Liam Kirkaldy, Online Editor for Holyrood Magazine, said: “We worked with ESco over the summer to build a media website suitable for news, long-read features and comment pieces, while also hosting information on the events side of our business. I am delighted with what they came up with – ESco helped create a modern, fresh site, which is quick and easy to use, while presenting content from our print magazine in a stylish and attractive way.”
“From the start of the process ESco’s project team quickly got to work in understanding what we need from a site, and since our launch in October continue to develop the platform as required.”
The brief from Holyrood was to improve the look and feel of the site and, by improving the dwell time from readers, open up additional commercial opportunities. The site is structured with the following functionality:
- News – breaking news published on a daily basis, with topic-based related article links to similar content.
- Comment – longer deep-dive reads with comment and analysis from Holyrood’s writers.
- Events – Holyrood has been providing event management for nearly two decades and runs nearly 100 Policy Briefings, 20 Conferences and 4 Awards annually. This part of the site is used to promote and register people to these events.
- Commercial Opportunities – ESco has integrated with various platforms to serve up personalised and relevant advertising, both from the in-house Dod’s team, but also from other video or ad platforms. These have been implemented to be as engaging as possible, without obstructing the reader from consuming the content.
- Content Hubs – with so much content being produced by the Holyrood team, it was important to tie related content together into hubs either by topic or writer. This helps the reader to find the most relevant content, but also aids with SEO.
“We have received really positive feedback from our audience while our page views have increased significantly in the first month following the rollout,” said Liam Kirkaldy.
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