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The first in the new generation of Northcliffe Media local sites has gone live, in what will be a company-wide programme of relaunching all its web titles. Thisishullandeastriding.co.uk is the first revamped site to be rolled out as part of a project to replace the company's older platforms and launch new local local and hyperlocal 'this is' sites.

Northcliffe eventually aims to increase its number of Thisis sites from 56 to 87.

Robert Hardie, content strategy director at Northcliffe, told Journalism.co.uk the focus of the evolution was to build stability and search performance into the new sites.

"The old system had been massively outgrown by the amount of traffic we were getting - to say it was creaking at the seams would be an understatement," he said.

"Secondly, the core code of the old system was written before Google was launched, so it was about as search-unfriendly as you could get."

Redeveloping the sites, Hardie added, allowed Northcliffe to add new elements of functionality in response to reader demand and made it easier for its local journalists to create web-specific stories and make better use of multimedia content.

The next revamped site is expected to be launched in five weeks and the full rollout to be complete by the end of the financial year.

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Written by
ruth morgan

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