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Welcome to the *new* indieWIRE

Eugene Hernandez by Eugene Hernandez (January 10, 2009)

Welcome to the new indieWIRE.

As I revealed last week, we have spent over a year developing this new site, but it’s actually taken us twelve years to get here. We’ve not only re-designed indieWIRE, but completely re-imagined it.

Understanding that indieWIRE has emerged as a hub for filmmakers, the industry, and movie lovers alike over the past twelve years, we have developed this new site as a gateway to the latest news, information, and resources for our readers, incorporating a number of innovative tools and approaches. The new site not only delivers the latest original editorial from indieWIRE’s editors and writers, but also features a new model for aggregating and showcasing the best coverage from journalists and bloggers all over the world. Our goal is to make iW so essential that you’ll consider making indieWIRE.com your homepage.

Our new front page features a cleaner navigation system, links to the latest from indieWIRE and across the Internet, a headline ticker, photo galleries, a widget from our colleagues at SnagFilms, and a number of new features that we hope you will value:

EDITORS PICKS: At the core of this new site is a significant new section that features centrally located content areas showcasing iW’s original editorial as well as links to recommended articles from across the Internet. Our “Recommended” tab provides a frequently updated, editorially curated roster of links, while switching to the “Recent” tab offers a chronological listing of the most recent stories and links.

BLOGS: As we have for years, indieWIRE continues to showcase links to both blogs we host and blogs we love. We’ve curated a list of essential blogs for our front page “Blog Feed.” It is dynamically updated anytime one of our showcased bloggers publishes a new post.

WHAT YOU LIKE: To the right of the Blog Feed is an area reflecting our readers’ interests. You can filter the content to see what iW’s readership has found to be our most popular, favorite, and most talked about articles.

ADVERTISING: We’ve incorporated new industry standard advertising units throughout the site, while maintaining an appropriate balance between editorial and advertising. We’re grateful to our partners and rely on the ongoing support of our advertisers, we hope you’ll continue to support them as well.

ADD THIS: The other day, a friend asked what my favorite part of the new site is, and it just may be a small but significant tool called “Add This.” This exciting bookmarking and sharing tool is located to the right of the title on every article page, and allows our readers to share indieWIRE content via email, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and numerous other sites. It’s become a standard on many sites that I am thrilled to incorporate into the new indieWIRE.

These are just some of the many new features of the site that I hope you will discover and appreciate. Let us know what you think! We invite you to post your comments below after you have registered for the site. Registration on the new indieWIRE site is free and quick. With your input and feedback, the new indieWIRE will continue to evolve to meet the needs of our growing readership.

Kudos to the entire indieWIRE and SnagFilms team for their ingenuity, dedication, and hard work, especially over the past six months. On the iW side, our team for this new site development has been managing editor Brian Brooks, advertising and marketing manager James Israel, associate editor Peter Knegt, intern Andy Lauer, and consultant Tim LaTorre. Design work was done by Jesse Thomas from JESS3. On the SnagFilms side, our partners are Chairman Ted Leonsis, CEO Rick Allen, general manager Stephanie Sharis, Dan Balis, Andrew Mer, investors including Steve Case, and, perhaps most importantly, our CTO Albert Lai.

Thanks to all our friends and colleagues in the industry who offered invaluable feedback throughout the process.

Finally, deep gratitude to our readers for ongoing support, encouragement and feedback.

Best,

Eugene


—-

eugene hernandez
editor-in-chief & co-founder
indieWIRE

posted on January 10, 2009
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Comments
1
johnharden says on February 10, 2009 at 3:04am

Have to agree, the new email format is puny and drab. I miss the pics and the blog links. Website page formats are OK; but please, how about some MARGINS? Stories as viewed on my browser hug cling to the very edge of the window on the left and the ad space on the right. Some white space would be good, and the resulting narrower columns/shorter line lengths would be easier to read. Thanks…

2
marykerris says on January 27, 2009 at 10:34am

Congrats on the new redesign, but I must say I too miss the:
- graphics/photos on my daily email - maybe it’s my settings, but daily email is not aesthetically pleasing. Font is small and tightly kerned on my computer screen.
- shortcut to the blog posts on daily email, especially the blogs you host (you should give them a little more exposure than all the other blogs out there in the world - they are like the IndieWire blog children).
Yes, I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but….

3
keenast says on January 17, 2009 at 5:06am

Can’t help but i think the ‘new’ design is rather boring and bland. That’s supposed to be ‘indie wire’? It’s some wire alright, but no indie. So grown-up, so business, jeeezzzzus.

4
montage matt says on January 16, 2009 at 9:30pm

New site sort of busy.
Also your old links [which I had saved] are no longer valid.
In particular are your year-end critic polls.
Where can you find the 2008 poll?

5
TommyW says on January 16, 2009 at 2:51am

From a subscriber since close to day one… 

The site is much better, but the daily email is pretty useless now.  Can all those blog and news article links be restored to it?  That’s what prompts most of my visits to the site, I usually find something to read and pop straight there.

6
rosomak says on January 15, 2009 at 6:34pm

New design made me disoriented… Old version was more intuitive.

7
RobT says on January 15, 2009 at 10:50am

Redesign is OK, but where are the film poll results?

8
Bartlebooth says on January 15, 2009 at 7:49am

Congrats for the new site, how can I access in the past months reviews archive? Thanks.

9
pr_gmr says on January 14, 2009 at 6:44pm

I like the new format. It’s much cleaner and user-friendly. One thing I like off the bat is that now you can easily read comments. Before, the comments were relegated to small print on the lower left corner of an article. Now, you can right away read the feedback and engage in conversation with other indie filmmakers/film lovers. I like the new look. clap!clap!clap!

10
GreenScreenCinema says on January 13, 2009 at 4:51pm

Dear IndieWire,

You are the most beloved tool in my filmmaking repertoire.  I love you more than my hand crank Bolex, more than my Mole Richardson light case, more than my Flyer… even more than the Arri BL I had to take apart and put back together in college just to get a solid 24 fps.  The sun would not rise over the mountains without you.  So I say this as a friend: What happened to the graphics?  I looked forward to your email every day, but after the redesign your messages all went to my junk folder.  When I finally went looking for you (maybe you got stuck behind the sofa) I found that all the graphics were gone and somehow I was on a text only subscription.

Where is the love?  Where is the dedication?  Sure I’ve put on a few pounds over the years and we don’t go dancing like we used to.  But I need the graphics, I need the latest.  What I see now in my inbox is shadow of the IndieWire I once new.  Do you not love me anymore.  Because I still love you.

Please put the color back in our communication, and pack as much info as you can into your email to me.  I know you want to drive my clicks back to your site, but I can’t stay here and click all day.  Give me back the email love, I think my heart will break without it.

Sincerely,
GreenScreenCinema.com

11
jamesc says on January 13, 2009 at 1:48am

congrats on the new redesign!  I noticed today that I was about to send a link to an archived blog article to a friend, but that the old links no longer work properly.  (seems like blog.indiewire.com redirects to indiewire.com/blogs).  Will there be a way to access the blog archives?

12
feinsodville says on January 12, 2009 at 11:56am

Nice.  Congrats.  My only suggestion is that I would still love to get links to the blogs in the emails.

13
sammy507 says on January 11, 2009 at 6:53pm

Love the *new* site.

14
basilnewfest says on January 10, 2009 at 6:26pm

Congratulations to everyone at indieWIRE and SnagFilms on a great site redesign/reconception! Having offered feedback on the changes over the past few months, I’m impressed by the new look and curious to hear other readers’ responses.

-basil

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