NewsGator and the new USA TODAY website

The new USA TODAY website has launched!

This is more than just an update to the look and feel, the biggest changes are found in the added functionality. USA TODAY is promoting the concept of "network journalism", which is a notion that published stories are just the beginning of a larger conversation, and that content can be improved with the participation of a community.

So they've enabled several new features to support the mission, and updated other features to fit within the new model. What we're most excited about is how USA TODAY has implemented NewsGator technology. Previously, USA TODAY had placed us in a separate area on the site, under the "my.usatoday.com" domain. That domain is gone as they've placed their personalization features directly into each of the USA TODAY section fronts. Now, instead of having to visit a separate experience to customize your news, you can do so directly within the main USA TODAY pages. Just visit the "Across the Web" tab on each page and choose your news. Scanning headlines from other sites couldn't be easier (See the difference in the images below)

Ken Paulsen has an article about the redesign, and I think this quote sums it up well.

"In many ways, it is an extension of the mission we set for ourselves nearly 25 years ago when the newspaper first launched: to present the news of the day in a concise, accessible, even entertaining fashion that was, above all, respectful of the reader."

Our hats are off to all the people at USA TODAY who made this happen, we're honored that we're able to help.