is, I think what the FT has done to its site this week. What used to be a compact, elegant and clear display of a great deal of information for grownups is now like a mobile phone designed for the learning disabled. The number of stories and even of words visible at any time has dropped by about 80% but at the same time the screen has actually grown more cluttered because the new fonts are so large and the design so sprawling that there is nowhere to rest the eye.

It is even bigger and uglier than the Janet and John style of the Telegraph and the Telegraph can make two excuses: it was ugly before, which the FT’s old look was not; and it is is aimed at Telegraph readers who these days are split between the cataract disabled and the learning disabled.

The Financial Times, however, is aimed at the same audience as the Economist and the Wall Street Journal: literate grown-ups capable of processing a lot of information quickly. Hell, the average FT reader probably now owns a phone which could display as many stories and words from the old design as now can be fitted on my 19” monitor at home. To cap it all, the new site seems to load mores slowly than the old one.

There is only one consolation. Up till now the FT, almost alone among newspapers, has been able successfully to charge for access to its website, so that there is now one more practical way of expressing disgust than compulsively filling in the reader surveys they offer with their new pages. For the first time in my life I am gong to be able to write to a web site and cancel my subscription.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 1:55 am and is part of Journalism. There is a feed for responses you can follow.