The Philadelphia Inquirer: A Little Too Much Clutter

Long ago, when I was just a young girl, my parents used my make me read the newspaper with them, to help my literacy skills. It was my responsibility everyday to buy the Philadelphia Daily News everyday after school; my mom would give me an extra $3.00 every week, so that I could by the (at the time) 60 cent paper, Monday through Friday. I would read it on the train on the way home from school, turn it over to my parents, and after they read it, we would discuss a couple of articles from it. On Saturday, I was released from my duties, and usually my dad would get it, and I felt like I had more important things to do with my Saturdays than to read any paper. But Sunday?! Sunday became my favorite day to read the newspaper, and still is, but it never was the Daily News, but the Philadelphia Inquirer. Yes, this paper came out on the other days of the week too, but my father liked the Daily News better Monday-Saturday, but the bulkiness of the Sunday edition, so we would get it on Sundays. I always loved the plethora of sections, filled with local news, international news, circulars, magazines, dining reviews (which for some reason, I faithfully read, as if I really knew what some of the foods were), and my personal favorite, the comics. Since I now am in Reading for the majority of my time, I hardly ever get to read to Inquirer anymore, but its still my favorite newspaper, and naturally, I chose its website for my post.

On the newspaper’s website, it is easily to tell that it isn’t an over-the-top fancy website. Its very simple, very similar to the actual paper; it is mostly white with the titles of the articles in blue. It has a couple of pictures on the sides of the site, but not very many, and it seems like they are simply for the article that is headlining the site. There is a section for videos and pictures, however, that gives pictures that are in the daily edition of the pictures, but obviously, the reader would have to click on that separately. Each type of news, like business, sports, and dining, is split up in to small categories, and scattered on the page, and is also outlined at the top of the page in red, which I assumed was to make it easier for the reader to find a particular section. It has a breaking news section, which has articles and stories, that obviously happened after the printing of the paper; one was as recent as 1:28, and it was 1:35 when I went on the site. The one thing that surprised me, and I actually found to be interesting was the “Online Extras” that the site offered. One of them was called the “Interactive Map”, which allowed people to map and trace homicides that have happened in Philadelphia since 1988; with the increase of the crime rate in Philadelphia over the last few years, I found it to be not only surprising that it would be up there, but in a way, helpful too, as an effort to curb the homicides, but letting people see the effect visually. The red dots that littered the map, certainly scared ME.

When I clicked on an article, one that was about 69th street, an outdoor shopping strip, and a popular alternative to Center City Philadelphia, which I happen to live close to, I was pleasantly surprised at the length of the article. I assumed that it would be a short and concise blurb taken from the article that was published in the paper. But judging from the length (3 pages), it probably was directly from the paper. However, even though its clear that I could read a large number of the articles from the printed paper, on the website, I realized that I still like the printed version better. I like how everything is spread out more, in contrast to the bunched design of the website. The paper simply is more aesthetically pleasing, with the large headlines, the more organized flow of everything. And of course, I don’t have to click on the headline to read the article with a printed paper, which may seem a small task, but I prefer to just read the article rather than having to be taken to another part just to see that, then click out of it, and go back to the homepage, and do the same for the next article. I find the fact that the Inquirer has such a website to be great, and it may work for some people who prefer this type of news, but me? I’ll spend my 75 cents and read it on the train, like old times.