Tag Archives: Redesigns
A fight over the Grid name
by Chris Roush
Robert Feder of TimeOut Chicago reports that a local publication, The Chicago Grid, is upset with the Chicago Sun-Times using the name The Grid for its new weekly business publication.
Feder writes, “Zaremba’s statement expressed outrage that Wrapports would ‘sink to such lows as to recycle an idea that an independent journalist had four years ago,’ adding: ‘With such a large paid staff, it’s really sad that they couldn’t come up with an original name. Either they are incompetent and didn’t perform the necessary due diligence or are lacking serious ethics and lifted a name ready-made from a publication that is staffed by volunteers and funded out of my own pocket and through donations.’
“Asked to comment on Zaremba’s threatened legal action, Wrapports released the following statement: ‘Grid is a weekly business publication that appears in print and digital media. Ms. Zaremba’s website is not a business magazine, nor does it even appear to be active.’
“A spokeswoman for the company declined further comment.
“Multiple local websites and Twitter accounts use the word “Grid,” including Grid Chicago, a blog about sustainable transportation matters (recently renamed Streetsblog Chicago), The Grid, a website for a sports bar in River North, and Chicago Artist Grid. Elsewhere, dozens of other publications and e-zines also incorporate the word.”
Read more here.
Michigan Chronicle introduces standalone biz section
by Chris Roush
The Michigan Chronicle, an African-American newspaper, is rolling out a standalone business section.
Publisher Hiram Jackson writes, “That is why I decided that it was time for us to have a section dedicated to business. A section focused on the key innovation that underlies much of the gains that have been made by the African American business community in Detroit and the many companies that have partnered with them in order to make our city great again.
“It’s important that we recognize the role played by entrepreneurs in advancing positive social changes. I don’t mean businesspeople solving social ills, but people spreading new approaches — through nonprofits and businesses, or within government — to address problems more successfully than in the past.
“I know that at times, it can be hard to believe that progress is happening, but it is. Unfortunately, most of our news focuses on problems, not creative responses to them.
“One of the most interesting stories in the business community in Detroit today is how much creative problem solving is being done by citizens who are taking it upon themselves to fix things and who, in many cases, are outperforming traditional organizations or making systems work better.”
Read more here.
Kiplinger website could erect paywall
by Chris Roush
Bill Mickey of Folio writes about the new Kiplinger.com website and the fact that its content could end up behind a paywall by the end of the year.
Mickey writes, “A team of four developers completed the project in about 10 months, and the proprietary, in-house approach saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, says Harbrecht.
“A particular focus was incorporating social features, with every page being shareable, and the editorial team has dramatically stepped up its participation on the various platforms.
“The site is now optimized for tablet viewing, but Harbrecht says that due to budget and development constraints, formatting for the smartphone will come later. In the interim, the brand will be partnering with Onswipe to create a smartphone-friendly user experience for the site.
“During the redesign, the team laid the foundation for a paywall model, which is expected to launch in the third or fourth quarter this year. ‘It will probably be a metered or some kind of limited paywall,’ says Harbrecht. ‘We’re not quite a news operation, but what we provide is timely and our information can be valuable in both the instant and as evergreen.’”
Read more here.
Reuters hiring for website operation
by Chris Roush
Reuters columnist Felix Salmon writes Friday that the wire service is looking for journalists to work on its revamped website operation, which will launch in March.
Salmon writes, “We’re looking for people who can write, of course: the site will need quick, clean, memorable posts on everything from central banking policy to Facebook’s latest product launch. But, even more importantly, we’re looking for people who can read. Why match when you can link?
“The vision for business section of the site is that it will be a single source for readers to find the best business news and analysis online — regardless of source. The news will come from Reuters and from the rest of the web. As for the analysis, sometimes we’ll link to it, sometimes we’ll reprint it from elsewhere, and sometimes we’ll write it ourselves. Which means that although writing is going to be a key skill for anybody on the team, we’re looking for writers of the contextualizing, value-adding sort — rather than reporters.
