Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

two homepages

washingtonpost.com rolled out two versions of its homepage this evening: one targeted at the local audience, another at national / international visitors to the site. Registered users are given the “local” homepage or “national” homepage depending on the zip code associated with their account, but have the option to switch (via the “edit profile” page) if they wish. Unregistered visitors are served the “national homepage” by default.

On his note explaining the new offering, site executive editor Jim Brady writes:

On the local home page, you will still receive all the major national and international stories of the day, but you’ll also see a greater emphasis on local news, traffic, weather, entertainment and features. On the national/international page, you will find news and perspective from around the globe, but we will still promote local stories that we believe will resonate outside the Beltway.

The “sidecar” area on the upper right side of the homepage, just above the big box ad, has changed to a rotating Flash feature. The content it spotlights varies depending on the particular audience: Local readers may see more locally-oriented and utility features, such as real estate content, while national readers may see features with broader appeal.

Brady and WPNI CEO Caroline Little spoke to Mark Glaser at the Online Journalism Review about the prospect of a two homepage setup back in April.

Washingtonpost.com is one of thousands of newspaper sites online, but the operation is unique among the most popular news sites. Washingtonpost.com has become the de facto place for people outside the beltway to get their D.C. political news online, while serving alongside a print paper with a more limited local circulation…

Instead, washingtonpost.com has basically become the national and international edition of the paper while also serving a huge slice of the local constituency. And that presents some tricky problems for editors who must, for instance, weigh the home page importance of a local school bus crash with the latest in the ethics brouhaha surrounding House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

(“Washingtonpost.com might offer local, national home pages” - 04/15/05)