News Limited Advanced Classifieds Strategy:

This Australian newspaper publisher wanted a radically new information design for their classified advertising throughout their network of newspapers. The solution had to offer not only easier use, but new features, new business models, and new revenue sources, as well as remaining possible with their current newspaper printing facilities. The solution outlined revolutionary features and design as well as the back-end technology needed to support the solution and described a sequence to roll-out the features and phase in the new technologies. Some of the features included:

• Map locators and local reference maps
• Reorganized listings highlighting key information
• The inclusion of photos within non-traditional listings
• The integration of editorial content and cross-referencing within other sections
• The ability to build more category-based and consumer-oriented brands for major categories
• Highlighting unusual or important information within the listings
• Iconify common data so that ads are both easier to read (and thus more valuable) and smaller (to save space)
• Premium, optional features that can be sold separately
• Category indexes
• Restructured and updated headings for better classification and easier searching
• Synchronized headings with other media and papers
• Indicating related links to other media (the Web, teleclassifieds, etc.) to drive business to these ventures
• Embed instructions for important processes related to listings (such as car payment calculators, home loan calculators, home buying steps, etc.)
• Use jump links within editorial to drive the audience to the classifieds from related editorial sections
• Streamlined ad placement via various media (phone, FAX, Web, mail)
• Updated publishing system to better compose pages with advanced features and new configurations

1996

Participants:

Nathan Shedroff: Information and Visual Design, Production, and Strategy

 

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