Website Of The Week: Private Eye (900th issue)

http:http://www.intervid.co.uk/eye/gateway.html

Gateway to the Eye is the title of Private Eye’s front page. The page itself is beautiful to look at with its blurred-pink newspaper background and amusing cartoon of a Templar Knight wearing virtual reality glasses. The popular tongue-in-cheek political magazine (developed by Gnometech ^TM) does enough to convince the readers that they will not escape the humour portrayed in the newsstand edition.

Once you enter the “Gateway” you are presented with the Private Eye Gnome Page which has a blue background, again in the style of newspaper print. A reasonable sized picture of the issue’s cover is shown and can be made larger by clicking on it. Next to the cover picture is the contents presented in the style of a button bar menu and covers sections such as Lord Gnome, Yobs, Great Bores of the Day, John Major’s Diary, Crossword, Celeb, Cartoons, Netballs, Pseuds and Poetry Corner.

The sections are presented with the standard “web-grey” background which works very well with the cartoons, but needs to have more colour in worded articles such as John Major’s Diary. A section which particularly catches the eye is the crossword, which seems like a pretty inconceivable idea on the Internet , but is quite feasible when given a second thought. The actual crossword itself can be printed and sent to Private Eye or, as suggested, the answers alone can be sent by email.

At the foot of the document are the small ads and subscription forms together with Editorial Contacts, Private Eye Books (mail order) and Back Issues sections. The Sound Bytes allows those with soundcards to listen some of the magazines delightful cover flexidiscs.

The Private Eye Online site achieves its objective by allowing the reader to sample the current issue without indulging too much and offers enough entertainment for the reader to come back for the next edition. As a stand-alone internet site it is excellent and as a marketing tool for the newsstands, it is excellent again.