Romenesko verson 2.1. The folks at Poynter heard the cries of pain. The redesign of Jim Romenesko's MediaNews.org, unveiled last Friday, has been rejiggered. Most important, those short, cryptic plugs on the left-hand side of the page, much beloved by Romenesko fans, have returned after a brief time in purgatory. The typeface has also been made smaller to reduce scrolling.

Last week I referred to the redesign as "creeping Poynterization," but, overall, thought there was as much good as bad in the new look -- especially the addition for permanent links for each item, although they seem to have been implemented in a way that is unnecessarily confusing and labor-intensive.

Others took far greater exception, especially to the perception (an accurate perception) that the new page was too much Poynter, not enough Romenesko. The angriest missive came from NarcoNews.com's Al Giordano, who wrote: "Fellow and sister journalists and readers of Media News, our nation is under attack. It's like Pearl Harbor all over again. Poynter's warplanes have just airbombed an island previously inhabited by human journalism." (Giordano's entire letter is worth reading; click here.)

Bill Mitchell, the editor of Poynter Online, confesses all in a memo posted here.

Based on a first glance, it looks to me like the re-redesign not only improves on the redesign, but on the original, bare-bones look as well.