Archives for July 2010

Today is the last edition of Working Lunch, a programme which has done invaluable service for viewers over the years in providing information on a range of topics on business and personal finance.

But the world has moved on in the past 16 years and whilst the programme was ground-breaking when it first went on air, there has since been an explosive growth of broadcast media and the launch of the internet.

It means that audiences now have a range of ways of accessing this sort of information.

Many people have written to us saying they have been saddened and in some cases infuriated by this decision. But the BBC, like other organisations, has to make tough decisions about how and where we spend our resources to ensure they provide maximum benefit to licence-fee payers.

The cancellation of Working Lunch will deliver cost-saving for BBC News, much of which will be recycled back into programme making.

It's always sad when a programme reaches the end of its life-cycle, but our business coverage has never been about one programme.

In the slot we will be bringing the news, current affairs and business programme, GMT with George Alagiah to BBC Two. The international edition is already a cornerstone of the BBC's international output. The programme showcases the best of BBC journalism from around the world and has a strong business focus.

In addition, the BBC will also be commissioning a new agenda setting business programme on the News Channel at the weekend and a new money and business programme on Radio 5 live.

We believe our new programme line up will serve BBC Two, Radio 5 live and News Channel audiences well.

Fran Unsworth is the head of Newsgathering.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

The Content Production System (CPS) manages content production for BBC News, BBC Sport and over 100 other websites across the BBC. It also produces the content for multi-platform journalism, such as the BBC mobile services and interactive TV/red button services; even content for the mighty old-skool Ceefax is born in the CPS.

If the BBC website is one of the largest and oldest on the internet, then the CPS has been around nearly as long. As a rule of thumb, if you remember Bagpuss, you are older than the CPS. If you grew up watching Teletubbies, you probably are not.

There have been a number of requests from people asking to see more of the CPS but as there is a lot of detail to go into, I'll just focus on a few headline points for now. We will be doing a more in-depth post on it soon.

Read in full and comment at the BBC Internet Blog.

John O'Donovan is Chief Technical Architect, Journalism and Knowledge, BBC Future Media & Technology.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Some good news for anyone who has been waiting for a BBC News iPhone app: the BBC Trust has just announced that the BBC's plans to launch dedicated smartphone applications for BBC News, Sport and iPlayer "do not require further scrutiny through a Public Value Test". This means the News app should be available from later today.

At the About The BBC blog, the director of BBC Future Media and Technology, Erik Huggers, announces the launch and at the BBC Internet Blog the executive product manager for BBC Mobile, David Madden, describes the features - so read on and comment at Erik's or David's post.

Update 1231: There's now a News website story about the app and you can watch a demo with David Madden at the BBC YouTube channel.

Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Thank you for all your feedback on the BBC News website redesign. There has been a lot of it, and we'll continue to sort through the comments and e-mails we've been receiving, identifying specific issues we can address and adding answers to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page.

Most of you commenting here on the Editors blog have been critical, with many urging us to change the design back to the way it was. Given the strength of feeling expressed in some of the comments, I'd like to explain again, as clearly as I can, what our thinking is.

• Reverting to the old design is not something we're considering, but building and continuing to improve on the changes we've made certainly is.
• We are looking closely at the comments and feedback we are getting on all aspects of the new design, and we'll also be carefully watching usage, traffic and conducting further audience research, as we would after any such change.
• There will be a review process and if changes need to be made, they will be considered as part of that.
• There are a few things not yet working exactly the way they should be - our developers and designers are tackling those now, and we are addressing them in the FAQs.
• The changes we have made are based on careful research and thinking about how the site can work at its best now, and how we can make sure it is adaptable enough to continue to evolve, not stand still.

Along with everyone else on the design, technical and editorial teams here who have worked together to try to improve the site and the systems which produce it, I hope you will grow to like it, if you don't already (and thanks to those of you who have let us know you do!)

Here's what we've already said about the reasons for the new design, why we didn't run a public beta and the thinking behind the design itself.

Many of the specific issues you've raised are tackled in our FAQs page and we've added some further updates there, which are also summarised below.

