The celebrity news site was originally a channel within Howzit MSN portal, but it was spun out as an independent web property around two years ago. Since then, it has experienced exponential growth in a tough and crowded market to reach 94,405 unique users in just 14 months.
With Kagiso Digital migrating all its web properties to a new CMS platform, it was first in line for a makeover. "We recognised that our old website wasn't user-friendly, social or mobile enough and content management was a challenge in the back-end," says editor Lauren-Lee Atkinson. "So we decided to revamp the site and align it more closely with the brand we have built over the past year and a bit."
The new website is described as classy, clean and easy to navigate with intuitive grouping of content, more social features and a far improved mobile offering. What remains much the same is an editorial focus on first class entertainment news that showcases the talent, growth and diversity of the South African entertainment community.
It features a range of exclusive and unique content. One example is its celebrity blogs, where celebs give an insider's view of their lives. The celebrity blogger changes each month. Bailey Schneider is currently giving the site an exclusive peek into her life once a week.
Says Atkinson, "While we carry the Hollywood gossip you'd get on a regular entertainment website, our main focus is on the local scene where we run a higher than proportionate ratio of local to international content offering than our compatriots.
"Our readers have responded well to our mix of exclusive interviews and behind the scenes videos. We're not just another gossip rag - we like to report on positive stories rather than feeding off gossip and negativity."
To celebrate the revamp, the site will be running competitions with tickets to concerts, makeovers, theatre evenings and more up. For more, go to www.zalebs.com.
