Case Studies

For many years, Antwerp Facets was the in-house publication of the Diamond High Council (HRD), which was the predecessor of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), the umbrella organization representing all sectors of the Antwerp diamond industry. In 2002, MarketDirect was retained to transform Antwerp Facets into a trade magazine, which while providing a specific Antwerp focus would deliver news and analysis about the diamond business.
 
For seven years thereafter Antwerp Facets was published as a periodical, and distributed free-of-charge to subscribers and at trade shows and other industry events at which HRD (and later AWDC) attended.  Initially it was produced on a bimonthly basis in a tabloid (A3) format, and then later as a quarterly in standard magazine (A4) format with an increased number of pages.
 
Talk about transforming Antwerp Facets into an exclusively online format began in 2007. A major attraction from the client’s perspective were the reduced production costs; for, while an online news website requires more regular input from a content perspective than would a quarterly trade magazine, it eliminates print, paper, mailing and other distribution costs entirely.
 
We were hesitant to make the move at first, not because of any technical limitations, but rather because we were reluctant to lose the passive presence that a printed magazine has in the workplace or at home. What changed our minds was the possibility of combining the news website with a regular electronic newsletter. What this means is that on a weekly basis, as is the case with Antwerp Facets, subscribers would receive a newsletter in their email boxes, which would bring them with regularity to the website.
 
Antwerp Facets Online would not the first online news website to serve the diamond industry, and from the point of view of design and format we felt that it would need to be approached in such a way that would distinguish it from its competitors. We decided to do this by retaining the look and feel of a magazine, with a weekly cover feature article that would stand alongside the daily news stories. This magazine feel had to be communicated visually as well. 
 
Furthermore, while the news was international, there needed to be a strong and consistent connection with the Antwerp diamond centre. AWDC’s goal was that Antwerp’s role as a primary provider of news and intelligence about the diamond industry be maintained.     
 
Antwerp Facet Online and the weekly Antwerp Facets Newsletter premiered during the first quarter of 2009. Within less than a year, subscription requests to the weekly newsletter passed the 10,000 mark, and it has continued to climb ever since.