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Bright new look for HoldtheFrontPage as website turns 15

HoldtheFrontPage is marking the 15th anniversary of its launch by unveiling a bright new look on a more mobile-friendly platform.

Our new fully-responsive site went live at lunchtime yesterday, in the week that HTFP marks 15 years since its launch in February, 2000.

The redesign, the first for nearly four years, is designed to give the homepage a more pictorial look and feel as well as greater prominence to the jobs search box which now appears on every page on the site.

The move to a responsive platform means that the web page you are viewing will change size according to the device you are using to access it.

htfp-launch-montage1

To coincide with the move, we are cutting our job advertising rates, with the two-week rate reduced from £325 + VAT to £275 + VAT and the cost of an unlimited listing cut from £450 + VAT to £375 +VAT.

In response to feedback, we have also made the registration process for employers and jobseekers easier, with fewer required fields on the sign-up page.

Other new features include a bigger and more flexible main content zone on the homepage for the top stories, and a much-improved jobs homepage with a UK map enabling users to search jobs more easily by region.

And to help drive debate and interaction, we will also be giving users the ability to ‘like’ story comments on the site and featuring ‘top comments’ in a new ‘Talking Point’ slot on the homepage.

In keeping with our name, there is a new homepage section dedicated to showcasing the best local and regional newspaper front pages.

And we have introduced new share apps on the left hand side of each individual page to make it easier for users to post our content to Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.

HoldtheFrontPage publisher Paul Linford said: “The 2011 redesign was very well-received so with this one we have aimed to evolve the look and feel of the site rather than have a total revamp.

“Over the past four years HTFP has seen strong growth with the number of jobs advertised on the site increasing from 503 in 2011 to 930 last year and revenues growing by an average of 9pc a year during the same period.

“I am confident this new platform will give us a solid foundation on which to continue this trend growth over the next few years as well as providing a better showcase for our content.

“Key to this will be growing our mobile traffic and the move to a fully-responsive platform will clearly leave us much better-placed to do this.”

htfp-launch-mobileonlyWhile retaining the main elements of the 2011 design, including the masthead, logo and main headline font, the new site features a more streamlined colour scheme based around maroon for content and green for jobs.

The changes mean that, for the first time, the whole site is now consolidated on a single, responsive platform in WordPress.

As ever, all HTFP jobs along with our archive of 26,000-plus stories will continue to be available to be freely viewed by anyone.

However as previously, in order to upload a job, post a CV, get job alerts, apply for a job online or search CVs, you will need to login or register here.

* The publisher would like to thank Steve Allen and Kat Wesley at our technical development provider Adaptive.co.uk for their work in building the new platform.

Please feel free to add your feedback in the comments below, but if you spot anything wrong or encounter any technical problems, please let us know via email at [email protected].

 

17 comments

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  • February 10, 2015 at 4:20 pm
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    Good luck with it? HTFP is only platform for letting
    People know what is really going on in media world

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  • February 10, 2015 at 4:33 pm
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    Best wishes for new site. Only place in media world where people get to know what is really going on and a chance to dispel some of the management spiel. As well as congratulate them on their brilliant ideas!

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  • February 10, 2015 at 5:45 pm
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    Call me old fashioned, (a traditional regional hack for 40 years) but I prefer newspaper-style web sites with a simple list of headline stories from which to pick and choose. This, like so many others, looks a bit messy. I suppose it’s progress, so keep up the good work.

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  • February 10, 2015 at 5:50 pm
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    Give me a simple list of headline stories, any day.

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  • February 10, 2015 at 11:14 pm
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    Well done, keeping things fresh is so important and that’s where newspapers constantly fall short. And it’s still miles better than Press Gazette’s design.

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  • February 11, 2015 at 8:36 am
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    Long overdue and nicely done. HTFP is doing a great job, and now has a website to match..
    Finally, isn’t it time you did something about updating/revising your horribly dated logo? It looks like something out of an ancient Adverkit book…

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  • February 11, 2015 at 9:09 am
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    Hope this proves a success: it takes a little getting used to not instantly seeing the number of comments to stories in one view, but other than that I like it. Exciting times!

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  • February 11, 2015 at 9:15 am
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    Happy birthday HTFP – and I wish you many more of them!

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  • February 11, 2015 at 10:03 am
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    I like the new look and wish you all the best but have you fixed the issue with comments going missing yet? I’ve posted comments against 2 or 3 articles in the past week or so but none have appeared. I suspect it’s to do with your system rather than them being moderated out.

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  • February 11, 2015 at 12:14 pm
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    Many happy returns for your 15th birthday.

    The redesign is certainly different – geared to make you want to ‘hold on’ to HTFP.

    It is undoubtedly a delicate balancing act to retain freshness in a static front page of a product which basically remains unchanged – in terms of presentation – from Monday through to Friday, week in, week out.

    Time will determine how successful you have been. At least the Bristol Post. and its readers, have already consigned their January 29 edition to the “dustbin of history”.

    Their efforts were about as impacting as the diagrams from a Louis van Gaal long-ball master class.

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  • February 11, 2015 at 12:53 pm
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    Having just logged on again, I notice that you can easily see the number of comments per story: I like what I see, so far. Wishing you continued success.

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  • February 11, 2015 at 2:11 pm
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    Struggling with it a bit at the moment, but that may be because I view it on a 7 inch tablet. I’m sure I will get more used to it, and good luck anyway. You produce an excellent publication.

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  • February 11, 2015 at 5:04 pm
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    The only problem is that the Facebook/Twitter etc tab on the left hand side of the screen annoyingly gets in the way of reading the stories.

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  • February 11, 2015 at 5:07 pm
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    You can remove it if you prefer just by clicking on the arrow underneath.

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  • February 11, 2015 at 11:48 pm
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    It’s OK, although I too like a list of headlines going from top to bottom, portrait style. It’s not natural to read landscape format – how many books intended to be read are in landscape? And please, please don’t be tempted to fall into Press Gazette’s hideous style, with teasers for the same stories repeated endlessly. I reckon they get about five items per front page, multiplied to 25 by teaser headers. Droves me potty. And – have you noticed? – PG has started putting sponsored content (teasers, natch) in among the news teasers & you’ve got to be smartish to spot ’em. Promise me you won’t do that.

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  • February 13, 2015 at 10:08 am
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    HTFP is doing a great job opening up the Kremlin that is British newspaper management.
    Worn-out old journos I know say it is better than the Press Gazette, which was the main news provider about the regional press up until 15-20 years or so ago.
    One old codger claims HTFP is better than World’s Press News, which closed down about 1971, though he uses a magnifying glass to see the small online print.

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