• by Sara Guaglione , June 5, 2020

The Daily Beasthas redesigned its homepage, with new, static sections and a bolder structure and visuals. 

After launching a paid subscription product in the summer of 2018, The Daily Beast team “found that users who use the homepage have the highest conversion rate to paid subscriptions,” Lauren Bertolini, Chief Product Officer of The Daily Beast told Publishers Daily.

Homepage use has continued to grow for The Daily Beast over the years, according to Bertolini. The development of the new homepage began early this year. 

“We went bigger and bolder,” reads an email sent to readers Friday afternoon announcing the new look. The homepage is “faster, easier to navigate and more user-friendly.”

Previously, the editorial team could change the format of the homepage, based on the news of the day. This meant sections “could change multiple times throughout the day,” Bertolini said.

Now, the homepage is broken down into different, rigid sections that give the homepage a static structure, “so that loyal users could come and find exactly what they are looking for,” Bertolini said.

The “above the fold” part of the homepage remains similar to the previous iteration, so regular readers “can still land on the homepage and know where they were.”

Below the fold, new sections have bold headers not tied to verticals. They include “The Download,” with important news stories of the day; “Scouted,” for curated products to buy online; “Spotlight” for “viral moments and must-reads from the worlds of entertainment, media and more"; and “The Best of the Beast” for long-form journalism and special coverage from The Daily Beast’s archive.

Users are accustomed to scrolling through a feed on mobile, Bertolini said. Now, they can scroll through sections and down the homepage for content.

The editorial team can also align Daily Beast products with the news in each section, such as sign-ups for corresponding newsletters, podcasts, memberships or the new Crossword offering.