SoGlos Insights

Introducing the all-new SoGlos

Setting the standard for the future of UK regional media from right here in Gloucestershire, the all-new SoGlos marks the independent brand’s 15-year anniversary with a bang - introducing a brand-new look and a host of really clever new features for readers and partners.

By James Fyrne | Published Monday 11 July 2022

The new SoGlos sets out to set the standard for the future of UK regional media, from right here in Gloucestershire.

Exactly 15 years on from launching one of the first digital-only titles in UK regional media, the all-new SoGlos has been unveiled as a blueprint for the future of the industry – building on more than a decade of experience championing Gloucestershire, an intensive year-long development project and a substantial six-figure investment.

Reimagining SoGlos from the ground up, the new platform combines the most technologically-advanced new content management system, custom-built for our team of journalists, alongside a state-of-the art, deceptively simple mobile-first website.

The all-new SoGlos has been designed to help readers make the most of living in, working in and visiting Gloucestershire like never before through a host of new features, including:

MySoGlos membership

Completely free and including functionality reserved until now for the UK’s leading national press, SoGlos's innovative new membership functionality gives readers the chance to take their SoGlos experience to a whole new level. Create a profile and sign in to MySoGlos to favourite and save selected news, events or hot lists – or create your own lists of articles, such as ‘new restaurants to try’, ‘things to do with the kids this summer’ or ‘accountants to shortlist’. You can even opt to make your profile and lists public, to share them with friends and family.

Clean and intuitive design

Through careful consideration of readers preferences, drawing upon the latest web design best practices and reviewing media websites around the world, the new SoGlos embraces clean layouts, an intuitive experience, modern imagery, clearer typography and better accessibility to make it best in class – all while giving our journalists’ work the chance to shine like never before.

The new SoGlos benefits from a clean and clear UX.

All-new super sections

Less is more on the all-new SoGlos, with a refined list of super sections dedicated to inspire readers. The exceptionally popular ‘Theatre & Comedy’ and ‘Music & Film’ sections have combined to make way for the all-new ‘Entertainment’ section, while ‘Culture’, ‘Family’ and ‘Outdoors’ all benefit from tighter names and a sharper focus. ‘Homes & Gardens’ gets a makeover in the form of ‘Property & Interiors’ and, last but by no means least, ‘Hotels’ is replaced with ‘Visit’ – a new section dedicated to inspiring out-of-county readers visiting Gloucestershire.

The most modern display advertising

We’re proud to run our own display advertising network with selected regional partners, and SoGlos’s bold new positions showcase our clients and engage with readers like never before. Stylish, well-placed display adverts continue to run on a section-by-section basis to make them as targeted as possible, as well as being fully responsive to ensure they’re looking their best whether you’re enjoying SoGlos on a desktop, tablet or mobile.

Modern display advertising is yet another new addition to the reimagined SoGlos.

Text-to-speech

The way today’s readers are engaging with local and national content continues to evolve, with recent advances in the world of text-to-speech making this a particularly exciting development. Being implemented on all new SoGlos articles and rolled out across thousands of pages in our archive, readers can now choose to conveniently listen to the latest news, interviews, hot lists or events at the touch of a button. While it’s also a really useful new feature for those who have trouble reading on-screen text.

Push notifications

SoGlos readers now have the opportunity to subscribe to web push notifications at the touch of a button, choosing their specific areas of interests from Business and Food & Drink to Family and Weddings, to benefit from instant updates, breaking news or exciting developments straight through their web browser. Neat, huh?!

Tags and author bios

A brand new way of exploring more content about a specific subject, business or event, you’ll now find handy tags on thousands of articles across SoGlos.

You can also now click through to your favourite SoGlos journalist for a fast-moving feed of their latest work.

Tag- and author-feeds give members new ways of exploring SoGlos content.

Proud partnerships

It’s thanks to the continued support of our local, regional and national advertisers that SoGlos has stood the test of time and grown to become Gloucestershire’s leading media brand – and we’re proud to develop these relationships further with content now created ‘in partnership with’ clients - signposted in an elegant and engaging way.

'In partnership with' features and designs have been given a brand new look too.

IPSO accreditation

As the independent regulator of most of the UK’s newspapers and magazines, SoGlos’s new IPSO accreditation reflects our commitment to professional standards and accountability too.

We hope you enjoy the all-new SoGlos as much as we’ve enjoyed developing it over the last year...

We’d love to hear from you!

Is there something you particularly like about the new website? Has your favourite feature moved? Did you prefer the old site? What would you have done differently? If you’d like to share your feedback about the new SoGlos, we’d love to hear it – particularly as we continue to develop features and functionality.

Simply email info@sopublishing.com, and we’ll try our best to respond to as many of your emails as we can.

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