We have liked Journal Broadcast Group’s digital initiatives since the launch of its breakthrough Radio League app in March. Radio League is a pureplay Internet radio outlet which has grown from seven initial genre stations to 14 today, powered by Radionomy. One of those stations is called Now Trending Hits.
When we learned from Inside Radio that Journal put up a website based on Now Trending Hits (www.nowtrending.com), we opened the site eagerly for a look.
Now Trending is essentially a news site. The music stream is available, but downplayed in a sidebar compared to big Listen Now buttons you see at the top of radio station sites. the news items in Now Trending are sourced from Journal’s main site (www.jrn.com), and cover hard news, culture, entertainment, in an endlessly scrolling single-page treatment that is fun to browse. A sidebar video player is separately controlled and offers news/weather videos from Journal TV stations.
The Now Trending website acts as a funnel to JRN.com — every clickable item takes you there for a full story or photo gallery. At the same time, Now Trending is monetized with its own ad units.
With these Journal extensions — the Radio League app and the Now Trending news site — the Journal signifies that its brand represents more than traditional broadcasting. Last fall, Mark Fratrik SVP of BIA/Kelsey, told RAIN News that radio stations “should be more than just radio stations.”
And we still like that Radio League app.