The Guardian will soon overhaul its website to ensure ads, as well as editorial, adapt to work across the multitude of devices consumers use.
The publisher first launched a “responsive design” site in 2012 – a tactic a growing number of operators are using to guarantee pages can render flexibly across different screen sizes. But The Guardian’s responsiveness is limited only to m.theguardian.com, the mobile-specific version of its site, while larger-screen users still get the publisher’s 2007/10 design – that’s not true responsiveness.
“2014 will see The Guardian move to a responsive site,” revenue director Tim Gentry tells Beet.TV. “We will be on the same platform across all devices and be able to start offering integrated ad experiences across both mobile, tablet and desktop.
“(There will be) further app launches as well – one app which will render beautifully both on mobile and tablet.”
For Gentry, the move is not just about web design efficiency in a multi-device world – he also wants display ads to render properly, too.
“Within tablet, we see an interesting opportunity for truly premium asset,” he says. “Within mobile, the big challenge we face as an industry is to make sure the creative executions are making use of the amount of time people are spending with mobile content.”
Gentry spoke with Beet.TV at Adap.tv’s Worldwide Publisher Conference.