Improving NewsBusters, With Your Help

As part of our five-year anniversary celebration, we're planning to roll out a brand new version of the NewsBusters site. It's been in the works for several months now, and thanks to the hard work and dedication of all those involved, we are almost ready to unveil it. Almost.

This upgrade has been expensive, as any project of this size is. And though we do occasionally ask our readers for donations, this is one instance in which it really cannot be done without you. We've set a fundraising goal of $40,000, which should cover all bases. We know our faithful readership can help us reach that and more.

To contribute, click here and be sure to be sure to choose “NewsBusters” from the “Program Designation” drop-down menu so your help is properly credited. If you prefer to contribute via PayPal, make sure you enter “NewsBusters” in the “Description” field at the top of the page so your donation goes to the right place.
 

Some of the highlights of the new design, to give everyone an idea of some of the new features we're implementing.

Click on the above image for a full-page preview of the new design for the NewsBusters homepage (note: the final design will look a little different). Read on for a description of how things are going to work.

The most significant change is the addition of a new blog, NB Extra. Here NewsBusters bloggers will weigh in on a variety of topics that don't necessarily pertain to media bias. Don't worry - we're still completely devoted to our original mission of exposing, documenting, and neutralizing liberal bias in the press. NB Extra will be a place to go for breaking news and witty commentary, but our passion remains exposing purportedly-"objective" news for the sham that it is.

Below NB Extra, you'll see a new block titled "NB Columns". We'll now be featuring columns from some of the hottest names in conservative commentary. These include Michelle Malkin, Cal Thomas, Thomas Sowell, and many others. We're very excited to be featuring these folks' work.

Over on the right side of the page, you'll notice a few changes. At the very top, as usual, is our NewsBusted video block. We've added some tabs at the top so you can also see videos from the Media Research Center's other sites, such as CNS News. Make sure you check out some of their hard-hitting multimedia work. You'll also notice that you can scroll through all recent videos at the bottom of the block.

Scroll down on the right side and you'll see a block devoted entirely to the work of our talented political cartoonists. We'll feature one cartoon per day, but you can always click on the link to see more, and check out each cartoonist's archive.

Moving up to the top of the page, you'll see our top headlines are a bit different. Whereas we had only three static blocks in our last design, you can now scroll to the left or right through up to nine of the day's lead stories.

Speaking of lead stories, you've surely noticed by now that the story at the top of our left column is far more prominent than the ones below. Given that very often one or two stories dominate the headlines each day, we felt it was important to prominently display NB's take on the hot topic of the moment.

Other prominent or much-discussed topics will appear in the "hot topics" bar just below the top headlines. We'll display links to our topics pages there for the 5 most-discussed topics of the day, so you can navigate right to our takes on those topics.

NB will also be integrating with its sister sites to a greater degree in order to provide users with a greater wealth of content. For example, stories from CNS News will appear in this widget, just below NB Extra in the center column.

In addition to the new homepage, we'll also be creating a mobile site that will make NewsBusters much more easily-viewable and user-friendly on smartphones and mobile web.

We hope you enjoy these new features, and that the new design makes your NewsBusters reading experience even more enjoyable. please don't hestitate to ask if you have any questions, and make sure to point out any bugs if you see them. We've tried to listen to feedback from readers about the site design and make it easier to find the content. The site should also be faster as well as we're doing the site in a fresh install of our Drupal database software. 

Let me say again that these features and the new design cannot be implemented without your help. Making major improvements to sites costs money. Unlike other political sites NewsBusters can't take campaign ads so that means we need to rely on you, our loyal readers, to help us in our efforts to improve things. We've reached similar fundraising objectives before, and I know we can do it again.

Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation (be sure to choose "NewsBusters" in the "Program Designation" drop down), or you can donate via PayPal. Make sure you enter "NewsBusters" in the "Description" field at the top of the page so the donation goes to the right place.

Thanks for your continued support. We look forward to further improvements and five more years of media bias-fighting excellence.