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Moving beyond SEO and print deadlines: ambitions for the new editor of Guardian.co.uk

Moving beyond search engine optimisation (SEO), learning to co-ordinate related content in one place, and thinking outside of print deadlines, are the challenges ahead for Janine Gibson in her new role as editor of Guardian.co.uk, she told Journalism.co.uk.

Gibson, whose appointment was announced earlier today, leaves her position as head of G3 and MediaGuardian editor-in-chief, to oversee the day-to-day content management of Guardian.co.uk in a newly created position.

This week's election coverage was an opportunity for a team that is in transition, as it changes to a new 'pod' arrangement ahead of the newspaper's move to its new home, at Kings Place.

The coverage was a 'big news exercise as an integrated team', said Gibson, who was 'really, really pleased with how it worked.'

"We had a bit of a learning curve with the Olympics, working with an integrated sport team, and tried different tricks versioning it for a UK audience waking up at 7 o'clock.

"We learnt lots then about simple navigational stuff while we were covering the election, which I think really helped," she said. 

"When you track people running round the site, [you realise] it's no good doing 500 things if you're not telling people about the 500 things, and they're not in a central place."

Looking at it from the users' perspective 'is not rocket science', she said, adding that a newspaper site now needs to look beyond SEO.

"It is not just Google discovery – it's about network discovery. It's a really good part of my job - finding different ways for getting content to people, and making sure that what we do is [easily] available," she added.

Gibson said that Guardian.co.uk was fortunate in that a large proportion of its traffic comes from the homepage.

"No-one needs convincing that SEO is important anymore - that job's already been done," she said. 

Recent projects, in particular looking at 'keywording', have helped bring related content together on the site, she said.

In general, her approach to the site will be 'joined-up', something aided by the new editorial pod structure.

The pod teams will complement the nature of online publishing:  "It's incredibly beneficial for the web to have vertical teams," she said. 

Gibson said that she wants to continue to breakdown the distinction between print and online, and to change the schedule for when material goes live online.

"At the moment there's a sort of dynamic about when things get published, which is partly to do with when we get to work in the morning and partly to do with when they're ready to go up," she said.

"There are huge questions for us on releasing content: when we release content and what that does for our traffic. We don't know the answers yet, but we are looking at that."

Tags (click tag to find related articles; click icon for feed):
guardian | olympics | seo | management change | janine gibson | us election | print deadline |

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