Why Are Newspaper Websites So Horrible?
I actually did some freelance website development for a local newspaper website around 15 years ago. I can't speak for larger newspapers, this was my experience with a much smaller one. The biggest challenges I found were:1. Lack of a real technical / engineering department. Having said that, their core business is news and they really just need a functioning website, not a full (and expensive) engineering department.2. They wanted the website to "feel" more like a real newspaper, including things like incorporating custom layout, design and other elements on the website. Explaining the limitations of HTML, CSS and Javascript was a bit ... frustrating for both sides.3. Too many opinions on what the website should look like. Ditto for even small features such as what the photo gallery and subscription pages should look like.4. Too many feature requests, often contradicting each other. It wasn't clear who was in charge of making decisions on website changes.