Hey, did you notice the streamlined, spiffed-up look of Oakland Local this week? 

The stunning lack of random white spaces between stories on the front page, the (much) neater row of ads down the side, the subtle realignment of the upper banner?

Yeah, we planned all that. Mic check. Mic check. Mic …

Thanks to TechScouts, an Oakland-based design and tech company who selected us a as a pro bono project, Oakland Local has a brighter, cleaner look - and a much improved ability to serve ads. With this nice new look we gained:

• 45 new ad units - sized so that they're really affordable - that don't rotate so readers, and advertisers, always see the ads in the same spot
• The ability for an advertiser to run a badge ad that is either across the whole site, or just visible in one section (like Justice or Food)
• Ad units that don't rotate constantly and make the messaging more distinctive - giving you a chance to more easily check out those ads that interest you

TechScouts does pro bono work for one nonprofit a month, and when they said they'd like to consider OL, we were pretty adamant that improving our ad placements had to be the first priority. 

First of all, OL needs the money ads and social marketing bring in to pay our team (funny, that). Secondly, we needed to add more ad spots that the local community could easily afford (It's the Great Recession, duh). 

James McBryan and his team at TechScouts got all that immediately - and working with them was a pleasure.

Isn't it everyone's dream to have a design and tech team that listens, lets you collaborate, gets along with your developer and finds ways to solve problems and make the solution even better?

That pretty much was James. Talented. Mellow. Local. Driven. (Sounds like a lot of people I know).

So, if you're reading this at Oakland Local (oaklandlocal.com) you're looking at the results of TechScout's efforts - a crisp new wireframe that makes the stories line up better and helps the ads shine.

James and team, thank you. The site looks SO much better!