Tuesday 23 July 2013

Tired of The Royal Baby? The Guardian has another version of its site for you today.



The Birth of a Royal Baby is big news for one part of UK society but a bit of a yawn for the other. Notably, the birth was greeted by a poor response on Twitter, well behind The Pope for example.

But of course it's "local" news in one way whereas The Pope is more well, "global" really.

But for those tired of the Royal Baby news, UK publisher The Guardian, has developed today, two versions of its site - one royal baby free and one royal baby full. A Toggle switch in the top right allows readers to move to whichever version they prefer.

Interestingly, they named the button, 'not a royalist?' and you just click through it if you're not for extra sports and entertainment coverage instead. Although The Guardian did this before for the marriage of Prince William, it does open an interesting idea for newspaper publishers to produce and extend different versions of their site.

Perhaps Sports free? or Sports full? Or entertainment free or full? And so on.
Generating perhaps new readers and perhaps new Ad revenue. In some ways www.independent.ie have made steps in this way with both their I Magazines and notably, 'Independent Woman'. 

However, The Guardian is offering a totally different edition rather than add-ons. One small step in the individualisation of news?

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