After criticism, Times spruces up its site.

To critics of the Los Angeles Times' online edition--and there are many--the changes implemented last week were long overdue.

After years of fits and starts, the Times introduced its newly designed Web site, dropping fees for online features and promising more changes.

The site, latimes.com, had languished under revolving-door management, layoffs and what some in the online community agreed was a tepid commitment by the Times' owner, Tribune Co., at keeping the newspaper at the forefront of online journalism.

"The site was ugly, broken, user-hostile, and it put more content behind pay walls than most newspaper sites," said Jay Rosen, associate professor at New York University's School of Journalism and the author of the media-criticism Web site PressThink. "The search was a mess, it was hard to find anything, and the editorial staff had no sense of pride or ownership in the Web site.

The changes are the first major moves by the site's general manager, Robertson Barrett, who became president in January of Los Angeles Times Interactive after six months during which the division had no leader. The previous head of latimes.com, Steven Barth, left in June 2004 during a round of layoffs.

It also reflects the growing importance that newspapers are placing on their Web sites as the circulation of their print versions decline nationwide while online viewership and revenues grow.

For the six months ended March 31, newspaper circulation declined 1.9 percent, while the print edition of the Times lost 6.5 percent, one of the more precipitous declines among U.S. newspapers.

Meanwhile, Tribune Co.'s April publishing revenues fell 0.5 percent from a year earlier, while interactive revenues jumped 51 percent to $14 million, by far the fastest-growing category for the company. Still, that's a fraction of total publishing revenues.

"I don't think (Tribune) knows where it all leads and where the answers are," said Barrington Research media analyst James Goss. "But it's very clear that they know (online) is a very important part of the future of the company."

Troubled history

Barrett said the Times is committed to ramping up its online content--including Web logs, more live news coverage and interactive sports features.

But Barrett also defended the Times' previous stewardship of the Web site, saying it had done such innovative work as a comprehensive package of photos, graphics and text for the online version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning series "Enrique's Journey" in 2003.

The Web version of the story about a boy's travels from Honduras to North Carolina to find his mother was honored as Most Innovative Use of Digital Media in the 2003 Digital Edge Awards. "There were some good things going on," Barrett said. "They just had to get the right people in place to make changes."

Latimes.com launched in April 1996, around the same time many major newspapers were making their first forays onto the Internet. At the time, the paper posted news from its print edition, along with a package of special features--such as news headlines tailored to users' preferences and special reports on themed topics--that was considered innovative for its day.

When the Los Angeles Times and its parent company, Times Mirror Co., were purchased by Tribune in 2000, the Times' online operations were folded into Tribune's interactive division. Still, the operation was largely run in Los Angeles.

According to press accounts and news releases, latimes.com has had four general managers--Dierdre Eagles, Carol Perruso, Barth and Barrett. A Times spokesman said the paper does not have a chronology of latimes.com managers or redesigns.

Perruso, who went to latimes.com in 1997 and left two months after the Tribune sale, contended that the Web site has generally kept up with other major newspapers, save for its sparse news updates.

Now a journalism instructor at California State University at Long Beach, Perruso said Tribune has pumped money into latimes.com and its other Web sites to keep them relevant.

She said Times Mirror had about 100 people devoted to latimes.com when Tribune bought the company, while Barrett said the site now has about 70 employees. But Perruso said the comparison doesn't take into account Tribune Interactive employees in Chicago who provide support to latimes.com.

"They've invested enormous amounts of money in both online and print journalism," Perruso said. "A news Web site is ultimately going to be judged by the quality of its journalism, not whether it has one more gadget or one more column on the page."

Still, some experts in digital media had panned the Times' site as unwieldy and lacking cutting-edge features such as advanced archival searching, searchable databases about sports teams and athletes, and customized movie listings.

Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman said the company is committed to online media, but Weitman declined to answer detailed questions about the management of latimes.com.

Looking ahead

The redesign looks lighter and less dense than the former latimes.com, and the site's listings, traffic, weather, and classifieds are easier to access. There is also a feature called "Pacific Time" that packages stories from different sections of the newspaper with a California focus.

Most significantly, the redesign drops the $4.95 monthly subscription fee to the Times' Calendar features, which include movie reviews, stories about culture and the arts, and concert listings.

The fee, instituted in 2003, drew widespread criticism from online advocates who said it discourages people from using the features and ultimately is less profitable than building revenue through advertising. Times officials declined to say how many people had registered for Calendar.

"Tribune Co. came to their senses and came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to open up that site for advertising rather than try to get revenue from (online) subscriptions," said David Card, a senior media analyst for Jupiter Research in New York. "(Charging) was a very contrarian strategy and I think they were wise to abandon it."

Barrett called the charge an "experiment" and said Times management still is looking at premium content areas for which it could charge a separate fee. For now, the entire Times Web site is free to registered users, except for the archives.

"We'd like to offer the widest possible premium content in the future," Barrett said. "I think there's a lot of work to be done."

JAMES NASH Staff Reporter