Association of Online PublishersHelping media owners build better digital business
5 Nov 2008 
NME.COM - winner of Editorial Team - Consumer 2008
NME.COM's modest web editorial team creates hundreds of pieces of multimedia content 24/7 every week, from video interviews to free mp3 blogs, all the time monitoring traffic, with an eye on effective SEO.
NME.COM’s exhaustive summer festival and year-round gig coverage has seen its user base skyrocket, making excellent use of the team’s cutting-edge multi-platform journalistic skills.
The NME.COM editorial team now have the multimedia skills and tools to produce a continuous stream of video, audio and blogs, and to closely monitor site traffic as they go.
At every major festival in 2008, the NME.com team worked around the clock to deliver unrivalled access to bands for music fans. The Glastonbury content included over 100 news articles, a minute-by-minute report from Jay-Z’s much-vaunted headline set, 30 video interviews and 112 blog posts: this was the ultimate place for fans to get under the skin of the legendary event. Other highlights include:
Of the UK’s music magazines with an online presence, NME.COM has a growing traffic market share of over 90%.
NME.COM is now the first port of call for many music labels looking to promote their artists to fans: a free MP3 exclusive from The Verve delivered 50,000 downloads in one week - about twice the amount needed to have a UK chart number one.
Such is the website’s reputation that Ricky Gervais chose NME.COM to host a new, free podcast - racking up almost 60,000 downloads in just two weeks.
Objectives for NME.COM in 2007/8 were traffic growth, developing a successful video strategy, incorporating multimedia journalism across the NME brand, improved site usability, greater breadth of content and increased profitability.
The team achieved all of this and dramatically transformed NME.COM in just 10 months with a raft of stunning new site sections including online radio, a redesigned homepage, a geo-targeted U.S homepage, a relaunched newsletter, a Festivals section and dedicated Artists pages.
A performance-boosting redesign focussed on increased usability, with a cleaner and more intuitive layout that has encouraged the growing audience to return more frequently and for longer.
NME.COM/Photos boasts hundreds of photo galleries with in-depth, expert captions - adding over 50 million page impressions and winning sponsorship from premium brands including RayBan and Sony.
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NME.COM’s exhaustive summer festival and year-round gig coverage has seen its user base skyrocket, making excellent use of the team’s cutting-edge multi-platform journalistic skills.
Creativity
At every major festival in 2008, the NME.com team worked around the clock to deliver unrivalled access to bands for music fans. The Glastonbury content included over 100 news articles, a minute-by-minute report from Jay-Z’s much-vaunted headline set, 30 video interviews and 112 blog posts: this was the ultimate place for fans to get under the skin of the legendary event. Other highlights include:
- Writers’ live blogs and pictures from Led Zeppelin’s reunion gig smashed NME page impression records
- An online reader vote to decide the first song to be played on NME Radio generated 3.5 million votes in just four weeks
- A geo-targeted U.S homepage grew the title’s American audience considerably
- NME.COM's YouTube Director channel has had over 4 million video views
- MySpace broadcast the inaugural U.S NME Awards live online from Los Angeles as the UK team worked through the night: NME.COM traffic spiked with 1.5million page impressions in a day
Evidence of success
NME.COM is now the first port of call for many music labels looking to promote their artists to fans: a free MP3 exclusive from The Verve delivered 50,000 downloads in one week - about twice the amount needed to have a UK chart number one.
Such is the website’s reputation that Ricky Gervais chose NME.COM to host a new, free podcast - racking up almost 60,000 downloads in just two weeks.
Development in the judging year
The team achieved all of this and dramatically transformed NME.COM in just 10 months with a raft of stunning new site sections including online radio, a redesigned homepage, a geo-targeted U.S homepage, a relaunched newsletter, a Festivals section and dedicated Artists pages.
A performance-boosting redesign focussed on increased usability, with a cleaner and more intuitive layout that has encouraged the growing audience to return more frequently and for longer.
Judges’ Comments
"This editorial team has a clear sense of commercial acumen coupled with a strong passion for the industry. Clearly they have thought long and hard about what their audience is looking for, and delivered it."Subscribe to AOP's e-newsletter.
