Visit NYTimes.com and you will see what is believed to be one of the biggest advantages of online newspapers—the easy navigation between different sections. The sidebar on the left-hand side enables readers to select news on topics varying from travel and technology to business and fashion.
Visit the Russian Itogi.ru and you will recall what it was like to read a print newspaper. With no topic sidebars, readers have to scroll down to the bottom if they want to read about arts and entertainment or sports.
The Web site design, like the newspaper lay-out, determines the reader's behavior, highlighting certain news and undermining others. When all article suggestions are listed on top, people are empowered to choose the news they want to read. This freedom for individual selection and trust in the reader's judgment reinforce a set of democratic values. When no article suggestions appear on the main Web page, however, the public is forced into a less democratic reading behavior. Then, people follow an already established news hierarchy that very much reminds of reading the print press where you have to list through pages five and six to read the article on page eleven.
For better or worse, the New York Times as well as many other mainstream American publications, such as Newsweek and the Economist, have chosen the first model. The Russian Itogi, however, is one of the few publications that adhere to the second model. Could that be related to the magazine's history?
Itogi, Russia's first news magazine, was launched in March 1996 by editor in chief Sergei Parkhomenko and deputy editor Masha Lipman. It partnered with the New York-based weekly magazine Newsweek. In 2001, Itogi, which means "results" in Russian, experienced tremendous turmoil as the publisher fired the entire staff under the excuse of personnel cuts. The real reason for the cuts, however, was closely related to the Kremlin's control. As Lipman wrote in a Newsweek article, "After a year of attacks, the government's surrogates finally took it over." Kremlin could no longer allow its enemy, tycoon and media conglomerate Vladimir Gusinsky, to own this independent and liberal press. That same year Newsweek canceled its partnership with Itogi.
Whether Itogi's history is related to its current Web page design might be overblown. But asking online readers to browse through the economics and health news before reaching the technology and sports sections definitely says something about the magazine's politics.
Photo credit: mfophotos