The First Cohort — homepage directions
Four ways to organize the front page. Each is a different organizing logic, not a different skin.
The rule: every pane must answer “why is this story here and not somewhere else” with something other than “because it is recent.” One recency pane per page at most, and no story appears twice.
Real headlines, bylines, sections and hero art from the last month of published work. Each has its own light/dark toggle, top right.
1. By beat, evidence-forward
One bounded “Today” block of 3 stories, then the whole page is organized by condition: 8 beat blocks, each with its article count and its two newest pieces. Evidence figures surface as small receipt chips carrying real numbers from the story.
2. By story type
Organized by what kind of journalism each piece is. “We Checked” is the flagship pane, with a claim-versus-evidence device on each item, then New Findings, then Investigations. Today is reduced to three inline lines at the bottom.
3. Investigations-forward
Leads on the accountability franchise instead of the daily feed. A dedicated Investigation block up top, more investigations under it, then the research desk as an explicitly secondary tier, a slim We Checked band, and a browse-by-condition directory.
4. Honest recency + archive door
The smallest change that fixes the confusion. Time tiers made explicit and non-overlapping, each stating its exact date range: Today (26 July), Earlier This Week (21 to 25 July), then Still Worth Reading, which deliberately breaks the time axis and says so. Archive directory at the bottom.