Thanks again to all who have commented here - I'm sorry I haven't been able to reply to everyone individually. The intention of these blog posts over the past couple of weeks has been to let you know what we are doing, and why. I hope that even if you are one of those who doesn't agree with what we've done, you at least understand a bit more about it.

We'll continue to follow the feedback, and to address specific issues where we can in the FAQs page.

  • Where has Europe and other world regional weather gone?
We are currently working on better ways to present weather in our world regional sections, and hope to re-introduce it soon.

  • Why don't you have a single list of the main News blogs linked from the front page?
We do not currently have a single destination page aggregating all our News blogs, but we link to blogs individually on relevant section indexes around the site, also on related stories and on the front page, depending on the news agenda. All the blogs are also linked to from the right hand navigation within any individual blog post. There is now a new section on many of the main indexes called "Expert Views" which does provide a home for blogs in the respective subject areas. For these reasons we do not currently have a permanent link to all of them on the front page.

  • Can I turn off the Facebook option?
Some of you have contacted us to say that your work computer blocks access to Facebook which is causing you problems looking at our pages that embed the Facebook "Recommend" button. We're working to see if there is an automatic solution to this, but in the mean time, if you would like to remove these Facebook buttons, then you can do so by clicking here to set a cookie. This will tell us not to show you the Facebook buttons. If you would like the Facebook buttons back at any point, simply clear your cookies. If you clear your cookies you will need to visit the link above again to re-hide the Facebook buttons.

  • Why does video slow down my story page download?
Some of you have reported that the video player in our stories is sometimes slowing down your experience of using our site. This will be particularly true if you are using a slower connection, but we are aware that it is an issue and are working to resolve it as soon as possible.

  • Is the site designed just for large screens?
We tested the site extensively on all modern browsers and screen resolutions, however, we have received a number of comments from some of you with small screens saying that the text on our pages is too close to the left hand side of your screens - we are still investigating this

Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Day three of the redesigned News website, and at the end of a busy week, here's an update on where we've got to.

We've been reviewing all feedback, categorising it, and responding to as much of it as possible, adding the main issues into the Frequently Asked Questions page and summarising them on this blog.

And our journalists have been getting used to the new production tools and different page layouts.

Over the coming days and weeks, we'll be closely watching site traffic data to see how people are actually using the site. We'll also continue to look out for specific issues we can tackle quickly, as we've been doing this week, with updates where relevant to the FAQs page.

Most of the comments in response to my posts here on the redesign have been critical. But, as I've said, we have to assess over time the response of the several million users who come to the site each day by monitoring it in as many ways as we can - this blog is just one of them.

Post-launch reviews are part of any project of this kind: the relevant design, product, technical and editorial people will get together to carefully consider the main areas of feedback and analyse all the data to get as clear a picture as we can of how things are working.

The redesign had a number of objectives such as better presentation of the main stories and features of the day and of our existing local content, and a wider range of video content, and we will check whether we are meeting them.

We undertook exhaustive audience research and user testing before we went ahead with the redesigned site and we hope people will be able to adjust to the changes. If there is something that we find needs changing - based on all the evidence we have - then we will of course change it. That should be part of any post-launch process.

Meanwhile, there are still some things we have not made full use of yet: for example, in-story components such as links to related content and factboxes, bigger image formats and special provision on the front page for a major breaking story.

Lastly, here is the latest round of FAQ updates. We'll continue to maintain this page and welcome further queries and reports of specific issues - with detail and examples where possible.

  • Why is there more white space on the site? Some of you feel there is too much white space on our new pages. On story pages, there are a number of components which we are introducing gradually, so the look of some pages will change slightly as these come into wider use and get included. The additional horizontal space that removing the left-hand navigation has given us also frees up space for bigger images, embedded videos and links to some of our in-depth content. The width of the text column is exactly the same as it was, as we feel this is the optimum width for easy reading. Ensuring you feel comfortable reading our stories, was, and will always be our primary consideration as we develop story pages. The project's Creative Director Paul Sissons explains the thinking behind our use of white space at the BBC Internet Blog.

  • Paragraph length: The length of our paragraphs hasn't changed. We have always kept them short, and sentences too, because on a screen we believe it is easier to scan a news story and read it quickly that way. This has simply become more apparent now that there is more space around the text in stories.

