Felix Dennis, the man behind Dennis Publishing and magazines Stuff and The Week, is planning to launch an Australian edition of The Week in October.
Future plans also involve editions for India and Canada.
“I don’t care if I’m investing in a so-called sunset industry. The sun is setting very, very slowly. And there are only two types of businesses: the well run and the badly run. The well run will survive a recession,” he said.
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.
Following the surge of comments generated by Charlie Brooker’s Comment is Free article, he’s asking this week what impact search engine optimisation could have on the quality of journalism online.
To take his point to the extreme Brooker gives us a fully SEO-ready article complete with celebrity names, certain pharmaceutical brands and political links (I’d mention them by name but that would start a kind of SEO vicious circle for this post).
As one commenter points out, Brooker’s got it spot on – at the time of writing his article occupies the top five slots when you Google the key SEO terms shown below:
Jokes aside – Telegraph.co.uk’s Shane Richmond has given us some insight into the site’s SEO strategy, would be good to hear what might be going on with the Guardian.
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.
Journalism.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. erotic massage albany ny
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?
Simon Collister has blogged about Telegraph.co.uk’s rising web traffic making it into this month’s Private Eye.
The Eye apparently writes:
“[Telegraph] news hacks are sent a memo three or four times a day from the website boffins listing the top subjects being searched in the last few hours on Google. They are then expected to write stories accordingly and/or get as many of those key words into the first par of their story.”
(Shades of the England football team inserting song lyrics into post-match interviews under Glen Hoddle…)
As this appears in Private Eye the usual caveats apply, but similar practices at the Telegraph have been suggested by the Observer’s media diary:
“The Daily Telegraph has been accused of inserting keywords into copy to ensure its website gets the maximum number of hits, so it was interesting to see the following comment on telegraph.co.uk, posted in response to a rather dry piece about civil liberties penned by advertising guru Maurice Saatchi. ‘Dear Mr Saatchi,’ it began. ‘Your sister-in-law [ie Nigella Lawson] is second only to Holly Willoughby in my affections.’ You may wonder what the photogenic TV star has to do with 42-day detention periods, but it can’t harm the traffic figures.”
Is the Eye onto something or is this just another Guardian-Telegraph conspiracy theory?
Online video firm Brightcove has launched the latest version of its service in beta.
The new technology from Brightcove, which is already used by the Telegraph.co.uk, Hearst Digital and Guardian.co.uk, will offer new ways for incorporating video players and information about video content into web pages, according to a press release from the company.
The new service – Brightcove 3 – will also enable publishers to have long-form video content on their sites.
The full version will be launched this autumn.
Telegraph.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.
In 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