Raconteur Media writes: It has literally been a ‘roller-coaster ride’ for the publisher, which has maintained its obsession with high-quality editorial and a solution-driven approach. Raconteur took the step into the digital ‘wilderness’ just short of six months ago, though it is sure to be a step in the right direction, as the new website showcases Raconteur’s content, originally published for The Times and Sunday Times newspapers, in a much more engaging, dynamic fashion.
Recognising a problem common to publishers today, Raconteur found itself stumped with a digital content site that did not correspond to its offering in print. Yet with content worth over £1,000,000, the team was faced with the classic question of how to bring it online with the same, if not greater, impact – whilst also surpassing what everyone else was already doing in the world of digital publishing.
After weeks of glamorous pitches, followed by months of hard graft, Raconteur has a ‘finished’ product which marks a new beginning to their offering online. The priority? “UX, UX and beautiful design” says Seema Aggarwal, responsible for Raconteur’s digital offering. “In a market where you are battling for time, user experience and engagement had to be a priority. With an audience that is increasingly switching between desktop and mobile devices to consume our content, it is important for us to ensure that the experience for them remains consistent in doing so.”
The new Raconteur website is fully responsive and occupies an extended width of the screen, using a 16:9 aspect ratio. It is particularly image-driven; packed with pull quotes and illustrations and highlighting official statistics in a way that has traditionally only been seen in Raconteur’s print reports. In a nod to its expertise with data visualisation, the new site also has an entire section dedicated to its infographics and dashboards. Readers can re-arrange infographics according to category of choice and then explore each infographic in detail using a specially-built zoom function, quite like the traditional magnifying glass.
Raconteur also unveils exciting features and functionality, an in-house favourite being the ‘appreciate’ function, which is a sophisticated take on the Facebook ‘Like’ button, allowing readers to show their approval for an article without any obligation to ‘share’ it. Other developments include a brand new tagging system and ‘shuffle’ functions to enable quicker content discovery. For the first time, Raconteur’s contributors can also be found on the new site, allowing readers to easily access content by each of Raconteur’s high pedigree journalists in one search.
The launch also sees a merge of Raconteur’s corporate and content websites, with the corporate section showcasing the additional strands of expertise Raconteur Media brings to the wider domain of publishing and content marketing. Freddie Ossberg, Raconteur’s Founder and Managing Director, notes that “having honed our expertise in creating special reports for The Times and Sunday Times over the last five years, Raconteur’s content is unlike anything else you would find in newsprint. We have now expanded our offering to other areas of publishing, and the new website launch was the perfect opportunity to let people know exactly what Raconteur Media has to offer.”
It doesn’t end there: following launch, Raconteur readers can also expect to see the commissioning of fresh content specifically for the web and the animation of its infographics. The ambitious publisher also has plans to take the user experience to new media in 2014, making their content available across different platforms including podcast and video.
The new website includes a domain move to www.raconteur.net
