By Paul Kennedy

The launch of a new MLS season means a new look for MLSsoccer.com.

The first thing you'll notice will be that content -- and news -- has been pushed to the top of the home page and the scoreboard -- with a new uniform color scheme -- has been dropped to the bottom of the first fold.

The MLS Digital team explains:

"We wanted to remove all the visual clutter and let the articles speak for themselves. We simplified the categories displayed on the front page to Latest, Popular, Featured Content, and Contributors, removing sections that garnered less interest (these are still available in the menu). We also decreased the size of article icons which let us put more stories in the same space."

The second-fold has been simplified to emphasize what MLS Digital says readers want -- the latest news -- and what they are talking about -- a feed of the most popular stories.

GARBER ADDRESS GOES DIGITAL. YouTube will live stream MLS Commissioner Don Garber's season-launching March to Soccer address Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET from Google's New York headquarters, and reporters will ask questions through an exclusive Google+ Hangout.
 
Garber is the first commissioner of a major sports league to utilize this combination of technology and access to speak to fans, partners and media

DALLAS SIGNS LANDMARK DEAL. Time Warner Cable SportsChannel will air 22 FC Dallas regular-season games on 2013, part of what the MLS club termed the most extensive television broadcast deal in the club’s 18-year history.

The new partnership will not only provide a higher broadcast production quality with all games in HD, it will also allow FC Dallas to travel its broadcast team to all 17 road games.

“We believe Time Warner Cable is the right partner for us and have signed a deal with the intent on growing this into a long-term partnership," said Hunt Sports Group Vice President Dan Hunt in a statement.

IWF CHANGES OWNERSHIP. INSIDE World Football, one of several web publication covering international soccer business and politics, has been relaunched after a change of ownership.

Martin Wagner, a Swiss media lawyer and publishing entrepreneur, is the majority shareholder of INSIDE World Football AG and based in Basel, Switzerland. The publication's operations are headed by editor and CEO Paul Nicholson.
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