i’m sure the reports are fantastic
tommyWFLA’s Keith Cate is doing a series on light rail in Tampa Bay. The stories run on television, and are supplemented by additional work from Tribune reporters as well as TBO.com. Must be. Mr. Cate said so last night.
But I can’t remember what “keyword” to use (”rail” brings you to Kevin Walker’s sometimes updating entertainment blog). The TBO search function sucks. The story/series is not mentioned on Kieth’s personality page, the WFLA front page nor the Tribune’s front page. The TBO front page gives me hope, then really blows it. Right now on TBO (in case you wait, I saved you a copy of the TBO front page), you find the small text:
Light Rail: Sales Tax For A Train? | Video Reports
The first link takes you to a poll & bulletin board, not a story or series. The second link - “Video Reports” - takes you to a STORY ABOUT ABANDONED DOGS.
I’m not the only one who is frustrated. Check out Palmball: I can’t take TBO.com anymore:
It’s not working. It hasn’t for a long, long time. TBO.com is unnavigable. It’s so bad, I had to use a word like unnavigable which may not even be a word. How can anyone look at this page and think “Yep, that’s a clean, straightforward user experience?
I don’t think anyone can.
Update 6:06pm: They still haven’t fixed the link - still goes to the dog story.
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February 14th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
tbo is a mess. but nobody at media general will ever admit it. for one thing, the tbo ceo is trib edjanet weavers boyfriend. for another, the site used to win awards back when alot of other newspaper websites sucked. but tbo has sucked now for a long time. if they dnt fix it, they are just signing their own death knell. even the nyt publisher says print wont be around in five years, even if he had to retract that after his troops rebelled.
February 14th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
TBO is a giant mess, and the Trib refuses not only to not hire a real full-time arts reporter (after killing the entire once-a-week Art Page), they won’t even discuss it, return a note or print a letter.
I hate to say it, because I’d rather support the hometown paper, especially when I know my audience reads it, but they’re going to dig their own grave over there.
February 14th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
They are digging their own grave while trying to save costs and appease corporate master and the shareholders of Media General.
How many of you have noticed your free weekly papers from the Tribune (going under different names in different locations around the area) have been decreased to once a week because “readership is better on Saturday’s”?
There is only one real newspaper in the region and that is the Times — and that’s not saying much.
February 14th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Thanks for the link. As was pointed out, the St. Pete Times’ site, tampabay.com, is much better than the Trib’s, if still lacking in a few areas.
If I were St. Pete Times management, I’d take advantage of this open window to become the area’s dominant online news source. I’d start by renegotiating the Forum deal so the building was called the Tampabay.com Forum as soon as possible. With that stake in the ground, I’d embrace area bloggers to fan out reach and content breadth and move into online video reports ASAP.
As I said, I want to see the Trib do well online. I think strong journalism is important to any community. But life is no longer printed daily. It’s updated in bits and bytes 24 x 7, and the paper won’t survive forever delivering dead trees to retirees.
February 15th, 2007 at 11:38 am
TBO.com takes so damn long to load that I get tired of waiting on it and move on.
February 15th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
There is only one real newspaper in the region and that is the Times — and that’s not saying much.
Not saying much? The St. Petersburg Times is considered one of the top newspapers in the country.
February 26th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
[...] know I was recently trying to find a fair, encompassing look on the option of light rail as a solution to transportation issues here in Tampa Bay. I finally found the right place, but am [...]
February 27th, 2007 at 4:50 am
I *think* the link you’re looking for is:
http://tbo.com/video/xml/MGB4H2F35YE.html
You don’t initially see the light rail links until the WFLA News 8 promo plays out (takes a few seconds), but then it appears in the same box as the video itself. Give that a try!
Dave
February 27th, 2007 at 4:52 am
– oh, and regarding the above, the light rail segments are getting pushed down by fresher content so you may have to scroll down a little in said video box.
Dave
March 6th, 2007 at 8:05 am
[...] does not have space for all the information. The place where you should be able to find it all, TBO.com, is just a mess. And I’m not the only one that thinks so: I look at the Tampa Web site from time to time, and [...]
March 7th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
The search function has long puzzled me. As a programmer I think it would be harder to write an unusable search feature than a basic functioning one. I wouldn’t even know how to screw it up like they did.
Another area that constantly makes me laugh are the latest update pages… They list stories so many times. Example:
http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/morenationworld.shtml
Mar 6 UTILITY MUST MEET DEVELOPING DEMAND
Mar 6 UTILITY MUST MEET DEVELOPING DEMAND
Mar 6 Lunde Slaying Suspect’s Statements Thrown Out
Mar 6 UTILITY MUST MEET DEVELOPING DEMAND
Mar 6 Lunde Slaying Suspect’s Statements Thrown Out
Mar 6 Lunde Slaying Suspect’s Statements Thrown Out
Mar 6 UTILITY MUST MEET WATER DEMANDS
What the hell is that? There are two stories there, not seven.
March 18th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
[...] here, Times. Leave the screwed up websites to the professionals at TBO.com. But the Times promises they will fix it, eventually: … I think it will take us days not [...]
June 2nd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
@Palmball:
I agree with your premise, but the reality for newspapers is that their online ad revenue isn’t enough to float the boat for much longer without some kind of plan to make up for the loss of classifieds. They are going to keep having less and less and I wouldn’t be surprised if we began to see startups with an online only business model begin to enter the market.