Online Journalism News

Today offers more

Posted: 11/06/03 By: Jemima Kiss

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The BBC has overhauled the web site for Today, its flagship Radio 4 news programme.

Launched on 9 June, the new-look site at www.bbc.co.uk/today offers a new range of features including details of the show's running order, advance schedules and re-runs of major interviews. Navigation has also been improved and the site offers additional interviews and analysis on leading news stories.

Visitors are invited to email story suggestions to the news team and can also subscribe to a newsletter featuring highlights of the previous week.

British photojournalist, documentary maker and author Nick Danziger has been commissioned for a 13-week series of photographs for the site.

The images, with a different focus each week, were all taken at around 6am when the show begins. Subjects include firemen at work in the West Midlands, a Glasgow prison and a London meat market.

The programme's lively discussion forum and message boards remain in place, and listeners are also invited to take part in web chats with selected guests.

In a web chat with members of the Today audience on 11 June, Mr Danziger was asked if it was a sign of the times that a radio programme had commissioned a photography project.

"I think we should continue to use different media in new and interesting ways. I think that much of the new technology enriches our lives in many ways and undoubtedly that includes the visual and audio domains," he said.

The BBC also launched re-designed sites for BBC News Online and BBC Sport Online in February 2003, making navigation and scrolling easier. Figures announced by the BBC at the time showed that around 5 million people - 23 per cent of all UK web users - regularly visit BBC News Online.

See also:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/today
http://www.brandrepublic.com/digitalbulletin/news_story.cfm?articleID=182009&Origin=DB06062003
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/webchat/webchat_danziger.shtml

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