The new 'NOW' websites, piloted in Saskatchewan, have been recognized with a Digital Innovation Award from the Western Association of Broadcasters. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By paNOW Staff

JPBG receives digital award

‘NOW’ websites recognized with digital innovation award

Jun 7, 2019 | 2:18 PM

A division of the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group in Saskatchewan is once again leading the way in innovation and digital design.

It recently received the Gold Medal Award for Digital Innovation from the Western Association of Broadcasters (WAB).

“We changed the look of our sites a few months ago in an effort to eliminate unnecessary design elements and to make the site easier to understand,” Karl Johnston, Jim Pattison Broadcast Group (JPBG) General Manager, said. “We are happy to see our efforts to provide the most accessible local news coverage has been recognized with this significant award.”

The ‘NOW’ family includes paNOW.com, the most read online local news source in Saskatchewan. It also includes battlefordsNOW.com, meadowlakeNOW.com, northeastNOW.com, saskNOW.com, farmnewsNOW.com and larongeNOW.com which received the WAB Gold Medal Award for Digital Innovation in 2018. The changes brought consumers a more user-friendly site, enhanced with more video, bigger pictures and a less congested page that offers advertisers an opportunity to display their ads without competition. Readers will notice no more than two ads on their screen at any given time.

“We didn’t reinvent the wheel. We used elements and design that people are familiar with, so the look and feel of our sites are consistent,” Andrew Snook, JPBG’s Director of Digital, said. “What we’ve really done is mastered the ability to provide good news and good advertising at the same time – on a site that keeps visitors’ attention 10 times longer than our competitors.”

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In a world of ‘banner blindness’, the JPBG ‘NOW’ portals are the only news site in Canada currently using innovative edge to edge ads, full page ads and sticky ads – all designed to deliver maximum impact for clients. Snook said the unique ad formats pioneered on paNOW.com are all responsive, so that they automatically adjust to the size of the screen. Full page ads are used across the site and are designed to scroll up into view and maximize advertiser exposure on all devices.

“Interactivity, such as in-ad video and polls can be built and we use HTML5 technology for ad animations which reduces file size by one third compared to animated GIFs,” Snook said.

“We are tremendously proud of the fact we have been able to do news properly while also having advertisers stand out,” Johnston added. “The impressive changes we made to our portal here in Prince Albert and across the province set the groundwork and the bar for all JPBG news sites in Western Canada.”

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panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow