I’m starting a new feature at The Journalism Iconoclast on sites I like and why I like them. It will run semi regularly. I’d also like your feedback on which sites you like and why.

CNN.com is one of my most viewed sites, and in the end it’s the sites that I visit the most that are the most important to me. CNN.com combines a clean layout, quality journalism and unique content.

A lot of sites report national news, but CNN is the best at reporting news with video. That’s their niche. That’s what CNN does best, and their new Web site really showcases that.

There are countless searchable clips on all sorts of subjects from hard news stories to health stores to more feature-style stories. Before CNN relaunched their site a few months ago, cnn.com was not one of my favorite destinations. The video was small and buggy. I had trouble viewing a lot of clips I wanted to view.

I often left the site dissatisfied and stopped going for awhile. I was a subscriber to CNN’s Pipeline service and when it worked, I really enjoyed it. But it often didn’t work.

I was going to cancel it before CNN canceled the whole thing altogether.  It was the right decision from CNN to cancel it because they are utilizing video much better now.

Now the video is big and bold. The site really emphasis what CNN does best — video. I never have problems with the new site, and I enjoy the content better. It can’t stress how important it is to allow people to easily view your content.

The content is the same, but the delivery is just so much better. Video that goes with written stories are presented on the same page. You can get a written story, video and photos all on the same story on the same page.

It’s a great format. Better yet, it’s all free. CNN used to charge for Pipeline and a lot of the video associated with it.

People expect quality products on the Web to be free. Users can and will accept advertisements. I’d much rather view a few ads so I can enjoy CNN content for free than have to pay for commercial free video.

After all, CNN isn’t commercial free. Ad supported models can work and they are much easier to work when you can incorporate video ads.

I also really like the technology built into cnn.com — the use of Ajax for instance. The ability to transverse a lot of pages without having to reload content is great. It makes the site a lot more interactive and easy to use.

I also dig the minimalist design. It allows the content to shine. Journalism is about the content, and often Web site designs that try to do too much, end of doing too little.

I do wish CNN had some more original Web content and allowed for some more interactivity, but they have found a way to take quality content and display it in a new medium.

Overall, CNN.com is one of the best journalism redesigns in years.