Is the homepage dead? A shift in digital strategy is needed

By: Bo McDonald

If it’s true for the New York Times, could the same be true for your homepage? Traffic to the New York Times homepage fell by half in the last two years, according to the newspaper’s internal review of it’s digital strategy. That fact isn’t necessarily a reflection of issues at the Times, but more so how news is now distributed on the web.

This trend isn’t limited to the Times. Most newspaper across the country report the same trends in declining homepage traffic. Don’t be mislead. Overall web traffic to media websites isn’t down. They’re just bypassing the homepage to find specific content. The report by the Times found that traffic is finding content via social media sites, bringing viewers to their website from the “side door.”

Pull media has quickly been replaced by what is known as push media. Information such as status updates, photos of your friends, videos, and sometimes even news articles find you. And media that is not finding you, are hardly found at all.

Is digital a part of your marketing strategy? If not now, it should be a serious consideration for 2015. I don’t mean simply making an effort to post on Facebook more than once a week, I mean truly incorporating all aspects of digital in your marketing plan sooner rather than later.

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