The evolution of Visual Editors

In the evanescent world of the Internet, just because something is working well today doesn’t mean it will still be working tomorrow, said VisualEditors.com founder Robb Montgomery.

And he should know.

Montgomery, who is also news design editor for the Chicago Sun-Times, launched Visual Editors in 2004 as a forum for newspaper designers to liaise and wax analytical about everything from overbearing editors to new trends in design.

But as with many things on the Web, what started as something simple didn’t end up that way.

“It’s incredible,” Montgomery said. “It feels like we just launched (Visual Editors) and we’re already getting more than 1 million page views a month.”

In addition to an “amazingly lively” job section, and the ability for members to upload their designs and receive instant feedback, VizEd has also recently embraced what Montgomery says so many mainstream newspapers have balked at: podcasting.

With the help of a few great guests – including Deborah Douglas of Fluff magazine and Matt Mansfield of the San Jose Mercury News – VizEd’s podcasts were downloaded more than 26,000 times in the first 30 days alone.

All that traffic necessitated a move to a larger, and much more costly, server.

And this constant evolution, Mongomery said, is the only way for a Web site to get – and stay – ahead.

“I’m always tinkering with my own limits. It’s about always changing, always getting better. It’s about thinking: How can I make the site more intuitive – more informative? I had to learn a whole new set of skills just to get these podcasts to play.”

Of course, it wasn’t enough to simply get the podcasts up and running; Visual Editors offers five different ways for members to play them.

“Why shouldn’t we offer our members every available format?” he asked. “Why make it hard on people? People just don’t want to wait around while newspapers figure all this technology out.”

But despite being willing to grapple with the bells and whistles, Montgomery is ultimately about the basics: “In the end, we want an open and honest discussion about newspaper design.”

About Karl-Erik Stromsta

Karl-Erik -- who has a master's in print journalism from the University of Southern California -- is a fellow in the Carnegie-Knight foundation's News21 initiative. He has written for Dow Jones Newswires, the Daily Breeze, Los Angeles Alternative and others. Before moving to Los Angeles, he studied biology at Michigan State University and taught English in France.