Sky News has announced that it is to launch a new-look website this Thursday.

The new site will have three separate home pages which will provide more stories and features, with one concentrating on major breaking news stories.

The design changes will provide a synergy between the look of Sky News channel and sky.com/news, creating a user-friendly, easy to navigate site with a focus on breaking news.

The changes are being driven forward by Editor, Sky News Networked Media, Steve Bennedik and Sky Editorial Director, Online, Andrew Hawken, who joined Sky last autumn from msn.com, where he led the editorial strategy for one of the world’s leading websites, with responsibility for the development of msn.com’s homepage around the world.

Andrew Hawken said, "Sky intends to continue leading the way in breaking news – especially when it comes to new media. The channel is committed to a spirit of innovation and the design changes to sky.com/news announced today are just the first phase of a plan to bring the same sense of ambition Sky News has brought to television, to the web.

"Our intention is – incrementally - to create a richer site for breaking news and information that will encourage users to find out more about what is going on in the world."

The icons and scrolls will make it easier for users to view content on other web pages.

Both the graphics and colours employed in the new look have been kept minimal and functional. The colour combination employs red to show top stories, yellow for breaking news, black for neutral background and grey to denote less important information.

In addition, a larger video area will provide easy access to a vast library of video news from Sky News TV, with easy to use controls to view and organise clips.

Steve Bennedik said, "We are offering greater flexibility, but in a cleaner and uncluttered way. During the coming year, both content and functionality will evolve as new online features are regularly introduced."

See a preview of the new-look website here.

Related links:
Sky News website to get revamp
Sky get ready to revamp websites