Welcome to Our Digitally Remastered Website
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — As of midnight today, The Business Journal’s online readers are experiencing a fresh look to the publication that has as many upgrades behind the scenes as it does front-and-center.
Immediately standing out on the homepage is a greater emphasis on photos and video, as well as modernized fonts and a streamlined site organization.
And as a big part of being “digitally remastered,” the new site’s video content now accommodates instant loading, and all content can be searchable through an even deeper archive.
Other back-end upgrades that will benefit users include stronger analytics to allow for such information as what subject matter various segments of the readership want to see, and easier uploading of stories and photos for The Business Journal staffers, which enables faster updates to breaking news.
At the same time, an Instagram account is now active (@thebizjournal) as another social media channel to enhance the visual elements of the business publication’s reporting.
“Our online readership is the fastest-growing segment of our audience, and these changes were needed to keep us current with technology and improve the user experience,” said Business Journal Publisher Andrea Wood. “We want to keep growing online and through our new website, we’ll be able to accommodate that.”
The new site enables consistent quality for both video and written content whether it’s being viewed on a mobile device, tablet or desktop computer.
CYO Marketing and Jet Creative Productions, both based downtown, partnered with Wood and her team to execute the redesigned site. CYO Marketing, with offices in the Youngstown Business Incubator, focused on strategy and social media marketing, while Jet Creative Productions, housed at 16 Wick Ave., managed the design and programming.
“Ultimately it was about making the site more responsive to the end user,” Dennis Schiraldi, owner of CYO Marketing, said. “We optimized the functionality of the videos, streamlined the site’s navigation and modernized the design and fonts, all geared to enhancing the viewer’s overall experience.”
“Our aim for the project was to create a strong first impression for visitors by emphasizing the compelling videos and photos that are such a key component to The Business Journal’s reporting,” said Emily Rusu, partner, Jet Creative Productions. “Additionally, we balanced the strong visuals with well-organized written content that’s logical for visitors to navigate through and find what they’re looking for.”
BusinesJournalDaily.com site has experienced a 20% annual growth rate in unique visitors over the past five years, reaching 60,000 per month today. The data, Wood said, includes a growing readership of Mahoning Valley natives who now reside elsewhere but want to keep tabs on hometown business news.
“Our numbers show that readers recognize the volume of original content we publish online — it’s almost totally different from what’s published in our print edition — and through the new website the infrastructure is in place to accommodate growing our online viewership even more,” Wood said.
The Business Journal, locally owned and operated by the Youngstown Publishing Co., is now in its 31st year of covering the Mahoning Valley business climate, The Business Journal publishes 24 print editions per year, plus it produces daily, original news content on its website, an online Daily BUZZ webcast and twice-daily email updates. In 2014, Wood and The Business Journal were selected “Business of the Year” by the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
