Fairfax Media reports an increase in site metrics following revamp
Fairfax Media has seen an increase in its traffic and user sessions since the revamp of its Sydney and Melbourne stables two months ago, according to data seen by Mumbrella.
The new results provided by Fairfax Media show traffic for the Sydney Morning Herald has risen 9.9% month on month, while The Age has seen a 13.52% increase in its traffic, based on gross impressions, since the relaunch.
The revamped Fairfax Metro websites relaunched early this year
The mastheads were relaunched earlier this year, as part of Fairfax Media’s new commercial strategy, which looked to move away from what chief revenue office Matt Rowley called “cheap inventory, sold by the kilogram”.
Fairfax Media is also reporting users sessions have increased by 6.6% while The Age has seen a month on month increase of 17.65%. For both websites, average engaged time on site has swelled by over 10%, according to its Google analytics.
On top of time spent on site, Fairfax Media has said the average time spent on its advertising formats has increased. The publisher shifted from 38 to four ad formats, in pursuit of more engaging content.
Since relaunch, inline scroller formats – where an ad runs inline wit a content feed – saw an average engagement of 16.78 seconds according to data from Celtra. Average time in view of the mini-scroller formats is 4 times the size of the newsfeed market average of 1.7 seconds, at 6.5 seconds.
Inline scroller campaigns now deliver first interaction rate of between 1% and 2%.
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Easy to look good when you mark your own homework!!
Also ‘cheap inventory sold by the kilogram’. OR…. ‘cheap inventory sold by Google’.
Sinking ship trying to stay buoyant with spin and BS from the CRO!
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all that innovation, and traffic growth yet to translate into increased revenue. First half revenue at Fairfax’s the Metro Publishing division (home to SMH, Age etc) has dropped 2% YoY.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/fairfax-flags-more-cost-cuts-as-revenues-fall/news-story/243c99694907d382a99799e491796d5b
Time will tell.
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Very hard to believe much that comes from Fairfax these days. Hywood says the business is thriving yet the product in most cases is extremely poor.
Smh and Age web sites have more click bait than ever and have lost any sense of timely news. Editing is terrible with constant error. Etc etc.
basically they’ve bet everything on Domain – a business two private equity firms refused to bid for after looking up close and which cannot attract a credible ceo.
I reckon Fairfax board and management have the same issues as evidenced at amp and others. They’re in denial, avoiding reality and spinning their way from bonus to bonus.
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The increase in impressions is probably due to the immensely annoying page reload that happens anytime you spend more than a minute on a story when on mobile. Fairfax: if it’s a bug, then fix it. If it’s a rory to generate more page views/ad impressions, then stop it!
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The site is clearly an improvement. It loads well, the ad experience is vastly improved (apart from the horrible Google ads you see from time to time) and the general UX is better than the old site. More to do (like drop Google), but an improvement.
The views on the content are subjective so irrelevant regarding this article and Google Analytics is hardly marking your own homework. Unless you are Google.
It’s not perfect, but they’ve identified a problem, developed a plan, executed and have seen results. Yet out come the pitchforks. Then we wonder why this market is so risk-adverse, behind the times and so easily consumed by Goobook.
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Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate…
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Frank Lee speaking … who gives a shit about traffic. It’s the most easily gamed metric in town. Tell me how large your audience is and I will begin to listen.
Fail.
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Audience measurement is a castle bit on sand. It’s the reason why no one trusts Nielsen numbers.
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Clearly not someone who reads
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