07newsroom

Happy New Year, Happy New Carl Lavin blog

I've switched to Carl Lavin: The Business of News. 

TypePad has served me well. WordPress is right for right now.

A core reality of how business works is the idea of creative disruption. The more journalists and others in the media business learn about that force and the opportunities it presents, the better it will be for us and for our communities. 

07Newsroom seemed to be focused on the future when I started it in 2006. That's where I will continue to focus. Many thanks to Austin Lavin for urging me to take this step and to Seth Lavin who did the work on WordPress, including migrating all the old content -- both posts and comments. You can also get to the new blog with www.carllavin.com.

Shorter items are on twitter @FromCarl.

See you on and off line.

Thanks for reading.

--- Carl

News About Jobs News, Facebook Tips, Happy Birthday Roanoke

Some thoughts and tips for editors, with short urls included to make sharing easier.

Jobless Rate

New unemployment numbers come out on Friday, Dec. 2. Early in the week, economists polled by Reuters said they expect employers to have added 122,000 new jobs, up from the 80,000 jobs added in October. To keep pace with population growth, about 150,000 net new jobs are needed each month.

A positive number on Friday could continue to help push stock prices higher. A worse-than-expected showing can dampen the post-Thanksgiving rally.

Retailers are adding about 600,000 jobs around the country: 9 Companies Hiring for the Holidays - TheStreet http://bit.ly/tHcKVU

Is it too late to land one of those jobs? Roanoke.com published one set of tips in October: BBB Serving Western Virginia advises job seekers to start the search now for holiday employment | SWoCo - roanoke.com http://bit.ly/vYfgwb

You may spark a conversation by asking readers if they have applied for a seasonal job and if they know of any openings.

In January, The New Haven Register caught up with a job-training program and talked to young people hoping to join the workforce. At the end of the year, it makes sense to catch up with some of those same people to find out how they did in 2011. From the archives: New Haven Job Corps Center holds first Career Week (video) -  http://bit.ly/rutk6h

Other possible prompts for this week for your Facebook page, Twitter feed and for your site:

Nationally

*Ask for predictions about the unemployment rate at the start of 2012 (Friday, Jan. 6 will be the first jobless report of the new year).
Will it be lower, higher or the same as the current 9.0% unemployment rate? 
*What do readers expect a year from now?
Your area
*Ask readers if they know of any company that is hiring, any friend or neighbor who recently started a job, anyone recently let go.
*Ask readers if they know of anyone who started a business in recent months.
*Ask about support groups: is there a person or group who helped you in a recent job search? Do you have a tip for someone looking for a job?

Layoffs

*With December layoffs common at companies balancing the year-end books, ask if readers have holiday layoff stories to share.

* * * 

Two Facebook lessons from Roanoke:

Facebook as Tip Line

Good example from the Roanoke Times page on Facebook of a reader passing along a news tip: http://on.fb.me/t0VL5P

Note that the newsroom responded and included the name of a journalist in the response. 

Happy Birthday Roanoke Times!

Facebook is for birthdays, and The Roanoke Times has a message about its own 125th birthday on its page: Good morning! Today... http://on.fb.me/syfcM4

Do you know your newspaper's birthday? Celebrate once a year on Facebook.

If you have a circulation department with a sense of humor, show them the comment thread from the Roanoke birthday message. It provided me a morning smile.

 

Buy Nothing or Seek Bargains: Ready for Black Friday

Tips for editors, short url's included to promote sharing.

The group that provided the idea for the Occupy Wall Street movement is also taking aim at shopping with an annual promotion for what it calls Buy Nothing Day:  | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters http://bit.ly/tTxB7w. This will be the 20th year that the Adbusters group has run its Buy Nothing campaign on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and an annual festival of sales kicking off the holiday shopping season.

