Planet Propaganda: Revitalizes Isthmus’ TheDailyPage.com, Finds the Shortest Distance Between the Weekly Paper and the Daily Website Content

Madison, Wis. — Six years after Planet Propaganda helped Madison’s alternative news weekly, Isthmus, reposition and reestablish the now 30-year-old paper as “The Shortest Distance Between Two Points of View,” the creative team returns and revitalizes Isthmus’ website, http://www.TheDailyPage.com. Planet’s re-design and functionality improvements to the website bolster the site visitor’s experience and make it easier to find, navigate, and participate in Isthmus’ content.

Planet’s brand manager Suz Harms explains, “By focusing on one thing: improving the user experience, we were able to improve so much more than the site design. The way the site works, the database design that drives greater content connectivity, the revamp and addition of great content all help to make TheDailyPage.com a strong, daily media resource and a fit companion to Isthmus.”

While the online format is not unique in the publishing world, Planet’s approach was unusual in its depth of involvement. For nine months, Planet worked with the publisher not only to re-organize, define and design TheDailyPage’s (TDP’s) content, but also to make the case for putting the award-winning paper editorial content online, alongside the web-only and user-generated content.

“The reality is that the reader — the passionate fan of Isthmus and TDP — is looking for the best of both worlds: reader-generated content and traditional journalist-generated editorial,” says Jason Joyce, Isthmus’ digital media director. “Alternative newspapers are starting to embrace this, but there’s a lesson here for all publishers: Put the paper online and supplement the print medium with new ad revenue . Online readers are a loyal breed, just as paper readers are, so Isthmus’ TheDailyPage compliments both types of readers.”

Responding to Isthmus’ 120,000+ loyal, weekly readers, “Our challenge with TheDailyPage was to create a site that feels like Isthmus: sophisticated journalism and juicy local zeitgeist. It’s information design that will help TDP present the paper, web-only, and user content consistently,” says Planet’s senior designer Travis Cain.

Harms agrees, “On the front-end, the site redesign provides a new, clean, intuitive interface that heightens TheDailyPage readers’ experience and ties it a little closer to the Isthmus vibe. On the back-end, Planet’s redesign of the data and relationships simplifies site structure, information architecture, and acts as an easy-to-maintain guide for Isthmus’ staff.”

Planet Propaganda is a design, advertising and interactive company committed to shaping passion-based brands. Founded in 1989 in Madison, Wis., Planet’s national clients include Gary Fisher mountain bikes, Bretford furniture and workspaces, PunchStock images, and Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches. For more information, please visit http://www.PlanetPropaganda.com.