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Major overhaul for MEN Media websites

The Manchester Evening News and its sister weeklies have unveiled a new-look website designed to be more interactive and image-led.

Writing in yesterday’s edition, head of online content Paul Gallagher promised the changes would mean “bigger pictures, brighter features and greater reader interaction.”

Among the changes are the addition of more Mannchester United and Manchester City news to the homepage together with TV and showbiz gossip.

Meanwhile the main navigation menu moves from the left-hand sidebar to the top of the page.

The site has also adopted a new URL, menmedia.co.uk, common to the MEN and all the weekly titles.

Readers will be able to click on more local news by using a ‘change location’ feature at the top right of the page.

The adoption of a single URL for all 17 titles will also make their stories more visible on search engines.

Said Paul: “In the past we had been penalised in search engine optimisation because all the content was split over different domains. It’s also to keep in tune with how we work as we are all now under one roof.”

The new site had already been in the piepline before the recent sale of the MEN and its sister titles to Trinity Mirror,

However Paul said the ew owners were “more than happy” with the site and did have some input into the final version.

Comments

Jim Stones (18/05/2010 14:16:16)
Haven’t they ripped off the BBC red? No wonder the owners are “more than happy”.