1. A group of sample news sites will be selected to represent a range of size and profitability but who cater to the same or similar readerships.
   National Dailies in the UK would be a suitable group, though perhaps reluctant to hand over statistics, especially for comparative work.* 
   Alternately, a patch covered by amateurs, national papers and magazines as well as by a spectrum of Social media participants, bloggers and semi-pro journos might also be suitable: fashion, for instance.
2. Once selected, images of the news sites in question will be logged and tagged with relevant design attributes[«<hyperlink]. Tagging a page with one or more of these pre-selected design attributes is this dissertation’s method of recording graphical and layout analyses of the home and news pages of news sites in the sample group.
3. Using a combination of information garnered from publicly available tools as well as statistics available only through cooperation from news site administrators, the dissertation will measure the sample news sites on four - relatively standard - web analytics metrics[«<hyperlink].
4. We should then be able to chart relationships between web page design and layout and reader activity on, into and out of[«<hyperlink] news sites and 

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*There is a way to present the findings without associating statistics with individual publications. That is, if enough material is available and attainable on the analytics side.