Mirror.co.uk joins competitors with homepage redesign

Not wanting to be left out following a new look for The Sun’s homepage last Friday, a Telegraph.co.uk redesign and the last stage of the Guardian’s site revamp, Mirror.co.uk began its relaunch on Monday.

Starting with changes to the homepage, the rest of the site will follow suit and new features will be introduced in the coming weeks, an announcement on the site said.

On the homepage a most read/most emailed/highest rated articles box has been added and the left-hand navigation bar done away with. Links to Mirror.co.uk subscription services are neatly lined up across the top of the homepage.

Elsewhere the site’s video player has been upgraded (though the ’see more videos’ tab opens up another window still), more picture galleries added and the blogs section overhauled with some new additions.

So how does this first stage of redevelopment compare with its competitor’s new looks?

It’s certainly colourful with the addition of multicoloured section headings and if you navigate better with images than this is for you – though personally I find the block of images that dominate the ‘above the fold’ area a tad too busy.

More embedded video, which seems to be happening across the article pages, is a plus, as is the vastly improved ‘below the fold’ on the homepage, which has been tidied up no end.

Press Gazette: Latest Trinity Mirror relaunch includes hyperlocal community features

Trinity Mirror has relaunch the website of West London’s Hounslow Chronicle.

The new site includes hyperlocal community features - pioneered by Trinity’s Teesside Gazette - for areas of Hounslow, Feltham, Isleworth and Brentford.

Guardian: Mirror Group websites join ABCe

Mirror Group Newspapers will this week begin reporting traffic to its websites by making public the results of monthly ABCe.

Traffic for the People, Sunday and Daily Mirror will, for the first time, be judged against that of the other leading newspaper brands when the figures are released on Thursday- all accept for the Independent, which still refuses to make its traffic figures public.

According to the Guardian, Trinity Mirror has admitted to having some reservations about the ABCe methodology but is still playing ball.

It expects to record a high percentage of its traffic from a domestic audience - unlike the leading UK newspaper websites of The Guardian and The Mail, which draw the majority of their traffic from overseas.