If you
MUST have ads then I like this design much better. I don't mind scrolling down some. Using one finger desn't take much effort.
I'm at 1024x768. At that size I don't see the first news story and barely the top of the bar with the date. I think it would be better without the striped header and just have the logos. That way at least the first date would show and also the top would look somewhat cleaner. I do think the Blue's logo should be a lot bigger than the UGO logo.
The part with the Headlines, Top Threads and .plan summaries is useless IMO. I'm not sure about anyone else but I never pay attention to that stuff. I'd rather see something else in that spot. Like maybe a pic of the day of Hudson.