News and the Twitter-ization of Reuters

“It’s a river-of-news type of approach that mirrors the flow of data on one of Reuters terminals, but has also become increasingly popular in the era of social media,” Nieman said.

The team responsible for the new site and mobile apps sees the project as less of a redesign and more of a rebuild: “Instead of adding new flooring and fixtures, they’ve taken the house down to the foundation.”

“This goes back to the history of Reuters. This news organization has access to so much information being delivered in real time,” said Jim Roberts, who recently joined Thomson Reuters from The New York Times as executive editor for Reuters Digital. The goal of the new digital products is to merge the worlds of traditional news-gathering and social media: “I’m also a fan of what social media is doing to conventional media to have the ability to smartly inform people in real time about the information we are creating with our 2,800 journalists.”

In an era when many newspapers and magazines are using typography and layout to make their apps look like their print product, Reuters – with no print edition to ape – is instead making its website look a lot like its new apps, building a consistent experience across platforms, the Nieman Lab said. In Reuters’ new apps, stories open and close within the flow of news, and gesturing up or down navigates through to other stories within a topic area.

The preview version of Reuters.com retains many of the expected features of any news site, including a front page that gives prominent placement to timely stories, photos and videos. While the navigation bar offers basic directions to topics, top news, markets, and the wire, the bulk of the homepage eschews modular front page design — headings for “U.S. News,” “Sports,” “Multimedia,” and the like — in favour of a feed of news and tweets that are happening right now. Articles opening within the stream keeps readers surrounded on all sides by news. “In other words, Reuters has been Twitter-ized.”

Alex Leo, head of product for Reuters.com, said Reuters is taking some cues from services like Twitter and Tumblr that “display news and create engagement around the news”. But Nieman said the emphasis on article pages also makes sense for a news company that, while having a long history and significant news-gathering resources, may lack the name recognition with consumers that other news sites do. If you’re someone familiar with Thomson Reuters finance or legal products, you probably associate the name with news. By making a social-friendly site, Reuters wants to broaden that association to a larger audience.

Roberts said news sites’ home pages are still a powerful driver of traffic, but the tide is shifting in another direction. “The days where you could drive big portion of audience to any single page? That’s pretty much done,” he said. The media have to be willing to adapt to changing times, and that means having a highly adaptable website and apps. “This is just the beginning,” Roberts said. Expect the new Reuters site to regularly tweak features and roll out new tools. ■