The web long ago became “mainstream,” but people have always sandboxed it, so to speak, not classing it among traditionally reliable news sources or judging it by the standards of traditionally well-made media. And so, for good reason, it has been neither expected nor pressured to meet the journalistic standards of a national newspaper or the layout standards of a print magazine.Instead, it was a place where you can find anything that does not fit into these media institutions, and the price paid was in the deliberation of its execution. Good design is collateral damage directly attributable to the speed of the draw - unfortunate, but well within acceptable limits, given the benefits of instant access, commenting, and so on.

Many people, especially among those under 30, use the Internet as their new single media source, and as early adopters, they considered the sacrifices worthwhile. The grit of a newspaper or the creative layout of a product spread in a fashion rag have been considered luxuries over and above the content itself. People happily browse the web through a tiny, inadequate window like an iPhone (pathetically, the best mobile browsing experience) showing a single paragraph at a time, or one figure, or a photo so small that none but the coarsest features can be discerned.