  • Firewalls: Some people have reported issues when using the site within a workplace firewall. For example where the BBC URL is not accessible or issues with the Facebook options. We are committed to making the site as close to universally available as possible, and so will continue to investigate these issues as they arise.

  • Scrolling: Some of you have said you find the new design requires too much scrolling and you'd like to see a "Back to top" button. This looks like a good idea and we will investigate whether we can implement it.

  • Blocked access: Some of you using Kaspersky security software have had problems accessing the BBC website. We have been in contact with Kaspersky and they have resolved the issue with an update.

  • "Local" box giving unexpected results: Some of you have told us that you have come across problems when finding your area in our new "Add My News & Weather Location" box. We are aware of these problems and are taking action to fix them as soon as possible. We hope to have the majority of these problems sorted as soon as possible.

  • Accessibility: Some of you have also been asking about accessibility: there is an FAQ on that here.

Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Day two of the new-look BBC News website and we've had lots of feedback - here on this blog at yesterday's post, in messages via our feedback form and on Twitter, Facebook and the wider web.

Taken together, it's a mixture of responses - some pleased, some unhappy and many simply taking note of what's different and getting used to using the site.

There have also been lots of detailed queries, which we're grouping together and answering as many of as we can in this page of Frequently Asked Questions. There is also a new post giving a lot more detail on the design from my colleague Paul Sissons, Creative Director of the project, at the BBC Internet Blog.

A lot of the comments at this blog have been from people who aren't fans of the new design - the "it wasn't broken, why did you try and fix it?" point of view. As I noted in my earlier posts, we set out to make it easier for you to find, use and share our content wherever you are on the site. In doing this we researched carefully how people were using the site and identified quite a few things that could be improved on. We felt it was important to address these.

Some of you don't like the fact we've moved away from a design which had become very familiar, having stayed more or less the same for years. We hope that you get used to the new look in time. Others have suggested that the site now resembles CNN, the Sun and, perhaps, other websites with red banners. One of the key principles in the design process has been to make sure it feels like a BBC website.

If you are interested in what other people have been saying, a very early tweet from Stephen Fry kicked off the micro-blogging reactions; Jemima Kiss at the Guardian gives an overview and asks readers for their verdicts and Adam Sherwin has a post at Beehive City with a focus on the social media aspects.

Here in the newsroom, we've been getting to grips with the new formats and tools; an example of our new higher-quality video is Damian Grammaticas's report from Tibet and you can see an example of our larger picture galleries here.

So, with lots of help, I've pulled together some of the main questions you've raised and we've updated the FAQs: here are some of the latest additions.

Mobile devices: We're hearing from some of you that the redesign and changes in how the web addresses of stories are made up have caused some problems on certain mobile devices. We are actively looking into this - we think we have sorted many of them already, and aim to sort any others we discover as quickly as possible. The details and screengrabs you have been sending us have been very useful in this process. As with any other technical problems you experience, please let us know the details, providing as much information as possible; this will help us fix any problems you've spotted.

Facebook Recommend button: This feature is not appearing on some stories. We have identified a problem with this function that has been affecting some pages. We have reported the issue to Facebook and are working with them to resolve the issue. Once resolved, the button will reappear on all affected stories.

Accessibility: We've completely redeveloped the code that makes up our pages, and accessibility has been a key consideration every step of the way. We believe that you should find it even easier than before to navigate the site using accessibility tools such as screen readers and to enlarge the type on our pages. However, if you are experiencing problems with a particular piece of accessibility software and the new site, let us know, and we'll do our best to help you. This summer, we are also expecting to roll out an additional suite of accessibility tools which we hope will make your experience on the site even better.

Localisation: Some of you have told us that you have come across problems or received unexpected results when finding your area in our new "Add My News & Weather Location" box. We are aware of these problems and are taking action to fix them as soon as possible. We hope to have the majority of these sorted within the next few days.

Navigation bar: As well as moving our navigation bar, we've also changed some of the things that go in it - which some of you are finding inconvenient. Paul Sissons describes the thinking behind the changes to navigation at the BBC Internet Blog.

