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.