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Independent publisher relaunches regional news website

An independent publisher has relaunched its regional news website with more stories on its homepage.

The KM Group has carried out a “fundamental redesign” of its Kent Online site, which also features a responsive template which makes access and navigation easier for readers using mobile devices.

A total of 20 stories now appear on the homepage, alongside an increased presence for the group’s video and radio output.

The redesign was carried out by the group’s in-house team of designers and developers.

Kent Online revamp

Ian Carter, KM Group editorial director, told HTFP: “We’ve got an audited audience of 2.4m unique monthly browsers so this is aimed at increasing page impressions and time spent on site as we know there’s a ceiling on the audience we can reach in Kent.”

Up to 70pc of the site’s traffic now comes from readers on mobile devices.

Ian added: “We’ve also increased the number of mobile advertising units whilst ensuring we don’t bombard readers with interstitials of take-overs.

“User reaction has been really positive, which we were pleasantly surprised by given people typically don’t like change.

“One piece of feedback we received from a number of readers was the navigation to find news from their town, so we made some immediate changes to make that aspect simpler.”