All business, all the time

If you haven't been to the Canadian Business website recently, you're in for a surprise. Major renovations have been made in an effort to make CB the go-to portal for business readers. Not only are three Rogers titles interlinked (MoneySense and Profit with CB) but the opening page is something like an all-news channel, with a stock ticker, news, features from the magazines, various archival sources and the kinds of tools that investors and business readers take for granted. Previously, they would get these in a variety of sites (Globefund, Stockhouse etc.) but CB is trying to make this the kind of page that not only promotes the readership of the magazines but becomes the home page of choice for people interested in business in Canada.

Its the kind of one-stop shopping that many magazines would like to offer but few achieve. We don't imagine that the site pays for itself yet, at least directly, but there is a fair amount of banner and other ads. It is certainly a powerful aid in building traditional subscribers, because it makes subscribing fairly easy and may lead readers to dip into more than one title.

The site design, while a bit overwhelming with boxes trying to corral all the offerings, is quite handsome. Worth a look. And perhaps worth imitating (although if we all have portals, none of us have portals, if you see what I mean.)