Mint revamps its website; launches integrated newsroom

The newspaper is increasing its impetus online, waking up to the fact that more and more of its readers are interacting on the web.

The times they are changing, and how! Increasingly, the print medium is embracing digital, knowing well that symbiosis is the way forward. With a similar thought, HT Media's business daily, Mint has completely revamped its website (www.livemint.com) and launched an integrated newsroom that caters to print and digital platforms.

The integrated newsroom works on the 'web first' approach and treats digital as the lead medium for the brand. This essentially means that the journalists will file their stories on the website throughout the day as and how important and market-moving developments take place. All stories will be broken on the web first and the website will be continuously updated. There will be exclusive opinion-led stories for the website.

Livemint.com will now sport a fresh magazine look with enhanced navigation and engagement options available to the user. A floating navigation bar makes it easier for the user to switch between pages and also offer a preview of the content available in the various sections.

Interlinking between related articles and the search facility have been further enhanced and context-specific links are present on every page.

R Sukumar, editor, Mint, tells afaqs! that the idea is to be relevant at a time when the way people are consuming news has changed completely.

"The biggest challenge is being relevant. And if you want to do that, you have to be present across all media," says Sukumar.

Hence, the focus will be to provide the best experience and content, whether it is on the regular web browser or through apps on mobile devices.

"You have to reach people on multiple devices. Hence, everything is powered at Mint now by the same newsroom and by the same system," Sukumar says.

He says that the development does not at all mean that the newspaper will lose focus.

"When you do all this (prioritise content on the web) then the newspaper has to be one that is focused on a Day 2 story on Day 1. Whenever something big happens, typically you have a Day 1 story and then you have a Day 2 story that is bigger, broader, more detailed and more perspective-led. But I think you have to do a Day 2 story on Day 1 and that is something we have always done from the very beginning. These changes that we are bringing in fit in very well with the newspaper that we are," Sukumar explains.

"Our future is digital. It is very, very clear. News that happens, decision-making news, the idea is to get it to people immediately and then give them a perspective on it again online. You anticipate what people want to read and you keep giving it to them. And then your paper reinforces the whole thing, gives them more perspective, more value-added stuff," he adds.

According to Sukumar, there is no way that print is on its way out. "With a newspaper like Mint, we have a largely urban audience who are already online. The primary interaction with the newsroom for them will be through the web. A lot of people will still buy the paper. If you are a high quality paper, people will still continue to buy even if your focus is very urban. But the primary interaction, and this has happened in the case of Wall Street Journal and even Financial Times, will be with the online edition of the paper," he says.

Mint has launched a campaign to communicate the development among its relevant audience. A focused marketing campaign targeting the tech savvy news consumer has gone live that will be present across media such as television, print and internet. The campaign has been conceptualised in-house by Mint. Shortly ahead though, its creative and media partners - Ogilvy India and Maxus - will be engaged.