News.com.au revamps website
News.com.au has today launched its revamped website.
The announcement:
September 5, 2011 –
News.com.au today launched a revamped homepage with a fresh and simple design.
The radical homepage redesign leaves more room for top stories, separates news from feature-driven content and presents news.com.au journalists more prominently. It also sees a departure from traditional newspaper labelling of content with new sections showcased.
Publisher of news.com.au, Gloria Poulakis said, “Our audience is the main focus of our new design. We wanted to deliver a site based on what our visitors do and what our target audience want from both a design and editorial point of view.”
“The redesign focuses on the younger market who are digital natives or prefer digital content, used to consuming new feeds through Facebook and have a fluid definition of news. We believe those outside this demographic will also enjoy the quality content and made for the medium stories just as much.”
“Delivering a lighter and visual homepage that lets the content speak for itself, the strong but approachable design of the site enables us to make our content a recognisable part of our brand.”
“As a media brand born for the web, we decided to take a step away from more traditional newspaper labels. The new homepage is dynamic and innovative, giving editors the ability to easily switch layouts to better reflect the news agenda of the day while also enabling us to execute high-impact campaigns for clients quickly.”
“The new format also creates an emotional connection with our readers through thematic packaging. It further enhances our ability to deliver the latest news and information in the most appealing and engaging ways available,” says Poulakis.
News.com.au editor-in-chief, David Penberthy said the site’s new look would be accompanied with a braver editorial strategy.
“Our editorial team will deliver young Australians news they want, stories they want to talk about and the information they need to help simplify and add colour to their day – anywhere and at anytime.”
“Instead of simply reporting the news, we will actually explain what it means for our readers everyday lives in a fun and entertaining way.”
“The new design, latest tools together with our team of talented journalists will see news.com.au deliver the most compelling and engaging news stories online,” Penberthy said.
News.com.au will continue to integrate the latest social networking tools, such as, Twitter and Facebook and the latest innovative digital products.
Last month news.com.au won the PANPA 2011 Innovation in Digital Publishing Award. Judges described news.com.au as a world-class innovation that shows how multiple disciplines work and collaborate well, in developing the brand, and engaging the audience on multiple platforms.
Source: News Limited press release
9 months in the making and they’ve come up with something that looks suspiciously like a free wordpress template!
The information architecture has emphasised white space over scannability and unfortunately it’s gone too far. The site looks and scans like a lifestyle blog rather than a credible news source.
It’s a shame because as the only News site not going behind a paywall in October a lot rests on this not failing.
But fail it will.
This is a serious missed opportunity and will in a years time be considered one of the bricks that brought News Limited undone as a serious force in this country. Fairfax and NineMSN are laughing their heads off today.
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