This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on August 26, 2003 1:21 AM.
The previous post in this blog was Now it can be heard.
The next post in this blog is Brushes with greatness.
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The Oregonian. Here I am trying to find a story that I read in hard copy on Saturday. Wasting all sorts of time trying to find it. There's supposedly a 14-day search tool, but it's worthless.
And forget about "sidebars" and photos. The cheapies at The O (or more likely, its parent company, the Newhouse newspaper chain) won't spring for them.
Then every night all the current stories are taken down, and there's nothing on the "current day" page until mid-to-late morning.
Yuck! Is it just me, or does this thing bite?
Comments (9)
It's not just you. It's completely appalling. I try to use it to remind myself of things going on in Portland, and I can't. It's horrific.
Not only is it not just you, but according to someone at the paper who posted a comment to my site recently, the people in the newsroom hate it even more than the rest of us do. The package which Advance Internet provides for various newspaper sites has been crap for years, and they only manage, over time, to make it worse.
The fact is that the people at the Oregonian hate their site as well. Oregonlive.com and the Oregonian are seperate organizations that "Partner" together (similar to what mlive.com and several michigan papers do). It's all developed by the folks at Advance.net. But ask any reporter at the Oregonian, and they're not really fond of Oregonlive.com, either.
It sucks, but the Oregonian is not going to bother changing things. Why? Because it works for them -- nevermind if it doesn't work for us.
The Statesman Journal has got it a little better, making NEWS the focus, not ads (they used to be the other way around -- they didn't even have news online until I interned there when I was in college).
Hell, even the Guard in Eugene is better than Oregonlive.com, and it's nothing to get excited about.
I'm sure that the management of the Big O one, do not want to spend any money, and two, are deathly afraid of losing subscribership of the paper version to the internet. So it makes complete sense that the Big O supports a product, cheaply, that is completely inferior to its home-delivered, machine-or-store dispensed hard copy.
I don't think it makes sense at all. All that does is make them look like an incompetent organization that still gets all its information from the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, doesn't mind if the clock on the newsroom VCR calls it noon all day long, and thinks the Internet is something you use to catch espionage-committing butterflies. They're not going to save their print edition by making their online content ugly and disorganized. All that will do is cause people to read news elsewhere. If they wanted to make their content inaccessible and hope that people would pay for it, that would be one thing. (Not likely, in my opinion.) But the disorganization, ugliness, and overall cheap-ass quality of the site just makes them look like hacks. I find it hard to believe that looking like hacks is a well-thought-out business decision.
Just got back from vacation. Went to three different states (CA, AZ, NM), each with varying amounts of news to cover and sources to cover it. Every paper I picked up (hard copy) kicked the crap out of the Oregonian. You know you're local paper sucks when Santa Fe, New Mexico has better writing and editing, as well as less space devoted to advertising. Even if the The O didn't do the generic-online-newspaper thing, I'm pretty sure its site would suck just as bad as the Oregonlive.com site does. The Oregonlive.com *does* make them look like hacks, but the hard copy version makes them look just as bad.
Wm
ps
None of the papers, not even the SF Chronicle or LA Times, cost as much as the Oregonian, either.
Interesting enough, you may have noticed that the Oregonian.com (or whatever it is, with bookmarks I forget URLs) is actually hosted (i.e. their servers reside) on the East Coast.
When the black out occured, if you tryed going to the Big-O you got sent to www.nj.com and a mesage that nj.com and a list of other sites (which included the O) where out of comission due to the black out.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, the only smart thing about the blackout outage was that the guy who heads Advance had staff toss content from the newspapers they were supposed to be serving into weblogs (like this one), so that the news wasn't offline altogether.
As pointed out in various places, however, this would be unnecessary if Advance (or the newspapers it serves) had bothered to consider the possibility of needing a secondary backup system somewhere.
