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Story URL: http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39170223,00.htm

Guardian site gets million-pound makeover
Flagship online news site gets better navigation

By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Friday 29 February 2008

Guardian News & Media (GNM), the proprietor of The Guardian and The Observer is about to complete an 18-month project to revamp its website offering, costing up to £15m.

The project was assisted by Thoughtworks, a consultancy specialising in 'agile and lean' best practice. According to GNM general manger of digital, Tom Turcan, the adoption of agile practices meant he had a flexible arrangement with the board in respect of design requirements and completion date.

The news section of the site has just been migrated to the new bespoke content management platform this month and full migration is expected this summer.

The content management system, dubbed the 'R2 project' by Turcan's development team gives the publisher the ability to tag content for all relevant sections, rather than having to allocate it for one specific section on the site and improving navigation for Guardian readers.

The content management system is also optimised for video, Turcan told silicon.com.

Commercially, sales staff will be able to sell the same content to different advertisers based on regional target audience. So, US readers will see US adverts and UK readers will see home-grown advertising against the same story.

According to Turcan, site revenues have grown 50 per cent year on year, a rise contributed to the new site architecture. Unique users of the site have also doubled in the same time frame.