1. Whilst existing readers were totally happy with it, the message we got loud and clear from advertisers (and we are unique, I think, in the points blogging space in selling our advertising and indeed selling a substantial amount of it) was that it didn't work for them. Not just because having their ads on an old school format didn't look great, but because the site wasn't optimised for the sort of placements they wanted.

2, The old site was fixed width. As screens got wider and wider (or simply had more pixels in the same width) the site would look very lonely in the middle of the screen. We also had to run a 2nd 'theme' for mobile.

3. My gut feeling was that, whilst we weren't losing existing readers, we weren't doing enough to convince new readers. It's hard to persuade people you are the dominant force in your space when you're running a 15-year old design. The launch of TPG UK was the final kick up the butt to do it.

9 months in, it is too early to know what it has done for readership (there are not many new readers out there to attract at the moment given the lack of travel) but I can say that there has been a substantial rise in the number and value of ad bookings.