“This property won’t look or feel like any other business section — it’ll be smarter, linkier and much more aware of the conversation. Practically, that means blending Reuters content with prominent external links, hover-and-dive blogging (which elides the distinction between a blog and a liveblog), great headlines, semi-traditional news blogging, op-eds, lots of charts, and of course a keen eye on social media in general and the ongoing Twitter conversation in particular.
“If you’re interested, please send a resume and a short note to Counterparties.Reuters@gmail.com. Be sure to include your Twitter handle!”
Read more here.
New Sun-Times biz publication is coming
by Chris Roush
Robert Feder of Time Out Chicago writes Wednesday about the new business publication coming from the Chicago Sun-Times and its parent company Wrapports LLC.
Feder writes, “Starting this Sunday, Sun-Times readers will find a new addition to the paper — a weekly business magazine called Grid. Advertisers who’ve seen prototypes say it’s focused on stories about and for people in business in Chicago. The cover features Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, an investor in Wrapports.
“Those who’ve seen it also say it appears to be aimed at a younger audience than Crain’s Chicago Business, which buried news of the competing project at the end of a report Monday about possible layoffs looming at Sun-Times Media.
“Insiders at Crain’s have been bracing for a challenge to their franchise ever since Ferro hired Jim Kirk, former chief of editorial operations at Crain’s and former business editor of the Chicago Tribune, as editor-in-chief of Sun-Times Media. Overseeing development of the new section is Brandon Copple, a former managing editor of Crain’s, who joined Wrapports as general manager last October.
“Grid will be the second new Sunday supplement launched by the Sun-Times in recent months. In September, the paper unveiled Splash, a weekly magazine section focusing on ‘style, society and celebrities’ and featuring Jenny McCarthy as an advice columnist.”
Read more here.
Redesigning Forbes for the digital age
by Chris Roush
Forbes chief product officer Lewis Dvorkin was interviewed by Chris Smith of The Guardian in London about how the business magazine’s operations have been overhauled for the new media world.
Here is an excerpt:
What philosophy have you adopted to stay relevant to people’s digital lifestyles?
We have transformed Forbes.com from a website into a publishing platform. We have a core group of full-time reporters and a 1,000-strong contributor network – and all use a distributed set of easy-to-use publishing tools to create content and attract followings around their expertise. They are building personal brands under the Forbes umbrella brand. In doing so, they are making one-on-one connections with audience members — and engaging in conversation with them. Hundreds of contributors (freelance journalists, authors, academics, topic experts and business leaders) participate in an incentive payment programme – the bigger their loyal audience, the more they make. Others find reward in association with the Forbes brand. The new economics of journalism require quality, scale and efficiency. Our new model achieves all three.
How are user expectations evolving around how they manage their digital lifestyles and information?
People want to be participants and decision-makers in the news process. Social media turns everyone into an editor and many into suppliers of information. That means the audience wants its voice to be heard alongside the professional journalist. In some cases that means influencing a news page through up votes. In others, it means the ability to comment and follow a conversation just like you might follow a story. Digital consumers also want to be able to follow those reporters they respect as a first step in personalising their news experience and creating their own personal news feed to share with friend and colleagues. In all respects, they expect the news organisation to find them, rather than the other way around.
Read more here.
Columbus Dispatch bringing back standalone business section
by Chris Roush
The Columbus Dispatch, an Ohio paper that has put business news inside its A section for the past three years, is bringing back its standalone business section on Monday.
The new section is part of an overhaul at the paper, which is rolling out a smaller page size for its printed paper. The paper had maintained a standalone Sunday business section.
In a column last week, editor Benjamin Marrison wrote, “Our research made it clear that you highly value our award-winning coverage of business news, and the new section will put a brighter spotlight on that content.”
In 2007, the business section had been moved to the back of the sports section.
Here is what business editor Ron Carter told Talking Biz News by email on Sunday:
It’s very exciting to return to a standalone section. For the past several years, we’ve been inside the A section for daily, while maintaining our own section on Sunday. That’s one of the advantages of our new format. Our work will start getting much better display again beginning tomorrow.
I think readers are really going to like the new, smaller format. One thing that stands out is that it’s much easier to read agate copy. This will be really good for our daily stock report and our Sunday tables. The same will be true for sports.
