Commentary: Web pages shouldn’t suffer fate of newsletters

The company Web site of the ’90s is becoming the company newsletter of the ’80s.

You remember the company newsletter — offspring of desktop-publishing software, chock full of fonts, clip art, details of Ralph’s Hawaiian vacation. Actually, many such newsletters started off strong, filling a genuine communication need either within the company or between a company and its customers.

But then something happened. The enthusiasm and the information slowed to a trickle and maybe stopped altogether. Today’s company Web site is suffering a similar fate, often becoming the project that no one wants, and dying a slow death from inattention. Sound familiar?

But…