Story: Development of news media website
I wrote a blog a month ago.
How to Make a News/Magazine Website as Freelance Web/Graphic Designer – WordPress Theme
I decided the WP theme for a real project.
According to Google search, YouTube and reviews, these 4 WP themes can be the first choice.
My impression of JNews is not bad. I found 20+ templates for a news media website. If I want to improve the user interface, I can choose magazine templates which are also 20+ templates. JNews has a template that looks like a local news website. It is not visually stylish, but appropriate and functional.
Templates:
– News (default)
– Local News
Thinking about user experience
If you read a newspaper when you were in child, you may remember what contents on it. Not only economy and politics but there are also a bunch of content, sports, cooking, entertainment, opinion, local, classified, etc, on it. Why is that? Because the target of general news media is very wide, 10 years old to 80+ years old. They cannot provide information only for a specific target. There is some industrial newspaper, but my client is not. The client terminated printing and transferred to online. Therefore, I am thinking about how to generate leads as much as possible.
I observed one of the famous news media, the New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/
I checked the nav, category, slug, and footer. There are many contents and monetize ideas on it. We don’t have to do something innovative in each project. We need to research what the industry leaders and competitors are doing and think about why, behind the decision.
As a web designer for news media project, I have to maximize traffic and leads. For that, I propose contents idea to a client, making a story about why a user has to come website every day.
Daily column
My parents subscribed to a newspaper when I was a child. There was a daily column on the left-bottom corner of the front page. When I subscribed to the other newspaper when I was in my early 20s, it was the same. I assume that the newspaper format is nothing different from other countries.
I checked New York Times and NYT has a daily podcast, The Daily.
Opinion
A famous news media has a famous person, such as a columnist, journalist, economist, or professor. They have a certain amount of followers as a professional. They have a name value and should provide benefits to both writers and media.
I checked Bloomberg and I found BloombergOpinion.
Food, cocking, recipe, etc…
News media want to engage with females. Half of the human on the earth is women, News media cannot ignore it. The food-related topic is common. It is a recipe. If I think about the contents of a female target, it can be yoga, fashion, beauty, parenting, travel, etc. There are many possibilities of topics.
I was sure that NYT has a food section.
Gaming
Wordle was a trend in 2021. I heard the name on the national morning news in the United States. In the end, NYT purchased the business.
Wordle – Get 6 chances to guess a 5-letter word.
This is not unique. I saw often a crossword puzzle in the newspaper. Small gaming may be a reason to visit a website and stay longer. I searched for a gaming plugin for WordPress and I found it.
Anything else
I found tons of ideas on the footer, but I cannot simply copy them. As UX designer and design thinking, we need to think about business aspects. Is it increase user value and client sales? For that, we have to consider the market size and industry trends. Sports, movies, book review, event, art, education, real estate, etc… There are so many possibilities to generate leads. It will be able to utilize for monetizing.
How to monetize news website
– Display traditional banner ads
– Participate in pay-per-click
– Publish paid articles and sponsored links
– Paid subscription or paywall
– Expert opinion and reputation
These are traditional monetization. I also think sponsored, job board, classified, buy sell(home, car, etc), community, etc. Fundamentally, a website needs a lot of traffic. An article has to provide value, not only daily incidents. So that, the media needs a contributor/writer. Creating a sustainable business for everyone is key.
Google AdSense
I don’t know if all the news media are using AdSense, but I think this is common. I don’t say CPC ads are easy.
Conclusion: Monetization
I was thinking about monetization and a website. Basically, all websites should be monetized. In this case, I consider that a portfolio is also included. Someone contacts you through a portfolio website for creating something. It is not efficient as a monetized website, but it is okay.
I don’t know how much news media ads help someone’s life (and the advertiser in the results). I don’t know the ROI actually. In 20 decades, the website has transformed rapidly, web 1.0, web 2.0, and web 3.0. A website needs to update each era and it is good for a web designer.
The ad business model has to be updated to the next level. Banner, CCP, paywall, subscription, content, event, sponsor, social media, community, job board, classified, shop, etc. Anything else?
