When we announced our name change and strategic realignment last month, we also unveiled a shiny, colorful new website. In addition to the modern look and feel, and incorporating mobile-responsive technology, the new website boasts a number of new features that showcase the latest and greatest Alliance content, tools and resources for members. Here are five of our favorites:
1. A Home Page with Looks and Brains
Our new home page aims to make a strong first impression through utilization of visual media, first and foremost of which is a looping video of today’s news media consumers, consuming news across all platforms. But it’s not just a pretty face. The home page acts as a gateway for members and non-members to explore the brains, or substance of the site, including the newest stories, reports, events and resources, with a quick scroll or swipe.
Scroll past the video and you come to a handy grid that shows our latest content, starting with the most recent. Just click on any color block to be taken to the piece of content, or click on the categories running along the top of the grid to see stories on frequent topics such as Advertising, Advocacy, Audience, Digital, Journalism and more. Or, you can sort the grid by Most Recent or Most Popular.
The grid can also be advanced by hovering your mouse over it and scrolling or, on a mobile device, swiping to reveal the next set of content.
2. Simplified Top Menu Nav
At the top of every page is the main navigation that organizes Alliance content into key topics:
News & Insights: Includes our articles and blog posts, CEO Column and Five Answers column
Advocacy: Contains updates, statements and commentary on those public policy issues important to our industry and on which the Alliance is actively engaged
Research & Tools: Houses our member-only resources, such as audience and circulation research and reports, ads for members and Alliance webinar recaps
About Us: Read more about the Alliance, view our latest press releases and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, newsXchange
Membership: Learn about becoming a member of the Alliance and log-in to access member-only content
Events: Get information about our annual mediaXchange conference, read about our in-house experts or sign up for our next webinar.
3. Taking Out the Guess Work
If you still can’t find what you’re looking for or if you’re in a rush, you can simply do a quick search to locate it. Just click on the magnifying glass in the top-right corner in the menu bar and type one or more words or phrases to bring up articles that fit what you’re looking for.
4. Hamburgers and Sliders
We love a good burger or slider, but on our site, we’re not talking about the kind you put ketchup on; we’re talking about the kind that add awesome functionality! Viewing the site on a mobile device, the top menu bar is condensed for maximum viewability. To access the menu and navigate the pages of the site, click on the “hamburger” in the top-right, which is a stack of horizontal lines resembling the fave food. On many of the landing pages, an interactive “slider” appears at the top containing our latest headlines. You can click on the arrows to see up to three top stories we’ve featured and click on them to view the story.
5. Getting Social
Each article on the site features social sharing icons that make for quick and easy sharing on major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We’d love for you to share our content with your followers and use it as a conversation-starter.
We also encourage you to follow us on our News Media Alliance social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube), where we share regular updates on industry developments, events and interesting content (our own and that from other sources).
As with any new website, since we launched a few weeks ago we have been working diligently to improve the user experience on the new site. Updates we’ve made since the launch have improved the member log-in process and events page.*
We hope you love the new site as much as we do.
So take a look around, and stay awhile.
*As always, members needing log-in assistance can email membership@newsmediaalliance.org or call 1-844-565-4622.
Lindsey is Director, Communications at the News/Media Alliance. She has over 15 years of experience working in communications for nonprofits.
