Insurance Journal Online continues to break new records, attracting readers from around the world. In just two years, Insurance Journal’s Daily Headlines e-mail newsletter has skyrocketed from 4,000 opt-in subscribers to more than 30,000 subscribers.
“We broke the 30,000 mark with 2,702 new subscribers in September and October,” said Josh Carlson, IJ’s Web manager.
Insurance Journal’s online newsletter has gained national and international attention for its insurance breaking news headlines and multimedia capabilities. The Web site drew 137,193 unique visitors in October, an increase of 10,713 unique visitors from the prior month, and continually draws more than two million page views each month.
“We have a lot of traffic generated from the U.K. and from eastern countries,” Mitch Dunford, IJ’s COO, said. According to Dunford, national subscribers are split in thirds—one-third from the Western states, one-third from the Central states and one-third from the Eastern states. The increased visibility has opened the door for Insurance Journal’s national expansion of its print magazine, schedule to launch in Jan. 2004.
According to Carlson, a good number of Web surfers locate IJ’s Web site through its high placement on top search engines, and through links from other industry sites. “Anyone can link to our site for news,” he said.
“If someone would like to link to our site, their Web master can pull off the HTML code from our site and just cut and paste onto their Web site,” Dunford explained. “This will allow them to display our news on their Web site in real-time. We have quite a few companies that use this function.”
A new addition to the site is the launch of IJ’s online media player, which packages all multimedia content, including audio and video interviews, into one area of the Web site. “When someone wants to view multi-media from our site, all they need to do is go to our media player which allows them to search all in one place,” Dunford said.
Carlson also noted that the media player improves the organization of multimedia content, making the site a lot cleaner, better presented and user-friendlier for visitors.
Multimedia features, including streaming video and audio interviews were launched more than a year ago as a way to “bring the industry” to IJ’s Web site users. “It’s a way to bring conferences and events to our audience,” Dunford said. “We are not replacing them, but instead we are trying to give people a flavor of what’s going on at some of the industry’s best events.”
Recent multimedia coverage included video interviews from ISOTech 2003, an insurance and technology-focused conference, as well as several audio interviews from industry gurus. Previous video coverage has included the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers Association’s InfoXchange in Las Vegas, Nev., and the National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Organization’s annual meeting in San Diego, Calif.
Both Carlson and Dunford stated in 2004, Insurance Journal Online will continue to grow and enhance its capabilities. “We’re anticipating more multimedia coverage of events and interviews with some of the industry’s most interesting people, while providing high-quality, timely content for each region.”
Carlson added, “We’ll also have new ad sizes for the Web site that will deliver an effective presentation without distracting from the user experience.”
For additional information or to read the latest industry news, visit www.insurancejournal.com.
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