By David Spett

Editor in Chief Ryan Wenzel was none too satisfied with my Oct. 4 column. In a lengthy email, he wrote: “I was pretty surprised – and, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, appalled – with what I read this morning. While I acknowledge that the Web site is in need of work, you should acknowledge how much time we spend maintaining it and attempting to improve it. … With our average closing time passing 3 a.m., it isn’t exactly feasible for us to completely design a new Web site and train a staff to use it. We just redesigned the paper. I don’t think we can handle much more for right now. … It hurts to read columns that portray me and my staff as incompetent when we do our best.”

Though I do not believe my column portrayed anyone as incompetent, it is fair to say I could have better explained the significant amount of time that Ryan Reeh, the online editor, spends on the site.

Reeh starts work at 11 p.m. five nights a week and finishes at about 3:30 a.m. When he needs help, he deals with College Publisher’s technical support, which has been hard to reach and slow to respond, according to four current and past online staffers, including Reeh and Wenzel. Frankly, the online editor might perform the most thankless of all the jobs at The Daily.

That said, I stand by my original argument: The Web site badly needs a redesign. Reeh will try to remedy users’ concerns with the site this quarter, he said, but the changes will not constitute an overhaul. Given the condition of the site, I am not sure the current design can be salvaged. I hope Reeh and Wenzel prove me wrong.