Background on the editors of the Canadian magazine Adbusters: Kalle Lasn and Micah White, the Creators of Occupy Wall Street: The New Yorker http://nyr.kr/tycsF9

Another group of people is also protesting the extraordinary overnight shopping hours and the sales that in some cases will start at 10 PM on Thanksgiving Day. A petition started by one Target worker in Omaha, Neb., now has 130,000 names on it. Many retail workers and their families don't want their holiday interrupted: Retail backlash over Thanksgiving night openings http://bit.ly/uhqeVt

A recent consumer survey found that most people interviewed said they would think more highly of retailers that give employees the day off on Thursday:  | Mainstreet http://bit.ly/szLkT6. Other surveys show that more than 60% of shoppers are already planning a store trip on Black Friday.

Are they remembering the 2008 Long Island crowd that trampled a worker? Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death - NYTimes.com http://nyti.ms/vLvR6u What have stores in your area done to avoid a repeat?

Prompts of the day: 

*Is someone in your family working on Thanksgiving?

*Should retail employees have Thursday off?

*What is on your Black Friday shopping list?

*How much do you expect to spend on gifts this year? How does that compare to last year?

*How many gifts do you plan to buy online?

Full stats on holiday shopping: Black Friday 2011 - Deals, Tips and Statistics - TheStreet http://bit.ly/uTbmc8

Praising Newspapers, Praising the Newsroom's Next Generation: Meet Sara Ganim

Sara Ganim has a police scanner on her nightstand. She is one of those hard-working Millenials who caught the reporting bug in high school, worked for her college paper, wrote freelance pieces for her hometown paper and was an AP intern. Then she joined a newspaper with a reporting staff that might have reached 10 in the glory days but now numbers about six, the Centre Daily Times. One of the smallest McClatchy newspapers, it is edited by Bob Heisse, a skilled veteran with deep local roots and a side passion for rodeos.

While covering crime for the CDT, Ganim first heard about child sex abuse investigation touching Penn State. Early this year, she moved to the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, a Newhouse paper edited by David Newhouse. She continued to chase down leads, interviewing dozens of sources.In March, Ganim and the Patriot-News broke the story. Her lede: Penn State football legend Jerry Sandusky is the subject of a grand jury investigation into allegations that he indecently assaulted a teenage boy. The national media may not have noticed the developments then, but they certainly would in November, when the charges were filed. By then Ganim's work showed she knew every detail and had access to family members and others that would keep her readers on top of fast-moving developments. 

This morning, Ganim published a step-back piece that went through the entire timeline: Who knew what about Jerry Sandusky?

This is not, however, just the story of a young reporter who worked hard and shifted the axis of power in Pennsylvania, in college football and at a great university. It is also the story of a family-owned media company, Advance, of a second-generation newspaper editor, David Newhouse, of a publisher, John Kirkpatrick, who understands what a newspaper means to a community, and of a newsroom that has the deep local connections and also the courage to keep going no matter what the potential cost to its own reputation.  In Manhattan, Advance is Conde Nast -- glittery titles, glossy paper, gleaming office tower. To much of the country -- in Springfield MA, in Cleveland OH, in New Orleans LA, and in Harrisburg PA, Advance is the local Newhouse paper. This is their moment, a time when that side of the house is in the spotlight.

Penn State had Paterno, Sandusky, Spanier, Curley and Shultz. Penn State also had Sara Ganim. She learned to be a reporter there. Ganim graduated in 2008 with a journalism degree. Follow Ganim on Twitter. Look at her personal website:

http://saraganim.com/

The first image is about a charity honoring a former colleague. Look at her "about me" page:

Everything I do, every story I report, is on multiple platforms.

It’s not unusual for me – in a single day – to take photos, shoot and edit video, write copy, update the web, post to Twitter, and package radio stories.

I can tell stories in many ways, but at my core I am simply a reporter.

I have a police scanner on my nightstand. I fall to sleep and wake up to the morning news. I work 60-hour weeks digging and investigating, chatting up sources, and peeling back layers until I find amazing stories.

She has talked to the mothers of Sandusky victims, to a sister. She is everywhere. In my book, she's earned every journalism accolade we can give her. The cool part is that she did it through hard work, against a hometown mindset that would put many reporters off the trail . Ganim combines old-fashioned dogged reporter the tools of the modern Swiss-Army-knife do-everything reporter.

