Handelsblatt launches the new rethink of its digital platforms: It is a great day of celebration for our clients at Handelsblatt, Germany’s most influential financial newspaper, as the newly redesigned and rethought digital platforms are launched. We at Garcia Media are honored to have accompanied the Handelsblatt team through this major undertaking. The work readers will see today is the result of months of discussions, workshops, creation of various concepts.
Editor-in-chief Sebastian Mathes introduced the new website design today:
It’s been many months since a dedicated team of editors, designers, UXers and developers came together to discuss the question of what the digital Handelsblatt of the future might look like? Then many more meetings followed, a lot of work. You can see the result of all this today… … we have completely revised our digital offering.
Overall, the #Website has become more compact, newsier and yet more elegant. It shows much better what the Handelsblatt has long been: a 24/7 news organization that offers extensively researched, exclusive #Wirtschaftsjournalismus from all over the world around the clock.
The new look
Above you see the visual continuity that prevails across platforms.
When we first started working on the rethink of this website, Sebastian Mathes had assumed the role of editor in chief. Transformation and major changes were in the air, and Sebastian asked the crucial question:
“How can Handelsblatt, already the trusted financial news content source in Germany, become faster in delivering the news to its readers? How can we be truly a mobile-first operation, while keeping a vibrant and informative print edition?”
Mathes’ question became the centerpiece of our project. Interesting for me as the consultant was the fact that the print and digital projects ran parallel to each other.
I worked closely with Handelsblatt art director, Michel Becker, on how to make the print edition for both daily and weekend more visually appealing, while introducing content and design elements that would make print a perfect companion to digital. That was accomplished and the print relaunch took place ahead of the digital. Read those blog posts about print rethink here:
Now comes a new website redesign
What are some of the new features in the Handelsblatt website:
- Improved navigation, allowing for quicker access to latest financial and political news.
- Faster access to comments and analysis pieces.
- Better choices for readers who may wish to get a quick summary, or the more in-depth version of the story.
- Overall, a healthy combination of content that includes breaking news as well as in depth analysis of trends and what Editor Mathes refers to as “the big questions of our time: How are technological disruptions changing the economy? “
- Listen to a Handelsblatt podcast while navigating the site. For busy readers, this is a win win aspect of the newly rethought website.
Lean forward, lean back
During our many discussions and workshops, the theme of offering short snippets of information as well as in depth was important and a centerpiece of the workshops.
Digital readers today wish to have both. I refer to this as “leaning forward and leaning back”. We lean forward dozens of times a day into our phones to check the latest. Those lean forward moments involve quick breaks from our other activities. In such moments, all we want is snippets of information, headlines and summaries, then we decide if we will lean back later to read a more in depth version. The new Handelsblatt website offers those two strategies for consuming content: lean forward when you need to, lean back to read in depth when the time allows. Research shoes that most readers do exactly that. You may lean forward on the phone, but lean back on the iPad, for example. This is what we refer to as content consumption across platforms. In fact, many Handelsblatt readers will also lean back with the print edition.
New home page
Article page
Internal navigation menu
The role of advertising
Advertisers who wish to have their product highlighted can opt for this background wallpaper approach:
Read more about this launch:
All other details about the relaunch can be found here: https://lnkd.in/ekaQKRsz
The team
I worked closely with Henrik Balzer and Andreas Kleinadel, two talented digital designers. Others involved:
Charlotte Haunhorst, Tobias Böhnke, Christian Herp, Jens Küste rs, Janina Reimann, Oliver Krehnke, Stefan Kaufmann, Christina Poppers, Pavel Kanovich, Victoria Jagalski, Sebastian Pieper
Pre-order my new AI book here
Here is a chance to pre-order my new book about Artificial Intelligence and content creation. The first 25 copies sold will be signed! Order here:
https://thaneandprose.com/…/preorder-ai-what-to-expect…
AI front and center
As I put finishing touches on the manuscript of my new book, AI: The Next Revolution for Content Creation, I am aware that the number of AI-related headlines that appear in my mailbox daily is on the increase, frustrating the author of a book that must have a date of completion, and realizing that in today’s fast paced technological advance environment, books must have websites created for updates.
For more about my new AI book, go here:
Other AI-related blog posts
ChatGPT gets competition–say hello to Claude 2
https://garciamedia.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=21948&action=edit
Of related interest
https://newspaperdesign.in/ai-is-the-next-big-media-revolutionmario-garcia/
Newsrooms around the planet have gone mobile-first after a Garcia Media workshop!
Our Garcia Media Mobile Storytelling workshops are proven to introduce your editorial team to the way we write, edit and design for mobile platforms. It is a one-day program that involves a presentation (where I summarize my Columbia University class content), and follow it with a hands on workshop.
Did you read The Story yet?
I urge you to consult my latest book, The Story, a trilogy full of tips and explanations about mobile storytelling, which represents the latest genre for journalists to explore. See information below:
The full trilogy of The Story now available–3 books to guide you through a mobile first strategy. Whether you’re a reporter, editor, designer, publisher, corporate communicator, The Story is for you! https://amazon
Volume 1: Transformation
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-story-volume-i/id1480169411
Volume Two: Storytelling
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-story-volume-ii/id1484581220
Volume Three: Design
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-story-volume-iii/id1497049918
Order the print edition of The Story, from Amazon, here:
The Story, en español:
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