7. Provide news valuation through positioning and markers.

The valuation of news on the front-pages was not as clear as of the printed front-pages in 2001 according to the audience. All newspapers to some degree position the highest valued news in a top position, but sometimes immediacy was considered before news value for the top position, that is, the use of timestamped headlines in temporal order. The use of layout to mark the importance of news differed between the papers in the study, ranging from almost no markers, to the use of headline size, images, and amount of text. However, sometimes publishers used images to decorate the page, rather than to indicate news value. There were different opinions regarding news valuation among the audience, for instance, when disagreeing with the news valuation of the printed paper, they liked the lack of markers online, but most users missed the news valuation from the printed newspaper.

The broadsheet metaphor includes the use of newspaper-like columns, headlines, etc. but also indicates news value by the use of position and markers, which are essential for the audience recognizing the genre. During 2003, it has become more common to timestamp the headlines, indicating the immediacy rather than making a news valuation for the readers. We recommend providing news valuation through position and markers since it are demanded from the audience and since it supports the broadsheet metaphor.