Cyclingnews: Future’s first tweaks (still no RSS)
Within the last couple weeks, Future Communications made their first round of changes to Cyclingnews.com since they acquired the site last July.
Of the design changes, most significant is the new masthead logo, which maintains the old logo’s colors but changes the typeface to maintain the branding of Future’s other cycling site, BikeRadar, which now “powers” Cyclingnews’ tech section. Also, gone is the peloton scene that floated behind the old logo:
Neither version drips with personality, but I like the bolder type and sleeker feel of the new one and I don’t miss the busy-ness of the purple racing scene.
Also included in this new release are some changes to the advertising layout. There’s now a 486×60 banner on the homepage (currently running a house ad for ProCycling magazine) where the big Cyclingnews logo used to be. This banner position has always existed on interior pages, but it’s new to the front of the site. And why not? A smaller logo in the top left is pretty standard (well, except for these guys) and it’s not like Future is breaking up anotherwise pristine layout.
Then there’s the Medium Rectangle in the middle, also running a house ad for ProCycling. At 300×250, this is the only banner on the page that conforms to IAB Universal Ad Package specs. Actually, this and the header banner are actually the only spots that conform to any IAB Ad Unit Guidelines. Another interesting note about the big rectangle is that it’s provided through a different ad server than the rest of the banners. Every other ad on the site is served through Economic Outlook, while this large one is served by DoubleClick. The (mostly house) ads on BikeRadar are also served by DoubleClick, so maybe Future is moving towards allowing advertisers to coordinate buying, creative and reporting across multiple Future-owned sites. It seems logical.
That said, it does seem like business as usual for both the advertising and editorial teams at Cyclingnews. And it’s been almost a year since the acquisition, so it could be that Future is planning to leave well enough alone. We’ll see.
Oh, and one more thing: can we please have an RSS feed?