Oh, if you have a chance, notice the dates on her resume. Last day at Centre Daily Times, Jan. 18. First day at Patriot News, Jan. 20. 

There aren't many heroes in the Penn State story. Sara is my hero.

Is there a Sara Ganim in your newsroom? Send a note about your hero to [email protected]

 or add a comment below.

Readers find our work across the disaggregated web. Those who want to learn more about the newsroom that produced the content or the reporter who wrote it have a hard time. That is often true on a newspaper's website. It's more true across the web, but Google is doing something about it. So are two very different aggregation sites: newstransparency.com and muckrack.com.

Example: Alan Rusbridger (Guardian editor) on News Transparency.

Example: Alan Rusbridger on MuckRack.

MuckRack will be launching a new pro version with even more information about individual journalists, information intended to have enough value that PR people will pay a premium for access.

The Google News information will continue to be free. A tiny mug shot with your name can now run with all your articles on Google News. It will link directly to your Google + feed:

Google will begin integrating journalists’ Google-ized identities into Google News » Nieman Journalism Lab http://bit.ly/t2Mhe5

When your staff distributes an article across Twitter, do they use the Twitter handle of the reporter and

of the publication? When you post an article on Facebook, do you link to the Facebook ID of the reporter?

Some journalists raise concerns: how do I keep my private life private? It's tempting to be blunt in response: you don't. We do our dance on a public stage, and anything that might be made public someday, will be. It might be a video ambush. Information about you may become the value a digital entrepreneur presents to customers. In any case, newsrooms can either wait for this to happen to us or take the lead and turn the audience's appetite for more information into a value we provide.

Mallary Jean Tenore studied the way newsrooms present info about individual journalists:

How accessible do journalists really want to be? | Poynter.http://bit.ly/uoGf4O

She identified the elements of an ideal "contact us" page:

A list of staffers’ names, broken down by department.
All staffers’ names would link to a bio that includes their most recent work, email address, phone number and Twitter handle.
Staffers’ bylines on article pages would also link to this bio. (If the bylines don’t link to a bio, then ideally all article pages would include the writer’s email address, phone number and Twitter handle.)

Do a quick audit of your website and of how you present your work across other platforms. Can your audience learn more about you? What else can your newsroom do to make that easier?

Here are some contact pages, from selecteed newsrooms (note: many are not easy to find on the newspaper websites):

York Daily Record

Greensboro News & Record

(N.J) The Record

Cleveland Plain Dealer

(adding more as I get them -- send samples to [email protected])

 

Suggestions for editors who want more engaged readers. Short url's included to make sharing easier.

Diwali The Hindi festival of lights starts this year on Wednesday, Oct. 26. From The Times of India:

Diwali, an auspicious religious festival celebrated by the Hindus, Sikhs and Jains with great enthusiasm and excitement that symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. Spectacular lights, firecrackers, irresistible traditional sweets and sending gifts to dear ones mark the celebration of Diwali.

The Roanoke Times found Indian students celebrating this week at a local university: Fighting darkness with light http://bit.ly/ny88T4

In 2008, Cleveland.com had this coverage: Greater Clevelanders Welcome Diwali  http://bit.ly/pKnpyl 

Does your news organization reflect your community? Ask on Facebook, Twiitter and your own site about local Diwali celebrations and preparations.  Ask readers to send photos.

Your Twitter feed Steve Buttry, my go-to source for tips and strategies, tells in a new blog post how to use Twitter search to find local feeds worth following. Editors who actively follow local Twitter users and engage with those users will quickly build a following. More suggestions from Steve for editors looking to connect with local Twitter followers: wp.me/poqp6-1DI 

Free flu shots Local bloggers and others may do what this LATimes writer did and post well organized lists showing where free flu shots are available: http://palewire.com/free-flu-shots/

You can do the same thing, on your own site or blog. Or point to a community resource that has already done the work. Free flu shots are available everywhere from Philly http://cbsloc.al/oZVFqq to West Palm Beach FL http://bit.ly/pEb1sE. Google provides this easy-to-use map of all flu shot providers.

Do your readers know where to go?

