I’ve spent a great deal of time exploring The Cavalier Daily’s website and mobile app on both my iPhone and iPad. I don’t have easy access to an Android-based phone or tablet to play with those apps, and I’m very interested to hear from those of you using them. I’ve found that the mobile website is a more user-friendly experience than the mobile app, because of some of the app’s quirks. Each article in the app has the byline “webmaster@cavalierdaily.com,” followed by the author’s name in parentheses. This is more distracting than I expected. There are also often blank pages where more stories could go. It appears that only the previous week’s stories are included, which is odd for a digital platform. With only a week’s worth of stories and no search option, the app ends up being a surprisingly static thing, rather than something with which readers can interact.
The mobile website, though, echoes the design of the main, desktop browser-based site and offers a more integrated experience. Comments, which are an important part of The Cavalier Daily’s online offerings, are easily accessible on the mobile website. Integrating more of the features of the mobile site into the app would help readers engage more easily with content, no matter how they access The Cavalier Daily.
While the main page of the desktop browser-based website is, to my eye, well-designed and accessible, some of the organization of the website is still kind of a mess. Recent opinion columns have finally showed up on the “Columns” page but the vast majority of the items on the page are from February and March of this year. The main Letters to the Editor page has letters that are now more than a year old. Apart from these somewhat random older items, finding anything older than a week is difficult unless the reader can recall the column title or the name of the writer in order to conduct a search. While the search function does allow for some ability to explore past columns and articles, it is often difficult to track down a specific item. More often than not, I find myself clicking over to the digital copies of the print edition and scrolling through to find something I wanted to reread. Of course, this only works when the item was also published in print instead of just online.
As for the print editions, those look to me to be coming together well. There is often an overarching theme for each issue, which I think works. Most recently, for example, the Nov. 14 issue focused on University finances, including a new budget model and explanations of where donations go. There was also coverage of AccessUVa and other financial aid issues. Trying to present a picture of the University’s finances from both an institutional and student level is a great use of the print edition.
The print edition is important in the ongoing success of The Cavalier Daily as a news reporting organization. A recent article in the New York Times, “Black and White in the Red: Student Newspapers Scurry to Make Ends Meet,” chronicled how many student papers around the country have made changes similar to those The Cavalier Daily staff has implemented. Reducing print editions from five days a week to two and placing more emphasis on digital outlets and innovations like the mobile app are all common changes at papers around the country. The article, though, notes that in a 2011 survey, 60 percent of college students read their school’s paper and of those readers, 60 percent preferred print to online. It seems there is still something special about picking up a physical paper. I think the print edition of The Cavalier Daily will continue to be successful, but it’s going to drive people to the digital outlets on days other than Monday and Thursday. Those digital outlets need to be more unified and better organized.
How do you prefer to access The Cavalier Daily content? Do you use the mobile apps? What has your experience been with them or with the website? I welcome your input.
Christopher Broom is The Cavalier Daily’s public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com or on Twitter @CDPublicEditor.
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