By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
Philadelphia Media Holdings this spring ushered in a redesigned Philly.com Web site as the publisher attempts to land a knockout punch against its local online competitors.
According to Philly.com President Eric Grilly, the competition is anyone vying for eyeballs or ad dollars, online and offline.
The redesign is part of PMH’s efforts to revitalize The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News through a number of initiatives designed to innovate and energize its advertiser and readership base (see Newspapers & Technology, April 2008).
The Clickability Inc.-anchored site, which debuted May 11, was 11 months in the making. PMH hired local firm Avenue A Razorfish Inc. to help the company conduct the market research necessary to better understand the needs of local users.
“We wanted to understand what (readers) were doing on the Web, how they were using it and how they were using our competitors,” Grilly said. “What we found is that 80 percent of our users can be broken down into three categories, foodies, planners and doers and sports enthusiasts.”
The research also showed that there were already several features on Philly.com geared toward what readers wanted, including Philly Uncorked, a local wine review page; and Philadelphia Business Today.
Local, local, local
The retooled Web site carries the motto “Anything and everything Philly,” below its logo and that philosophy underpins the entire operation, Grilly said.
To that end, Philly.com contains a wide swath of information, covering everything from sports to cultural events.
Content is changed throughout the day and week to match consumers’ moods and interests.
“For example, on Thursdays and Friday afternoons people start thinking about the weekend and what they might do with their families or what they might want to know about when a new restaurant is open,” said Grilly. “Rather than serving them the same meal morning, noon and night we’re going to give them a different meal.”
The Web site also includes a row of quick links for readers wanting to check lottery results, horoscopes, Sudoku, crossword puzzles, traffic and obituaries.
Although the bulk of the content is still contributed by Inquirer and Daily News journalists, user-generated news and information is playing an increasingly larger role.
“The user-generated content experience is a big part of the new site,” Grilly said. “It’s been factored in and weaved into nearly everything that we are doing.
“We tried to color-code things and make it easier for people to find what we are doing on the site.”
Case in point: Yellow-shaded boxes indicate stories and information in which a dialog discussion interactive feature is available, asking readers for comments or to react to a particular event.
The goal, Grilly said, is to increase user engagement, which he said rose 25 percent in the first 30 days after the redesign was launched.
Philly.com Vice President and Editor Wendy Warren credits the Web site’s commenting and discussion features as primary tools to woo readers to the site.
“When we say we talk about interaction with users we aren’t talking about adding a comment or two, we are talking about discussions that eclipse the story that sparked the interaction,” she said. “Some of our stories consistently end up with 100 or more comments from our readers.”
Multimedia independence
The newspaper also enhanced the site’s search capabilities and added video support through Maven Media Service’s video player.
“We are pretty excited about the short-form branded entertainment that we are producing,” Grilly said. “We’ll have six shows, all unique to us, created here in this marketplace before the end of June, each with a sold sponsor.”
The site’s existing wine and business shows, meantime, will be bolstered by shows covering gossip, gardening, restaurants and health.
Grilly said Philly.com also plans to roll out a sitcom and a series of documentaries, including one that covers the history of organized crime.
All of these short-form video programs are part of an effort by Philly.com to produce content unique to the site.
“When I came to Philly I was asked to turn Philly.com into a stand-alone Internet media company with its own voice and identity in the marketplace,” Grilly said. “A big area where you are seeing Philly.com’s voice is around culture and the way we are doing that is launching new channels anchored by video with people that resemble and reflect the audiences we are trying to reach.”
This approach, he said, allows the site to reach a younger audience without alienating its core audience.
“We are trying to create and open up as many communication lines as possible with our users, whether it’s by capturing an event or experience through a cell phone or offering another way to submit user-generated content via an opinion poll — a story, a photo a video a comment or a rating on a restaurant,” Grilly said.
Zeppy continues
One feature that didn’t change when philly.com launched the new site was Zeppy.com, an online shopping venture that allows people to purchase products reviewed by Inquirer and Daily News writers.
“The thought here wasn’t that we were going to take on Amazon.com,” Grilly said. “We have a lot of talented artists, authors, movie producers; there’s a lot of creative talent in this marketplace and it’s trying to find a way to leverage our relationship with those individuals and finding ways to integrate transactional opportunities around our content.”
Users can purchase products related to what’s presented on the site, ranging from Philadelphia Phillies baseball tickets to books reviewed by one of the papers.
Subscribers to either of the papers receive a 25 percent discount when they make a purchase on the site.
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