Solar for Schools Suggested social-media prompts: Should your school go solar? Would solar-power panels cut costs and provide a learning tool for local schools? Would it be too expensive? How important is it to make school buildings into teaching tools? Are you willing to make an investment now to save future energy costs?

Example 1: SOLAR SAVINGS: Deals net local schools green energy, learning tools |CentreDaily.com http://bit.ly/sX8IgY

Example 2: School district in Berkeley opens solar-energy farm to help save money | The Asbury Park Press | APP.com http://bit.ly/sPS1YY

Breaking news on Facebook You know that feeling when the call comes into the newsroom: "we have a verdict." In Cincinnati, editors made sure they used social media to let readers know, too: Verdict reached in trial of Marcus Isreal, accused in death of Warren County Deputy Brian Dulle. http://on.fb.me/sm2MQL

Note there was a quick follow-up post with a link to an article about the verdict, but the first word drew several reader comments.

LinkedIn Training When a Sacramento man died in a bike accident, the Bee found telling details on his LinkedIn profile and included them in the article:
Former Senate staffer Robb Deignan dies in Davis-to-Fairfield bike ride | Sacramento Bee http://bit.ly/v74VGP

His LinkedIn profile described his current occupation as "Semi-Retired/Dog Walker" at "Self-Amused Inc.""Semi-retired and hanging out with my dog, Buddy, and cycling junkies," he wrote in the description field.

Few projects are followed as closely as the development of a new video game system. These trade publications found evidence about a next-generation Xbox console by closely examining LinkedIn profiles: 

1. LinkedIn resumes reveal new Xbox console in development http://bit.ly/sN1o8L

2. Four MS employees working on “Xbox next-gen,” says LinkedIn CVs |  http://bit.ly/t5XGqn

Did you know that LinkedIn trains journalists how to get scoops via LinkedIn? (Click fo more examples of how LinkedIn can help reporters.) The next session for journos is on 11/3  http://linkd.in/pMW0qX The free half-hour sessions are through a call-in number and the demo can be followed on a computer by anyone with an internet connection.

 

Prompt of the Day
Does your town need a superhero to fight crime? Make a reference to Phoenix Jones, the self-styled superhero arrested in a paper spray incident in Seattle. Jones's names is at the top of the Google hot search list early Tuesday morning. Here's the rest of the round up of editor tips (short url's includede to make sharing easier).

Open newsroom
Call it budget, sked or newslist - when newsrooms turn process into product and plan in the open, everyone wins: http://bit.ly/ptWxaK The Guardian has started publishing its news budget on the web, letting readers in on the process. From Dan Roberts, a Guardian editor -- Have Your Say:

What if all those experts who delight in telling us what's wrong with our stories after they've been published could be enlisted into giving us more clues beforehand? What if the process of working out what to investigate actually becomes part of the news itself?
It might seem a minority pursuit, but the experience of covering breaking news already suggests otherwise. Like many websites, we are discovering some of our best-read stories are the live blogs that report events as they unfold, often with brutal honesty about what we don't know or hope to find out.

What do we learn? The Guardian business news desk is kicking of the earnings season with a report on Alcoa's earnings and a politician's plan to crackdown on internet porn will be subject to a "reality check." It turns out the hidden plans of a newsroom gain nothing by being kept private.

In praising this step, Matthew Ingram of GigaOm (Memo to Newspapers: Let Your Readers Inside the Wall) says the time for secrecy is over: "Either newspapers develop a more balanced relationship with the people formerly known as the audience, by allowing them to contribute to the process, or they will find their audience has gone elsewhere."