Charamba, Douro 2008
Horse Heaven Hills, Cabernet 2010
Lorelle, Horse Heaven Hills Pinot Grigio 2011
Avignonesi, Montepulciano 2004
Lorelle, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2011
Villa Antinori, Toscana 2007
Mercedes Eguren, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Lorelle, Columbia Valley Cabernet 2011
Purple Moon, Merlot 2011
Purple Moon, Chardonnnay 2011
Abacela, Vintner's Blend No. 12
Opula Red Blend 2010
Liberte, Pinot Noir 2010
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Indian Wells Red Blend 2010
Woodbridge, Chardonnay 2011
King Estate, Pinot Noir 2011
Famille Perrin, Cotes du Rhone Villages 2010
Columbia Crest, Les Chevaux Red 2010
14 Hands, Hot to Trot White Blend
Familia Bianchi, Malbec 2009
Terrapin Cellars, Pinot Gris 2011
Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2009
Campo Viejo, Rioja, Termpranillo 2010
Ravenswood, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Quinta das Amoras, Vinho Tinto 2010
Waterbrook, Reserve Merlot 2009
Lorelle, Horse Heaven Hills, Pinot Grigio 2011
Tarantas, Rose
Chateau Lajarre, Bordeaux 2009
La Vielle Ferme, Rose 2011
Benvolio, Pinot Grigio 2011
Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir 2009
Lello, Douro Tinto 2009
Quinson Fils, Cotes de Provence Rose 2011
Anindor, Pinot Gris 2010
Buenas Ondas, Syrah Rose 2010
Les Fiefs d'Anglars, Malbec 2009
14 Hands, Pinot Gris 2011
Conundrum 2012
Condes de Albarei, Albariño 2011
Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2007
Penelope Sanchez, Garnacha Syrah 2010
Canoe Ridge, Merlot 2007
Atalaya do Mar, Godello 2010
Vega Montan, Mencia
Benvolio, Pinot Grigio
Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir, Marlborough 2009
Portuga, Rose 2011
Revelation, Chardonnay, Pays d'Oc 2010
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 2005
Monte Alto, Tinto Reserva 2005
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Cabernet, Indian Wells 2009
Espiral, Vinho Rose
Vin-Koru, Pinot Gris 2011
14 Hands, Hot to Trot Red 2009
Rodney Strong, Cabernet, Sonoma 2009
Abacela, Vintner's Blend #11
Portuga, White 2010
La Bourgeoisie, Red 2009
Januik, Red 2009
Three Rivers, River's Red 2008
Kirkland, Alexander Valley Merlot 2008
Muga, Rioja Rose 2010
Quinta das Amoras, Vinho Tinto 2009
Mauro Molino, Barbera d'Alba 2009
Garda Chiaretto Rose
Columbia Crest, Two Vines Vineyard 10 White
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Pinot Gris, Columbia Valley 2009
L'Hortus, Rose de Saignee 2010
Maculan, Pino & Toi 2008
McKinley Springs, Bombing Range Red 2008
Trader Joe's Pinot Gris 2009
Montes Alpha, Cabernet 2007
Gran Sasso, Sangiovese, Terre di Chieti 2009
Garda, Classico Chiaretto Rose
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 1999
Picos del Montgo, Tempranillo 2008
Chateau de Montmirail, Vacqueyras 2008
La Granja 360, Syrah 2009
Montgras, Carmenere Reserva 2009
Lange, Pinot Gris 2009
Columbia Crest, Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet 2008
Kirkland, Pinot Grigio 2010
Trader Joe's Coastal Syrah 2009
Columbia Crest, Horse Heaven Hills Merlot 2008
Trader Joe's Coastal Chardonnay 2009
Vieux Papes Red
Domaine de l'Aujardiere, Chardonnay 2009
Santa Rita, Cabernet, Medalla Real 2007
Penfold's, Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2008
Guild, Red, Lot #02 2008
Dievole, Dievolino Sangiovese 2008
Laforet, Burgogne Chardonnay 2009
Columbia Winery, Merlot 2007
Bonterra, Cabernet 2008
Elk Cove, Pinot Gris 2009
Maquis Lien 2006
Scott Paul, Pinot Noir, Le Paulee 2007
The Occasional Book
Hope Larson - A Wrinkle in Time, the Graphic Novel
Rudyard Kipling - Kim
Peter Ames Carlin - Bruce
Fran Cannon Slayton - When the Whistle Blows
Neil Young - Waging Heavy Peace
Mark Bego - Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul (2012 ed.)
Jenny Lawson - Let's Pretend This Never Happened
J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Timothy Egan - The Big Burn
Deborah Eisenberg - Transactions in a Foreign Currency
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five
Kathryn Lance - Pandora's Genes
Cheryl Strayed - Wild
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
Jack London - The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii
Jack Walker - The Extraordinary Rendition of Vincent Dellamaria
Colum McCann - Let the Great World Spin
Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - The Nanny Diaries
Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Sharon Creech - Walk Two Moons
Keith Richards - Life
F. Sionil Jose - Dusk
Natalie Babbitt - Tuck Everlasting
Justin Halpern - S#*t My Dad Says
Mark Herrmann - The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law
Barry Glassner - The Gospel of Food
Phil Stanford - The Peyton-Allan Files
Jesse Katz - The Opposite Field
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
David Sedaris - Holidays on Ice
Donald Miller - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Mitch Albom - Have a Little Faith
C.S. Lewis - The Magician's Nephew
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ivan Doig - Bucking the Sun
Penda Diakité - I Lost My Tooth in Africa
Grace Lin - The Year of the Rat
Oscar Hijuelos - Mr. Ives' Christmas
Madeline L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time
Steven Hart - The Last Three Miles
David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
Karen Armstrong - The Spiral Staircase
Charles Larson - The Portland Murders
Adrian Wojnarowski - The Miracle of St. Anthony
William H. Colby - Long Goodbye
Steven D. Stark - Meet the Beatles
Phil Stanford - Portland Confidential
Rick Moody - Garden State
Jonathan Schwartz - All in Good Time
David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Anthony Holden - Big Deal
Robert J. Spitzer - The Spirit of Leadership
James McManus - Positively Fifth Street
Jeff Noon - Vurt
Road Work
Miles run year to date: 29
At this date last year: 66
Total run in 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269
Comments (9)
It's not just you. It's completely appalling. I try to use it to remind myself of things going on in Portland, and I can't. It's horrific.
