In September 2009, Funny Garbage re-launched the website Us Magazine, the dominant source for celebrity news and entertainment online. FG worked closely with Wenner Media to conceptualize and implement innovative web 2.0 approaches to increase traffic, site “stickiness”, editorial workflow, search engine optimization, media capacity and revenue potential. The resultant site includes expanded lifestyle channels and a robust state-of-the-art approach to display advertising, promotions and subscriptions.
One of the challenges of maintaining a site that relies on topical and up to the minute content is the ease of publishing new information. Through user testing focus groups and extensive Information Architecture exploration, FG was able to scope out the new Content Management system and backend infrastructure to ease the workflow of the Wenner editorial staff and technical team. The CMS was then taken off its original Drupal platform and custom built to be more usable by both readers and staff, the end result being a more flexible and intelligent design/user interface that improves the ease of use. We also re-architected and redesigned the site to focus more on news and celebrity information. Photo galleries, links to third party vendors for subscriptions and video hosting provide a strong foundation for growth over the next few years in terms of both traffic and revenues.
After it’s successful launch, FG still enjoys a maintenance relationship with Wenner Media to provide ongoing creative and technical services to support and enhance the site.
