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Online Journalism News

Daily Mail launches website redesign in beta

Posted: 16/04/08 By: Laura Oliver
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Screenshot of beta version of Daily Mail website

The Daily Mail has opened a beta version of its new website to gauge audience reaction to proposed design changes.

The beta version features content from the main site's sport and showbiz channels with more content to be added in the next few days.

The redesign includes a new masthead, a navigation bar with drop down previews of section headlines, the introduction of a central picture gallery and a wider page format to match the growth in popularity of high-definition computer screens.

A bookmarking function has been introduced allowing users to save stories on a personalised page.

In addition, the right hand column has been given over to articles from the newspaper's popular Femail section.

(Take the Journalism.co.uk poll - is the redesign any good?)

To facilitate the new look and bring the site 'up to date' the paper has built and implemented a new content management and web publishing system that can be altered 'on the hoof' for individual stories and in response to breaking news.

Developers felt this major overhaul necessitated a live trial rather than a closed in-house testing period.

"We just thought there is no way that in one day we can train people to use a new system, a new site and hope that the whole thing works in one," Martin Clarke, editorial director of Mail Online, told Journalism.co.uk.

The redesigned site, Clarke added, is based on existing parts of Mail Online that work well with the addition of bigger pictures and bright sections for showbiz and Femail. A 'busy' page design, which has proved popular with readers, is also a key feature.

"We're not chasing page impressions, what matters is: are you producing a product that people find enjoyable and want to spend time with. It's pointless chasing clicks," said Clarke.

The test site will continue running until as many glitches as possible have been identified and fixed, he added.

"No newspaper's really done this before, they usually just take a deep breath and hope for the best, which we can see from previous experiences can be a bit risky. We've done something quite ambitious," he said.

The trial site, which is accessible between 9am and 7pm weekdays, directs users to a forum area in which they can provide feedback to assist the developers.

Reaction to the revamp will be measured from this user feedback and from monitoring behaviour on different parts of the site.

Comparisons between how the same articles perform on MailOnline and the new beta test areas will also be used as a benchmark.

Yesterday the paper's publisher Associated Newspapers claimed its network of websites and print products have a combine reach of 22 million adults a month in Britain.

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