Hyperlocal Traffic ‘Exceeds Expectations’

The Glasgow Evening Times has launched a further 12 hyperlocal websites after the first batch proved so popular with users.

A total of 12 community sites went live at the start of this month [Glasgow's Hyperlocal Sites Go Live], prompting significant numbers of readers in other areas to ask when grass-roots coverage of their neighbourhood would begin.

This, coupled with better-than-expected visitor figures for the first dozen websites, led the Evening Times to accelerate its phased introduction strategy.

Assistant Editor Graeme Smith told holdthefrontpage.co.uk: “Traffic has exceeded all our expectations and we’ve brought forward our roll-out of the next batch in response.

“We’re still compiling figures from the first fortnight but obviously we would not have accelerated the introduction of the second phase if we hadn’t been greatly encouraged by the interest we’ve had so far.”

The websites are intended to provide a platform for users’ news and views and also include histories of each community, which can be written and edited by registered visitors.

As well as speeding up the roll-out of the hyperlocal sites, the Evening Times is planning improvements after receiving feedback from users.

These include expanding the community noticeboard sections and the categorisation of photo galleries, which have proved popular with local snappers.

A total of 80 hyperlocal websites are scheduled to be launched by the end of this year.