How Fairfax hopes to encourage a ‘broad range of debate’ through its new online platforms
Fairfax Media recently unveiled its new commercial strategy and relaunched the Brisbane Times, the first of three new digital products. Fairfax’s head of product, Jess Ross, chats with Zoe Samios about the website’s transformation.
When Fairfax Media said it was moving away from Facebook and would instead rely on improved technology and design to drive readers directly to its sites, it was a bold decision.
The company’s annual results, which came out a day prior, indicated a revenue fall 5.3% to $1.732b, and Australian Metro Media’s revenue decline of 9%, to $522.2m.
However, at the time, Matt Rowley, Fairfax Metro Media’s chief revenue officer, was confident in the company’s new digital products.
My first thought when seeing the new design is how mobile-first it is. The designers should prioritise mobile device use (as that’s were most sites get seen most often), but ideally the site would offer a more desktop tailored view for desktop machines.