The Toronto Star has launched a revamped version of its website, intended to improve reader engagement with the content.
A lot has changed since the site last underwent design changes nearly four years ago, said Pam Laycock, chief operating officer, Torstar digital and interim vice-president, digital media, Star Media Group.
“Design principles have changed, the world of social media has made itself known,” she said. “We wanted to make sure we took advantage of what the new world of the web is and all the web 2.0 aspects of it.”
Visitors to TheStar.com can now decide how they want to view the news, choosing from a standard view, a visual, timeline or grid view.
The visual view for instance, presents stories accompanied with video or photos in a grid. Readers can search news items as far back as 1987.
The timeline view allows readers that visit the site more than once a day to view the most recently added stories. The page will list the articles in reverse chronological order, to show readers what was posted since the last time they visited the site.
The homepage also now features a “Hot Topics” navigation bar and a “Most Popular” box that features the most read, most commented and most e-mailed stories.
“We wanted to make sure we were taking a step forward in terms of how we present the news and give our readers new and exciting ways to interact and engage with the news,” said Laycock.
Advertisers will also benefit from the new design, she added.
TheStar.com now offers small super button executions for local Toronto advertisers who can’t necessarily afford a full leader board or big box ad.
In addition, the site has enabled three new ad units made available by the Online Publishers Association, said Laycock.
Air Canada, Cadbury, Apple, RIM, Bell and American Express are among the site’s advertisers.
