Daily News Web site has new look

The Daily News' home on the Web has been remodeled.

The redesigned site, www.jdnews.com, was unveiled Thursday. Enhancements are designed to improve site speed, improve navigation and interaction, and upgrade the design and content, according to Managing Editor Cyndi Brown.

"The changes to jdnews.com were made with our online readers in mind," Brown said. "We want to be able to make it as easy as possible for people to get the information they want and need while enhancing the local news coverage we provide."

In addition to local, national and international news and sports, features such as breaking news, professional and user-generated video, comments and polls will still be accessible online.

Improvements include classifieds navigation and site speed, according to Freedom Interactive, which administers the site. Other improvements include:

_ Easy access to the most popular and top rated stories of the day;

_ Ability to create your own blogs, publish your news and share your photos with the community;

_ Improved classified products, functionality and navigation;

_ Improved search functionality and search design;

_ Integration of professional and user-generated video;

_ More efficient integration of products and features;.

_ Feature photos, polls and user-generated content; and

_ Quicker page downloads.

Advertisers will also benefit from the redesign, according to Freedom Interactive. The site design will permit the ad sizes recommended by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the most popular ad sizes advertisers want.

Daily News Publisher Elliott Potter said the new design is but one more step in the development of the newspaper's Web site.

"In 2007, we concentrated on adding local news video and breaking news features," Potter said. "This year I hope the pace of improvement and new features will be even greater, especially in the area of generating content primarily for the Web site."

Potter and Brown acknowledged that users may have to explore the site to become more accustomed to the new navigational tools.

"While I am excited about the debut of our new site, I am also aware that change is sometimes challenging," Brown said. "That's why we will have an online survey in the upper right-hand corner shortly after the site debuts to let our readers tell us what they think."

Brown said readers can also e-mail their comments about the changes directly to her at cyndi_brown@freedomenc.com or to localdesk@freedomenc.com.