Ealing Council has successfully launched a new digital and interactive magazine version of Around Ealing using the PageTiger software - giving their residents a better user experience and allowing the Council to tailor future content with the help of detailed analytics suite.
Background
Ealing Council communicates regularly with its near 350,000 residents, through news stories on its websites, printed quarterly magazine, weekly email newsletter and through its social media channels.
The council has 3 main priorities – tackling the climate crisis, creating good jobs and fighting inequality and crime. Consequently, a lot of stories are focused on these topics and the work the council is doing in support. Around Ealing magazine and Around Ealing website try to do this through human-interest stories.
Seeing a digital shift in how residents prefer to consume information, the Council wanted to meet this demand and offer a better digital solution for their readers. They first upgraded the Around Ealing website and then wanted to enhance the print magazine’s digital presence.
The Challenge
The solution from the previous software provider, which converted PDFs of Around Ealing magazine into a digital product, was quite limited in scope, so the Council wanted to explore other options. They conducted extensive research into the various products available on the market. “After looking at a variety of suppliers, we landed on PageTiger, which was the clear winner for us” explains Richard Nadal, Brand, design and publications manager.
The Outcome
After a couple of product demonstrations online, the Council signed up with PageTiger. One of the main deciding factors was the wide variety of interactivity available, which included pop up boxes, video, polls and so much more. “We found the online demonstrations offered by the PageTiger team extremely useful” says Verity Adams, Deputy Editor of Around Ealing magazine.
The back-end analytic suite offered with the PageTiger platform will also enable Ealing Council to see which stories are working well and how people are interacting with their content and magazine going forward.
The potential to stay relevant and grow is important to the Council, and the team is now looking at the idea of introducing digital-first products using the PageTiger solution.
Our Approach
Helping Ealing Council provide the best possible user experience for its audiences, the PageTiger software allows for a simple way to embed video, quite different to the other alternatives on the market. With the variety of interactivity available, the Council is also able to introduce polls, surveys and get quick and easy feedback from their readers.
The ability to design pages from scratch as well as upload a PDF or any existing document, edit and add interactivity, were all big selling points. “The ability to bring it all together in one package was the thing that sold us. I am really looking forward to the feedback and the analytics that we will now have, to help us see what is working well, and how people are using Around Ealing magazine” says Verity.