Kaspersky security software: Some people using this tool have had problems accessing the BBC website. We are in contact with Kaspersky and they are expecting to release an update later today.

White space: Some of you feel there is too much white space on our new pages. Over the last day, we've been rolling out more of the components that make up the story pages, so some of them have appeared with more space than will be typical. Paul Sissons explains the thinking behind this element of the design in his post.

Browser/operating system-specific issues: We want the site to look great, regardless of which browser or operating system you choose to run. A small number of you have let us know that the site doesn't look quite right in certain combinations of browser and operating system. We believe we have resolved a problem affecting the typeface you see, which should be standard non-bold non-italic Arial by default. There are some other issues we are still working to resolve. Again, your feedback has been invaluable and please let us know the details of any other such problems you experience, providing as much information as possible.

As my former colleague Martin Belam has spotted, we are trying hard to keep across as much of your feedback as we can - so please continue to explore the redesigned site and send us a message or leave a comment below; we will continue to update our Frequently Asked Questions.

Update 1814: I quite agree with those of you who are pointing out that most of the comments at this blog are opposed to the redesign. I was not trying to suggest otherwise. As I said, there are a lot of you who clearly aren't fans of the new design. I was also conveying that across all the feedback we've seen, including e-mails, social media and elsewhere on the web, the overall picture is more mixed. Given that there are several million users of the site, gauging overall response is more complicated than adding up the numbers of comments here - but it is something we will be watching closely and trying to gauge as accurately as we can in the coming days and weeks.

Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Welcome to the new-look BBC News website. As previewed last week on this blog, we're introducing a number of improvements from today to our design and layout.

This video gives a 90-second tour of the new features:

The full range of content is still all here - the best of the BBC's journalism in text, video, audio and graphics - but we've set out to make it easier for you to find, use and share. In summary, and to recap on my earlier post which gives more details:

What's new:
• a fresh, updated design, with more space for the main stories of the day
• better use of video and images
• clearer and more prominent labelling and signposting of key stories, whether you are on the front page or a story page
• a better indication of which are the most recent headlines
• easier ways to share stories with others, for those who wish to, on social media networks

As I also mentioned in my earlier post, some important things are staying just the same, for example:
• all the content is still there: the best of the BBC's journalism in text, audio and video

• the latest news headlines will be as quick and comprehensive as ever 

• accuracy remains at the core of our editorial values

• we've been careful to keep things simple and easy to use; you have told us how important this is

The BBC News website has always evolved to meet the changing needs of its users and as we studied how people used the site, we saw there were things we could improve. For example: flagging the latest stories, displaying the top news and features better, making local UK news easier to find and providing better ways to get to video content.

We talked to audience groups, held one-to-one user testing sessions, and invited several thousand of you to try out a prototype version of today's new design. With this feedback, we arrived at the design you see today.

There's also been some major behind-the-scenes work on our production system which means we'll be able to adapt even more quickly in future, whether to the changing expectations of our users or to new technology as it emerges.

My colleagues from the design and technical teams, Paul Sissons and John O'Donovan respectively, will write in more detail about the design thinking that went into the project and the re-engineering of the production system later in the week on the BBC Internet blog.

And if you are interested to know more about how the developments on the News website fit into the BBC's wider online strategy, Erik Huggers, the director of Future Media & Technology for the BBC talks about that today on the About the BBC blog.

Another important development, the launch of a North America edition of the BBC News website for users in the US and Canada, which I mentioned in my earlier post, is further explained here.

So please do have a look around, and see what you think. Tell us what you like and - just as importantly - what you don't like, and if anything's puzzling you, do ask. If you use Twitter, we'll be monitoring the #bbcnewssite hashtag, and you can message me at @BBCSteveH. We'll be waiting to hear from you.

Thanks to everyone who has already posted comments and queries. We've used these as the basis for our Frequently Asked Questions, which we'll continue to update, and I'd like to briefly address the most common topics here as well.

The site has had social media buttons for some time so that those of you who wish to can recommend stories; we've now added Twitter and Facebook Like.

We have been working on making our video play on devices which don't support Flash and hope to be able to roll this out later in the year.

