Formatting: Crain’s E-mail Alerts
I follow local business news very closely and Crain’s Chicago Business is an incredible source for Chicago business news. They have excellent reporting, a broad range of stories, and even a well produced daily video podcast (iTunes). However, Crain’s E-mail alerts have some opportunity for improvement. And as many of my friends and colleague know, I am a “Formatting Nazi”.
Here is a quick “1-minute” formatting improvement.
Original
Improved
The improved segment is easier to read; looking cleaner, better structured, and more professional. I made five improvements, each of which made a dramatic difference.
- Move the date below the “Top Headlines” title -> cleaner look.
- Used an Un-ordered list instead of inline, text bullets -> cleaner look.
- Decreased quantity of words in each headline -> no wrapping text.
- Standardized text sizes -> all headlines match, cleaner look.
- Used Blagojevich’s real last name, not slang -> improved professionalism.
ED HAYES 
Might consider losing the Times New Roman =)
My goal was to give some quick formatting examples that would increase readability of the current site design. With that said, I agree with you, I prefer sans-serif fonts as well.