Credit Union Times Site Launches on New Platform

While our launches to date have both been portal products (where we combined multiple sites into one), we are also migrating the sites for the Professional Services Group to the new platform as standalone sites. CUTimes.com is the first site to make this move, and we're pleased with the results.

Upon visiting, first you'll notice a new design. The site also takes advantage of other platform features like control of article placement, the simplified editorial publishing interface and contextual tagging of the content. If you're familiar with the old site, you'll also notice a marked increase in page loading time on the site.

Editor-in-Chief Sarah Cooke shares her thoughts on the new site:

"The move to the SummitPublish CMS has been a dream. It truly will move us forward online. It is much easier to use and manage than our previous system so we'll have more time to do the little things that can help the user experience and drive them through CUTimes.com. We attended our biggest conference of the year this week as we launched the site and readers and advertisers there raved about the cleaner look and easier functionality, too."

Tech Department Updates

We're pleased to welcome Natalie King to the Tech Team as our new Project Manager. Natalie comes to Summit from Planet Discover, where she worked with internal and external clients developing and managing projects related to their online products. Natalie reports to Amanda and is working out of the Erlanger office. She can be reached at [email protected], 859-692-2162 (ext 2162). If you are in the Erlanger office, Natalie can be found in the cubicle outside of Amanda's office. Please join us in welcoming Natalie to the team.

Coming soon:

Launch of BenefitsPro.com, the portal for the benefits market incorporating BenefitsSellingMag.com and FreeErisa.com

TreasuryandRisk.com, coming to the new platform in April

Followed closely by InsideCounsel.com coming to the new platform in May

Feature Focus: Project Management

As we launch more powerful web products, we continue to build resources in production and development to support our teams as they implement strategies to increase audience levels and revenues. As part of this initiative, we are putting a new Project Review process into place to make sure we have everything we need to properly evaluate, approve and schedule projects.

As you are discussing ideas for presentation, your first step will be to complete the Project Requirements Document. This is a straight-forward document asking you to describe what the project is, provide background on how the project will grow or retain audience, increase revenue or improve process and what your time-frame/deadlines are.

Once your project is completed, you will email the document to [email protected], where it will be delivered to the project management members of the Tech Team.

After an initial review of the document, there will be several potential steps that may happen:

If the project is well defined and manageable by a member of the production team, your project will be assigned, and you'll be alerted as to who will be working on it and the expected due date.

If the project needs more discussion, we'll schedule a meeting with you for an initial review.

After the initial review, key Tech Team members (Rob, Patrick, Amanda and Natalie) will review and discuss next steps for the project. This meeting will take place on a weekly basis (generally Monday afternoons). After this meeting, the project will either be scheduled, or further communication will go back to you.

Once projects are scheduled, you'll be able to see them on the Project Pipeline report on the portal.

This is a new process for both members of the publishing teams as well as us on the Tech Team, so we all need to be patient and flexible as we start this new process. Our expectation is that each of the teams will be providing us with projects that not only keep us busy, but keep visitors coming to our sites and bring in advertising revenue as well.

If questions, please let Amanda Schuster or Natalie King know, and we can discuss with you.

Around the Web

Each month, we'll bring you highlights of what we're reading to expand our knowledge of all things online.

The Myth of the Pagefold: Evidence from User Testing

Google's Algorithm Change—Will You Notice?

Yes, we do know what day it is (but we probably won't say so)

IAB and other advertising trade groups launch initiative to develop digital metrics standards and cross-platform measurement solutions

The Three R's of Creating Great Content: Reduce, Release and Repurpose

What are you reading about the web that you'd like to share? Drop Amanda an email and you might see your link in the next edition.

Project Pipeline

View the Project Pipeline