Standard relaunches app amid further digital changes

The Evening Standard has relaunched its iOS app as a hybrid of digital and PDF, the first in a number of impending updates and new launches from ESI Media, in the lead up to the opening of multiplatform broadcaster London Live next spring.

ESI Media, the commercial arm of the Evening Standard, The Independent and i, launched the app yesterday alongside a redesign of The Independent's website (see before and after image, below) and print editions, with an app to follow before Christmas.

"The app emulates the design of the newspaper in the fonts we selected, the orientation of prioritised stories, and the notion of sections organised one after another," Zach Leonard, managing director of digital at The Independent, i and Evening Standard, told Journalism.co.uk.

Readers can swipe horizontally from the 'front page' to browse through traditional editorial sections – such as sport, business, comment or travel – or access the sections through a side bar. Once in a story, readers swipe vertically to read or horizontally to go to the next story in that section. An Android version of the app is eplanned for the coming weeks.

"We are limiting the front page to the big stories we think people ought to know as we publish through the day, while at the same time recognising people are very good at scanning through sections," Leonard said.

The decision comes as a result of nearly two years of research and data gathered from the pre-existing apps for the i (PDF) and the Independent (digital native), addressing readers' comments and complaints, said Leonard.

"Contrasting the responses from the i and the Indy showed that it was nearly 50-50 in terms of users preferring the logical, familiar structure of a PDF and those wanting to be interactive with something new and digital," said Leonard, describing how the organisation had previously "over-apped" and was this time rolling out elements of the design in stages.

"This gives us a hybrid and we're constantly curating it a few times a day," he said.

The app will be updated three or four times a day to reflect the changing nature of the day's news, with push notifications sent to users who sign in through social media. The app will automatically update "in the background" for offline reading.

The ability for readers to access the app when offline, such as when on the London Underground, is essential to the Standard's identity as a commuter title for the capital, said Leonard, who added that directors had been "astounded" at the rise of mobile in providing 40 per cent of web traffic.

"It's getting it into the context of where people are and what device they're holding," he said.

"We're measuring the app itself in parallel to the website. We see inconsistent use of the website in the evening but we can see some extended hours in the tablet and mobile app that is carrying through, and we hope that will keep extending."

In February, Ofcom granted a television licence to ESTV Ltd, the new television arm of the Evening Standard. Leonard said that the channel, London Live, will provide the Evening Standard with video content for the app and website once it launches in the spring.

"London Live is television and a very focussed viewing experience," Leonard said, describing the company's offices at Northcliffe house as a "building site" due to the construction of a new, integrated newsroom.

"We're using comparatively little video on the Evening Standard website and the plan is to exploit the relationship in both directions and drive traffic between the two."

While the Standard's new app is free, users will have to pay for the new app from the Independent, scheduled for Christmas, in order to keep the strategy of separate free and paid-for titles "coherent", said Leonard.

The social media registration process used in the app will also play a large role in developing the mobile capabilities of the Independent's commenting section, Independent Voices.

Although the Independent's website redesign is largely cosmetic at present, Leonard said more resources and focus are being put into "creating new video and richer features" which will integrate with the app.

"We're increasing our news staff and business staff that are dedicated to the web pages," he said, describing how arts, travel and Indy best lists will also be "expressed in a really engaging way" in the app.


Before and after: Screengrabs of The Independent from the day of publication and the Wayback Machine

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