At the end of the day your audience ultimately wants some form of news and valuable content. It can be personal. It can be brief. But it must be relevant and substantive to the member.
The web presents certain limitations and conventions that must be adhered to in order to achieve successful results and be completely viewable through a web browser.
In web design it is important to capture your audience's attention within the first 3 seconds of a visit. Whether you are deploying a heavily interactive website or a static resource website, those first few seconds are a critical turning point between the success and failure of your site.