Welcome to the new look of themillions.com! This is our first top-to-bottom redesign since way back in 2009 (has it been that long?) A redesign is always a big risk – change is hard for you and for us – but we recognized that as The Millions has evolved over the last eight years, there were things we wanted the site to convey that it wasn’t conveying.
The redesign is going to do two things:
First, it’s going to better showcase our excellent, longform pieces that we publish daily.
You’ll see that our article pages (like this one) are far freer of distractions. The articles are also better showcased on the front page, and – as before – you will always be able to find our most recent pieces at the top. Right now, items from our Curiosities link blog are in the main stream, and we are analyzing how well that flow works.
Second, it’s going to make it easier for you to find new books to read.
We know that Millions readers often visit the site when they want to know what books are being talked about and when they are looking for a book recommendation. With that in mind, we now have a new section called “Find Books“. It will collect Lists, Prizes, our Top Ten and other ideas for what to read next, in addition to a little serendipity (my last reload of the page suggested Ann Packer, Ocean Vuong and Alice McDermott – I’m intrigued!). Next time you need a new book to read, go right there and find one fast!
What I love about this section is that it takes all the best ways to find a new book and puts them in one place.
Want to see what your smart fellow readers are reading? Check out the Top 10 or Year in Reading.
Want to see which books are getting a lot of buzz? Check out Prizes and our Previews and New Releases.
Want to see a deep dive before you dive in? Read our excellent Reviews.
Want something random? Check out our Lists or go crazy and click on Surprise Me!
Please let us know what you think or if you encounter anything that appears not to be working as it should. (And remember that you can also get all of our content via RSS, Facebook, and Twitter if you’d rather.)
Also and very important: We would not have had the confidence to undertake a time-consuming and costly redesign without our members. So a THANK YOU to them.
I will write more in depth about our membership program in the coming weeks, but I want to get a pitch in here too, and I hope that you will consider joining. 2017 has been an especially difficult year for sites like The Millions as the big companies that we rely on for revenue-generating opportunities have increasingly squeezed independent sites. Josh Marshall was not wrong when he wrote recently that we are in the middle of a digital media crash. The Millions is feeling that intensely right now.
I am now quite certain that the ONLY way that The Millions will be here five years from now is if our readers support us. If we can get to a place where we are covering our annual budget with recurring annual donations from readers, we will never again have to worry about the whims of Google, Facebook, and Amazon again.
In order to make supporting us more attractive to you, we have recently rolled out an email newsletter that is just for members. In this monthly newsletter, our venerable staffers tell us what books they’re reading right now – it’s a very cool look into the reading lives of some of my most favorite writers. Please consider joining.
The newsletter also includes special updates and sneak peeks. Our Members heard about this redesign in our newsletter first.
Finally, a big thank you to our designers and developers at The Present Group, who were patient and thorough and inventive throughout.
