NEW YORK, Aug. 15, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Barron's Online, the website of America's premier financial magazine, today announced a site relaunch with a revamped design and site navigation that offers seamless access to free offerings including video and RSS feeds. A new dual-tab feature on the homepage enables users to easily move between features from "This Week's Magazine" published on Saturday, and "Online Exclusives" published Monday through Friday, such as Weekday Trader and The Inside Scoop. The new design also prominently highlights exclusive online-only columns such as Up & Down Wall Street Daily and Striking Price Daily.
In July, Barron's Online crossed a significant milestone when it reached 102,000 paid subscribers, making it one of the largest paid news sites on the Web after The Wall Street Journal Online. Barron's Online was spun off from WSJ.com as a separate site in January 2006. Barron's Online also set a traffic record of 1.1 million unique visitors in July, according to Omniture Analytics.
"Barron's Online is growing more popular by the day, and we are pleased to offer our readers a dynamic weekday complement to their must-have weekend read," said Edwin A. Finn, editor and president, Barron's. "Most print readers know that the magazine's stock picks for 2006 and through midyear 2007 did twice as well as the overall market. But what they may not know is that Barron's makes almost as many stock picks in its online exclusive stories as it does in print."
In addition to a streamlined look and feel, the redesign of www.barrons.com offers:
Subscriber-only features:
* Up to 10 online-only features are published every trading day including: Weekday Trader, The Inside Scoop, Investors' Soapbox, Hot Research and Charting the Market Today. * Ability to view a snapshot of your portfolio on the home page. * Investing tools including StockGrader, Stock Screener and Company Index. * In-depth research on up to 10,000 companies, including proprietary ratings on companies from Barron's partner MarketGrader, driven by fundamental analysis. * Full access to Barron's print and online archives going back to 1997.
Redesign features:
* Navigation moves from the left side to the top of the site, and adds "dropdown" menus to expedite deeper access into the site. * A new "Video Center" module including frequent video updates from Barron's journalists. * A list of "Today's Most Popular" stories on Barron's Online.
Free features:
* The Tech Trader Daily blog (http://barrons.com/techtraderdaily) is updated frequently every trading day with technology news, analysis and commentary from Silicon Valley editor Eric Savitz. In the first year of the blog, Savitz filed more than 3,000 items, averaging 12 a day. * Daily video reports from Barron's editors and reporters including Michael Santoli, Lauren Rublin, Andrew Bary, Tiernan Ray and Kopin Tan. * RSS feeds for popular columns and blogs, and a weekly Barron's podcast.
Barron's Online recently appointed Gail Griffin as the new general manager for the site, and she was instrumental in the homepage redesign and site relaunch. Griffin joined Dow Jones in 2001 and has served in a variety of online product development and business management roles, most recently as general manager of WSJ.com. Prior to joining Dow Jones, she was vice president, product development, and managing editor of TheStreet.com. Griffin previously worked as an editor at Dow Jones Newswires and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., and received a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
"Our redesign offers our readers improved access to Barron's authoritative analysis, including additional video commentary from our journalists," Griffin said. "We've also created new opportunities for advertisers to reach our audience, which includes the Web's most affluent and sophisticated investors. We continue to expand that audience both by growing our paid subscription base and by striking new content partnerships that are driving increased traffic to the site."
The Barron's franchise -- print, online and conferences -- has seen steady growth in 2007. According to Barron's recent filing with the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Barron's Total Paid & Verified Circulation for the six months ended June 30, 2007 is 312,562, an all-time high. Barron's magazine ranked first in financial ad pages sold in both 2007 and 2006, as reported by TNS Media Intelligence, and print ad revenue surged 18.7% in the first half of the year. Additionally, Barron's inaugural Top Financial Advisors Summit in 2005 has expanded to a successful conference business that attracts top-tier sponsors and high-level attendees from wealth management institutions.
About The Wall Street Journal Digital Network
The Wall Street Journal Digital Network is comprised of business and financial news websites including The Wall Street Journal Online, the largest paid subscription site on the Web with 983,000 subscribers; Barron's Online, the site of America's premier financial weekly with 102,000 subscribers; MarketWatch.com, a leading investing and financial news site; and AllThingsD.com, a new site devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the Internet and media. Marketers seeking to target business decision-makers or affluent and influential individuals can reach more than 15 million unduplicated, unique visitors per month across The Wall Street Journal Digital Network.
The Barron's "Online" logo is available at http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2642