December 6, 2012: Fairfax Metro Media has launched a major upgrade to all masthead mobile sites (m-sites), introducing significant new features and enhancements.
M-sites for the SMH, The Age, The Canberra Times, Brisbane Times and WAToday mastheads have had a site-wide design refresh and now include features such as shortform video and photo galleries as well as social sharing.
New ad opportunities have also been rolled out including gallery sponsorship, article and in-menu sponsorship and rich media (full-page expandable ads).From January, the My Masthead website functionality will also be available on m-sites, enabling users to read and post comments on articles, clip content to read later and follow specific news topics.
This is the first major upgrade to the m-sites since they were launched in 2010 and reflect Fairfax’s strategic focus on digital with mobile being a key platform for media consumption.
Fairfax Metro Media Director Mobile, Rick Gleave said the enhanced m-sites will become the core smartphone product for Fairfax.
“Fairfax is the leading mobile publisher (October 2012, Nielsen Market Intelligence) and these enhanced m-sites will allow us to grow our strong market position and generate increased engagement with our audience,” Gleave said.
Fairfax Metro Media Commercial Director Ed Harrison said the m-sites will generate a number of innovative opportunities for advertisers and keep them at the leading edge of mobile development.
“The enhanced m-sites ensure advertisers who want to reach people on mobile devices will be able to do so across all our mastheads, regardless of the device,” Harrison said.
“The new m-sites will also allow us to offer more data-driven insights to help advertisers optimise their messages.”
The launch of the enhanced m-sites will be supported by a consumer marketing campaign.
/ENDS
About Fairfax Media
Fairfax Media is a leading Australasian media company with metropolitan, rural and regional publications and websites across Australia and New Zealand.
Fairfax Media publishes the highly respected metropolitan publications The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age along with Australia’s leading online news websites smh.com.au, theage.com.au, Brisbanetimes.com.au and WAtoday.com.au. Other niche websites include the popular parenting website
Essentialbaby.com.au and the youth site TheVine.com.au. The company has a large stable of successful
websites in key vertical markets including New Zealand’s largest website, TradeMe.co.nz, RSVP.com.au,
Stayz.com.au, InvestSmart.com.au, OMG, Australian Property Monitors, Commerce Australia, TenderLink
and the recently acquired Occupancy. Fairfax Media also has a strong classified advertising business
with print and online publications including: Drive, MyCareer, and Domain.
Media inquiries to:
Simon Lloyd
Access Public Relations
T: +61 2 9292 7003
M: 0424 470 923
E: simon@accesspr.com.au
Danielle Veldre
Access Public Relations
T: + 61 2 9292 7009
M: 0408 972 997
E: danielle@accesspr.com.au
