Ironically, Headline News the channel operates on the creed "Get to the point. Make it relevant." I usually get that when I watch (although their recent -- well pre-war anyway -- affection for weekend entertainment fluff is killing me). Every time I visit Headline News the Web site, however, it's more like "Where is the freakin' story I JUST SAW flash across the screen?!!!!!"

I pass by a TV tuned to CNN Headline News about fifty times a day, so frequently I'll see a bit of a story on the ticker or hear the tail end of something that sparks my interest. I can never find the story when I go to the Headline News site. In fact, I've stopped even looking there. Instead I search Google News. This works OK for me, not so much for CNN.

Please, please "get to the point" online. Seriously.

The Headline News site should have one focus and one focus alone: Display all of the stories that are quickly flashing across the broadcast medium so viewers know, if I go to the Headline News site right now I will find that story. Right now there are 10 headlines on the site. Only six are from today. Six of...? I want them all. And ideally, the online version will offer additional information that they're unable to include in limited airtime.

And the headlines should be segmented the way they're displayed on TV. Keep featured stories together in their own column. (Ideally head that column with a mug of the anchor currently on air.) Have a separate box with all the ticker headlines. And call it the ticker. Put sports scores/updates in their own ticker and keep the separate business/market box too.

Headline News is such an enormously successful franchise, seen by I-don't-know-how-many millions. CNN should be offering viewers a comparably valuable service online.

April 2, 2003