“Why the Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web”

Many news sites have lost their balls. They’re afraid to really call out one big story. They may have a leading headline, but it’s not all that obvious or different from the others. It may be a font size or two bigger, but it’s not confident. They hedge. Drudge, on the other hand, says “this is the story of the moment” with a huge headline.

The site feels like a chaotic newsroom with the cutting room floor exposed. I think that’s part of the excitement — and good design.

Sometimes he will post an email or a memo on his site, but it’s 99% links out to other news sources. […] This is one of the secrets to building traffic: The more you send people away the more they’ll come back.

Of course, it’s a post on 37 Signals, who have a thing for minimal design.

via daringfireball.net