CNN.com's new website format undermines CNN brand

I was stunned the other day to see a new format for CNN.com. I have religiously read this page everyday for several years as my first source of news and information in the morning.

I found nothing wrong about the old format. I found the information I wanted easily and the site in my opinion was consistent with the brand's television effort...both dependable sources for world news easy to access.

Sure websites need to be updated and tweaked periodically, however, the new CNN.com site is simply awful and a sharp departure from the original...not in a good way.

The site now is weak on news and looks more like a page of advertisements with cute links to rather low level video stories. It no longer speaks "news expert" or "superior source for news and information". It might as well be a tabloid page selling garbage celebrity stories.

I think whomever redid this site has completely lost sight of what the CNN brand is all about. I no longer have it as my home page, having switched to MSNBC.com's home page as an easier to use, more definitive news and information source.

CNN television still remains a good source for news, however, when you start to muck with various brand channels the overall brand strategy starts to fall apart and years of hard work to build the brand can be lost in mere weeks. That is what I think will happen to CNN if they don't immediately fix their website.

This move reminds me of Tropicana Orange Juice's recent major misstep with its package design which made the brand generic and sales dropped enormously and fast. They listened to the market reaction and fixed the problem quickly, saving the brand from a disastrous financial downfall and possible extinction.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli