New York Post launches new website – all on WordPress

After years of operating a website which seemed to belong in the 1990s, Alex Kantrowitz of AdAge (@Kantrowitz) reports, the New York Post introduced yesterday a revamped and modern version.

The old nypost.com — cluttered, tied to its print product, and offering only basic advertising units — made it difficult for the paper to compete in today’s digital news environment. The new site — clean, modern and with an emphasis on mobile accessibility — should put the paper in position to deliver its news product more effectively, and perhaps increase its digital ad revenue along the way.

What’s news to me isn’t a new website, but as Sara Rosso of WordPress reports, that this powerful daily newspaper is run entirely on WordPress and WordPress VIP, a premium hosting service owned by Automattic, the for profit services arm of WordPress.

One critical requirement for the Post was a mobile friendly responsive design.

Mobile traffic, excluding tablets, makes up 30% of the Post’s audience, a total number [Jesse Angelo, the Post’s CEO and Publisher] puts at nearly 12 million total monthly uniques. In year, Mr. Angelo said, half of the paper’s audience may be coming from mobile, which is why the Post followed the example of many others on the internet, making its site fit any screen on any device.

Another requirement was that advertisers be able to publish content with the support and brand of the Post.

With the WordPress platform, the Post’s Content Studio will work with brands to produce content that fits the look and feel of the paper and can run across its digital, print, and social channels.

As Kantrowitz reported,

“For us at Post Studios, what we’re saying to advertisers is, if you want to create content, come talk to us about it,” said Mr. Angelo, noting that brands are putting a premium on producing sponsored content — even creating their own newsrooms — and that the Post wants in on the action.

Takeaways for law firms are the flexibility of WordPress, the mobility of responsive design for complex sites, and digital publishing under a third party brand.

As I blogged yesterday, WordPress is democratizing publishing. Law firms ought to be at least considering WordPress and WordPress development shops for their digital publishing needs. More expensive and less flexible solutions may no longer be advisable.

Mobile enabled design is a given for law firms. Develop mobile first, desktop second, for your growing mobile audience. For design and development teams like ours at LexBlog, WordPress has proven to be a solid platform for mobile development and responsive design.

Publishing under a third party brand is of keen interest to me. All of our LexBlog Network blogs are running on independent sites and brands. However the LexBlog Network site (LXBN) presents an opportunity for LexBlog to offer lawyers who are not already blogging to publish on a vibrant network with a strong brand — all on an easy to use (for the lawyer) WordPress platform.

Before dismissing the Post as yellow journalism, it is the 13th-oldest and seventh-most-widely circulated newspaper in the United States. Begun in 1801 by founding father, Alexander Hamilton, the Post became a respected broadsheet in the 19th century under the name New York Evening Post.

No question though it is an entertaining read for flights out of New York City.