12 Distinctive Features Of Online Newspaper Design

Online newspaper design can be fascinating to analyse. It doesn’t matter what type of news
they cover, they all face the challenge of employing content-rich layout on the home page. This
is especially true for mobile newspapers, the medium brings about usability and navigational
issues for the designer as well as monetization challenges for the publisher.

It’s interesting to see how several mobile newspapers integrate advertisements in their design.
In some cases, the ads are somewhat intrusive or excessive, but most digital newspapers are
able to use ads without turning readers away, in part because of the quality of content that’s
available.

If you’ve reached the same point in your online newspaper project figuring out how to strike a
balance among elements such as ads, medium, and UX, below is Julia Blake‘s list of distinctive
features of newspaper website design. We find that she doesn’t only nail the fundamental
design principles primarily used in news sites, but also digital newspapers, in general.

1. Black on White

Traditional printed newspaper is white or gray and the text is black. This color combo is perfect
for our eyes. The contrast of colors facilitates the readability and that is why this color scheme
is the most suitable for newspaper style websites, which are usually stuffed with much
content. You can step aside from this classic color mix, but you should always keep in mind
that contrast is a must. You can turn over the regular color choice making the background
black and the typography white. But never use yellow on black, green on blue, pink on blue,
etc. Try to read the website yourself, if your eyes feel well after, you can adopt the picked
colors on your web project.

Neutral light and dark are basic colors, yet there can be more accent colors used. For example,
blue is good to use for headlines, red would be perfect for buttons. The navigation menu tabs
can be decorated with a lighter or darker shade of the primary color, or colored the same as
accent details. So, the menu will stand out on the canvas and bring a perfect visual experience
to users.

2. Minimal Graphics

The website with newspaper layout is clean, informative, structural and has graphic elements
designed accurately and in the minimalist way. Graphic elements are:

lines
shapes
colors
typography
textures.
As we already mentioned, the color palette is always simple on such websites. The textures are
rarely used on newspaper web designs, because a wall of text with images on a wood or
grunge texture will distract your visitors and aggravate the readability of the content.
Nevertheless, paper texture is right to the point here. It can be a background texture, buttons
texture or used for just Header or Footer areas.
The regular grid-based design or multi-column layout cut down the use of shapes and lines,
because there are enough of them anyway. There would be too much geometry if you design
your right form website with an extra set of figures.

3. Grid-based Design or Multi-column Layout

Newspaper website layout is the one with perfectly organized structure. These are content-
rich websites that usually have this kind of design, and so structure comes to be the first. Grid
or columns are the most useful types of content arrangement. It is true that “well designed
grid systems can make your designs not only more beautiful and legible, but more usable”
(Mark Boulton). The grid-based layout allows you to break the content into comprehensive
blocks; thereby engage users to read your website not skim.

Similar but not the same is multi-column layout. These should be a few columns of a right
height, but not necessarily the same width. The wider the columns are, the more readable the
text is. Two columns can make great look, though three and more are definitely better. The
columns, as grid, help to differentiate the content, make it easier for users to find an
interested section. While, going for this style of layout you shouldn’t forget about the column
gap. The website will be extremely hard to read, if the columns are too tight to each other.

4. Headlines and Excerpts

Do you want to open each post and read it when you enter a website or blog with many texts?
Headlines help us to differentiate interesting article from the secondary one. So, each content
block needs to be entitled. Whether it is a small section on a grid or a full-height column, it
should have a headline. The headline is to be of a bigger font, typed in bold or highlighted with
a different color. This point is clear, I suggest.

Excerpts are short descriptions of the text articles. These are always done to raise readers’
interest and give them an understanding of a long text in a few sentences. This element is
useful, if you run a blog, online periodical, news website, etc.

5. Primary and Secondary Content

Draw a borderline between the parts of your content. Define what is the most important and
which texts can wait to be read. For example, you can design your front page with a large
header section for new posts (one or a couple). This is a featured area with large images and
graphics. The other content will be smaller and based on grid fractions. This makes a strong
focus on the latest arrival and help to gain more social shares.

6. Intuitive and Consistent Navigation

Newspaper website layout is designed for content and this content must be easy-to-navigate.
Consequently, the navigation menu is characterized by its simplicity, and right position.

The best position is a top page area, because this zone is the first to be mentioned and it
always on the same place – just scroll up if you are at the bottom. In case, you love vertical
navigation and can’t stop loving it – make your menu oriented vertically but do it on the left.
We read from left to right and not vice versa, so the elements on the left fall into eye earlier
than on the right.

