BBC News redesign will not be scrapped

The BBC has admitted that that it has been inundated with criticism of the new-look BBC News website but insisted that it will not revert to the old design.

The redesign, which went live on 14 July, has already been slammed by hundreds of surfers, as well as dozens of Web User readers.

Many of the complaints focus on the large areas of white space, poor video playback and the move of the category index from the left-hand side of the page to the top.

The BBC News website editor Steve Herrmann conceded that much of the feedback it had received had been negative, but that it wasn't considering rolling back to the old version.

"Most of you commenting here on the Editors blog have been critical, with many urging us to change the design back to the way it was," said Herrmann.

However, he ruled out returning to the old design. "Reverting to the old design is not something we're considering, but building and continuing to improve on the changes we've made certainly is."

Comments on the blog were critical of Herrmann's attitude in the face of hundreds of complaints. "Typical BBC arrogance. The customer is always wrong. Silly of us to have thought otherwise," one wrote.

"Can you imagine Tesco messing up their website like this then ignoring well-intentioned feedback from their customers? No, I can't either," said another.

"Please be less defensive and more forthcoming in what you are willing to take on board of the many, many valid criticisms posted here. Either that, or simply remove the comments section, and put us out of our misery," wrote another.

Some commenters defended Herrman's stance. "The BBC's stance on refusing to go back to the old version of the site is right in my opinion. Sure, there are many problems with this new site but simply scrapping it and going back would be a bad move and would have a knock-on detrimental effect on all future BBC web content," one wrote.