MSNBC.com Launches New Design, Now Easier to Use
#1 News Site Showcases New Features and Improved Readability
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—MSNBC.com (www.MSNBC.com), the leader in breaking news and original journalism on the Internet, today launches a fresh new design and exciting new features making the site more user-friendly.
Navigating MSNBC.com is easier than ever, providing users one-click access to more sections on the site. An expanded left hand navigation bar allows users to click on a section button, which expands the menu bar to show subsections. For example, a user clicking on the business navigation will see a list of all the business subsections. NBC News programs are now highlighted in the navigation bar giving users easy access to programs including NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw and the Today show.
“We took into account consumer feedback to give news consumers a design that highlights MSNBC.com’s quality journalism and more effectively showcases such world-class editorial partners as NBC News, Newsweek and The Washington Post,” says Dean Wright, MSNBC.com Editor-in Chief. “The redesign retains the news-made-for-the-medium approach that makes MSNBC.com distinctive, including a commitment to photojournalism and video, strong graphic design and interactive story-telling.”
The site search tool has also been improved, providing a more robust search with focused results, making finding stories of interest faster. MSNBC’s new search tool offers topic, section and popular queries in its advanced search in addition to the top ten most popular queries on the site.
In addition, more content is now available on the expanded front cover which shows the top stories in all sections as well as making it easy to find MSNBC.com’s award-winning special projects. MSNBC.com can also be personalized for local news, weather, sports headlines and stock information.
“MSNBC.com’s redesign takes advantage of new publishing technology based on the Microsoft® .NET Framework,” says Scott Moore, president of MSNBC.com. “With easier access to the wide array of news coverage on our site we have created a more engaging environment for our audience.”
The Microsoft® .NET Framework gives MSNBC.com more flexibility in the site layout as well as in developing new features for the site in the future. Additional benefits include greater server efficiency, reliability and site scalability.
The look of the pages has also changed to improve readability through new text layouts. Other improvements include using a more modern font that is easier to read. Breaking news is now available across the site, appearing prominently at the top of the page.
ABOUT MSNBC.com
MSNBC.com is a leader in breaking news and original journalism on the Internet. MSNBC.com delivers the best of NBC News, MSNBC Cable, CNBC, NBC Sports, MSN, and Newsweek. MSNBC is a 24-hour cable and Internet joint venture of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and NBC News (NYSE: GE.)