Columbia Missourian launches redesigned website
COLUMBIA, Mo. (Dec. 9, 2024) — The Columbia Missourian, a professional community newspaper based at the Missouri School of Journalism, has debuted a new website.
From back-end improvements like search engine optimization to a slew of quality-of-life upgrades for the user experience, the refreshed website — made possible by a $20,000 grant from the Institute for Nonprofit News and the Google News Initiative — is intended to help the newspaper build an even stronger connection with mid-Missourians.
“The website is more accessible than ever, which means the Missourian can reach more people with community reporting driven by engaged student reporters learning from expert faculty,” said David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism. “I’m thrilled with the upgrade, and I think our community will be, too.”
The Missourian’s website now boasts a cleaner, more accessible design for simpler navigation and faster speeds, particularly on mobile devices. It also offers improved support for a variety of accessibility features, such as navigation without a mouse or keyboard and text-to-speech software. Elizabeth Stephens, executive editor of the Columbia Missourian, said that while the overall appearance of the site has not changed drastically, audiences will notice improvements in everything from reading the news to purchasing or modifying a subscription.
“People coming to the home page are going to have a different experience,” Stephens said. “It’s easier to navigate and get a sense of everything we cover in one, easy-to-read way.”
People coming to our home page are going to have a different experience. It’s easier to navigate and get a sense of everything we cover in one, easy-to-read way.
Elizabeth Stephens, executive editor of the Columbia Missourian
Under the Google News Initiative, the Missourian completed a training and audit program geared toward finding opportunities to grow in the areas of audience development, reader revenue and advertising. And when it came time to apply for the grant, Stephens and her team realized an improved website could help the newspaper’s community coverage reach more people.
Additional support for audience growth will come from AdZou, the School of Journalism’s professional ad agency staffed with graduating seniors. The Missourian will be AdZou’s spring client, and in a show of commitment, the newspaper has allocated some of the grant money toward turning the students’ proposals into a real marketing plan.
“We felt like with the redesign, we need to make a bigger marketing push and really leverage what we can to make sure people know who we are and what we’re offering to the community,” Stephens added.
Fittingly, the process of obtaining and managing a subscription has also improved. Signing up is now just a one-page affair, and a streamlined credit card management system to launch in January will make it easier to resolve some common stumbling blocks, such as updating information when a credit card expires. In addition, digital subscribers will notice that browsing past issues of the e-edition is easier than ever.
The redesign is just the latest way that the Missourian is upgrading its digital efforts. In partnership with the School of Journalism’s Reynolds Journalism Institute, the newspaper is also part of a pilot program with digital preservation service Portico to test a digital news preservation system.
Updated: December 9, 2024