This follows the launches of new mobile-optimised Web sites and apps across four of the publisher’s largest titles over the past few months, which have resulted in unprecedented audience numbers in January 2016, says Johnston Press.
These plans form part of Johnston Press’ sharpened focus on digital and mobile usage; as a result, the business says it hit record-breaking figures for unique users in January this year, with an increase of 20% from the same period in 2015, based on internal tracking systems.
Further to this, news sites for The Yorkshire Post, The Sheffield Star and Portsmouth News, all of which underwent a revamp in the past two months, have seen growth in unique users in January 2016 against the same period in 2015.
The 11 titles set to be re-designed in March and April include The Edinburgh Evening News, The Yorkshire Evening Post and The Lancashire Evening Post and will offer fully responsive, mobile-first platforms to provide users with a better, faster experience on whatever device they are using, and improved integration of display and native advertising for customers. In order to drive its mobile strategy and as part of these refreshes, Johnston Press is introducing new native apps for iOS and Android tablets and phones as part of the business’ wider commitment to engage its most loyal and frequent users and attract new audiences.
Johnston Press says it is seeing native app engagement up to nearly five times higher than mobile web browsing, and will continue to scale out the apps, which offer best-of-breed functionality including offline reading, push notifications, location-targeting advertising and algorithmic-optimised content.
Jeff Moriarty, Chief Digital and Product Officer at Johnston Press, said, “As with other publishers, we have seen a large shift of readership to mobile devices, and we are responding to that shift through new products that are faster and more usable on all platforms, and with content that is created with the mobile reader in mind. We are also pleased that we have new native apps that form a new, important part of our product mix, for both engaging readers, and providing us with new monetisation opportunities.”
