions are controlled by the site’s owners and the topics are carefully selected to prevent fighting or inappropriate comments, and make the boards cheaper and easier to run. On this site, the discussion boards seem to be more of a “letter to the editor” section with the ability to comment. It doesn’t seem to be the classic discussion board that uses threads and direct comments. The letter or article is published and people comment on it. No matter how the discussions are run, they seem to be popular. A letter to the editor was written about Ann Coulter and how she should be given more respect. Obviously, this was a major issue within the community because the story had 301 comments. This section looks like it is a big draw for the site, bringing many readers in to be able to comment on letters they may have read in the print edition. I know I have read many letters to the editor in our local newspaper, The Courier News, and have been dying to respond anonymously (so that I don’t destroy or negatively impact their reputations by saying something the conservative Republican majority may find offensive. My parents have a strong and very busy public life, but there have been some letters I really have to restrain myself from writing because I know I’d do damage to their reputations if I did.), so if I could find a way to do that online, I’d be on there pretty much every day. Also, the discussions are prominently displayed on the right side of most pages, so people have ready access to them and are more likely to go to the page since they don’t have to dig around to get to it.

Another section, called Take a Stand, gives readers the ability to write an article on a topic that concerns them. They can give their opinions or feelings on an event or prevalent issue. I don’t think that every article they receive is published on the side, but I do think that if it is well written, and that the paper has gotten a lot of questions or concerns about that one issue, they will publish it on their website in this section. It is another way they are able to give their public a voice. I think this is another great way for people to be able to express their opinions for all to hear (or read). If I were a politician in this general area, I would be checking in on this and other areas on the site daily to make sure I know what the people want and can respond directly to their concerns.

There is one page that can lead you to three other intriguing sections of the site. The page is called “Most Popular Items,” but is somewhat hard to find. I went through the “Most Active Discussions” (where you find the discussion boards) box on the right side of the page, and then clicked on the “Most Popular Items” link that was on the page above the content, showing a user’s path (I’m not sure how it works, but I know I didn’t get there the way that path said.). They have three “most popular” options: “Most e-mailed stories,” “Most active story discussions,” and, even “Most e-mailed obituaries.” I can understand the first two and their importance, but the third one I don’t quite understand. How often do people in Lawrence, Kansas e-mail someone an interesting obituary?

Overall, LJWorld.com is a great site for local news. It gives a user every topic they could ever want, and most directly from the homepage, making it easier for them to use, and in turn, making it a place people will go because it is so simple to get to the information they want. However, they don’t seem to use layering much at all. From the example we discussed in class with a story about a band playing in the area, I went and checked through the music sections, only to find that it takes you to Lawrence.com, the site that was targeted to the college students. Even on that site, there weren’t any links to related content, except for their great event calendar. Beyond that, the content on the right side of the page was all about other bands and other events. LJWorld.com however, does use multimedia features well. I’m very impressed with the iPod compatible stories. I think it is a great way to cater to my and younger generations, and give people the ability to download a few stories first thing in the morning before they run off to work, and then listen to them on the way there. Overall, the site is a good source for news, as long as you are in Lawrence, Kansas, but I also think it’s a great example for other sites to follow for everything except layering.