The Herald, Weekend Post launch new web platforms

The dual-entry web solution adopted by The Herald and the Weekend Post, both part of the Avusa Media group, offers a more interactive and user-friendly experience for the already substantial and loyal online audience in their core focus area in the Eastern and southern Cape, and beyond.

The new platform is a key element of a joint digital strategy by the two newspapers and the launch marks the completion of the first major step in a process of ongoing development through which the titles hope to strengthen their presence in the region.

In addition to the main websites, the titles will launch a new blog platform featuring a growing range of general interest and lifestyle-orientated blogs on subjects as diverse as surfing, food and the 2010 World Cup, a multimedia portal where users can browse past and current video, audio and picture galleries and an easy-to-use new mobile site (“mobisite”) designed to run as quickly and simply on any web-enabled cellphone.

Bringing up-to-the-minute news

The sites will bring web and mobile users up-to-the-minute breaking news with a strong focus on issues and events that matter most to communities in the Eastern Cape, particularly Nelson Mandela Bay and the surrounding towns and cities, as well as the Garden Route where both newspapers are well-represented editorially.

The editor-in-chief of both titles, Jethro Goko, said the investment in the new digital tools had three main objectives: to create a means to better engage the audience, consolidate the position of the print titles by ensuring a high degree of synergy between platforms, and develop new ways of telling stories effectively to a growing audience.

“Despite the economic downturn, the market for news and information, particularly that which is relevant and useful, and the demand for places where people can interact and debate that news and those issues, has never been stronger,” Goko said.

“There are a lot of resources out there and piles of information but not all of it appeals directly to our market or addresses their particular concerns or needs. Just as we dominate the print newspaper market in this region, so it is our aim to ensure that every time our audience goes online, the first place they go to is one of our sites.”

The interactive nature of the new platform builds on previous efforts to engage readers, with the newspapers having used mobile and other tools to solicit opinion from readers for some time.

“The new web platform is an important starting point. We are constantly looking for more ways to talk to our readers, get them involved in the process of building stories, unpacking the issues,” says senior assistant editor Steve Matthewson, who heads up the digital task team at the two newspapers.

One of the first major tests for the new platform, and the journalists using it, will be the 2009 elections, with the Eastern Cape seen as a key battleground between the main parties.

Giving people a voice

“While relying on the relative strengths of both print and web to unpack complex issues and empower voters, we also want to give ordinary people a voice, a chance to contribute to the stories and ask the hard questions,” says Matthewson.

Broadband access patterns in the region covered by the newspapers follow closely those in the bigger urban centres while mobile penetration, including the use of third generation web-enabled phones, is extremely high.

Page impressions of newspapers' sites average well over one million a month. [1]

In February, the sites attracted a total of 100,000 unique browsers and served up over 1,4 million page impressions.[2] The sites have enjoyed an average growth in unique browsers of more than 7% in the past year, before any major redevelopment.[3]

Major developments in the data infrastructure sector including the commissioning of the Seacom link, the growth of the country's fibre optic and the introduction of digital television signals is expected to have a dramatic impact on the level of connectivity in areas such as the Eastern and southern Cape.

The new digital platform gives advertisers an important and creative new vehicle to reach the market in these areas and to target specific communities of interest within them, one whose impact can be enhanced if used strategically in concert with print. Special cross-platform rates are available.

The newspapers' new web platforms can be found at http://www.theherald.co.za and http://www.weekendpost.co.za/.

The new mobisite is at http://m.theherald.co.za.

[1] Nielsen Online

[2] Google Analytics

[3] Nielson Online