Value of Photos -- From Your Archives, From the Police
In Conway, Ark., the Log Cabin Democrat has been scanning and publishing 5,000 photos a month. It organized them into what it calls the Conwaypedia. Another initiative from this Morris newspaper is Faulkner County Booked, which is attracting 300,000 pageviews a month.
These steps are part of the Morris drive to put digital first. A Morris exec, Derek May, posted this more detailed explanation of what the company is doing in an attempt to reverse a 40% drop in revenue and a 75% drop in profits over five years.
Digital first might have a familiar ring: Digital First, of course is the holding company for the JRC and MediaNews Group newspapers, from San Jose to New Haven.
It's also the rallying cry in papers from Seattle to Wichita:
In Seattle Times’ new digital-first newsroom, roles change to ‘creation, curation, community’ | Poynter. http://bit.ly/n0nzcE
Wichita Eagle: Testing a new organizational model for a digital-first newsroom | Knight Digital Media Center http://bit.ly/okhsUf
Making the most of every frame captured by staff photographers and your readers keeps readers engaged. When my hometown paper published a gallery showing the opening of a new fire station, our family was delighted to find this photo of my father: Photo Gallery: Canton's New Fire Station -  CantonRep.com http://bit.ly/nIKxE6  One tip: allow readers to add caption material.

Pumpkins, Unicef and Pet Costumes: Halloween Ideas
Who runs the pumpkin contest in your market? Size matters: 1,704-pound pumpkin earns CA farmer $10,224 in Pumpkin Weigh-off prize money: http://bit.ly/p7K0Ma

Unicef Halloween drive is a good peg for a prompt: Are you donating to Unicef this year?
UNICEF's Little Orange Box Goes Digital This Halloween http://on.mash.to/qlPEZc

Favorite pet costumes: MainStreet.com has a pet costume roundup: http://bit.ly/rqKgyO

Have you brainstormed your Halloween coverage plan? Have you been inspired by the Guardian to publish a list of stories your have in the works?

Occupy Your Town
Occupy Wall Street is not just about Wall Street. How to track similar protest movements in your town? Look at this list from Occupy Together. The site says there are organizers working in 1,271 towns (now 1,302 towns), including major metros but also smaller towns from San Luis Obispo, CA, to Greensboro, NC, from Allentown, PA, to Springfield, MO.

Twitter is one of the best listening posts. Here is a list, from Listorious, a web company that pulls together guides to related material on Twitter, of many of the Occupy Twitter feeds.

Do a Twitter search: http://twitter.com/#!/search-home
Enter "occupytownname" all as one word, using your town and nearby communities. Example: http://twitter.com/#!/search/occupyallentown

Many communities have seedbeds of anger over high unemployment rates and a sense that immoral financial activity enriched a privileged few while knocking millions of others into poverty. There is an equally strong sentiment that more government intervention or higher taxes will not solve the problem. Are you tapping into the strong feelings on all sides of this issue? Put up some prompts on Twitter and Facebook, with references to what is happening from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale.

A sign that organizers of these modern-day Hoovervilles are planning for the long term? Have they made provisions for toilets, hygiene, and bad weather?

Teens and tanning beds
Now that California has banned anyone under 18 from using a tanning bed, teenagers and parents in your area may have strong opinions on the role of government and the health impact of indoor tanning.
Possible prompts: Should our state ban tanning beds for anyone under 18? Would you allow your teenager to use a tanning bed? California has the highest age limit. Other states have bans for under 14 year olds or for different age groups.

Parent Unions
Parent unions are another California idea that may be taking root in your town. This weekend, the AP ran a piece about a new type of parent group organized to push for fundamental change in local schools. 'Parent unions' spring up in school districts from San Diego to Buffalo, N.Y., pushing for academic reform: http://apne.ws/pvf8V8
Is there a parent union in your area? Do parents want the ability to force change through petition? What role should parents have in running local schools?
From the article:

Behind the parent empowerment movement is a feisty Los Angeles-based nonprofit, Parent Revolution, which in 2010 pushed through a landmark law giving parents authority to force turnarounds at failing schools through a petition.

Known as the "parent trigger," the California law was the first of its kind in the nation. It inspired Texas and Mississippi to adopt similar laws and legislation is under consideration in 20 other states. Two states have voted down parent trigger bills.

Lee Cowan of NBC Nightly News covered this last month: 'Trigger law' put to the test in Compton, Calif.

Cowan's lede:

On its face, the idea sounds so simple: if a school is persistently failing, give parents the power to change it. But the reality of putting that notion into practice is proving challenging, at best.

