A Website Redesign Makes Headline News

Sometimes even 'Breaking News' needs a redesign, and in the case of the mega news site CNN.com, its a welcome change. With so many sources for news online, its hard to crown CNN.com as the king of online news. However, if you look at the raw numbers, its hard to deny they're in the royal family. CNN.com has over 120 Billion page views since its launch in 1996, and according to Nicholas Felton's infographic data the CNN.com home page still accounts for the vast majority of page views. Like many websites, the home page can either pull visitors in or push them away. Content may be king, but design still holds the keys to the kingdom.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth 100,000! Maybe even more? Look no further than the success of Google's YouTube and Yahoo's Flickr for the inspiration behind the greater roles that video and photos are playing in the redesign of CNN.com. Its no mistake that on cover pages, like the Home page, that text typically takes up less than a quarter of that page's real-estate.

Its not rocket science. People by and large can easily be stimulated visually. A dramatic photo of the 'survivors of the crash', an exclusive video of 'the hero's interview' work wonders to drawn in the reader. Like it or not, these visual instruments engage the audience more so than a simple headline.

When it comes to online banner ad value, you can't do much better than the ad size and placement the new CNN.com design has carved out for its premiere advertisers. At first glance, its hard to tell the ad from the stories. Larger than the left breaking news visual, smaller than the top story visual, the premiere ad spot on the Home page demands the visitor's attention. With average CNN.com Home page views, its no mystery why they did it.