Digital Journal Introduces Regionalized News Widget, Major Design Change

Based on more reader input, we're introducing a few big and small upgrades to Digital Journal today. We recently surveyed readers to get feedback, and input was incredible. We're happy to announce a feature to find regionalized news, and a new design.

Regionalizing and Targeted News For You:

DigitalJournal.com carries news from around the world, and in an effort to show that, we've just implemented a "News From Your Country" widget on the front page of the site. Whenever you visit DigitalJournal.com, you will now be given targeted country news in the top right-hand side of the site (if you've customized your layout already, it will appear on the bottom right but you can move it up, or reset the layout and it will show the default positioning). If you prefer to change the country you get news from, you can also do that and add up to five different countries in the widget (more info on adding custom country feeds here). Based on feedback we received, we wanted to make it easier to find news from your country. Now, all you need to do is visit the front page of DigitalJournal.com and we'll show it to you without you having to search for your country.

New Design

This upgrade was inspired by you, and we're implementing a new design along with new functions and aesthetics. Design is something we've always tweaked slightly based on reader and contributor feedback, and this time we've decided to go further than usual and implement bigger changes based on that input. We've transitioned away from the bright colour and Web 2.0-style gradients to a more serious and elegant Web page masthead that better reflects our news network. The logo has also been changed to a serif font to better reflect news editorial. Widgets use soft light blue instead of heavy blacks and we're really utilizing white space on the front page so your eye can find content that matters to you quickly and easily. The functional design change is most obvious inside articles. In addition to a serif headline font, all article-related content is now accessible through tabs; a lot of the feedback we got indicated comments are great, but they sometimes distract a reader from an article. That said, we've decided to put the comment feed behind a tab, so it's still there but you have to click a tab to read them. We've also put the social networking "share" features (such as Digg, Yahoo Buzz, Facebook, etc.) behind a tab so they're easier to find, along with article voters. Remember, everything on the front page of DigitalJournal.com is customizable, so you can move widgets around so that the content that interests you most is always on the top of the site. You can also close widgets should you choose. You can click the "Add More Content" or "Reset Layout" at any time to add more content to your front page, or restore to default. As always, we thank everyone for their continued feedback. If you have any more input, please feel free to Contact Us.