Newstalk
Overview
Newstalk is Ireland’s leading commercial talk radio station, providing news, current affairs, opinion, business, sport and entertainment content to audiences across the country. Founded in 2002 and broadcasting nationally since 2006, Newstalk has established itself as one of Ireland’s most influential media brands, with a strong radio audience complemented by a large and highly engaged digital audience. The station is known for flagship programmes such as Newstalk Breakfast, The Hard Shoulder and Off The Ball, and continues to grow its reach across radio, web, podcast and mobile platforms.
We partnered with the Newstalk team to modernise their digital publishing platform, improve performance and create a more engaging experience for both listeners and advertisers.
Our Role
UX/UI Design Website Design & Development Mobile App Development
The Client
Newstalk is Ireland’s only national commercial talk radio station, delivering a mix of news, analysis, discussion, entertainment and sport to audiences nationwide. Since launching in 2002, the station has grown into one of the country’s most recognised media brands, attracting hundreds of thousands of weekly listeners and millions of digital users each month. The station’s digital presence plays a critical role in extending the reach of its content beyond traditional broadcasting, supporting live audio, podcasts, news coverage and on demand programming.
As audience numbers continued to grow, the Newstalk team sought a technology partner with deep publishing expertise and a proven track record of delivering high performance digital platforms for media organisations.
Challange
Newstalk required a modern digital platform capable of supporting a rapidly growing audience while meeting the expectations of both users and advertisers. The existing platform faced challenges around site performance, stability and advertising delivery, particularly during periods of high traffic and major news events.
The organisation also needed to improve page speed, strengthen the overall user experience and create a more effective foundation for digital advertising. With an ambitious launch timeline, it was essential that the project could be delivered quickly while maintaining the confidence of stakeholders and ensuring uninterrupted service for audiences.
Solution
The project began with a series of collaborative discovery and design workshops involving key members of the Newstalk team. These sessions focused on user journeys, content consumption patterns and the requirements of a modern media platform.
The website was rebuilt on our Publisher Plus platform using a modern, performance focused architecture. Significant effort was invested in reducing page size, improving content delivery and creating a faster and more responsive experience for users. Given the importance of audio content to the Newstalk brand, particular attention was paid to integrating a seamless listening experience across the site.
A fully integrated audio player was developed, allowing users to listen to live radio broadcasts and on demand content while continuing to browse the website. Alongside these user experience improvements, enhancements were made to advertising delivery, audience targeting and reporting capabilities.
Throughout the project, close collaboration and regular communication ensured alignment between all stakeholders and allowed the project to be delivered successfully within a demanding timeframe.
Result
The rebuilt platform delivered significant improvements in performance, reliability and user engagement. Page load times were reduced by more than 50 percent, creating a noticeably faster experience across desktop and mobile devices. Site stability improved substantially, enabling the platform to handle traffic spikes and major news events without interruption.
The new advertising infrastructure provided greater flexibility, improved targeting capabilities and stronger viewability performance, helping to deliver better outcomes for advertisers while maintaining a positive experience for users. Enhanced performance and technical optimisation also strengthened the site’s search visibility and overall discoverability.
Today, Newstalk operates on a modern publishing platform that reflects the scale and ambition of one of Ireland’s leading media organisations. The platform provides the performance, resilience and flexibility required to support continued audience growth while delivering a premium digital experience for listeners, readers and advertisers alike.
