Monday, February 13, 2012YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Starting today, the Business Journal is rolling out a new website. Discussions about the new site began back in 2009, and once you browse the new site, we hope you'll view it as a step up in reader experience. Both readers and advertisers will benefit from the new layout and the more powerful, flexible content management system.
The foundation is Drupal, an open-source content management system offering the Business Journal staff easier updates and more flexible advertising placements. Media sites as diverse as Germany's Die Zeit, London's The Economist, and Chicago's The Onion rely on Drupal to power their websites.
It's the improved reader experience, however, that is really exciting. If you're looking to quickly scan the latest headlines, they're front and center, with automated thumbnail graphics and content previews. Video features are better integrated into the body of the site with a more compact header to lead the reader's eyes more quickly to the news. Articles are classified into a handful of topics, allowing readers with special interest in, say, politics or finance to quickly find related stories.
In imagining The Business Journal's new presence on the Web, we began by looking at the best business news sites out there, with important questions in mind.
The width of the home page news column has been increased by more than 10%. That may not seem like much, but the additional space allows for more flexible layouts. For example, in the space below the lead article, we're able to display the Daily BUZZ Webcast next to a list of recent headlines. Below that, headlines and thumbnail photos are tiled by topic in a horizontal scrolling feature, allowing a fuller preview into the latest news.
From an advertiser's perspective, the new site is a dream. Sponsorships are now available by topic. Looking to reach an audience in the oil and gas industry? Sponsor "Drilling Down" stories. "Health Care"? Yep, we've got that covered. The site is also integrated with Google's DoubleClick for Publishers service, which generates detailed reporting for impressions and clicks for ads and allows for easy automation of ad campaigns.
With more flexibility, the Business Journal site can actually feature fewer ads per page while serving a wider variety of ads overall. This increases the effectiveness of ads, since readers have a greater potential to be presented with a new ad with each page request. Readers should also find the pages quick to load and will enjoy an easy-to-use search.
Readers who are comfortable using RSS feeds to review new content added to the site can find the new RSS feed here
Future additions to the site include a dedicated template for mobile devices. We are also working to import archived news content, to ensure past articles are readily available for research.
Editor's Note: The author, Tyler S. Clark, operates Tyler Clark Consulting and is a technology consultant and frequent speaker on business intelligence, e-commerce, search engine optimization and social media. He provides strategy consulting to organizations like Covelli Enterprises, Schwebel Baking Company, Youngstown State University and the Rich Center for Autism. Tyler Clark also collaborates with the Youngstown Business Incubator and writes a monthly column, "Point, Click, Profit," for the print edition of The Business Journal. His company, Tyler Clark Consulting, is the developer and host of BusinessJournalDaily.com.