An update to Twitter from Telegraph.co.uk communities editor Shane Richmond suggests the paper is breaking more new ground with its videojournalism.
News of the sentencing of John Darwin, who faked his own disappearance in 2002, and his wife Anne was broken on the site using the video below:
Speaking at yesterday’s preview of the Telegraph.co.uk redesign, both chief information officer Paul Cheesbrough and digital editor Edward Roussel said the new site was aimed at ‘deeper engagement’ with users.
Both declined to comment on whether the new site would bring success in terms of ABCe figures, even suggesting the amount of content/page views per user was more important at this stage than an increased numbers of visitors.
“If we have doubled the amount of content that each person is consuming [by the end of the year] then that’s great,” said Roussel.
The current average for the site is 16 page views per person per month, he added.
A raft of improvements have been made in the new design to address the issue of engagement. Firstly improved search and navigation features to help users find the content they are after more quickly and keep them on the site.
Changes to the site’s servers have also been implemented with a series of international servers set up so the experience of accessing the site is the same wherever you are, Cheesbrough explained.
These changes were made necessary after ‘power outages’ on the site last year, which brought Telegraph.co.uk down for prolonged periods. In contrast the site is now the fastest news site behind the BBC, Cheesbrough claimed.
One of the most significant changes for me - and the one which lends itself most immediately to both engagement and traffic goals - is an increase in embedded video.
Following hot on the heels of the BBC and FT, who have both made the move to embedded video, the new Telegraph.co.uk will embed its video content within articles across the site and lose the standalone Telegraph TV player box on the homepage.
The BBC’s Pete Clifton told Journalism.co.uk previously that the conversion rate - the number of people reading the text article and viewing the video footage - was around 40 per cent for embedded video and only 2 per cent when video was housed in a separate player.
Initial trials of embedding on Telegraph.co.uk have produced similarly positive results, said Cheesbrough, with a 30 per cent conversion rate for embedded videos compared to a 3 per cent rate for Telegraph TV.
It’s a logical progression that boosts views and keeps the user engaged for longer, and is part of what the team behind the Telegraph redesign refer to as ‘the concept of the article as the homepage’.
This shows an awareness that the homepage is no longer the main point of entry - around half of the site’s traffic comes through aggregators. Putting as much effort into the design and accessibiilty of every page of your site, as most publications put into their homepage, could well be a winning strategy for both traffic and engagement.
Tags: Edward Roussel, news site, Paul Cheesbrough, Telegraph.co.uk, the TelegraphJournalism.co.uk was given a sneak preview today of Telegraph.co.uk’s redesign plans. It’s a work in progress, but the revamped news, sport, and travel sections, as well as a new homepage, are set for launch in the next week.
Below are some preview images of the new site:
Homepage
Note the new horizontal navigation bar, the addition of a lifestyle tab and the replacement of a Telegraph TV box with embedded video players across the site.
More prominence has been given to comment content. In addition the bottom half and footer of the page will not be used as ‘a dumping ground’, but instead will be a flexible space featuring varied multimedia material. Eventually this space could carry personalised content based on the individual user.
Article page
The design team behind the new site told me they wanted greater consistency between articles and sections to improve navigation across the site.
Individual RSS feeds have also been added for sections and specific topics e.g. at the bottom of this article there’s a feed specifically for Champions League football.
A list of links to articles and other content of relevance has been added on the right hand side of the page - part of a design aimed at seeing every article page as a potential homepage from a user’s point of view, Ed Roussel, digital editor of Telegraph.co.uk, said
First impressions?
Tags: Ed Roussel, Journalism.co.uk, Telegraph.co.ukTelegraph.co.uk is launching a new sports blog, which will cast an irreverent eye over the days sporting stories.
The blog will be led by Andrew Baker, sports feature writer for the site and paper, and will feature alongside 14 other sports blogs on the site.
Tags: Andrew Baker, irreverent sports blog, sports blog, sports blogsTelegraph.co.uk has published a Polish version of a report on Poland’s progress in Euro 2008 - thanks to Jon Buscall for the email.
The article by Kat Mochlinski is available in both English and Polish with a link between the articles.
With The Sun running a print edition in Polish for Euro 2008 and having already trialled a Polish version of its website, this Telegraph tactic could attract more than just football fans.
Tags: EUR, Jon Buscall, Poland, Telegraph.co.ukIn case you hadn’t noticed, Journalism.co.uk was in Sweden last week covering the World Association of Newspapers annual conference and the World Editors Forum.
So no one misses out, here’s a round-up of what went down while we were away:
Guardian: BBC ends ‘licence fee’ plans for international news website
The Beeb has dropped proposals for subscription-based access to BBC.com
WSJ.com: Analysis of hyperlocal news site LoudounExtra.com
Following the departure of Rob Curley, chief architect behind the Washington Post spin-off site, WSJ asks if the site has found its audience a year into the project.
Editor&Publisher: 94 newspapers join Yahoo partnership
A total of 779 newspapers now have access to the search engine’s advertising technology and HotJobs ads.
Daily Mail: Sir Ian Blair advocates use of celebrity news videos as evidence in drug trials
Footage, such as the Sun’s infamous Amy Winehouse video and of Kate Moss snorting a white substance, should be presented to the jury in such cases, Blair has said.
Guardian: BBC’s new plans for personalisation of website
Plans to create a new rating, recommendation and personalisation system across bbc.co.uk will be put to the BBC Trust, according to the corporation’s latest programme policy statement.
Editor’s Weblog: Washington Post launches online publishing company
The Slate Group will feature a host of digital titles including Slate and The Root, with additional launches planned.
Telegraph.co.uk: Update on revamp of community blogging platform MyTelegraph
Communities editor Shane Richmond says a relaunch date will be announced by the end of next week.
