UK: Archant to revamp sites, personalized and geotagged

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on October 16, 2007 at 2:08 PM

Archant announced plans to develop a personalized online news service for its regional newspaper websites, as part of a general online overhaul. Thanks to geotagging, users will get news prioritized according to their postcode.

On the editorial side – given the geotagging technology – journalists will simply have to tag the stories they post with postcodes and locations referred to in the story.

Archant already uses similar Google Maps technology on its commercial sites, enabling users to search for property and jobs according to their postcode.

Other planned changes in the months to come include reader comments, the possibility for users to submit content, as well as more audio and video.

The revamp will piloted by several sites starting in December, and will be generalized across sites throughout 2008.

Advances in geolocalization technology, as well as the advent of personalized news sources (interview with DailyMe), will increasingly become a priority for newspapers as they attempt to deliver more tailored and targeted content, with little editorial costs other than the technology.

Source: Journalism.co.uk through IFRA Executive News Service