In the last two years, California, Texas and Mississippi have passed so-called "parent trigger" laws. In each, the law stipulates that if at least 51 percent of the parents of children enrolled in a school sign a petition, they can trigger change.

Diane Ravitch, a professor at NYU, attacks what she calls a "deceptive scheme" in this letter about the trigger laws, published in the Washington Post.

The experts are solidifying their views. What do your readers think?

Traffic and Real Estate
Readers are always fascinated by traffic and the status of major commercial real estate properties. As the experts of their own realms, they are also vocal. Here are examples from the Centre Daily Times page on Facebook that showed good social media instincts and good reader engagement:
Traffic: A reporter and photographer are on the scene. We'll have updates online. Crash closes U.S. Route 322
Real estate: Wonder why the former A&P has been vacant for all of these years? Today's story provides the background. 
By including Facebook as a conversation platform, the CDT involved readers in the conversation.

Follow the Money
Looking to learn more about money in politics? @OpenSecretsDC Resource Center has guides for beginners, FAQs and more http://ow.ly/6LUTP
Much of what is published here for voters is very useful, too, for reporters.

Who in your area should be on a stamp?

What's the point of of questioning the audience? In your newsroom, when you ask a question across your site and social media platforms, do you have a metric for success? Is it 20 responses? 200? Somewhere in between? 

Do you know what brings more responses -- time of day, wording of question, amplification by repeating across platforms? Is someone in charge of keeping track of what works and what doesn't and issuing guidance?

If you typically ask one question a day and generate 100 comments or responses a week, what can you do to increase that by a factor of 10? Who in the newsroom has suggestions for steps to take that might make that much of a difference?

Asking a question is not a resource issue -- it takes two minutes to go to Facebook and ask "what should we cover today?" or "how are we doing?" 

It does take a few more minutes to monitor your activity and make adjustments so that week by week you engage more readers.

The Objective A highly engaged audience that is regularly creating content, a newsroom that initiates discussion, readers who react to news by spending time with your brand. 

Measures of Success Comments, likes, clicks, page views, new questions, discussion threads -- and journalists who repurpose those discussions into articles or posts for a website or a print product.

Who's doing it well? Here's some evidence from a postal prompt about what works and what doesn't. If you have not asked a "who should be on a stamp" question, today is a good day. (Short url's included to ease sharing.)

The Indianapolis Star in one day had 17 Facebook likes and about 80 comments on a survey: who from Indiana should be on a stamp? Who will it be? Time for Indiana living legend on postage stamp | indystar.com http://bit.ly/nD5tYm Note the large photo of a favorite son.

The AP asked on Facebook and received 96 comments in the first day: http://on.fb.me/potHOi They amplified the request with a Twitter prompt that did two important things: directed people to Facebook and seeded the question with some possible answers from top names trending on Google search: Twitter / @AP: Interesting ideas of who belongs on a stamp — Wangari Maathai? Chuck Norris? — are on our Facebook page http://bit.ly/oBJFIAThe AP tweet to 500,000 followers had two dozen retweets: https://bitly.com/potHOi+

The Tennessean asked on its site and across social media feeds for local living legends worth featuring on a stamp. From the managing editor's Twitter feed @megdowney: I vote John Seigenthaler. @Tennessean. Which living TN legend would you want to see on a stamp? http://t.co/FQYiUpmI

Seeding the conversation with a few names seems to work. The Des Moines Register drew 50 comments on Facebook on the first day with this prompt:What living Iowan should be on a stamp? The U.S. Postal Service has changed the rules to allow living people to be honored on postage stamps. So -- who would be your Iowa choice? (Around the newsroom, suggestions included Hayden Fry, Slipknot, Fred Hoiberg, Shawn Johnson and Captain James T. Kirk.)  http://on.fb.me/nrxUyi

A post on the Register's site had a bold call out asking readers to go to the Facebook page to answer: Who do you think should be first living Iowan on a stamp? | DesMoinesRegister.com http://bit.ly/pkeFDu

