RAMsey

Why does the website for my alma mater’s newspaper show this on its homepage?

There’s no reason to shut down your site while doing an upgrade. Work on a separate set of files. When you’re done and ready to make them public, back up the existing and overwrite everything with the new design. Don’t forget to make it known for a few days that a new look and feel is coming to the site. That way, you ease people into the new design.