Avusa Media Launches Times Live

Posted on 09. Oct, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

Launched on Monday, 14 September, Times LIVE (www.timeslive.co.za) is the new and improved digital home of the Sunday Times and The Times. The revamped news site represents the first in a number of exciting digital developments at Avusa Media. Times LIVE combines a fresh new look and feel together with a new web content management system, the first milestone project in an effort to become SA’s leading online publisher. Times LIVE replaces the existing web domain of www.thetimes.co.za.

By revamping and rebranding The Times website to Times LIVE, groundwork is being laid to become the number one digital destination for South African and African news.

The site carries improved major news sections, new special interest subsections and sleekly redesigned multimedia and blog sections offering better functionality. The Times Mobile site has also been rebranded, but retains its award-winning layout and design. The website design was a collaboration between an in-house design team and internationally renowned web design consultants Roger Black Studios. The design process also incorporated key findings from audience research and insights projects conducted on the site.

The new site also provides a far more comprehensive digital advertising platform as the revamp seeks to unlock far more volumes of page impressions by introducing new sections and subsections. In the same way it will also provide an opportunity to target niche audiences through these new sections. Some of the new sections include all major sports subsections under Sport, Sci-Tech, the Food, Travel and Books subsections within the new Life & Style section. The site will offer a combination of existing successful advertising sizes as well as new ones and will incorporate new sponsorship opportunities. The dedicated areas for the print newspapers on the site also allows advertisers to target readers particularly loyal to the print titles. Advertising on the new Times LIVE site is managed by dedicated digital sales company, Avusa Media Digital Sales, which is tasked to grow revenues across the group’s digital properties.

 
From a base of just over 240 000 unique users in September 2007, the audience has grown 180% to 691,571 unique users, according to July’s Nielsen Market Intelligence results. The next milestone for Times LIVE is to surpass 1-million unique monthly users. With the new look site, a stand-alone digital brand and a world-class web publishing platform; this is firmly within their grasp.

Times LIVE is built on the Escenic web content management system, used by other major international publications including The Telegraph, Aftonbladet, The Schibsted group and The Sun. It will enable better editorial management of the site; allow for better content integration, referencing and archiving as well as facilitating the integration of the print and online content on the website, a further step in the already successful newsroom convergence at The Times.

Other Avusa titles will roll out on the content management system soon, signalling the intent of the group to continue to invest and innovate in the digital space. Existing digital businesses of I-Net Bridge, Career Junction and MapIT contributed 23% of the Avusa Group’s 2009 EBIT (earnings before interest and tax).

Be more informed and visit Times LIVE online at www.timeslive.co.za or on your phone at http://m.timeslive.co.za