Joni Evans | 06/09/2008 10:13 am

Happy Birthday to wOw! Plus a New Contributor and a New Design

Harry Benson

Dear Friends:

Today wowOwow turns three months old!

Like all newborns, each and every day we learn something new, try something different and receive new insights, encouragement and feedback.

We notice that the wowOwow community tells it like it is and we love that. The wOw woman is never afraid to speak her mind.

We have a few new things to share.

First, we have a new contributor in Cynthia McFadden, co-anchor of ABC News’s "Nightline" and "Primetime." Talk about a wOw woman: she is a recipient of the George Foster Peabody Award, the duPont Award, the Foreign Press Club Award and is an Emmy recipient. A graduate of Columbia Law School, she has already started reporting for wowOwow and will cover everything from the personal (she never stops talking about her ten-year-old son) to insights (she’s usually on the scene) into the breaking news of the day.

Visit Cynthia’s homepage here, read her interview with Lesley Stahl by clicking here and help us welcome her to the community.

Second, this week we’re launching a greatly expanded site, with a redesigned homepage that allows you to find more of our stories and see more of our pictures. We’ve taken great care to make it easy to navigate. Let us know what you think.

And finally, we’re starting free weekly newsletters for members of the wowOwow community. It will give us a chance to tell you what’s going on, what’s coming up and allow you to hear from the wOw contributors directly.

As always, my thanks for becoming a part of the wowOwow family. Happy Birthday to us all.

Joni Evans

CEO

Read more about: Cynthia McFadden, Nightline, Primetime, Technology

185 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

This may sound petty, but the excerpts in the righthand column have the date/time stamp on top and the name at the bottom, inconsistent with the posts’ “By” line at the bottom. At first glance this can be confusing. I like consistency (okay, I’m anal) and if I cannot have the old site back, I will keep on suggesting changes. But thank you for changing the font so quickly. That is excellent!

By kermie b on 06/10/2008 8:24 pm

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Always interesting to see how people react to changes in different ways. The way I see it is this: Change can freak you out when you were so used to something, but give it time to marinate. I really loved the content of WOWOW and was thrilled to see that the redesign seem to offer so much more stuff to look at. It now mimics more of a news site, like New York Times or similar, and lots of things to read with clear hierarchy of information. It took me a little bit to get used to but this is a real improvement - Bravo WOWOW team! For those who’s having trouble adjusting, give it some time and I think you’ll apprecate it. The only improvement i would suggest is to add more white space between items so some areas don’t look so cluttered. And maybe because I’m 40 I don’t have a problem with the font size. As long as you give readers a way to adjust text size (which you have) I think it’s good. But put it somewhere consistent at the top of the page so it’s easy to find this function? Nice!

By J Atk on 06/10/2008 6:27 pm

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I liked the old font…I don’t have VIEW above on my screen, etc. I am not into change for change’s sake myself (as some may have noticed). It needs to be better, not just differeent for me to embrace change. fI guess this is flashier…which I didn’t need…but this is up to the founders (and Tom). We all seem to enjoy posting and will just cope…

By Star Lawrence on 06/11/2008 9:15 am

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And oh what happened to my comment I just posted? Did it jump to the last page?!! This is a bit strange. WOuld it be better to put the most recent comments at the beginning, so it’s from new to old. Reverse the order would make more sense!

By J Atk on 06/10/2008 6:28 pm

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Not to appear sour and over-critical. I enjoy visiting here and I give you credit for searching for improvement but I was just getting used to manoeuvering around the original site, which wasn’t easy. It wasn’t great and certainly needed remodelling. However, I find the new change to be only a slight improvement. I still find it very jumbled and difficult to get around. There’s too much “distracting movement”, and the wide wide cinemascope type screen is an awful bother, having to constantly adjust to read what is at either end of the page. However, those are only mechanical nuisances I suppose, and I’ll get used to them. The content and subject matter from the splendid roster of members who make up the writing staff remains pristene, and excellent.

By Lauriate Roly on 06/10/2008 6:38 pm

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To Josie, Yeah, when you said ” I dance to the rhythm of my own autism” I thought you meant you had autism … I was like whoa …. she does very very well indeed! Good luck kicking the smoking habit … I wish you the best.

By Liza D 08 .... beta on 06/10/2008 6:45 pm

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Oh being critical is good - no worres! :-) I agree that it feels cluttered so perhaps it’s cutting down some so it’s not that overwhelming. The improvement is not small - maybe it’s just me - It’s clear how to get to the women’s pages, clear what the big story is, clear what the most recent posts are, what are ads and not. And finally, all within a more structured way. It’s a big improvement from the last site, which was good, but seem more like a linear set up whereas this one feels like it’s got some real news-like substance.

By J Atk on 06/10/2008 7:27 pm

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I find the site redesign an improvement, and the webmaster is responsive and quick. (As I imagine a woman webmaster would have been also.) The power vaccuum situation remains, though. No one in charge takes charge, for unexplained reasons of their own. Someone has to be the grownup, though, step up and tell us what we can and can’t get away with. The founders don’t, and the contributors don’t, so we have here an illustration of Roseanne Barr’s “Power isn’t something someone gives you. You just take it.” Who takes it here? The posters who need to wield power and to collect attention, who don’t otherwise feel sufficient. And who gives it to them? Posters eager to give away their voice to anyone who has the guts to use it. Then there are the rest of us, not needing to take or give power or adulation. The lectures and soliloquies and skirmishes are boring or annoying to us, and sometimes they’re enough to raise blood pressure and/or drive people away. The people who are taking the money should be making the rules. This Lord Of the Flies atmosphere doesn’t speak well of you.

By Meg Umans on 06/10/2008 7:30 pm

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why did you change???? as someone said before, takes some getting used to and i was just getting used to the old way around the site. anyway, still like the subjects posted, ———— I really have to agree with mugsy most of the time. me and her could really talk. will try to get used to the new site.

By louise cooper on 06/10/2008 8:34 pm

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Right, okay, I get the Lord of the Flies metaphor, but this is a Blog, not The Stepford Blog. WOW is a blog with strong opinions about topics one would not broach in the office, like religion and politics. It is refreshing to be able to talk about these ideas anonymously. Anyone whose feelings are hurt are too wrapped up in how total strangers perceive them.

By kermie b on 06/10/2008 8:48 pm

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Happy three months!, but I just looked at some of the posts from March and did not recognize a single name or avatar. What happened? Where have all the bloggers gone?

By kermie b on 06/10/2008 9:06 pm

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You know what might help keep the atmosphere more civil here? A mechanical way for each poster to ignore specific posters. I’ve seen the feature called “block” on forums, and “twit filter” on BBSs. Usually it allows for a temporary unblock. That way if someone always gets her back up over someone else’s posts, and doesn’t have the discipline to skip the offending post, or remain silent or courteous, she can have the situation handled by the software without irritating the rest of us. Save our blood pressure.

By Meg Umans on 06/10/2008 9:21 pm