Cranking up Decibel's rating

To streamline editorial processes, amplify brand identity and attract more traffic to its site, a heavy metal music magazine has gone live with a new Web content management system. Decibel Magazine, published by Red Flag Media, has chosen CMS400.NET from Ektron  to deliver the content that its Web-savvy audience demands. The magazine, launched in 2004, had initially limited its Web content to focus on establishing the print product. But its audience, primarily between the ages of 18 and 35 years, wanted more.

Red Flag Media recognized that desire and understood, too, the importance of developing one system that could handle the editorial and publishing processes for both the Web and eventually the print product. "The Web increasingly is the primary source of how our readers get their information. It is important to us to be on the forefront of how our content is delivered," says Robert Roberts-Jolly, chief information officer of Red Flag Media. "In this business, it's all about timeliness, getting recognized and building brand awareness. We were impressed that we were able to get so much content onto the site in such a short period of time."

The new site launched with more than 2,000 articles and reviews and will soon include a complete article archives. By publishing more stories on the site, Ektron reports, Decibel has:

• improved brand awareness and recognition--site visitors are linking to Decibel's online articles from other sites, blogs and message boards;

• generated better search engine results--within a few weeks of launching, Decibel moved up in the natural search rankings on Google; and

• increased site traffic—nearly 100 times more people visit decibelmagazine.com than before the redesign.