Cynics Unlimited

Pulse24.com will be closing its doors tomorrow. In its place will be citynews.ca, a portal-looking website with modern features like RSS Feeds and Podcasts (actually, the old site toyed with these features as well, though not to the extent of the Toronto Star or CTV).

Pulse 24 Layout (click to enlarge)

CityNews Layout (click to enlarge)

There was no doubt that Pulse24 was rather ugly and awkward to navigate when compared to rival news websites; however it had two great advantages over its competitors:

1. A list of breaking news articles occupied the entire right ledge of the “Top Stories” section, often going back several weeks. This feature allowed users to do a very quick scan of what was new without having to click through overly complicated interfaces or rely on RSS feeds (which vary greatly in quality between news sources)
2. Pulse24 left its articles free and online seemingly forever. You can research articles years old on Pulse24 without having to pay fees or sign up as a member. This was a bonus for bloggers concerned about dead links. Conversely, Canada.com websites (including the National Post) and the Globe & Mail require signup for so-called “premium content”. Sun media sites sell older articles while the Toronto Star deletes them entirely.

Then again, I just might be resistant to change. Admittedly, the new site layout is sharp and current; however Cynapse is on the hunt once again for a simple website that just “gives the details”.