The WSJ.com’s new look will go live on Tuesday morning, and it won’t look much like the online Journal you’ve come to know and love. (Or hate, if you’re among its competitors.)
The standard blue-and-white look of the old homepage — as seen in the bottom picture — will be gone. Instead, there will be a whiter-looking page with “champagne” offsets for the “What’s News” section and the top. (A “clean, well-lit environment” was the operating principle, according to WSJ Online Executive Editor Alan Murray).
Other changes include a navigation bar across the top of the page instead of down the left side. Community pages invite more interactivity from readers of the site, though people are required to use their real names to post.
Wall Street Journal Digital Network President Gordon McLeod wouldn’t say how much the redesign cost, but did say it was a “substantial investment,” one aimed not only at building subscriber rolls but also trying to get more non-subscribers to visit as well to persuade advertisers to keep buying space on the site.
Whether design is the key to making that happen, no one can say, but it can’t hurt to renovate every once in a while. It does tend to keep your name in the headlines…
