Product Launch: Pandemic Edition
WBEZ Chicago launched our daily news magazine as an indispensable service for the Chicago area we serve. To do so during the accelerating global COVID-19 pandemic was challenging but ultimately well-timed.
Amidst the astonishing decline of local media and the consolidation of news distribution through big tech companies, WBEZ Chicago is doubling down on the value of vital information, context and analysis in our community. We are expanding our history of excellent service in on-air broadcasting and program development to create the indispensable daily news magazine for Chicago.
You may be asking why: While so many media companies pivot to podcasting and video, why is WBEZ investing in the old-fashioned written word? And why are we doing it during a global pandemic?
There are five reasons:
1) Online news now rivals television as the most preferred source of local news
According to Pew Charitable Trusts’ survey of news consumers fielded in 2018, nearly as many Americans prefer to get their local news online as they do from TV, and the share is growing. 37% of U.S. adults said they prefer to get their local news online, up from 28% in 2016.
2) Ease of use and smartphone compatibility are critical to successful online news publications
Pew also found that an easy-to-use website was the most important factor for American news consumers who get their news online, with 8 in 10 adults saying this feature is important to them. Furthermore, the smartphone is the dominant device for online news consumers with almost 6 in 10 Americans saying they get their news there often.
Our previous WBEZ.org product was failing in ease of use, intuition, and especially page speed on small devices. Mobile-first, desktop-conscious design was required for us to succeed.
3) NPR was named the most trusted news service in America for the second straight year.
Harris EquiTrends found that consumers ranked National Public Radio as the most trusted news source in America in 2019 and again in 2020. As the local extension of the NPR News service, WBEZ Chicago is proud of this distinction and works diligently to uphold the trust consumers place in our journalism. From broadcast to on-demand audio to digital news, it is imperative that our product excellence aligns with the trust people place in our news brands.
4) The Chicago media market is volatile
The dominant commercial media outlets in Chicago have seen turbulent times in recent history. Multiple rounds of ownership sales and layoffs have hobbled their once dominant position. They, along with a patchwork of independent media outlets continue to do outstanding work. But their revenue models are dependent on paywalls and advertising, which have not proven to be reliable sustainers for local media. We see an opportunity to offer a dependable, free, and accessible news product to complement the work of our peers in the region.
5) WBEZ.org was developed via rigorous Agile and Sprint processes
Way before the COVID-19 pandemic, we first envisioned the overhaul of our online news product with a 5-day Sprint in June 2019. What followed was 6 months of design, development, testing, feedback, and iteration with a very lean team.
As the news cycle intensified, there was pressure to divert our attention to making marginal improvements on our existing WBEZ.org application. But we are proud to have launched this product on April 7th, the date we originally set in our first project plan back in August 2019. The timing of our launch allows us to greatly expand upon our public service, right when our community needs it most.
The Indispensable Daily News Magazine for Chicago
Surviving a global pandemic depends on access to trusted news, analysis, and context from the local community perspective.
WBEZ.org is free and user-supported
Paywalls have never been our business model, and never will be. Putting aside the fact that restricting access to our website would never comply with our public media ethos, it’s also much simpler to develop an application without access tiers. Introducing any kind of user-level paywall would add tremendous scope to a website that is otherwise read-only.
Rather, to fund our news-gathering operations, we rely on individual contributions from people who value the indispensable service we provide. Giving is highly encouraged, it might unlock extras like the pledge-free-stream. But it is never required.
Advertising is limited
While on-air, digital audio and display advertising are key revenue drivers, we limit their prominence and frequency because we know users remember these things. With 47% of global internet users employing ad blockers anyway, we would rather reward our users’ visitation with a streamlined, fast, and easy browsing experience, free of clunkiness and ad-bloat.
Speed kills
We placed a lot of emphasis on page speed, holding ourselves to a high standard throughout the development process. Google cites many case studies in which user retention and conversion are critically impacted by site performance.
Fast-loading media sites are hard to achieve given the prominence of images, fonts, marketing tools, and DOM manipulation. Using Page Speed Insights, WBEZ.org story pages achieve percentile scores greater than 40 on mobile and greater than 90 on desktop. Our peers in national and local media often score between 10 and 20. Most importantly, we pass the eye test. WBEZ.org page loads are smooth and quick.
Audio is in our DNA
We built a modern and streamlined web player to support live streaming and on-demand listening to WBEZ 91.5FM. It is an easy and intuitive experience, based on multiple iterations tested with real users. Importantly, the single-page application framework allows for uninterrupted listening while you browse the site, no matter what you’re listening to.
It is accompanied by an interactive radio schedule — and you can replay any programs you missed. The Our Picks page offers a variety of our favorite audio stories, including long-form documentaries, timely news features, and must-hear podcast episodes
Setting and Meeting User Expectations
In collaboration with our colleagues in the newsroom, we wanted to make sure that every click of a headline offers a uniformly excellent reading and storytelling experience. This meant limiting the use of story pages for anything other than fully developed stories, with fact-checking, thorough editing, and visual completeness. Our newsroom is endlessly creative in finding new ways to provide vital information, especially during COVID-19. Users will find tools, maps, photo-essays, blogs and FAQs designed to inform Chicagoans on what they need to know to survive and thrive in these unprecedented times.
WBEZ Chicago is Chicago’s NPR news station, one of the largest and most respected public media stations in the country. Nick DePrey is the Director of Product.
WBEZ.org launched April 7, 2020 due to the the incredible contributions of our staff including Oliver Holmberg, Patrick Judge, Shira Gersten, Mi Tian, J. Kyle White-Sullivan, and the WBEZ Newsroom.
