ACBJ papers unveil redesigned sites

All of American City Business Journals 40 weekly business newspapers have rolled out redesigned Web sites on Sunday.

Each of the papers has nearly identical stories on their sites Sunday evening, stating that one of the biggest changes is in making the paper’s print edition articles easier to find online.

A story on the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal site states, “ACBJ is the country’s largest publisher of local business publications and a leading source of business news on the Web, attracting about 5.7 million unique visitors in September.

“Leading the redesign effort was Jason Silverstein, vice president of product development at ACBJ’s online division. Silverstein is no stranger to redesign efforts, having previously led a redesign of The Charlotte Observer’s website, but this time he had a unique task of uniting all 40 of ACBJ’s local-business sites while allowing each individual publication to retain its own identity. The idea is to offer readers a constant stream of local news while also allowing them to view news nationally by industry, and to do so seamlessly in a way that keeps the audience engaged and rewarded.

“‘Each market will have a very similar structure in page design, but will take on the same colors as their printed product. There are enough unique qualities in the designs to give them their own feeling, their own brand, but they leverage the core assets we provide them,’ Silverstein said.

“Among the new features of the website are the news carousel, which will allow the Business Journal to promote not only its editorial content, but also calls for nominations, events and videos as well.”