New website to soon appear for Talk Business & Politics, Northwest Arkansas Business Journal
by January 12, 2017 8:08 pm 328 views
Talk Business & Politics and the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal will soon launch a new website designed to provide readers with access to more news content in an easier-to-use format.
The new site will incorporate content from the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, with the Northwest Arkansas landing page serving as the new home page for the journal.
“Since combining the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal with Talk Business & Politics in October, we’ve been able to streamline a number of our processes, and this is just the latest and most visible example,” said Paul Gatling, editor of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “Since the merger, we’ve been publishing our content on separate websites, but this new web address will simplify that process. It has a variety of features that will meet all of our readers’ needs on multiple platforms. It’s a one-stop shop, and we’re excited about that.”
Talk Business & Politics CEO Roby Brock said key goals with developing a new website included being able to present the reader with more content options without cluttering the site, and better use of social media that results in more convenient connections with readers.
The new website also will include an improved search function, and will be 100% responsive – meaning it can be viewed on any computer or mobile device. And soon after the launch, Talk Business & Politics will make design changes geared to improve the user experience with the daily e-mail.
“The website we now use is about two years old, but it might as well be decades old considering the technology available compared with two years ago. The ability to now incorporate video and better present the hundreds of business and political stories we post each month has vastly improved,” Brock said. “We were confident that the people behind the amazing success of Acumen and Scrub Shopper would be able to help us grow our audience and take us to the next level.”
Fayetteville-based Gemini Development, co-founded by Hayseed Ventures’ John James, built the website. Johnathon Williams, owner of Fayetteville-based Odd Jar, worked with Gemini during the process. Williams has since October 2015 managed the website and provided other technical services for Talk Business & Politics.
Gemini is a boutique digital agency with a focus on product design, better experiences and launching minimum viable products. Gemini also works with startups, helping them with ecommerce strategy and general product direction. The web launch of “BEING Bret Bielema” was managed by Gemini.
In addition to the new website, Talk Business & Politics now has a Sunday morning news show on KFSM Channel 5. The 30-minute news show airs at 10:30 a.m. each Sunday in the Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas television markets. Talk Business & Politics also airs Sundays on KATV Channel 7 at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Rock market and KAIT’s NBC affiliate at 10:00 a.m. in the Jonesboro market as well as across multiple NPR member stations throughout Arkansas.
ABOUT TALK BUSINESS & POLITICS
In the fall of 2016, Natural State Media, the parent company of Talk Business & Politics, acquired the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. It was the second deal for Natural State Media in less than a year. The newly formatted Talk Business & Politics resulted from the October 2015 merger of River Rock Communications and TCW Media (The City Wire). The new company, Natural State Media, is based in Fort Smith and focuses coverage on business and political news in Northwest Arkansas, the Fort Smith metro, central Arkansas, Northeast Arkansas and statewide.