Libération's new website marks the start of a digital-first initiative

French daily newspaper, Libération, has recently overhauled its website with a new digital-first editorial strategy, in a bid to improve its appeal to a wider audience.

In order to make the site more interactive and reader-friendly, Libération has completely changed both the platform's content and navigation.

The website now offers a wider range of material in different formats – a homepage with a live feed of stories curated by alternating journalists, data-led infographics and in-depth features and articles.

"The key of this new version was to have a cleaner design which was more user-friendly," said Gaëtan Duchateau, co-founder of webdesign studio Datagif, which led the project.

After they joined the paper a year ago, publishing director Laurent Joffrin and edition director Johan Hufnagel wanted to redefine how Libération's news was consumed online.

"They wanted to stop giving priority to print and have a fresh start with this website," Duchateau said.

"People just want to get the news as it is happening, they won't necessarily wait for the print – they'll just go online. Libération has now changed with the times."

Datagif takes pride in its introduction of a Twitter-like live feed of news to the site's homepage, which is written and updated by journalists throughout the day, as opposed to a series of automated alerts sent when new articles are posted.


Screenshot: A closer look at Libération's live feed

"This content is really influenced by the journalist that is in charge of the live feed at the time," said Duchateau.

"Sometimes it can be more entertainment based, other times economic or political. It is a new way for Libération to interpret the news they see on the web."

The site's 'Top 100' list on its homepage was also designed by Datagif to help readers discover the most up to date, popular content on the site. 

"Vertically, we imagined something more powerful than just a classic top 10 – why stop at a classic Top 10 when you can have 10 times more?" said Duchateau.

The list helps readers get directly to the most popular content, as "the most viewed articles, the most shared and the most commented climb up."

Navigation also plays a huge role in the new website's usability, by guiding readers on to additional stories.

"One of the biggest changes was the introduction of 'infinite scroll'," Duchateau said.

Once a reader finishes reading an article, they are not presented with a mosaic of infinite choices, but another item directly in succession, in a coherent read line.


Screenshot: Infinite scroll, the end of one article and the beginning of another

"It's way more easier to scroll than to click," said Duchateau.

The infinite scroll feature allows Libération to also keep their site neat and tidy, without continuous article recommendations all over the page.

"Too much choice kills the choice, too much recommendation and there is no real recommendation," he added.

The new site will, however, offer further articles to the user if it recognises they are scrolling too fast past the text, looking for additional material. 

"We observed that people might just scroll up to click the logo that takes them back to the homepage. When we detect that, it implies that the reader is looking for something else.

"So when they scroll up, we display a selection of articles for them to read instead," Duchateau explained.

"This part is invisible before this movement and we follow the reader's natural navigation to push them to new content."
 
He believes this new spacious, user-friendly and interactive website will not only help attract wider audiences, but also encourage the public to continue seeing Libération's output as a "global project".

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