In February 1997, we unleashed our first redesign. We were publishing about 20 stories per week, which seemed like a lot at the time. (That's about one day's worth in 2006.) The problem was that our Table of Contents–simply a long list of stories—was too long and not very enticing.

So, we added this entry page, known as "the front porch." It featured an illustration and four or five tantalizing cover lines. Attractive and alluring—or so we hoped. The problem was that readers had to make an extra click to get to the full list of stories—and to the banner ads that appeared with them. Users didn't like the extra step, and neither did our (few) advertisers.