The thing newspaper columnists do best, Robert Niles says, can make them great assets online. Many columnists already have established followings, it’s just matter of converting those followers into participants in an online dialogue. His piece in Online Journalism Review has some practical advice on how to do that.
Category: Link topic
A story in today’s New York Times chronicles the rise of online video and shows some recent statistics that indicate users’ attention spans are growing significantly. It may no longer be necessary to hit the less-than-90-seconds mark that not so long ago was the ideal length for an online video. “A few years ago, three minutes ‘watching’ your computer felt like a novelty; now, it’s as familiar as your television set,” said one online video producer.
Daniel Honigman, one of the Chicago Tribune’s social media presence, has some advice on how to mold your newspaper’s online persona. At the Tribune, Honigman was part of a team that created Colonel Tribune, a fictitious avatar who represents the news organization in social media circles.
His advice can carry over to newspaper of any size, and should fit just as well for community newspapers. If social networks are active in your community, Honigman’s advice could prove quite useful, and presents a more fun alternative than simply opening up a Facebook account under your newspaper’s name.
Community-based newspapers — in this cast, alternative newsweeklies — are finding a place for new technologies faster than traditional media, according to a news story coming out of their annual meeting.
One publisher quoted in the article above said this: “As those big guys crumble, it’s an opportunity for us. We know that they are stuck halfway between print and the web. And now they have to figure out what to do about mobile. They have far more resources than we do, but they also are much more bureaucratic.”
At the opening session, Rob Curley of Greenspun Interactive told publishers that they needed to be “of the Web” and not just “on the Web.” Curley said: “It’s not about getting people to your site. It’s about getting your site to the people.”
John Zogby writes in his regular Forbes column about research data that suggest many news consumers trust online over print. Why? Zogby suggests it has to do with the deep-rooted perception bias. It’s hard to apply his conclusions to community newspapers, but the survey results are still eye opening.
This is definitely an advertising concept that I can see working for community newspapers. The Nieman Lab has a story op about MinnPost’s experiment with “real-time advertising.” They’re sort of a technologically-updated version of classified ads that are powered by micro-updates from businesses.
In a post on Journalism 2.0, Mark Biggs lists several ways to track the performance of your Web site while being realistic about what the numbers actually mean to those in your newsroom. While some of his techniques may be a little much for a smaller news operations, many of the techniques will still apply.
Jeff Jarvis has an interesting take on new numbers released by The Economist. He says their latest circulation and online audience figures — which look quite good — are evidence that people are still willing to pay for a solid product. This may be the niche that community newspapers fall into.
10,000 Words has a cool roundup of several ways to adapt online sports coverage to better fit the Internet. While the sports story clearly still has a place, they have some good suggestions for some value-added features, many of which we’ve discussed in workshops, such as maps and stats features.
Steve Buttry from Gazette Communications has put together a great tip sheet on blogging, composed largely of tips from some great journalists/bloggers. It’s a must-read post if you’re thinking about blogging or already blogging for your site.