Clean design is the future of news sites

I griped recently about how no one really talks about news site design.

Andy Rutledge shut me up.

Andy compares CNN to USA Today pointing out the flaws in USA Today’s approach (that runs on Pluck – as will every other Gannett newspaper within the year).

I think we are begining to see the start of a movement for clean news design that doesn’t try to shove everything “above the fold”.   Internet users are getting smarter and a news site’s main goal should not be to present everything on the front page, but rather give they keys to the user and let him/her decide.  A good search function, tagging, easy to navigate section pages should do it.

Front pages like the NYT will be relics soon.

And by soon I mean in a few years.  I think it will take the first generation of web designers who grew up with the internet to make this change.