UN Global Compact : Producing online releases

A news and media section catches up.

The Site

The United Nations Global Compact, an ethical conduct framework for businesses, publishes press releases in an integrated online format.

The UN Global Compact has a News & Events section in which the latest press releases and contents of the News Archive are fully integrated HTML pages. Current and archived releases are listed by headline and date in annual indexes; clicking on a headline opens a page with the full text of the release. The title of the release shows as the final step of the breadcrumb trail displayed at the top of the page to indicate the location of the page in the section (“You are here”).

Releases may also have in-text links leading to related content or documents; the latter open in a new secondary window, the former in the current window. The name of an information contact is given at the bottom along with a linked to a ready-addressee e-mail form. Icons enable pages to be printed or sent ‘to a friend’.

The Takeaway

UN Global Compact’s press release and archive is, in many of its aspects, conventional – right down to the lack of categorisation below the annual. What lifts it out of the ordinary is the degree to which individual releases are integrated into the site. Not only are they HTML-based (as opposed to PDF, which still has many followers), but they are wired into the navigational structure.

For users, orientating themselves and moving around becomes that much easier. It also enables UN Global Compact to provide a much more ‘connected’ service, and one that better exploits the medium, by linking direct to background or related information. Standard stuff In most other parts of a site but surprisingly often lacking in news and media sections.

First published on 28 August, 2008