The Chicago Sun-Times has never has never been the picture perfect website. However once they made the switch to a revenue-producing national network everything got much worse. The Sun-Times adopted the new template in January and by the summer had already lost their partnership with Yahoo. Even more recently they suffered the loss of the CEO of the parent company and their top political reporter.
Many newspapers are struggling because of the internet, but the world wide web has also been helpful in readership for other newspapers. The Chicago Sun-Times has not figured out how to use their website successfully. The originality from the workers at the Sun-Times wanted to update the website with new sections and a new contemporary feel. But without listening to them they made the switch to the national network and now has to follow their rules. This network has struggled so much that they have drawn national attention. This is a great example of how important it is to have a strong online presence and create trust with the readers.
This story could not have come at a better time since we are discussing websites in class. I find it interesting that all of the topics we discussed in class about good website design come into play here. I had a chance to visit the site and was curious as to how bad it could truly be. Well, it was bad. When the home page first popped up there was a large, full screen ad that I had to exit out of before continuing. The same thing happened every time I clicked on a section or a story. This was extremely frustrating. The template was a plain white background with a grid design. However, the stories and ads had the same box size and were confusing as to which was which. Even knowing what I was getting into, I still did not last very long on the site. 
I am so upset with this newspaper for ignoring the writers and other newsroom workers and becoming the anchor of this national network. There is no saying that the other idea would have been more successful but it certainly could have not gotten much worse. Hearing about this really confirms my thoughts of how important it is to have a functional website. I hope that the Sun-Times can get the website in better shape to properly display all of the great journalistic talents in their newspaper.
Here is the link if anyone wants to check it out!
http://chicago.suntimes.com/