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Engaging readers in the digital age: the Mediafin story

As digital technology changes the relationship between readers and the media, Mediafin looked for new ways to customize online experiences, engage readers and convert them into loyal media consumers.

AmeXio has launched the news portals for De Tijd and L’Echo, the Dutch and French news titles for Mediafin, the innovative media publisher from Belgium. Offering a multimedia approach to business, financial markets and political content, these media outlets reach the most influential and most affluent audience in Belgium, with over 250.000 readers every day: entrepreneurs, managers and investors, decision makers with considerable spending power.

“Our new website is much simpler and clearer, so the reader can get quickly up to date with the news that matters. The new tijd.be provides more room for depth, analysis and multimedia stories than ever. The interface is tailored to our readers’ needs with new personalised tools.”

Stephanie De Smedt
Editor for tijd.be

 

The two websites built on Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) were initially launched in public beta (“primeur”), meaning visitors could switch from the new to the old version and vice versa if desired.

The renewed channels offer the “ideal reading experience on any device” with a fresh, new and responsive web design. From smartphone or tablet to PC, the new multimedia communications are enriched with foto-sliders, videos, quotes and other multimedia. Users can now navigate quickly and easily on all screens, customize their own newsfeed with selected keywords, their stocks wallet and share their preferred insights with integrated social media tools.

“The new website of L’Echo appeals to a broad audience and boasts extended customisation possibilities for readers, making it more readable and simpler to use. Furthermore, the system allows us to provide new media formats such as videos and infographics, ultimately leading to a more enjoyable customer experience.

Joan Condijts
Editor for lecho.be

 

A renewed “Markets” section and “portfolio tool” present financial information and stock and fund prices for a quick and convenient overview in real-time. A new “Investment Assistant” also makes investing a lot easier, offering step-by-step tips on financial investments.

There are also two important highlights on the content side.

First of all, all the editorial content is still managed in Mediafin’s legacy systems. The workflow is so specific to their business that it wouldn’t be efficient to change their core business system.

This was also the reason why they chose Adobe: AEM allows content managers to shuffle the content around between the homepage and landing pages to make the whole presentation much more dynamic. Authors can also easily assemble news “dossier” packages related to a certain topic and create the dossier page “on-the-fly” in almost any layout they want, without any impact on the editorial teams.

Secondly, the fact that the new websites are Mediafin’s sales channels and their product at the same time means they’re business critical. Needless to say that a lot of focus has been given to infrastructure and performance tuning.

AmeXio’s team of more than 15 digital experts will continue to work on developing new functionalities to improve readers’ experience as well as authoring experience for the content managers.

About Mediafin

Mediafin NV is a print and digital business and financial news publisher: the newspapers De Tijd and L’Echo; the magazines Netto, Mon Argent and Sabato; and the newsletters De Belegger, L’ Investisseur, Global Investor and Beursgrafiek. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Brussels, Belgium. Mediafin operates as a joint venture between Roularta and Rossel.

 

 

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