Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

When it relaunched with a new design, CNN.com was generally praised for readability and clarity. Some designers held it as an example that news-oriented sites didn't need to be an patchwork quilt of information buckets.

So I checked back in on the site, mainly for some inspiration around how they manage to serve content to a diverse range of audiences--with equally diverse interests and reading styles.

But this time, what struck me wasn't the design. It was the headlines. I never thought that writers from TheOnion.com got promoted up to CNN, but that is evidently the case. I mean, check these headlines: