As the hardlyreading staff noted the other day, just as delivery of the Boston Globe print edition went Chernobyl, the lately local broadsheet also introduced a redesigned ePaper.
To wit:
Concerning the redesign we wrote this:
Are we the only ones who think the new Globe ePaper is a classic case of schlimmbesserung? You know, to make worse by trying to improve?
Apparently we are not. From splendid reader Bill from Salem, MA:
It’s an insult to sell [the change in home-delivery distributors] as a benefit to subscribers when it was nothing more than switching to a lowball competitor. Wanna bet it’s the same deal with the recent change of the e-paper interface from the excellent NewspaperDirect platform to the new, infuriatingly clunky “improved” version – unreadable menus, incomplete menu listings, starts with yesterday’s edition, no jumpline links, hidden page thumbnails, etc., etc.
Absolutely right. The whole format is so user-unfriendly, the grassy knollers will soon be claiming that it’s a plot to drive readers to the print edition.
P.S. In their wisdom, the Globeniks have switched the entire ePaper archive to the new format too. A real bunch of Einsteins, eh?
