Open Media Boston Seeks Viewer Feedback on Our Upcoming Site Redesign

Since it's been a fairly slow newsweek - given the recess in state government, the hot humid weather, and those that can afford it being on some kind of vacation - we thought it would be a good time to ask Open Media Boston viewers for some feedback. We're getting ready to expand our operation at OMB. This naturally includes rebuilding this website to make better use of the latest technology and learn from the experience of our first year and a half as an online weekly metropolitan news publication. So we'd very much like to know what our regular audience - now moving on 20,000 people - feels could stand some improvement. After all, the bigger we get, the better our publication has to be in terms of both structure and content.

For example, we've never gotten many submissions for our Living section. Should we merge it with our Arts section?

Should we include posts from trusted local bloggers in a new front page section? Should we allow people without accounts on our website to post comments to our articles? If so, how?

Are there any design elements of the site that you think we should change? For example, we're definitely ready for a new top banner, site color scheme and OMB logo. Does that kind of thing matter to you or not?

In terms of our content, are there things that we're not covering that you think we should try to get on top of? [Keeping in mind that we're a publication with a progressive editorial stance, and that we aren't going to start moving to the political center or right even if we're asked nicely.] Are there things you think we should cover less? Are there ways we can make it easier for the viewing public to participate in news production and dissemination?

Is our social networking presence robust enough? Is it easy to follow us via Twitter, RSS, Facebook, MySpace and email updates? Is there more you think we should be doing in this new exciting communications arena?

We don't want to make you all fill out a survey for this, or constrain your thoughts overmuch. And we're not asking you for money just yet - we'll be doing that soon enough. We just really want to know what elements of the publication could make your viewing experience more pleasant and what innovations we can make to make OMB more relevant to the information needs of our viewing public.

So anyone that has some ideas about how we should proceed in the areas under discussion above is highly encouraged to email them to us at ideas@openmediaboston.org. Or find us on on Twitter,Facebook or MySpace, and talk to us there.

We'll follow up on this editorial with posts to our blog as we move along in our redesign process, and discuss your ideas at more length.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Jason Pramas is Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston