Guide to great websites for media & publishing firms (part 1)

In this three-part guide we’ll discuss the importance of great websites and broader digital experience for media & publishing companies. In the first article, we’ll focus on why media & publishing need great websites, followed in the second article by the key considerations for a great user experience for media & publishing, and the people/team considerations and challenges in the third article.

Why do media & publishing firms need advanced websites?

The world has changed drastically over the last five years. Even before 2020, digital media were gaining in popularity, but ever since the COVID pandemic, they have become the main source of pretty much everything, from news to entertainment.

While Gen X and millennials did use digital media, it wasn’t omnipresent from their very birth, and most often it was an add-on to traditional forms of media and entertainment rather than a replacement.

But the youngest generations such as Gen Z and Alpha have grown up with the ubiquity of digital media. Derogatory terms such as “Zoomers” (obviously a wordplay on “boomers”) and “iPad kids” are used semi frequently, and despite the somewhat negative nature, they do signify a significant change in how people consume media.

This means that media & publishing companies need to adapt to this new reality and cater to these digitally native generations and do their best to keep up with their quickly changing trends and habits.

Another key factor to consider is the rapid advancement in both software and hardware. Long standing browsers are getting discontinued, while the dominant ones are frequently making updates which may necessitate regular reworkings of websites to accommodate the changes, with the mobile experience becoming the primary consideration.

On top of that, you have the proliferation of new frameworks and the frequent new releases of existing languages and frameworks, resulting in both security concerns related to outdated software as well as the constant need for new features (or replacements of ones that get discontinued with deprecated software).

This is also intrinsically linked to the evolutions in hardware, with not only mobile phones and tablets becoming the dominant means of experiencing the web, but also the rising popularity of other devices such as voice assistants and smart watches. In the (potentially not too distant) future, this might also mean things like accounting for AR/VR experiences.

Moreover, the dominant brands like Apple regularly release new versions of core products such as the iPhone, in an interplay of planned and perceived obsolescence that both ensures and necessitates frequent updates in both software and hardware.

A final key reason why media & publishing companies need outstanding websites is the sheer amount of competition in the sector. With digital technologies becoming the primary means of accessing news and information, there are a lot more media & publishing businesses, each very easily accessible and each vying for people’s attention.

But this competition doesn’t just need to come from direct competitors, i.e.other media & publishing firms. Social media platforms such as X/Twitter, despite its recent fallout, have become one of the main sources of news for the average individual, and while posts on X will mostly be supported with links to news articles, there is still the competition between different news organizations mentioned above.

Another consideration here are platforms such as Reddit, which also represents a shift in how people find the information they need online. In essence, media & publishing firms need to compete both with each other as well as with platforms like X and Reddit to remain at the forefront, highlighting the importance of great user experiences for their apps and websites.

Final thoughts

After almost 5 years since COVID accelerated digital transformation across all industries, it’s more important than ever for media & publishing companies to deliver outstanding experiences on their websites.

The chief reasons for this include the changing habits of the digitally native generations and the increased tech savviness among older generations, the rapid advancement of software & hardware, and the huge amount of competition coming not only from media & publishing firms themselves but also from platforms such as X and Reddit.

In the second part of this guide, we’ll break down the key considerations for great media & publishing websites, focusing on CMS and UX considerations. The third and final part will then cover the main people/team considerations. Make sure you stay tuned, and in the meantime feel free to check out how we at Agiledrop have collaborated with top publishing firms such as Hubert Burda Media and SAGE.