Our story pages are now arranged so that those who arrive at the site directly into a story are offered a selection of top content from across the news website and content related to a given story is now in context within the story body, and at the end of the story.

There's more detail at the FAQs page - and please ask any more questions below.

UPDATE 0700 BST: You might notice as you click around the site that some stories and sections are still showing in the old design. That's because there are still a few areas of the News site which we'll be switching to the new design in phases over the coming days and weeks. Also, old archived stories will still appear as they did when published.

Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

In the next week or so, we'll be making some improvements to the design and layout of the BBC News website.

Since our launch in 1997, we've worked to make sure the site continues to develop to meet your needs and expectations. This is the latest stage in that process of evolution.

We have focused on design and navigation, looking to see how we can make all the existing content we produce each day easier for you to find, use and share. I'd like to use this post to offer you a first glimpse; you can see a slideshow here.

What's new:
 • a fresh, updated design, with more space for the main stories of the day
 • better use of video and images
 • clearer and more prominent labelling and signposting of key stories, whether you are on the front page or a story page
 • a better indication of which are the most recent headlines
 • easier ways to share stories with others, for those who wish to

Some things are staying the way they are:
 • all the same content is still there: the best of the BBC's journalism in text, audio and video
 • the latest news headlines will be as quick and comprehensive as ever
 • accuracy remains at the core of our editorial values
 • we've been careful to keep things simple and easy to use; you have told us how important this is

Millions of people use the site every day and there's clearly a lot that's working fine. But having asked users for input and looked at the way the site is working for them, we decided we could improve in some areas:
 • indicating to those who arrive at the site straight on to a story page what else is latest and best
 • providing more ways into video features and clips
 • indicating which are the latest published stories
 • making local news from around the UK easier to find

This has led us to the biggest rethink of the design of the site since 2003.

So, here's a summary of the main things to expect later this month:

New look: More space for the main stories of the day, video and pictures. We have moved the navigation from the left-hand side of the page to the top to give more space for stories and for bigger images and video. We will also be able to indicate on the front page if any of our top three stories have relevant related content.

Clearer labelling: More prominent labelling and highlighting of different types of content so you can pick them out quickly on any page.

Story pages: On story pages, we're placing the day's top stories and features alongside the story so that however you arrive on the site, you can quickly see the main content of the day. Related articles and collected further reading will be placed within and at the bottom of stories; we think in-depth analysis and context will fit better there than in the right-hand column where it has lived to date.

Video: A bigger video player, streaming with better quality. We'll place that at the top of the front page, because video is one of the key elements in what we provide and we want to make sure people don't miss it. On video pages, there will be more options for other video highlights, arranged by section as well as by popularity, so that those who want to watch more video won't have to look far to find it.

Latest: The most recently published stories will be flagged on the front page with a "New" badge.

Sharing: Links that allow users more quickly and simply to share stories with friends on social networks including Facebook and Twitter.

Two final things:

We are also launching a new edition of the site aimed at users in North America, coinciding with the changes to our design.

If you are in the US or Canada, you will automatically see a North America edition of the BBC News website, once the redesigned site goes live. Other international users will continue to see the current international edition.

The North America edition will still contain all our existing content, including the full range of coverage from the UK, and news from around the world. Our editorial team in the BBC's Washington DC office will tailor the front page of this edition accordingly, working to provide the most relevant and timely news and analysis for users in North America.

We are doing this after listening extensively to what our users in the US and Canada have said, and with the backing of the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, which funds our online service internationally.

And we've done something which will be less obvious to you, but hugely important to the journalists working on the site. We've completely rebuilt the content production system (CPS) which we use to create content and run the site. The new version of the CPS is designed to be easier to use and - crucially when we want to get stories out to you fast - quicker too. It's also built to be more flexible, so it should be easier to keep the site evolving, and to produce the content in ways that work well on other platforms, such as mobile.

So that's a whistle-stop tour with the headlines of what to look out for soon. For the moment, we're still busy training people and testing things. Once the redesigned site goes live, we'll be very keen to know what you think as you start using it. As well as some updates on Twitter, where I'll be using the hashtag #bbcnewssite, I'll be back at this blog to read your comments, answer questions and tell you in more detail about it.

Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit
• - What's this?