Charlotte Observer Launches New Website, Designed by NavigationArts

MCLEAN, VIRGINIA, July 31, 2008 – The Charlotte Observer (www.charlotteobserver.com) today launched a new website, designed and developed by NavigationArts, a leading user experience design consultancy. The timing of the website redesign coincides with the launch of a new design for the print edition of the paper.

The Charlotte Observer's web strategy focused on reinforcing the brand identity of the newspaper online rather than using the website as a hybrid between a newspaper site and a regional destination portal. The new Charlotte Observer site will drive a more engaged interaction with readers, increasing dwell time, page views, and repeat visitors - important measures considering the potential to drive profits through online advertising revenue. The key to the improved site is a user-centered design that conforms to readers' priorities and expectations, while fulfilling important business goals defined by The Charlotte Observer at the start of the project.

NavigationArts provided information architecture, user interface design, and development services to create the new website. NavigationArts' user experience team created a site that balances the presentation of content, advertising, and partner promotions in a way that makes all the information easily scannable and digestible. The new design offers a more sophisticated treatment of multimedia content and incorporates comment functionality and filters for the most viewed and most commented articles.

NavigationArts has a long history of working with clients in the newspaper industry. NavigationArts redesigned the website for the Newspaper Association of America and has worked on projects for The Washington Post. NavigationArts is currently engaged with The Sacramento Bee, another McClatchy newspaper, on a complete website redesign set to launch in December, 2008.

About The Charlotte Observer

The Charlotte Observer delivers what people need to discover and understand the region. The first Charlotte Daily Chronicle, predecessor of today's Charlotte Observer, rolled out on March 22, 1886, as a challenge from one faction of the Democratic Party to a bloc led in large part by the publisher of the Charlotte Daily Observer, founded in 1869. In August 1887, the overwhelmed Observer folded; in 1892, the Chronicle took its name.

Trumpeting the "New South" and the Charlotte region's industrialization, the Observer thrived in the early 20th century. Two months before the 1929 stock market crash, its publisher, sensing danger, sold his NYSE holdings at a huge profit, amassing the cash to expand operations during the Depression by taking advantage of cheap newsprint.

The Observer was privately owned until the Knights bought it in 1954 for $7.225 million. Three years later, the Knights also acquired the afternoon Charlotte News, for $1 million. A new building opened in 1971 and helped spur a wave of uptown development that continues. In 1974, the Knight and Ridder newspaper corporations merged. The Charlotte Observer joined McClatchy in 2006 with McClatchy's purchase of Knight Ridder.

About NavigationArts

NavigationArts is a user experience consultancy that provides Internet strategy, usability, information architecture, interface design, content management, and development services. The firm creates exceptional online user experiences that drive business value for communications and commerce.