Drudge Report Redesigns Site for First Time in at Least 20 Years
The Drudge Report recently entered the mobile era with a site designed specifically for smart phones.
Drudge is among the most popular news sites in the United States, as tens of millions of unique visitors visit each month to read the day’s top headlines.
The conservative news aggregator has changed little since its launch in 1997 during the second term of President Bill Clinton.
Until last week, when smart phone users went to the site they saw — like desk top visitors — the page’s iconic basic three column format, but in very small print.
In order to read the headlines well (if at all), would-be news consumers had to zoom in.
@DRUDGE_REPORT please update your mobile app hard to read pic.twitter.com/eoQroIvOtV
— Gary Nordin (@GaryNordin) October 28, 2014
Now, those who go to Drudgereport.com on their mobile devices see a single column of news, with each story printed large enough to be read.
A Pew Research study released last year found that 85 percent of U.S. adults reported getting at least some of their news on mobiles devices, which is up from 72 percent in 2016 and 54 percent in 2013.
For those readers under 50 years old, 94 percent said they read news on their mobile device.
Fifty-one percent of those 65 and older prefer a desktop to a smart phone for reading the news.
The Guardian reported that Matt Drudge, the 51-year-old founder of the Drudge Report, made his first major mark on the political landscape on Jan. 17, 1998, when he published a story headlined, “NEWSWEEK KILLS STORY ON WHITE HOUSE INTERN; BLOCKBUSTER REPORT: 23-YEAR OLD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN, SEX RELATIONSHIP WITH PRESIDENT.”
The story began a series of events that ultimately led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives in December 1998.
On Feb. 12, 1999, the Senate ultimately voted not to convict the president and remove him from office.
During the 2016 presidential race, Drudge targeted a Clinton again, publishing a picture of Hillary Clinton needing assistance needing of two men to help her get up a flight of stairs.
https://twitter.com/chanceseales/status/762660303477800960
Politico reported that Drudge was “all in for Trump” during the 2016 Republican Party primary election, which carried over into the general election.
Drudge goes all in for Trump https://t.co/JR9CQN8zKC pic.twitter.com/Tr96CtVLJv
— POLITICO (@politico) April 12, 2016
Business consultant Jason Fried argued in a 2008 article “Why the Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web.”
“The Drudge Report,” he contended, “has proven timeless. It’s generic list of links, black and white monospaced font, and ALL CAPS headlines have survived every trend, every fad, every movement, every era, every design do or don’t. It doesn’t look old and it doesn’t look new — it looks Drudge.”
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