Lauren Wilbert List, a community producer for the Times-Picayune website, Nola.com, received more than 20 comments when she asked the question: Which living person would you like to see on a stamp?  http://bit.ly/oakFyw

The LA Times fashion writer set up a survey: Poll: Which living face of fashion belongs on a U.S. stamp? - latimes.com http://lat.ms/nMFfTf

There were 89 comments in a day and a half on this Florida news site, and note that the writer included an email address for readers who wanted to add a suggestion without leaving a comment. Does that mean there will be a followup? What living American would you like to see on a stamp? Let us know - St. Petersburg Times http://bit.ly/p4ll6k

How many news organizations will do more than just collect a few comments? The Postal Service is inviting official submissions. Here are the official stamp criteria from the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee http://bit.ly/nfjDx4

This is an opportunity to keep the conversation going, to solicit a list of names, to put out a poll, to narrow the list to the top five, to formally submit the names on behalf of your audience, and to report back the status of the request. The requests can be segmented by geography or topic area: who would be your metro area choice? your state choice? who would be your choice from among local sports stars? fashion stars? business stars? civic leaders? entertainers?

Each one of those points is an opportunity for deeper audience engagement. 

What is working for you? 

Some ideas for social media prompts from newsrooms. Short url's included to make sharing easier.

Fall Welcome

It's fall and these first days of the season are a good time to ask your audience a related question. In Nashville, the paper put together a list and asked for more suggestions:

On Twitter / @karenleeryan: 20 things to love about fall -- what is on your list? http://bit.ly/qAb4CB

On Facebook 20 things we love about fall http://on.fb.me/qkI3VV

President's Back-to-School speech

On Wednesday, President Obama continues his annual practice of presenting a back-to-school speech. His focus has been personal responsibility. Every year, schools discuss if this is a government event that everyone should watch or a political event. Here we go again: Teachers decide whether students can watch Obama’s school speech | The Jamestown Sun | http://bit.ly/nkHoy3

Will classrooms in your area be tuned to the speech?

From the 2010 Obama school speech (in Philadelphia): "But you’ve got a job, too.  You’ve got to show up to school on time.  You’ve got to pay attention in your class.  You’ve got to do your homework.  You’ve got to study for exams." - http://1.usa.gov/poP9Lu

From the 2009 Obama school speech (in Arlington): "none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed." - http://1.usa.gov/pGdxd4

Harvest time

Are you running a best harvest contest? Asking readers for photos of giant squash? Helping your audience make plans for next year? Today, Sothebys is running an auction of heirloom vegetables - kale, squash and cabbage:  http://bit.ly/qIB4F9

Are their heirloom garden growers in your area? How are they saving their seeds for next year? What are some favorite meals and recipes that use the harvests?

The Future is Here

Jon Dube summed up the ONA meeting in Boston: Highlights from the 2011 Online News Association conference | CyberJournalist.net http://bit.ly/pnfHtX

A key point: the future is here (even if it is unevenly distributed). Jon's report includes a great set of links to more resources. "Users rule the web" is his version of John Paton's "How the Crowd Saved Our Company," which includes this: "The Crowd collectively knows more about any subject, city or event we choose to cover than we do." -- http://bit.ly/qz9Bxu

Every suggested prompt I send out is a recognition 1. that the crowd is already engaged in a vibrant conversation about important topics and 2. that you can extend and amplify that discussion on your platform under your brand.

Finding Value in Identity: Your Identity

Readers find our work across the disaggregated web. Those who want to learn more about the newsroom that produced the content or the reporter who wrote it have a hard time. That is often true on a newspaper's website. It's more true across the web, but Google is doing something about it. So are two very different aggregation sites: newstransparency.com and muckrack.com.

Example: Alan Rusbridger (Guardian editor) on News Transparency.

Example: Alan Rusbridger on MuckRack.

MuckRack will be launching a new pro version with even more information about individual journalists, information intended to have enough value that PR people will pay a premium for access.

