# Turbo-charging City AM’s Development

Turbo-charging City AM’s development of a digital proposition, 200% YoY audience growth and an industry-first move to prevent users with ad blockers from accessing the website’s content.

Martin [moved to City AM](http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/city-am-plans-online-expansion-and-hires-metro-head-digital-content/) as Digital and Social Media Director in early 2014 with a remit to move its digital proposition from a website in the low 100,000s of monthly visitors to a dynamic and engaging 24/7 destination site.

During his time there, Martin put together a team of talented content creators, developers, marketers, and data experts and implemented a lean way of collaborative working – which ensured a 200% YoY growth in monthly users within a year of his appointment.

City AM also opened its doors to external contributors to ensure a wide mix of the highest-quality content from specialists in their areas to ensure the site increased its engagement levels.

From a commercial perspective, Martin oversaw the move to block any users who had installed ad blockers from seeing City AM content online unless they turned off their ad blocker or white-listed the site. This was a first for a UK newspaper website and [attracted widespread industry acclaim](http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/10/21/city-am-we-ve-banned-ad-blockers-ourselves-it-s-only-matter-time-other-publishers) – as well as ensuring City AM was able to monetise [many more of its users](https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/dec/09/city-am-readers-ad-blocking-trial-results).