San Francisco Chronicle - Green Channel
Client
San Francisco Chronicle (sfgate.com) - the online version of Hearst Publications' leading newspaper
Challenge
Help SF Chronicle reach a new audience by launching focused channel sites
SF Chronicle is the leading Hearst Publications newspaper in terms of readership and content. However, it was behind its sister publications in launching channel sites, which are landing pages/content portals that focus on themed topics such as parents, pets, and travel. SF Chronicle needed to launch at least one channel site as soon as possible to act as a proof of concept and set the stage for future channel rollouts.
Solution
Launch SF Green, the first SF Chronicle channel site
SolutionSet designed the SF Green channel site based on wireframes SF Chronicle provided. The design was then implemented to the front of a MODx content management system implementation to manage the static content for the channel site. SolutionSet pulled content from SF Chronicle's wealth of green and environmentally-focused article archives and also implemented RSS feeds of news, features, and columnists' content. Additionally, SolutionSet employed community and commenting features from Pluck's SiteLife application hosted at SFGate.com. The final product: a rapid-prototype portal site focused on eco-friendly living that would serve as a model for other channel sites and help win the newspaper new readers and new advertisers.
Technology Used
_HTML
_PHP
_MODx CMS
_XML/RSS feed implementation
_JavaScript
Visit green.sfgate.com