Matthew Ingram: Globe and Mail removes pay wall
Number of subscribers was not enough to maintain the wall, says Ingram, who works for the paper. Some readers remain unconvinced, he says, pointing out one comment: “You can’t shut us out for a few years and then expect us to come back just because it’s free.”
MediaShift: Everyblock releases first special report
The hyperlocal data and news site has mapped information from a recent Chicago police bribery investigation as part of its first special report.
While the Daily Mail allegedly has a gentlemen’s agreement with the Telegraph not to write about each other’s parent company, it hardly seems worth pointing out that no such pact exists between the Guardian and the Telegraph online.
Over the last month a series of articles published by Guardian.co.uk has alleged various problems with or criticised Telegraph.co.uk.
The latest links the MyTelegraph section with the BNP for a second time in little over a week, detailing a blog post on the platform by BNP member Richard Barnbrook entitled ‘Blame the immigrants’.
The Guardian first made the connection between the party and MyTelegraph with an article looking into managing online communities that discussed MyT under the provocative headline ‘Platform for free speech … or hate?’ and went on to say one user ‘publishes BNP campaign literature and flyers’ on the site.
On both occasions the Telegraph emphasised the free speech ethos behind MyT, which is policed by readers who are relied upon to report offensive material.
The policy seems to be working - Barnbrook’s post has attracted over 30 comments including several from the hang ‘um and flog ‘um brigade alongside more measured anti-BNP responses.
MyTelegraph’s problems at the end of last year, as the technology firm behind its development went into administration, were also documented recently by the Guardian:
“Telegraph Media Group’s community media site MyTelegraph ‘is on life support’ until it receives an overhaul this summer, the company’s communities editor said today.
“Shane Richmond told the PPA Magazines 2008 conference that the site had suffered periodic downtime, slow page-loads and instability since the company which built it, Interesource, went in to administration late last year.”
I was there, he did say that, but then again he’d already blogged about it months before.
But then again, again. He DID say it, so it’s fair to report him saying it.
In addition to this last month’s ABCe figures showing that the Telegraph site passed the Guardian for the first time to become the UK’s most popular newspaper website in terms of unique users, seem only to have fanned the competitive fire.
The Guardian was the first to delve into the Telegraph’s recent rapid growth in unique users - from 12,283,835 in February to 17,036,081 in March, and 18,646,112 in April - suggesting a switch in internal measurement tools may have prompted the surge.
Continuing the series of pieces on the Telegraph’s online traffic - and there are a few of them now - the Guardian suggests that a review of online traffic measurement announced by JICWEBS last week was sparked by publishers concerns over the Telegraph’s recent growth.
All fair news pieces from the Guardian? Surely there can be no complaint with their reporting factual news? Well, yes there can.
After the publication of the latest Guardian piece today, Telegraph communities editor Shane Richmond came out fighting, accusing the Guardian of hypocrisy and arguing that if the charge leveled at the Telegraph is one of giving a platform to racists and fanatics then it is a charge that could well be applied to the Guardian’s Comment is Free blog.
“How about we take the view that when you have an open platform, whether it’s My Telegraph, Comment Is Free, or the internet itself, then you have to accept that a multiplicity of views will be expressed on it and that some of those views will be unpalatable to some people,” he wrote.
“If the Guardian’s attacks on our site are motivated by genuine concern, then they should look closer to home first. However, I suspect that this sustained criticism has more to do with sour grapes over recent audience trends.”
Stories about other publishers are fair game and healthy competition between the titles is to be encouraged.
But take the BNP stories and the numerous stories about the Telegraph’s web advances en masse and one may begin to wonder when healthy news reporting begins to border on the obsessive?
UPDATE - the ‘debate’ continues with a post from Shane Richmond in response to a comment left by Comment is Free editor Matt Seaton on his Telegraph.co.uk blog
Tags: BNP, community media, Guardian.co.uk, internal measurement tools, Matt Seaton, online communities, online traffic, online traffic measurement, Richard Barnbrook, Shane Richmond, Technology, Telegraph Media Group, Telegraph.co.uk, The Guardian, the Telegraph, United Kingdom, web advancesRichard Barnbrook, the British National Party’s London Assembly member, has used the paper’s MyTelegraph platform to publish an anti-immigrant blog post.
A spokeswoman for the Telegraph said the presence of the post on the site did not mean the paper endorsed Barnbrook’s arguments and that readers are relied upon to report offensive material.
“Our readers are entitled to their opinions and, within the law, they’re entitled to publish them on the My Telegraph blogging platform,” she said.
Tags: BNP, National Party, the TelegraphTelegraph.co.uk is set to introduce a raft of ecommerce propositions across its site this summer as it aims to bring in revenue channels beyond traditional advertising, according to NMA.
The site’s commercial team is in talks with potential partners for services that are likely to include an enhanced shopping platform, a price-comparison service and betting.
Tags: e - commerce, ecommerce propositions, Telegraph.co.uk, web revenue streamGoogle has just held its two day European Zeitgeist conference in the UK bringing together a host of captivating speakers, here are just a few of the session videos - many more on the Zeitgeist YouTube channel.
Matthew d’Ancona interviews Chad Hurley
Sir Salman Rushdie
The future of online video panel with Ashley Highfield and others
Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, Sergey Brin
Content vs community panel part 1 (Inc. Mattias Cohler, Facebook, & William Lewis, editor of The Telegraph)
Content vs community part 2
Tags: Ashley Highfield, Eric Schmidt, google, Gordon Brown, Matthew d'Ancona, online video panel, Salman Rushdie, Sergey Brin, the Telegraph, United Kingdom, William Lewis