Newspaper style websites share tons of texts, and they need to be reachable for users.

7. Categorization

Better use of categories is available within newspaper website layout the most. It refers to
blogs particularly, and any other websites too. Most sites fail, because they have content
purely organized. Categories are necessary if you post frequently and on diverse topics (e.g.
news websites).

Divide your content into categories and display them either on a sidebar or on the navigation
menu bar.

8. Space for Advertisement

How are you going to make money before your website become popular? Advertisement is
how many website owners make rather big profits. Ad banners have to be placed not just
somewhere but this position has to be defined exactly. The right places are sidebar, both left
and right, Header or Footer. Promotion banners are often seen right in the middle of the text
articles, but this point is controversial: it is good for you as a person who takes money for this,
but these elements can also irritate your readership.

9. Functional Sidebar

Sidebar can feature not advertisements only, but content categories, recent content, search
box, email newsletter bar, navigation, social sharing buttons, discounts/special offers, etc.
Newspaper website layout is great to implement sidebar on, because it would be just another
column in the row.

There are a couple of ingredients of a successful sidebar design:

size (height and weight);

colors;
fonts;
placement.
A sidebar should be smaller or equal to the regular column on your layout, no way bigger. It
should be kept in neutral colors, but with visible typography. The placement can be both left
and right but as we already said everything on the left is seen immediately.

10. White Space Maximization

So far as we are creating a multi-functional website with impressive layout, we can’t but
remember about white space. This is an essential component even for a newspaper style
design. Let it be space between columns, empty sections from the sides or at the bottom.
Users should have a chance to avert their eyes from the text wall and think over.
Generally, white space is considered to be a section where nothing is typed. There is a more
narrow meaning: white space is between text lines and letters, around content elements. It is
everything that makes your website more readable and simple, even though it is filled with an
excessive number of content items.

11. Frequent Content Updates

Newspaper website layout obliges you to work on your project constantly. The website with
many columns and grid sections being empty will look awkwardly. You need to fill the website
thoroughly, and keep with the tendency to upgrade the content regularly, make your
publications frequent and change the featured content in the Header (or wherever you do it).

Content and frequency is a couple, like king and queen. Besides the website look itself,
frequent content affects on your results in search engines. People visit your website rarely, if it
is outdated, and Google sees it. So, your content gains worse scores in search results.

12. Social Sharing Encouraged

Blogs and news sites are the most common to use newspaper style, and these websites can’t
exist without social media integration. It’s the epoch of mass sharing, and social networks are
where people spend much of their time. You should use cool follow and share buttons for each
network: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. The only caution: don’t use the
accounts you abandoned, use just those you post on oftentimes. Create these buttons the
most visible on the website to ensure yourself a better visual exposure on the media
platforms.

5 Biggest Differences between an Online News Site and a Printed Newspaper

There are a lot of differences between the writing done for online news and the writing done
for printed newspapers. The style is different; the sourcing is different as well as the pricing,
etc. You can run into a few problems if you should handle these two news types the same. To
avoid extensive revising, declining readers, and more, you can keep these 5 major differences
in mind.
5 Major differences you cannot ignore:

Readers: Older people might still prefer the printed version better than the online version,
while the younger generation prefers the online editions. But, if you like news, you would not
mind that much where you read it. The facts that are written will still be the same.
Portability: Printed newspaper editions can be carried everywhere. Online editions can be a
bit more difficult. You need to carry your laptop or phone or other electronic devices with you
and you also need an internet connection.
Space: Newspaper print editions do have limitations on space, online versions not so much.
But even if the online editions have more room, people will still only read until something
more interesting pops up Print editions needs to fit the information in a certain allotted space.
Online editions might want to keep it short to keep the attention of the reader.
Sourcing: With print editions, the sourcing requirements are very strict. You may not print
anything that has not been verified. Online you can hyperlink to the source-material which will
verify your facts. Accountability is much stricter for printed sourcing than for the online news
site’s sourcing.
Interaction: You cannot have an immediate response from your readers with print editions.
They do take part in opinion polls and give comments, but it will only be published at a later
stage. Online News Sites you can take part in opinion polls, write comments, etc. immediately.
You do not have to wait for a result because feedback is immediate.
Even though there are differences between these two newspaper versions, their goal is still
the same, and both still play a part in spreading the news.