I took a stroll through The Newsprint's analytics the other day and came to the "Popular Content" tab. It would take anyone two seconds to realize why people come to The Newsprint.
Like every other website, people come to read original content. Link posts really don't see a whole lot of love.
So I asked myself how best to suit readers going forward. What you're looking at is my first attempt at answering that question.
When I surf the Internet, I am drawn to websites with single columns. Like the new Macstories refresh, The Newsprint will sport a single column right down the middle of the page. This puts content front and center and highlights photo reviews.
Oh ya, photography. I love photography. I love viewing Andrew Kim's Minimally Minimal; taking in his incredible photo essays is one of my favourite things to do on the Internet. I generally start by scrolling through all the photos quickly to get a feel of the product before reading his thoughts.
That got me thinking further, of course, about the number of people who do the exact same thing I do. People love images. They are easier and quicker to consume than text. Usually images are a great way of giving a reader some context as well.
So The Newsprint will incorporate photography to a greater extent going forward. I don't have the greatest camera gear but I am extremely interested to see how far that gear can go. I'm willing to bet a simple lightbox will blow some minds and I'm excited to try it out.
Last but not least, The Newsprint is going to become a resource rather than a blog. One of the most startling analytics was the bounce rate — people come to read a story and they leave to find another story. It's natural I guess. But I want people to come for a story, then check out a review and then buy something from the Store. Like The Sweet Setup, I'm going to try hard to make it difficult to only read one post.
The Store is a dead rip-off of Marco's idea from six weeks ago. I waited almost two months before implementing The Store and I can't imagine I'll be the only person who tries it out. I apologize to Marco ahead of time, but it's a great idea that I think can benefit readers and The Newsprint at the same time. If you feel like supporting The Newsprint, grab some Field Notes books or some pens from The Store. I'll really, really appreciate it.
Of course, I can't do this without my readers. The Newsprint has continued to show astounding growth. I set out in December to have 12,000 people read my stuff throughout 2014. I've already passed that goal. The amount of sharing and feedback has been immense and I'm extremely grateful. Thank you deeply again for your time, attention and feedback. Hopefully this little redesign won't throw things off too much for you.
Yours,
JG