TFC — homepage directions

Round 3 asks what the panes are for, not what they look like. Each one is a different organizing logic, and every pane on every page states its own job.
Real headlines, bylines, sections and hero art from the last month of published work.

The rule for this round: every pane must answer “why is this story here and not somewhere else” with something other than “because it is recent.” Each page gets at most one recency pane, explicitly bounded and labelled, appearing exactly once.

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.

Why a story is here: it is about your condition. Opens the ~190-article archive.

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.

Why a story is here: it is a finding, a checked claim, or an investigation. Most on-brand, but needs a new frontmatter field to build for real.

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.

Why a story is here: the publication is defined by what it exposes; research supports that.

The smallest change that fixes the problem. 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.

Why a story is here: a stated, non-overlapping date range. No story appears twice.

Kept for reference. These five explore layout, and they all share the recency-only structure you flagged: a rail of “today” and then more of today below in a different shape. Judge them on styling, not organization.

A dense newspaper front page: lead story with a large hero image, a right rail of secondary stories with thumbnails and the newsletter box, and a beat-grouped three-column index below. The most newspaper-like of the five.

A wire index, warmed up: a compact lead band with the hero art beside the headline, then three columns of beat-grouped stories where each column is led by a real image and the rest run as tight text. Highest story count, fastest scan.

A vertical stack of horizontal bands, one per section, with alternating backgrounds so the categories separate hard. Commanding lead up top, then a Cancer feature, card rows for Nutrition and Metabolic, and a split Brain / Autoimmune band.

Two co-equal lead features share the top instead of one dominant story, followed by wide thumbnail rows, with a beat-grouped text index running down the right rail. Calmest and most magazine-like of the five.

The loud one. A maroon kicker bar, a 38px commanding headline over a full-width hero, a three-across secondary tier, then two columns of beat-grouped stories. Journalism-with-receipts energy, held back from tabloid by the warm palette and serif type.