Posted by Alli | August 26, 2003 6:26 AM
Not only is it not just you, but according to someone at the paper who posted a comment to my site recently, the people in the newsroom hate it even more than the rest of us do. The package which Advance Internet provides for various newspaper sites has been crap for years, and they only manage, over time, to make it worse.
Posted by The One True b!X | August 26, 2003 7:11 AM
The fact is that the people at the Oregonian hate their site as well. Oregonlive.com and the Oregonian are seperate organizations that "Partner" together (similar to what mlive.com and several michigan papers do). It's all developed by the folks at Advance.net. But ask any reporter at the Oregonian, and they're not really fond of Oregonlive.com, either.
It sucks, but the Oregonian is not going to bother changing things. Why? Because it works for them -- nevermind if it doesn't work for us.
The Statesman Journal has got it a little better, making NEWS the focus, not ads (they used to be the other way around -- they didn't even have news online until I interned there when I was in college).
Hell, even the Guard in Eugene is better than Oregonlive.com, and it's nothing to get excited about.
OK, done ranting.
-Jake
Online Newspaper Geek :-)
Posted by Jake Ortman | August 26, 2003 9:39 AM
I'm sure that the management of the Big O one, do not want to spend any money, and two, are deathly afraid of losing subscribership of the paper version to the internet. So it makes complete sense that the Big O supports a product, cheaply, that is completely inferior to its home-delivered, machine-or-store dispensed hard copy.
Posted by hilsy | August 26, 2003 11:29 AM
I don't think it makes sense at all. All that does is make them look like an incompetent organization that still gets all its information from the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, doesn't mind if the clock on the newsroom VCR calls it noon all day long, and thinks the Internet is something you use to catch espionage-committing butterflies. They're not going to save their print edition by making their online content ugly and disorganized. All that will do is cause people to read news elsewhere. If they wanted to make their content inaccessible and hope that people would pay for it, that would be one thing. (Not likely, in my opinion.) But the disorganization, ugliness, and overall cheap-ass quality of the site just makes them look like hacks. I find it hard to believe that looking like hacks is a well-thought-out business decision.
Posted by Alli | August 26, 2003 12:07 PM
My two cents:
Just got back from vacation. Went to three different states (CA, AZ, NM), each with varying amounts of news to cover and sources to cover it. Every paper I picked up (hard copy) kicked the crap out of the Oregonian. You know you're local paper sucks when Santa Fe, New Mexico has better writing and editing, as well as less space devoted to advertising. Even if the The O didn't do the generic-online-newspaper thing, I'm pretty sure its site would suck just as bad as the Oregonlive.com site does. The Oregonlive.com *does* make them look like hacks, but the hard copy version makes them look just as bad.
Wm
ps
None of the papers, not even the SF Chronicle or LA Times, cost as much as the Oregonian, either.
Posted by Wm | August 26, 2003 2:31 PM
Uh, I've been outta town for about three years -- you mean the Oregonian doesn't cost 35 cents anymore?
Posted by Klug | August 26, 2003 2:42 PM
Interesting enough, you may have noticed that the Oregonian.com (or whatever it is, with bookmarks I forget URLs) is actually hosted (i.e. their servers reside) on the East Coast.
When the black out occured, if you tryed going to the Big-O you got sent to www.nj.com and a mesage that nj.com and a list of other sites (which included the O) where out of comission due to the black out.
Posted by billg | August 26, 2003 7:23 PM
As I've mentioned elsewhere, the only smart thing about the blackout outage was that the guy who heads Advance had staff toss content from the newspapers they were supposed to be serving into weblogs (like this one), so that the news wasn't offline altogether.
As pointed out in various places, however, this would be unnecessary if Advance (or the newspapers it serves) had bothered to consider the possibility of needing a secondary backup system somewhere.
Posted by The One True b!X | August 27, 2003 7:21 AM