Fact: Most news-centered websites do suck. Mark Luckie has pointed out several reasons why, and he's right. For one, many newspaper-orientened sites tend to approach things from a print-based perspective. Well. Stop that. Now.

But you know what? There's hope out there.

Take a look at some of our favorite news site designs, and read why we think they work.

The Salt Lake Tribune (organization)

Form and function in a news website? Where do you get that these days? Utah, apparently. Simple but elegant, authorative but fresh, The Salt Lake Tribune's site — redesigned two months ago — impressed us like few news site designs in recent memory.

One of its best aspects is its organization. Both on pages and in navigation dropdowns, headlines are grouped under white-text-on-dark-background headings, making the site super scannable. (Bonus: The site's primary design color changes with the news flow. Cool!)

NPR (typography)

It's funny how an organization centered around one of the oldest means of mass communication has mastered the Web. Sure, NPR has a lot of resources when it comes to its website, but you know what it does better than most (and what any news org could do)? Pay attention to its audience.

That, and the site makes story headlines easy to read. NPR, like most big news sites, has a ton of information on its home page. But, unlike many of its competitors, it doesn't visually overwhelm users. Users always know what the big story is, thanks to the feature area, and the strong typography leads them down the page nicely. The ample white space, and simple color scheme also make the site visually appealing.

KTKA-TV (layout)

We each got our start in print newsrooms and are probably still shedding our anti-broadcast bias, but, what the page view is up with local TV news websites? Who told stations they had to be cluttered, chaotic messes? And who forgot to tell KTKA-TV in Topeka, Kansas? Clean, orderly, fast-loading, KTKA.com is the anti-TV-news-site TV news site.

While a maverick in design, KTKA doesn't run away from the strengths of any broadcast brand — community and personality. Station-related tweets and staff bios are prominent home page features. And KTKA does it all without overburdening its staff, leveraging the automation power of its CMS to organize content and keep lead stories fresh.

Orlando Sentinel Varsity Sports (photos)

Remember when you first became a print journalist, and your first few stories ran? We do. We also remember it sometimes seemed like hardly anyone in town read them. But they probably at least looked at the photos. This still happens on the Web.

The Orlando Sentinel's high school sports section accomplishes something we believe few news sites do well. It focuses on two things users want to see: headlines and photos. The site lacks any sort of fancy polish, but it's easy to use, and the abundance of photos and snappy headlines makes you want to explore the page. That's interactivity in its simplest form.

MSNBC (engagement)

The growing body of users who access news content via social networks, RSS readers and other aggregators may never visit a site's home page. Smart publishers realize this and are starting to give their article pages greater design attention, with a focus on luring users deeper into their site.

MSNBC.com's recently redesigned site does article pages especially well. It showcases recent articles and videos above the top navigation; lets users jump to multimedia, comments and related links via slick, colorful buttons floating on the right side of the page; and presents these and other engagement opportunities below the article text (truncated for longer articles unless users click for more).

All this says to Web surfers: This wave keeps going, don't paddle back out just yet.

The Naples Daily News (branding)

We think we know why no one pays attention to your news site. It looks like all the others. Lame. The Naples Daily News' website has strong branding, something many news sites do poorly. The blend of blue, green and black colors makes the top half of the site more distinctive than most, and that adds to the branding.

Normally, a lot of white type on a black background can be bad, but it works here because of the white and light gray background farther down the page. This creates good contrast and makes the site easier to scan. Well organized with strong sectioned-based content and areas for featured content, the design gives users something to dive into.

This approach can be seen on other Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group sites like the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Share your favs, score invite to the new Digg

Of course, we know that this list is subjective. That's why we want to hear what you think. Share your thoughts in the comments, and by all means, provide some links to your favorite, well-designed news sites.

The first five people to share a link to their favorite, well-designed news site (different from the ones above), and tell us why in the comments get an invite to the new Digg!

Update (3 p.m.): Digg has rolled out its new version today (8/25/10) so invites are less enticing at this point. But please feel free to share your favorite sites in the comments.