CWU WEBSITE & CWUTV

[TrueBlueTerrier]

No. 440/2010
Ref
Date: 20 May 2010


TO ALL BRANCHES


Dear Colleague,

CWU WEBSITE & CWUTV

The CWU website has had a slight re-design as part of our ongoing improvement. These changes allow for better presentation of news and better management of other web services. The changes have been influenced by our member feedback surveys and by the immense growth of the video usage on cwu.org

The changes include higher prominence of CWUTV, the login area returning to its original and regular position and an improving appearance of the home page.

The growth of visitors to the CWU website has been rapid over the last 2 years as have the number of people who watch video news and features. In quarter 4 of 2009 we had 481 685 visits to the website. This number was a peak for the website but in quarter 1 of 2010 we had 272 441 visitors who viewed an average of 3.3 pages per visit. The average pages visited shows a very healthy increase and is a good barometer that the site is user friendly, has good navigation and that visitors know where to find what they are looking for. This number is above the industry average. Also above the industry average is the statistic that visitors spend an average of 2.5 minutes per visit.

It is obvious that the website has clearly grown in importance as a communication tool that reaches a high number of members. The new changes will work toward continuing this trend of growth.

CWU TV ended as a TV programme at the end of March 2010 due predominantly to our drive to cut costs. As a result we have been developing a better usage of CWUTV as an online communications tool. Early results from the last 12 months have proven a huge success. Over 60 000 videos per month have been watched or part watched by the site users. This is in line with industry expectations as web users now expect video news as part of a rounded communications strategy. This is reflected by the growth of video on main news websites.

These results and member feedback have driven the improved access on the website to CWUTV. In addition, for the same reasons, we have revised the way TV is presented online with the main monthly news programme now requiring a “click to watch” facility and the main CWUTV menu now being split into several different channels – providing easy access for viewers to find their own preferred news medium.

These new channels solve the problem of people not finding the video they are seeking and this has been our most regularly expressed concern from web visitors.

The revised presentation is broken down into a number of brands that will hopefully grow in popularity and engage with different groups of members. The amount of content is unchanged but presented in an easier to access menu as follows:

CWU News – the monthly news review has proved extremely popular with web visitors and remains the flagship of CWUTV. Breaking news stories also supplement the main news pages with short immediate video news.

CWU Matters – a variety of in-depth interviews of the key issues affecting the CWU. This has included the interviews on the postal dispute and the current potential BT pay dispute.

CWU Uncovered – a strand of short videos covering stories that don’t always make the Voice or the main news videos

CWUTUBE – This channel will provide a home for video normally found on YouTube and will provide members with a platform for there own voices. To comply with the union’s values and policies all videos will be subject to screening to ensure they can be posted.
If you have or know of any video’s that you believe would be well suited for CWUTUBE then please forward a link to cwutv@cwu.org

CWU360 – is produced to provide video support for Voice stories and is linked to that magazine’s publication cycle. It also shows highlights of other video stories for people who want shorter news.

For the moment, a number of these channels are subject to ongoing population of an archive of videos.

In conjunction with our web hosting providers, Rippleffect, we have enlisted a new platform to host CWU TV from a leading global video streaming company Ooyala that delivers video content by variable bit rate streaming. This will radically improve any loading or buffering issues experienced on some computers.

It is often forgotten that the website is a key communication tool for all of our members and these changes are all part of an ongoing project to listen to rank and file members and aim our communications at engaging the widest number possible.

If you have any enquires regarding the content of this LTB please direct them to mmurray@cwu.org


Yours Sincerely



Kevin Slocombe
Head of Communications

[jack straw]

Who cares anymore?

[fishtank]

What is the cost of access to Sky at CWU HQ, how many televisions in the building
have access to it, and via which service provider?

£9277.79
Number of Departments with access = 4:
Service Provider = Sky.

Obviously only so that they could watch CWUTV.

[fishtank]

Can't log in to the members area....
Anybody else having problems or have i finally made the naughty list at HQ?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Can't log in to the members area....
Anybody else having problems or have i finally made the naughty list at HQ?

No I am having problems as well, after about 1 minute I get

This web page is not available
The web page at http://membersupdate.cwu.org/membersarealive" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
Error 101 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_RESET): Unknown error.

[fishtank]

The web page at http://membersupdate.cwu.org/membersarealive" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is that meant to be membersarealive or....membersarealive.

It's a bit optimistic if it's the latter.

[TrueBlueTerrier]