The online East Valley Tribune has a new look

It’s the first major online move since the paper was formally taken over by Randy Miller.

PHXated thinks it looks better, but still suffers from a lot of the flaws of online newspaper sites.

Two quick examples: Note how much of the page is devoted to self-promotional crap and how many lines of navigation the site prioritizes before it starts giving its readers the news they’ve come to the site for.

And second, newspapers can’t get away from that terrestrial feeling of just not having enough room on the printed page.

That doesn’t exist online, so it’s always quizzical to me when I see a list of heds like this, in the new site’s main feature well: * Suns' outside shooting cements Game 1 loss * Mesa to crack down on crime-ridden convenience stores * Executive Board unanimously approves AIA state tournament realignment plan * Minorities are the majority at school, but not at graduation * Brewer: If Prop. 100 fails, I failed * Proposition 100 supporters have cash advantage * Night club sued by neighboring restaurants * More adults coming to EVIT for new-career training * Mesa hopes light rail brings life to downtown

A third to a half of these telegrammatic lines are utterly unparsable to readers--which means they aren't going to get read.

Why not give each of these “Top Stories” a hed and a deck that makes them understandable and inviting to a curious but disinterested reader?