One of our goals with the transition to the new format is to better promote our witers. One of the ways we will do this is with a daily blog item from the staff that will be used as part of our page two rail, and it will include a photo. We’ll also be doing more with regular graphics that provide a snapshot of the local economy.
Much of what we’ve been doing, however, won’t change. We’ll just be in better view, like we used to be.
I asked him about new features in the standalone section. He replied:
We’ve been doing a lot to boost our Sunday section over the past year, so all of that just shifts to the new format.
We started a rotation of monthly features on Sundays (Biz Extras) that includes a retail column, a development column, a feature on goods made in central Ohio and something we call Game Plan. The latter can be by readers to help them manage their lives. We tell them for the month ahead when it’s a good time to make a purchase, what foods will be on sale at the grocery, important financial planning dates, how to save on energy costs, etc. Then, on the odd month that has five Sundays, we use something called Work Stories, where people write in and tell funny, serious and unusal tales about their work life.
We also started a new feature on commercial real estate that takes a look at the biggest deals of the week.
Beyond that, we do not want to get bogged down on too many standing features. We want to leave as many resources as possible to cover the news on a daily basis.
Kiplinger rolls out new website
by Chris Roush
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance has unveiled a new website that was 10 months in the making.
“This was a 10-month project, a top-to-bottom site redesign with an eye to better serve our growing audience, which increased by 25 percent in 2012 and is up 82 percent over the last 3 years,” said Doug Harbrecht, new media director at Kiplinger Washington Editors, in an email’s to Talking Biz News.
Kiplinger is now publishing on a completely rebuilt, homegrown content management system, Harbrecht explained.
“The new look and feel of the site was carefully thought out to better integrate all our valuable content with Kiplinger product offers, partnership content, and advertising placements.
“Overall, we hope the result is a cleaner, updated look, easier navigation, faster load times, better results with a Google cloud-based search engine , and increased prominence of social media for sharing and discussion of all our content. We studied closely how visitors navigate our site, and the organization you see better reflects that.
“We also have a new voluntary registration system where visitors can create their own profiles, receive weekly e-mail column alerts and special offers, and gain quick access to their Kiplinger online subscriptions.”
Silicon Valley Biz Journal redesign a template for ACBJ papers
by Chris Roush
Jessica Hanks of The Huffington Post writes about the redesign of the Silicon Valley Business Journal with editor Greg Baumann and redesigner Mario Garcia.
The redesign is planned to be a template for other American City Business Journals papers.
Hanks writes, “Effective with the first edition in 2013, the Silicon Valley Business Journal has revitalized nearly every aspect of the paper, from expanding newsroom staff to advancing digital and social capabilities, to buttressing the print layout.
“‘[I wanted to] bring a sense of the digital mentality to print,’ Garcia told HuffPost. ‘Our readers use other platforms and unconsciously bring the way they navigate and scan digitally, to print.’
“Readers’ digital habits are also being used to tailor editorial content, which Baumann thinks is key. ‘We watch the data. When a Web story pops, or when a social media conversation about one of our Web stories takes off, that’s a clanging bell telling us to weigh in more heavily in print. You just have to listen to the audience,’ he told HuffPost.
“The publication is certainly bucking the trend, as many other major newspapers are scaling back on distribution. But SBVJ may have the recipe for success: a new, state-of-the-art look for the paper product they’ve published 30 years, reader-driven content and a good pulse on the digital landscape.”
Read more here.
Kansas biz journal unveils redesign
by Chris Roush
The Wichita Business Journal, an American City Business Journals paper, has redesigned itself.
A story on its website states, “As WBJ editor Bill Roy writes in a column in today’s edition, the design changes include reporter pages, which examine some of the highlights of the news each reporter broke on www.wichitabusinessjournal.com that week, a more prominent front-page story and the return of indexes, which list the people and businesses in that week’s paper.
“The WBJ’s website, email updates and mobile applications will be changing, too. The philosophy, developed by American City Business Journals with consultant Mario Garcia, is to provide news as readers consume it — immediate, breaking news to be read on computers and smartphones, plus more in-depth reporting and analysis for those times when readers have more time, in print and on tablets.”
Read more here.
