Exposé: Wakefield Item Has Terrible Website

So you switch to a pretty neat little tabloid style newspaper that has been lauded by Wakefield's finest. But you can't manage to create a decent website? Print journalism is becoming obsolete and rightly so: I throw away my newspaper when I am done reading it. It has no long-term or immediate value. I can reference it, but only for a short period of time. That's why I think the Wakefield Item needs to get its website up and running. People will visit it. It won't generate any extra revenue (unless the WI sells ads), but it's a direction that most local media companies are turning in.

New Wakefield Daily Item Look

Pros

• Great organization including article placement, titles and headings, and font.
• Compact: even though the paper is smaller, a lot of information can fit on one page.
• Color pictures
• Neat box at bottom right telling what's inside of today's issue
• More features
  

Cons

• Less space means cramming: some things just don't flow properly like the Community Calendar... and Meetings... on Page 2.
• Comments/Editorial page has shrunk and I wonder how they will be able to fit in Comments, a letter to the Forum, and a feature from a politician on one page.
• Sports section has its problems: It's great to display one huge top sports story and one smaller one on the first page of the Sports section. That means that the Sports section will be on most days 3-4 pages long. This seems like it won't be that bad BUT a few things are messed up because of this. 1) The WHS Sports Schedule is cluttered and shoved to the bottom. It would look much nicer inside of a box. 2) The Box Scores aren't boxed. 3) The Standings are messed up and hard to read.
  

Overall, I am impressed with the new tabloid format, but there are going to be some inherent problems that come with the change.

Ouch: A Knock On Rep. Falzone

All right so I read the Wakefield Item rather frequently. I love reading the Comments and Forum sections because some crazy stuff is said. Case and point is in the Friday, January 16, 2009 edition's Forum. Here is a short excerpt from Jeff Crump's "Failed leadership" post:

"...Rep. Falzone hasn't had an original thought since the day he was elected. Why would you expect anything different now? Mr. Falzone is a tool, a witless instrument of the status quo, just like the former Rep. Festa before he got his golden parachute from the Governor. I give Rep. Clark some credit for showing a little backbone in this case but I don't expect that will last. The Beacon Hill Corrupt-o-crats will get to her eventually, if they haven't already."

I guess it's a pretty solid rant, but in the manner of a fifteen year old. Compare Crump's definition of tool to that of Urban Dictionary, which says a tool is "someone who is a complete idiot/ one who is used by other people, and usually doesn't even realize it/ someone who can't think for themselves/ an asshat." Crump tried to compensate his mere usage of the term by adding his own intellectual-esque definition. Good job, bud. In terms of the content...I don't know really know what Falzone has been up to. I probably should since he is a Rep.