News website submission: timesofoman.com

Prologue (pre August 2014):

In January 2014 the Times of Oman, the Sultanate’s biggest print title, made the decision to become the leader in digital news for the country. However, it was staffed with veteran print production journalists, a tiny online team of ‘newsroom rejects’, no mobile site, a primitive CMS with limited functionality and no social media presence to speak of.

The answer was not a ‘digital facelift’ but root and branch culture change across a company dominated by a ‘print-only’ mentality. Attitudes and skill sets within the newsroom, the creative department and the advertising team had to be challenged. Staff who were complete strangers to the digital world needed to be retrained and, despite tight budgets, new technology was needed.

To achieve our goal content had to be refocused to spur growth even before we overhauled the look and the feel of the site.

August 2014 to July 20 (Award period)

The small team of journalists re-examined their news output, focusing on how to make it relevant to our audience. Veteran print production staff learned how to upload, create picture galleries and were exposed to the concept of SEO for the first time, while the ‘newsroom rejects’ - the online team -overhauled how they approached social media, especially facebook which analysis showed had massive potential for growth.

The results

Pre-award period growth saw monthly pageviews grow from 724,000 in December 2013 to 1.5 million in July 2014. In the awarding period pageviews grew up to our most recent month of 3.37 million in June. Likewise pre-award period saw monthly unique users grow from 162,000 to close to 300,000. In the award period monthly unique users grew to 630,000. (source Google Analytics)

Our facebook following also showed similar results rising in the pre-award period from 15,000 in January 2014 to50,000 by August 1, 2014. In the awarding period that has grown to 185,000 likes. Socialbakers.com sayswe have consistently been the fastest growing facebook page in Oman over the past year, rising to the thirdbiggest page in country. By the middle of August we should be the second-biggest page.

In-country standing

According to similarweb.com our site is the third largest Oman-based website. We have risen to become thenumber one Oman-based media channel.

According to alexa.com we are currently number eight in-country of all sites, it is the number two Oman-basedwebsite, and now the number one Oman-based media channel.

Competitor analysis: June 2015 (source similarweb.com)

We feel it is worth a quick comparison to put into context the growth for timesofoman.com with some in-country competitor analysis, to show how we have captured the hearts of readers/users, for they are the true measure of success.

Also worth noting unique in-country demographics. Currently 2.34 million Omanis and 1.8 million expatriates live in Oman, with 1.4 million of those expats coming from South Asian countries. This small, overcrowded marketplace is served by four English language newspapers and four Arabic newspapers, plus Oman News Agency, the state news wire.

Title UUs Visits Pageviews Facebook fans

Times of Oman 630,674 1,316,131 3,372,140 185,836Muscat Daily 20,000 40,000 86,800 9,249Oman Observer 25,000 50,000 121,500 11,351Oman Tribune 2,000 4,000 12,400 1,575Al Watan 35,000 70,000 182,700 129 Al Roya 7,500 15,000 47,550 5,849Azamn 40,000 80,000 128,000 11,947Shabiba (*) 156,373 267,292 645,927 25,464Oman News Agency 4,000 8,000 17,360 12,614*Shabiba is the Arabic sister title of Times of Oman which is fed our content for translation

That shows that currently timesofoman.com has grown to attract more than twice the numberof monthly unique users than all other competitors combined (630,674 vs 289,873) and notchesup nearly three times as many pageviews (3,372,140 vs 1,242,237). We also have more than double the facebook fans than all other competition combined (185,000 vs 78,177)

Investing in better for our readers

While better content and social media drove audience growth we knew we needed to greatly improve the user experience online, especially as our mobile traffic grew to become 55 per cent on average of all monthly traffic, yet with no mobile site.

During the awarding period a two-man team with a small budget, Chief Executive Editor Scott Armstrong and Chief Creative OfficerAdonis Durado, set about redesigning the site. After a global search developers Layout International in Lebanon were chosen, though much of the functionality, user experience and look and feel were provided from the Times of Oman team.

An exhausting 10 months culminated in the launch in June 2015 of version one of a new adaptive site serving our mobile, tablet and desktop audiences. The launch was promoted both in print and digitally, leading to a 41 per cent jump in traffic and a 25 per cent increase in unique users (source google analytics).

Click image to watch video of timesofoman.com new features

Reader engagement:

In the redesign we put reader engagement, both on our site and on social media, at the heart of the experience. Here are some of the prominent new features:

Sharelines. Inspired by the LA Times, now the reader doesn't have to type a tweet or a facebook post, we've done it for them. They simply share in an instant.

In-article sharing. If readers spot a quote that has their blood boiling, they just highlight the area they want to share and tweet or share it with facebook instantly.

Have your say and interact. Now with the new Disqus tool it's even easier for readers to have their say on any story. Plus our social media channels are always on screen to allow them to get involved on whichever platform they choose.

Focus on multimedia:

The new-look site has much more focus on multimedia, with a dedicated channel for picture galleries and video. Every day fresh picture galleries are built for readers on both local and international events.

As well as bringing our audience international video stories, timesofoman.com has also invested in producing innovative film which is shared on the website, on our youtube channel (the fifth biggest in Oman and the fifth fastest growing) and recently direct uploads on facebook.

The Times of Oman has also recently appointed a new Director of Digital TV due to start in August as a sign of its commitment toimproving multimedia content.

Click the icons below to launch three sample videos.

Moving forward:

While much has been achieved in a relatively short time with a small team and few resources, the Times of Oman remains committedto continuous improvement in digital.

Version two of the website, with improved functionality plus a few design tweaks, is due for roll out by the end of September, while the newsroom has hired its first Social Media Editor, plus four more ‘multi-channel’ journalists, putting online at the core of our operations.

We continue to expand through social media too, serving the public on Google +, Instagram and WhatsApp through our WhatsNewsapp. Emerging social media platforms such as Snapchat and Swarm are on the horizon, as is a service for wearable tech. And in print the Times of Oman continues to encourage its readers to engage with online with QR codes. These could soon be replaced with our own augmented reality app Saarab, currently under development.

Thank you for your consideration.

Scott ArmstrongChief Executive Editor