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NEWS WEBSITE OF THE YEAR - The Times www.thetimes.co.za
Anyone who has been keeping an eye on the month-on-month traffic stats over the last year would have noticed the massive strides made by The Times. They’ve gone from literally being a negligible presence to being in the local top 10 – and in terms of news, only lagging behind the two big ones, News24 and IOL.
They offer an excellent example of what can be achieved by putting some decent resources behind a website. Contrasted with, say, the flagging fortunes of Iafrica.com, they seem a textbook example of how to grow a site.
Beyond the substantial investment, The Times was also helped by the site’s clean three-column layout and the decision to pitch it a bit higher than News24’s bottom-scraping lowest common denominator.
BEST LAYOUT – Mail and Guardian Online www.mg.co.za
While IOL and News24 are still struggling with cluttered, outdated layouts, both Iafrica and MG had major re-designs this year. Though The Times also looks pretty good in comparison, the winner must be MG.
The sites three-column layout seems cleaner and more orderly than that of The Times. In addition, the large picture on the front page really works. (It seems people are finally catching on to larger pictures)
Unlike Iafrica, for example, the re-design was also more than skin-deep. Few things rankle as much as a site where the front end is not aligned with the site’s underlying structure. The creation of sections like “Courts” was also a brave and well-thought-out move.
On the whole, MG is probably the only site in South Africa that can really be compared to industry-leaders such as The New York Times or The Guardian. Had it not been for their difficulties in growing traffic they would have been my pic for site of the year.
SURPRISE OF THE YEAR – Beeld www.beeld.com
After years of neglect, the Afrikaans media finally started taking online media a bit more seriously over the last two or so years. Riding the crest of this wave, is Beeld’s website. (Beeld is the country’s largest daily newspaper by some margin.)
Essentially, their phenomenal rise in traffic in 2008 is due to two things: 1. There was a massive void waiting to be filled in online Afrikaans, and 2. they have a very strong newspaper brand and infrastructure to leverage.
Like MG though, they are operating in a niche, and even though there are lots of growth potential yet to be exploited, there will be a sealing.
Check back soon for my predictions for 2009.
