Local World, the publishing company formed from the acquisition and merger of Northcliffe Media and Iliffe News and Media, is now starting to roll out, or roll back, the digital branding for its newspaper assets, back to the individual titles. The Hull Daily Mail is expected to be one of the first to appear under its own branding again.
Previously, the Northcliffe-owned titles published their digital brands under the “This is” brand. Thus the Hull Daily Mail currently appears on the web as www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk.
The generic branding introduced by Northcliffe – and Associated – several years ago, although understandable in terms of a national marketing philosophy adopted by marketers in London, was never popular at a local level with local titles believing that some of their unique identity, appearance and approach to publishing locally-driven content, had become overlooked in the quest for a national ID.
The beta site for the Hull Daily Mail is striking and suggests a radical and wholesale return to its local news toots with big bold headlines, strong and simple images and a clean and simple layout for the site overall. A prominent feature of the site is the ‘Our Tube’ which is currently not live but clearly reflects the cross-platform and more visual/live aspects of the site in the future.
No one at Local World was able to comment on the development but when we know more, we’ll let you know.
In the meantime, welcome back local news provision.
