Online Mags: The Huff, the Beast, Salon and Slate

(MoneyWatch)  The web "magazines" launched in the mid-1990's, most notably Salon, but to a lesser degree Slate and others, delivered an elegant, understated design that conveyed credibility and professionalism. Compare that with more bloggery Huffington Post, which screams at visitors with a large block of ALL-CAPS headlines indicating urgency, crisis, and psychodrama in New York and Washington, D.C.

Or today's entry from Tina Brown (former editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker) called the Daily Beast.

First of all, ugh, what an ugly name (and yes, I'm aware of its literary origins.) This too-slick site makes the user feel locked into an interface that yields too little control over what you are seeing. It's as if somebody just mastered Flash, or even JavaScript, as opposed to the more nuanced aesthetic of the design era ushered in by CSS and Ajax.

But, what, you may ask, do design decisions have to do with the business of building new media businesses? Well, quite a bit, as it turns out. One of the key predictors of success on the web is establishing an effective navigational paradigm, so the user always feels well-oriented and in control of her experience.

In the heat of a hotly contested election season, it may make sense for the Huff to SHOUT. But, after November 4th, barring some scandalous outcome such as happened in 2000, the site should hire a serious designer and get down to building more credibility for the long term. The site breaks news sometimes, and often contains smart commentary, but perception also becomes reality, and the Huff looks a little too shrill for my taste.

The Beast's problem is the opposite, in a way. It's plenty professional and slick, but it seems uptight, rather English, if you will. Its content is also geared to all the current electoral and economic excitement plus the added brand attribute of Brown herself, one of the glitterati who presumably will be able to generate buzz through her connections and frequent rumor-mongering.

In all likelihood, these two sites will go head-to-head for audience share.

Meanwhile, over the years, both Slate and Salon have just kept on sluggin' along. They've long since established their bona fides in the world of online journalism, with good writers and smart instincts. Salon still presents the prettier design, but Slate is owned by the Washington Post, which is one of the few media companies experiencing triple-digit growth in traffic this year.

Slate is more of the Beltway insider, always has been, even when it was in Washington state (with it first parent, Microsoft), while Salon remains stubbornly (and effectively) Left Coast in downtown San Francisco, with stronger cultural and tech coverage than any of the other three.

Design matters--it goes to your bottom line, which leaves me puzzled why it so often on mdia sites seems to be an after-thought.

Note: Disclosure -- I helped start Salon in 1995 and also worked there from 1998-2000.