Chicago Tribune : Presenting three faces on one site

Many organisations want to offer a service to different audiences, and face internal struggles over which should get the best billing on the home page.

The Site

The Chicago Tribune is one of the best-known US newspapers. Its site has a rich mix of news, features and advertisements, as well as a mass of information and reviews for locals.

The site can be accessed from any of the three URLs above. Depending on which is used a different section will appear as the home page, though the others can be reached from the tabs at the top of the page. Metromix is the local entertainment guide – notable for its reader reviews of eating, drinking and dancing places. But click the ‘News’ tab, and the online version of the Chicago Tribune appears, while ‘Sports’ brings up Chicagosports.com. The other tabs along the top lead to the classified advertising sections.

The Takeaway

Many organisations want to offer a service to different audiences, and face internal struggles over which should get the best billing on the home page. The Chicago Tribune gets round this by proving three separate home pages, each with its own personality. Metromix is particularly clever because it has a distinct brand, which need not be associated with the paper but that gives just as much prominence to the revenue-generating ad sections.

Large companies will sometimes offer separate URLs for their investor or careers sites, but none that we know manage quite such a neat balance – providing ‘sites’ that are simultaneously the same and different.

First published on 20 May, 2004