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Glitch in the GoErie Matrix
Posted by Richard on January 20, 2007
Since I now live in the Detroit Metro, every day I take time out to reconnect with my Erie roots which involves not only reading Dennis’ daily blog entry, but also GoErie.com—Erie’s preeminent newspaper online (even if it is by default since it’s Erie’s ONLY newspaper). As most of us know, GoErie went under a face lift of sorts which has received generally poor reviews by readers (see here and here). It seems that the newspaper’s online trouble child is having some problems (surprise). Take a look at this screen grab;
(see link which might have been changed by now.)
This picture is of an article that should have been seen within the new design but apparently there was a glitch in the Matrix and we’ve been harkened back to the days of old GoErie. But is there a difference? It seems that the new ‘redesign’ is less of a redesign and more of a band-aid over a gaping wound. It’s like puting a fresh coat of paint on a rusty, beat-up car… it still remains a rusty, beat-up car. Was the redesign really just a ‘re-skin’ with no real palpable changes offered to the readership? It would seem so.
GoErie apparently uses software produced by Saxotech which creates content management software (CMS) for newspaper companies, but not very good software apparently. Maybe it’s time to make the difficult decision of either going to another CMS package or a custom solution. Otherwise we’re left with the same user unfriendly news site and the GoErie staff will continue to have to worry about fixing broken pages and babysitting a temperamental CMS instead of working to improve GoErie user experience (not to mention working on real money making projects).
I appreciate the contribution that the Erie Times News makes to the community but is the current state of affairs of its online counterpart really excusable?
Posted by Richard at January 20, 2007 9:07 AM
Comments
Richard Z!!! Good to see you online again!
What happened to your site? Did you decide to take it down?
Just a few more months, Rich, and you're all done with law school! : )
Posted by: Matt at January 20, 2007 10:32 AM
When you're a monopoly, you have no reason to innovate, which is why the GoErie website continues to stink. They should be looking at bigger papers with great websites like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as to how to do online news right. They need someone at Cyberink and GoErie that has a real vision as to how online news sites (and web sites in general) work and I think they'd get a much better website that everyone wouldn't dislike.
Posted by: Agent Smith at January 20, 2007 11:11 AM
CyberInk should be embarrassed with goerie. A simple validation check on a single story url shows 87 code errors alone. The goerie home page contains 21 code errors.
Looks like they also haven't learned how to lock down certain areas of their server which are wide open to the public and possibly even being indexed by Google. cough cough http://216.128.12.36/sites/goerie/
Posted by: Terry Oneil at January 20, 2007 5:48 PM
Why would GoErie.com be any different than anything else in Erie? They way things are going around here, we're lucky the ETN is still publishing a paper. Local officials certainly are creating a climate that encourages growth at any level.
But look at it this way, the site is better than it was before. And it's still better than most of the sites newspapers in comparable cities. Erie is not Pittsburgh. Well, except for the whole bankrupt thing.
Posted by: Dan at January 20, 2007 11:42 PM
Glitch in your Web Software? I read a blog blaming the software you use (SAXOTECH)for your web site problems. I just need to go on record that I have used SAXOTECH's software for three years at two different New York Times Regional News Group papers, and every time we had a problem, it was a training issue. I've worked at Knight Ridder papers for 10 years previously, and one independent before that ( although back then they didn' have a true web site). SAXOTECH has by far the best software for Newspaper web sites I've ever used, IF you take the necessary time to learn and use the tools correctly. I too was once very frustrated with the software, but after support and additioanl training, training that i didn't pay enough attention to the first time, I found it to be pretty awesome. No software is perfect, but you have the best that's out there, TRUST ME! There's software out there that's easier to use, but not as feature rich and also provides the openness to be creative and add even more capability. I'm out of the newspaper industry now, and still run and manage web sites, and I DREAM of having a system like SAXOTECH. Please don't take this as an insult, as I was in your shoes once myself. Get more training, and you too will soon realize how wonderful the system is.
Posted by: Tom Michaels at January 21, 2007 10:09 AM
Terry - only 21 errors? When I run it through the validator I get 424 errors. I'm sure the inside pages are even worse.
Posted by: Mike at January 21, 2007 10:48 AM
Why would they attempt at making GoErie.com better?? They can't even produce a quality newspaper.
Posted by: Bobbo at January 22, 2007 12:44 AM
Add a
link and graphic to your site to show that you're from Erie. Meet new peeps, share you thoughts on our fair city, do whatever you like.
