More on The Oregonian’s new web site

I was going to post a complimentary comment about how, now I’m more used to the new design of The Oregonian‘s updated web site, I’m finding it more user-friendly than the old one. It’s cleaner, and giving a sentence or two under each main headline helps me decide whether I want to bother clicking on it. I had a couple of reservations, such as that new posts by columnists aren’t highlighted, and the Metro section has disappeared. But overall, I’ve been finding it an improvement, and intended to update my previous comments.

Well, today is Thursday. Time for the half-size pull-out section, In Portland, where a lot of good neighborhood news is often buried. Both ‘good neighborhood news’ in terms of being well-researched and interesting, and ‘good neighborhood news’ as in “not crime, death, misery or controversy”. Can I find In Portland on the new web site? No, I cannot. I have “Today’s suburban news”, if I wanted to read about Tigard or Clark County. “Metro East”, which appears to be Gresham. But if I want to find Portland news? Sorry, not up there, at least not in a place where someone looking specifically for it can find it.

So I clicked on “All Today’s News Headlines”. And what do we get? All today’s headlines. All of them. In alphabetical order, except for the front page ones at the top. No other sorting, apparently. Is this a joke? I have to read every headline in the entire edition, in order to find the Portland ones?

Is it because I live in deep southwest Portland, and they erroneously assume everyone registering from the 97219 zip code doesn’t care about the rest of Portland? Sometimes we get the Lake Oswego version of the paper copy delivered. Is that it? Do readers in other city zip codes have easy access to Portland news?

Please, someone tell me I’m missing an obvious link.

Update 16:22 – an obvious link to ‘In Portland’ has now been added, with personal notification to me by the editor of OregonLive.com. Thanks, Ben!