The Chicago Tribune vs. The Daily Herald

As a resident of the Chicagoland area for eighteen years, I grew up with two newspapers in my life: The Chicago Tribune and The Daily Herald, a newspaper that focused on the suburbs of Chicago. While both these newspapers report similar news, the designs of their corresponding news websites (chicagotribune.com, dailyherald.com) are vastly different.

The Tribune website has a much cleaner layout than that of the Herald. Its letterhead is simple, and the use of negative space on the Tribune website is appropriate and easier on the eyes. This is the website’s strength. Moreover, the advertising is correctly placed (upper right-hand side of the page and along the edges of the page) and does not disturb the viewer’s consumption of the news. The pictures are the proper size and the crop adds visual interest. For example, the website has a photo story section that displays “25 inspirational pumpkin craving.” The crop on the picture teaser on the website’s homepage focuses on the detail of two carvings that are portraits of President Bush and Senator Obama. Also, I feel that the Chicago Tribune homepage contains a good mix of top news and entertainment (“soft news”)—like “The Lighter Side” and a link to their corresponding entertainment website, chicago.metromix.com.

The Herald website, on the other hand, is crowded. On the letterhead space alone, the designers jammed the name of the paper, an animated teaser, the search bar, and tabs to browse the classified section all along the top of the webpage. The congestion did not end there. As you scroll further down the viewer is bombarded with countless headline links, ridiculously small pictures, and misplaced advertisement. The pictures that accompany the video teasers and some stories are too small to decipher that they have nothing to offer the design or in creating interest in a story.

But I do like how you can post a comment on the articles on the Daily Herald website and view other readers’ comments as well. Also, I like how both the websites have a section reserved for popular stories: most viewed, most emailed etc. that is fairly easy to locate.