Keep Austin weird; keep its paper wonderful.

I love Austin. The city is bursting with an eclectic mix of culture, people, politics and more. And it’s online newspaper, a branch of The Austin American-Statesman, does a good job of attending to the diverse needs of its population without being too “weird.”

The Statesman.com’s top toolbar is perfect, it provides news, business, sports, life, opinion, weather, blogs, multimedia, customer service, advertise. I haven’t seen a site that has made both its multimedia and customer service so readily available. It’s a simple thing, but no one else has managed to get it. Also very helpful- Austin’s weather forecast is right on top with a link to traffic. If you want sports, on the right, just click on Statesman Sports for “All Sports, All the Time.” That’s nice, because, I don’t care about sports and frankly I don’t want it clogging up my news. But those that do can click away. On the right side there’s a Santa countdown followed by a Photo and Video Gallery.

The site makes good use of thumbnails and links without being overwhelming. What’s more is next to links there is a photo or video icon so you know what type of media you’re about to receive post-click.

Statesman.com also does a great job of establishing community. Today they offer video stories of what local residents went through on Black Friday at the area’s malls. They have reader photos and reader blogs, removing the journalist entirely. Like many sites, users can comment on stories. They even have a Top Jobs section for those in need of employment. The site does a good job of localizing Associated Press content, into five key categories: Texas, Sports, Business, National and World, making it easier for the reader.