Case Studies
- Content Management
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The Business Magazine
URL: www.businessmag.co.uk
Application: Content Managed Publishing
Finalist
in the
2009 Kentico
Web Site of the Year Awards.
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Goals and Challenges
The Business Magazine (www.businessmag.co.uk) is a regional magazine
based in the southern counties of the United Kingdom. It provides an
important information source for all sizes of business in the region.
It was decided to substantially improve its online presence and provide
an easy-to-use business news resource for its readers. Additionally, online
versions of the printed publications were to be made available.
All content needed to be managed by the journalists and editorial staff
directly, and the website needed to be easy to search and navigate. Online
advertising was to be provided and advertising statistics needed to be
readily available to both the advertisers and the magazine’s management.
Solutions
The website took 3 months to design and build. The Kentico CMS Enterprise
Edition was selected to provide the necessary features and the facility to
manage its content. Before the website was made live, it was necessary to
import several hundred news articles from the archive. This was done using a
bulk import tool.
The website was developed specifically to be easy for the editors and
authors to update. The news articles were implemented using standard Kentico
web parts and they are edited via "User Contributions", rather than the CMS
Desk itself, in order to make the website available to the broadest range of
content authors.
The "Previous Editions" section allows the viewing of online versions of
the printed magazines using Adobe Flash. This was implemented using the
Kentico media libraries and it is very easy for the editors to add the
latest version of the magazine each month.
The website also utilises the Kentico RSS newsfeed web part and a monthly
opinion poll web part that encourages more interactivity within the website.
Finally, an XML-based Ad rotator system was implemented to be able to
offer banner advertising on specific pages and positions in the website, and
to provide comprehensive Ad click statistics. This was developed as a
custom-built web part and is being made available by Discover IT as a
Kentico "add-on".
Results
The new design, better organization and enhanced branding achieved
by the site resulted in a big increase in both site visitors and visits.
Monthly page views have more than doubled from 55,000 for the old website
to 118,000 for the new site.
Web advertising is being promoted for the new site. Despite the 2009
economic downturn, the initial response has been very encouraging and this
has been due largely to the improved design and functionality of the site,
and the increased site traffic.
The next stage will be to encourage clients to join The Business Magazine site
and to submit their own material. They will be able to “tap” into the growing
readership; while The Business Magazine will be able to offer its readers
a greater depth of resource.
Key criteria for selecting Kentico CMS
Discover IT chose Kentico CMS because it offered a complete set of required
features at a competitive price. It was important to us to use a CMS developed
with the latest ASP.Net technology and that was backed by a comprehensive
support organization. The Business Magazine has many plans to enhance the
website in the future and we are confident that Kentico will enable us to do so,
quickly and easily.
"We were impressed with how quickly
the new Business Magazine website came to life. For the first time, we have
an online presence that can be managed comprehensively by our own staff and
gives us the ability to post the latest information on our website quickly
and efficiently. The readership boost is very important to our business."
David Murray,
CEO
Elcot Publications Ltd.
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