AFR.com unveils new site and divides opinion
The Financial Review Group has this week launched its new look AFR.com site, but media buyers remain reserved about just how much the changes will lure more subscribers and advertisers.
The relaunched site claims to be more user friendly, with more advertising inventory and a new editorial section called AFR Dealbook which provides an analysis of all the major business deals and capital market developments.
It will continue to provide exclusive content to complement its print version, The Australian Financial Review, and it has also ramped up its video content with more interviews with CEOs on its Financial Review TV section.
Michael Gill, Financial Review Group chief executive, said it has made a “big transformation” in the way it works, from the platform it now uses to its content.
The website has always been primarily reliant on subscriptions and Gill argues that its paid online model has been the standard in the industry since it began, pointing to the likes of Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg.
Gill said while there are different models to suit different news websites, its strategy is necessary to meet the demands of a “high-value audience” in need of specific content in a number of niche areas.
Emitch media director Adrian Roeling said while he is yet to thoroughly review the changes to the site, he argued that there is already “a lot of premium content available for free” from sites such as Business Spectator. “So the new site would have to be pretty compelling from a content perspective,” he argued.
Another media buyer said AFR.com “seems to be a light version of Business Spectator and other finance sites like Forbes, FT.com… but trapped behind a clumsy paywall”.
Gill has maintained that it is “ahead of schedule” in its subscription targets, however he declined to reveal its subscriber numbers. Its print cousin this week reported a 9.7 per cent fall in circulation to 79,201 in its weekday editions according to ABC figures, although much of this has been attributed to the rash of redundancies in the financial sector due to the global financial crisis.
MD of digital agency Isobar Marcus Hawkins-Adams said his initial impressions of the site have been positive, pointing to the “nice crisp clean design and engaging features and content”.
“The main issue for us would be the lack of any paid search campaigns to help drive traffic to the site. They are obviously a very strong brand, but use of paid search for terms such as ‘stock market’ and ‘exchange rates’ would have been good to see as a way to grow overall traffic,” he said.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
I bet those CEO videos go off – streams galore!
User ID not verified.
The site looks quite nice, so the design team deserve a big pat on the back.
Unfortunately the advanced search function that subscribers pay a hefty premium for is completely useless.
The AFR continues to withhold its content from established media monitoring services like Dow Jones Factiva and AAP Media Net. This forces researchers and media monitors to pay a premium for an inferior service with a clumsy search interface.
In the three days since the launch of the new site the search function has failed every morning. Fun things like; content from the print edition mysteriously not available online, articles appearing with absolutely no connection to the search terms, and my personal favorite spontaneous redirections to the homepage mid-search.
The early morning is of course the peak period for those who need to get a head start on the days media coverage, and coincidentally the AFR.com help desk doesn’t open until 8.30. A call to the help desk before this time prompts a pleasant recorded voice that asks you to “please press one to leave a voicemail.”
Then the line goes dead.
Someone at the AFR.com owes me a new number 1 button for my phone keypad.
User ID not verified.
Is this an advertisement?
User ID not verified.
Miguel get a grip mate, so they had some teething problems early on. Sounds to me like your actually upset they won’t give you their content for free through other companies services. Why should they?
I used the site on Tuesday and yesterday and didn’t get any of the problems you are talking about. There where a couple of gotchas with stock searches but its been getting better through the week.
The alerting function is great and AFT TV kills anything else out there today in Aussie news publishing.
User ID not verified.
I’m with Jason. The new content is excellent and the general display and speed is as good as I’ve seen. And I had not seen the TV before, which is way better than the pay TV channel content. And, yes, I got none of what Miguel’s talking about at all. (try blowing your cache Mig, I might be you?)
User ID not verified.
But there again, “Geoff Kennedy”, you do work at Fairfax, I can’t help noticing from your IP address.
Shouldn’t you have taken the trouble to view the video content before now?
Still, I’m delighted to hear that it works if you’re inside the building.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Well spotted, Tim. I wonder whether Fairfax has a social media policy for its staff? Most organisations that do have one include something to the effect that staff members should always properly identify themselves in public forums — you know, transparency and honesty and ethics and all that stuff.
User ID not verified.
I believe the term is BAZINGA!
User ID not verified.
This would be the fifth attempt in seven years to get afr.com right…
User ID not verified.
Sorry but I fail to see how using search times like ‘stock market’ and ‘exchange rate’ would be of any value for getting new subscribers to the site. They would be very useful for wasting a helluva lot of dollars on some very, very competitive search terms though and getting zero relevant traffic. Search terms like ‘australian financial news’ (or more specific) I understand but come on. Just sayin’
User ID not verified.
i am struggling to work out why AFR needs to do paid search and how that could result in a positive result for the site revenue wise.
pay $x for a click from a generic term … yield back to publisher maybe 10c … seems like weird advice to me.
it’s good to see fairfax’s internal cheer squad posting on blogs still, despite always being busted!
User ID not verified.
With regard to having to pay for search, that is actually not true.
Anyone can run searches on news, stocks, and announcements without being logged in – you just have to be logged in to view the premium content that may come back from your search..
Go to the site, type BHP (or any stock code) in the search box and you will get the latest quote, announcements, related people and news without having to sign in……
User ID not verified.