The publishers describe it as the UK’s “most modern, technologically-advanced and scalable regional media publishing model” and the next step in its “mission to revolutionise regional media”.
SoPublishing’s new model has been launched in-line with the 15-year anniversary of its flagship title SoGlos which is now powered by the new technology.
Spearheaded by co-founders Michelle Fyrne and James Fyrne, the relaunch follows an intensive year-long project drawing upon a decade-and-a-half experience, coupled with a substantial six-figure investment.
New membership functionality gives SoGlos’s readers the chance to take their user experience to a new level – strengthening, say the publishers, brand loyalty, encouraging return visits, while directly driving dwell time.
Members can create a profile and sign in to MySoGlos to co-create their own lists, such as ‘new restaurants to try’, ‘things to do with the kids this summer’ or ‘new employers to track’ for example – in addition to favouriting and saving news, events or hot lists. They can also make their profile and lists public, to share them with friends, family and colleagues.
Other additional membership benefits and functions also mean that SoGlos’s rich first-party-data will allow for personalised content and tailored delivery, improving the user experience, as well as offering advertisers’ targeted audience profiles.
SoGlos says it expects to reach 50,000 members by the end of 2022 and 100,000 by the end of 2023.
Project-led by SoGlos co-founders Michelle Fyrne and James Fyrne, the bespoke-built back office CMS and frontend website was built from scratch using .NET 6 technology by web development company 16i.
While SoCMS is now powering SoGlos, it has been built with scalability in mind – to create a blueprint model which can be rolled out to power any city, country or region – paving the way for expansion across the UK.
The technology means new So brands can be spawned in less than two hours and are fully customisable by teams in a specific area – without the need to invest in further web development, say Michelle and James.
“Bespoke built with our three key stakeholders in mind from the offset – readers, advertisers and our journalists – we’re confident the all-new SoPublishing model is superior to anything else in UK regional media, and we’re excited to now see its potential realised,” said SoPublishing co-founder, Michelle Fyrne.
“The So brand is perfectly positioned to embrace post-pandemic positivity and our tech-first approach will empower SoGlos – and future titles – to regain reader confidence and market share over national news brands and social media platforms,” Michelle Fyrne continued.
