The Manhattan Project
Morning Roundup: Second Helpings Edition
Compromise Uncertain on Same-Sex Marriage Law
Fire at 17th and L NW Forces Evacuations
Sculpture Garden Ice-Skating Rink Remains Closed
We awoke this morning to a new and shocking sight -- the Washington City Paper, the District's godfather of alternative press, had redone their website.
And not a minute too early, we might add.
The City Paper's website was always, to put it mildly, stuck in 1998. Such an online presentation was a clear injustice to what was otherwise good writing, quirky features, and solid alternative journalism. The paper's new site is brighter, sharper, and takes after the new orange-colored boxes in which the weekly print can be found. When asked why the new site, this is what Senior Editor Mike DeBonis had to say:
The redesign's been a long time coming. We've always had a lot of great content, but we've never made it particularly attractive or easy to find. Now our editorial content is better looking and easier to use, plus we just debuted a much more functional classifieds system. This is only the beginning, though. We're still working out a few kinks, and we're hiring a new Web manager very soon who will be tasked with creating a richer, database-driven site for us that will bring together all of the different parts of the site that have been sort of cobbled together over the years. Plus, we hope to do more Web-only content--including, hint hint, some competition for you in the blogosphere.Competition? Bring it, white boys.
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I'll give you that it needed a new Website (and a new print design too, which is stuck in 1996, even further behind.)
but good writing? quirky features? oh come on. it hasn't been up to par with the alternative press in about 10 years. i'd rather read the Baltimore City Paper (which I do) because nothing but Loose Lips is even readable. or informative. we deserve better.
Agreed, DC1974. Our CityPaper belongs nowhere near the list of great alt weeklies. Here's a hint, fellas: Concentrate more on getting good stuff out yourself than constantly attacking the Post.
Really? I think Citypaper is great. I think it puts to shame the Village Voice, which is often considered one of the best (or maybe not, I don't really know). I think it's an alternative newspaper without a tired cliche "alternative" viewpoint. I think it doesn't always take knee-jerk positions on controversial issues and, like you said, Loose Lips is essential reading.
I can see being dissapointed that it's not more of an activist paper, but more outdated soap boxing (like that which drowns the Village Voice) would diminish the paper.
Maybe other alternative weeklies have this and more. But I've always found them to be full of one sided diatribes, whereas Citypaper seems to provide a more balanced approach.
I have always liked the City Paper; really reliably has an interesting and different feature, and yeah, not as likely to take the mindless knee-jerk approved altviewpoint.
Their website was awful, though, good to see that up to date again.
City Paper has some good features, and nice coverage in certain areas (loose lips, arts coverage). But overall it's juvenile, bitter & sarcastic in tone, and not in a good way. I mean, (hypocritically) lamenting gentrification and making fun of yuppies and the Washington Post only gets you so much mileage. It got old a long time ago. Also, the "reviews" of churches - what a cynical, mean-spirited project that is.
Better than the Voice? Even on the Voice's bad days and the Citypaper's good days, it's not even close.
Plus, forget about Philadelphia where they have two stand-out alt-weeklies. DC Citypaper is disappointing.
Meanwhile, while their old Web site was stuck in 1998, this new one seems stuck in, well, 1999. THEY DIDN'T CHANGE ANYTHING.
They changed the front page and the article view, but their piss-poor online listings sections haven't changed one iota. What was the point of this redesign?
Come on. Get with it DC Citypaper.
So I did a quick browse, and seeing all that orange, thought there might be an RSS feed?
What ever happened to the school reports in the CP where disciplinary actions taken were reported? Was that too un-PC? They were funny.
I like reading Loose Lips every week for stories on DC politics. The CP did great lead stories on Barry and Graham that no other paper would have covered in that depth.
citypapers taken a big hit from craigslist. everybody searches for rooms/apartments on craigs. craigs is free, citypaper aint.
The school incident reports were in incredibly poor taste. I do not offend easily, but they were basically making fun of kids -- some of them victims of violent crime, others developmently disabled. Very glad they scrapped it.
The CP does run the occasional can't-miss cover story. But the CP also has a lot of filler, even for a free weekly. Take out the syndicated content, the classifieds, the ads, and the show schedules, and there's not a lot left--the cover story, a secondary feature, the reviews, LL, and a handful of not-funny tossaways like that "church-review" feature they've been running for a few months. Or the aforementioned school-incident reports.
There's a striking absence of local columns and editorials. If that isn't deliberate, then it's baffling. I don't understand why the alternative newspaper of a metro area of 5+ million is so lean on strong homegrown voices. Maybe the CP is trying to veer away from the typical "alternative" viewpoint; but I'd be hard-pressed, frankly, to say anything at all about the CP's viewpoint.
Baltimore's City Paper (citypaper.com), by the way, is excellent.
I would have to agree that Baltimore's City Paper is better. I guess that makes the score Baltimore 1, D.C. 256,458,965,758,523...but who's counting?
In our efforts to compare DC citypaper with Baltimore, NY, Philly, we've missed the point: This new web site is not IMPROVED. It's the same web site with a different color scheme. Still crappy. Still stuck in the early days of web development.
Martin:
Stop saying words.
j pea, as a recent DCPS graduate i am sad to see the incident report feature go. i don't recall CP "making fun" of anybody, but simply reporting on some ridiculous bullshit that goes down in DC schools. that shit makes fun of itself.
Balt CP is cool. Willamette Week rocks. Guardian and SF Weekly rule. Voice ....eh, no comment :)
the absolute worst thing about the city paper is the music section. pretentious to the point of worthlessness.
the absolute worst thing about the city paper is the music section. pretentious to the point of worthlessness.