Six norwegian news websites homepages: a visual comparison
This post is more about the visual attached than anything else. I have many opinions on norwegian news websites: I am used to Italian newspapers, where the “tabloid factor” is not so important, and politics dominate the content (well, someone may argue that italian politics IS entertainment suited for tabloids….but that’s another story…..).
Let’s give the word to the images, so to speak….
Enlarge ImageThe first impression is that advertising dominates the real estate above the fold (all screen shots are taken on 1024×768 screen resolution), with all sites following similar advertising concepts: a large top banner spanning the whole content area width; a skyscraper on the “extra” column; a squared creative on one or the other side of the large top banner, at times. Various combinations of buttons, semibuttons and other custom formats glitter and shine on the different HPs. Animations also make their contribution towards rendering the reading experience wonderfully irritating. And quizzes (or tests) everywhere…..
The fact that there is barely one piece of news (whether newsworthy or not…) showing up above the fold is not so critical though: most users scroll, are habitual readers, or suffer in silence 
For comparison, one can take a look at some of the leading news sites in Italy, Europe and in the US:
Enlarge ImageBig difference, eh? Advertising is at a minimum; real estate is allocated to news(!); news have a very different character than those available on the norwegian sites. Now, I cannot be sure the reasons that make news sites so different. Be it cultural, commercial, type and size of readership (and hence revenue) of print versions etc. But be as it may, the impression I get of norwegian news sites is not very good.
I will try to find the time in the coming days to map the type of content which populate the respective HPs (politics, international, environment/climate, sport, entertainment, culture, quizzes etc) and compare. Of course different days provide different news, but a snapshot may still offer some valuable clue.
Cheers - Ciao!
Tags: musings, news sites, Usability
One Person has left comments on this post
Tell me about it. The worst thing is that other norwegian companies that are not news sites are copying this model.
Above the fold advertising is prime real estate and it’s just too tempting to not exploit for some people. But in the end you’re reducing the importance of your own brand and like you said, people learn to just scroll, making those ads less and less profitable at the expense of the users goodwill.
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