Thomson Reuters Foundation unveils new design for its website

“It’s been a year since we consolidated the Foundation’s family of websites onto the single Trust.org platform - a move that meant compressing a mishmash of brands into a coherent offering,” said Tim Large (photo), foundation editor-in-chief.

“For one thing, it meant fusing our AlertNet humanitarian and climate change news services with TrustLaw, a hub of news and information on women’s rights and anti-corruption.

The goal was comprehensive coverage of the world’s under-reported stories, produced by the Foundation’s network of 27 staff journalists on five continents and more than 100 regular freelancers.”

The change to a single website - alongside TrustLaw Connect, the Foundation’s marketplace for free legal assistance, and its Trust Media programmes dedicated to supporting the highest quality independent journalism worldwide - “all that felt a bit shoehorned together,” he said, adding: “we hope this latest makeover will serve as an elegant culmination of the consolidation”.

Gone are what Large described as “the chunky, multicoloured filter buttons that allowed users to parse content according to legacy brands: AlertNet, AlertNet Climate, TrustLaw Women and TrustLaw Governance.

“Now there’s just news, segregated by subject: humanitarian, climate, women’s rights and corruption. It’s also navigable by region - and even through pictures.”

Programmes that were formerly housed under the Trust Media umbrella are now found via the site’s Excellence in Journalism tab. This is a gateway to the Foundation’s journalism and media training courses as well as its independent news services in Egypt and Zimbabwe.

“Web makeovers are a bit like ice sculptures: No matter how carefully chiseled, you can always be sure things will get a little runny. No doubt future iterations will offer greater improvements as we continue to take stock of user testing and site metrics,” Large said.

[The Baron will unveil its own makeover on 7 May - Editor] ■