Independent appoints digital editor to lead publishing 'evolution'

The Independent this week announced the promotion of Christian Broughton to the role of digital editor, where he will drive the publishing of "more content, more often".

According to a release the new role will cover the Independent's digital brand across web, mobile and tablet platforms.

"Broughton will lead an evolution in Independent.co.uk’s approach to digital publishing, collaborating with all Independent desk heads and the digital team, in a newly-created role designed to publish more content, more often throughout the day and across the brand’s multiple platforms," the release adds.
 
Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, managing director of digital Zach Leonard said the Independent "has grown very steadily over the last 18 months and the redesign has absolutely formed a huge catalyst of change".

He added: "Part of that has been our engagement with social media, for example with Facebook, we were one of the first five primaries to use that Open Graph methodology.

"We've built in our own app which is called Recently Read, and that has brought to us a whole new audience of users and because of the depth of data you're getting from Facebook there's quite a bit of intelligence about how we can grow that over time."

He added that the Independent has found "continuous publishing" is what "really drives continued usage and repeat usage of the site".

"That means bringing more of the journalism that we're preparing historically for print, into the site and using that on a regular basis throughout the day."

He added that Broughton has "got a great touch with regard to managing the output under tight deadlines".

"And online the game is raised, because it's a continuous deadline, and statistically, obviously the more you're feeding into a website, particularly in the news and business and sport areas, the more that's getting picked up by Google News and therefore driving traffic back in and around the site.

"We've got a way to go to make sure that how we develop new publishing ways and more frequent publishing across the site gets structured properly".

Other interesting digital developments could also include looking at the potential roll-out of some of the "added functionality" for audience interaction offered within Independent Voices, the new opinion platform.

"So that immediate engagement with our readers and users we feel is a critical aspect, not only for Independent Voices but we intend to roll that out across the site and it keeps people coming back."

He added that the Independent has also "looked at some of the interesting activities in the gaming area, so where you have that notion of badging different players", and the potential of "translating" that into a news website.

"It's still the same theory of recognising that our readers and users have strong opinions", he added, "inviting those opinions and then giving them a way to transact in a way with us".

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