Putting the House in Order

By: Rich Kane

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently moved from a three-bedroom house to a 10-bedroom house. No, newspaper staffing levels haven’t fallen so drastically that journalists are now forced to live and work together in quiet suburban neighborhoods—yet.

The housing analogy actually belongs to Mark Medici, vice president of audience for Cox Media Group. That’s how he describes the rollout of his company’s new “reimagined” websites for its four major newspapers, which also include the Austin American-Statesman, the Palm Beach Post, and the Dayton Daily News.

The Journal-Constitution was the first site that underwent the revamp, and it’s a thing of newspaper website beauty—heavy with photos, less text clutter, smartphone-friendly, easily navigable, a real-time traffic map, and a new emphasis on hyperlocal terrain with a special Neighborhoods tab. Check out ajc.com and see for yourself.

“We’ve had tremendous feedback, and part of the response has been, ‘Wow, this is so different,” said Medici. “There’s significantly more content now. We went from a very text-driven to a very visual site. That can be hard for some to digest, but we really needed to do it.”

A major reason for all the new Cox sites is one familiar to every publisher of traditional print media: Capturing younger audiences.

“The average age on ajc.com is over 40 years old, so we need to make sure we’re engaging our audience earlier in their lives,” said Medici. “The average age of Facebook and Twitter visitors who come to us is 32. We needed to figure out how to get them to stay awhile when they come to us.”

Part of that plan is the simultaneous launch of in-site verticals dedicated to topics like Southeastern Conference college sports, which Medici said have already proven popular. The relaunch also meant a new design for the Journal-Constitution’s mobile version, which Medici said was an essential element on account that 45 percent of the site traffic originates from the mobile site.

Advertisers were asked for their input on the new design, and Medici said they were “thrilled with how they were included in the process.” Both desktop and mobile versions of the new ajc.com feel very brand-friendly—there are ads that appear with every finger-flick, mostly in small squares around the news content.

“It was a complete rethinking,” Medici said. “Now the site is more adaptable to advertiser needs. We can sell advertising around our weather and traffic features better, and try to do a better job with sponsorship and native to really sell our audience.”

On that native note, Medici said the church-state line between news and ads will still be firmly drawn at the Cox papers.

“I’ve been in the newspaper industry long enough to remember when native ads were called ‘advertorial.’ At the end of the day, we’re here to provide news and information to our audience. We don’t have as many original content providers as we used to, so we want to be transparent with the audience and the newsroom and those internal processes. But we would never do anything that would put the Journal-Constitution in the position where it looks like we’re just trying to make a few bucks."