The Google News information will continue to be free. A tiny mug shot with your name can now run with all your articles on Google News. It will link directly to your Google + feed:

Google will begin integrating journalists’ Google-ized identities into Google News » Nieman Journalism Lab http://bit.ly/t2Mhe5

When your staff distributes an article across Twitter, do they use the Twitter handle of the reporter and

of the publication? When you post an article on Facebook, do you link to the Facebook ID of the reporter?

Some journalists raise concerns: how do I keep my private life private? It's tempting to be blunt in response: you don't. We do our dance on a public stage, and anything that might be made public someday, will be. It might be a video ambush. Information about you may become the value a digital entrepreneur presents to customers. In any case, newsrooms can either wait for this to happen to us or take the lead and turn the audience's appetite for more information into a value we provide.

Mallary Jean Tenore studied the way newsrooms present info about individual journalists:

How accessible do journalists really want to be? | Poynter.http://bit.ly/uoGf4O

She identified the elements of an ideal "contact us" page:

A list of staffers’ names, broken down by department.
All staffers’ names would link to a bio that includes their most recent work, email address, phone number and Twitter handle.
Staffers’ bylines on article pages would also link to this bio. (If the bylines don’t link to a bio, then ideally all article pages would include the writer’s email address, phone number and Twitter handle.)

Do a quick audit of your website and of how you present your work across other platforms. Can your audience learn more about you? What else can your newsroom do to make that easier?

Here are some contact pages, from selecteed newsrooms (note: many are not easy to find on the newspaper websites):

York Daily Record

Greensboro News & Record

(N.J) The Record

Cleveland Plain Dealer

(adding more as I get them -- send samples to [email protected])

 

Happy Diwali, Local Twitter Followers, Free Flu Shots: Tips for Editors

Suggestions for editors who want more engaged readers. Short url's included to make sharing easier.

Diwali The Hindi festival of lights starts this year on Wednesday, Oct. 26. From The Times of India:

Diwali, an auspicious religious festival celebrated by the Hindus, Sikhs and Jains with great enthusiasm and excitement that symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. Spectacular lights, firecrackers, irresistible traditional sweets and sending gifts to dear ones mark the celebration of Diwali.

The Roanoke Times found Indian students celebrating this week at a local university: Fighting darkness with light http://bit.ly/ny88T4

In 2008, Cleveland.com had this coverage: Greater Clevelanders Welcome Diwali  http://bit.ly/pKnpyl 

Does your news organization reflect your community? Ask on Facebook, Twiitter and your own site about local Diwali celebrations and preparations.  Ask readers to send photos.

Your Twitter feed Steve Buttry, my go-to source for tips and strategies, tells in a new blog post how to use Twitter search to find local feeds worth following. Editors who actively follow local Twitter users and engage with those users will quickly build a following. More suggestions from Steve for editors looking to connect with local Twitter followers: wp.me/poqp6-1DI 

Free flu shots Local bloggers and others may do what this LATimes writer did and post well organized lists showing where free flu shots are available: http://palewire.com/free-flu-shots/

You can do the same thing, on your own site or blog. Or point to a community resource that has already done the work. Free flu shots are available everywhere from Philly http://cbsloc.al/oZVFqq to West Palm Beach FL http://bit.ly/pEb1sE. Google provides this easy-to-use map of all flu shot providers.

Do your readers know where to go?

Solar for Schools Suggested social-media prompts: Should your school go solar? Would solar-power panels cut costs and provide a learning tool for local schools? Would it be too expensive? How important is it to make school buildings into teaching tools? Are you willing to make an investment now to save future energy costs?

Example 1: SOLAR SAVINGS: Deals net local schools green energy, learning tools |CentreDaily.com http://bit.ly/sX8IgY

Example 2: School district in Berkeley opens solar-energy farm to help save money | The Asbury Park Press | APP.com http://bit.ly/sPS1YY

Breaking news on Facebook You know that feeling when the call comes into the newsroom: "we have a verdict." In Cincinnati, editors made sure they used social media to let readers know, too: Verdict reached in trial of Marcus Isreal, accused in death of Warren County Deputy Brian Dulle. http://on.fb.me/sm2MQL

Note there was a quick follow-up post with a link to an article about the verdict, but the first word drew several reader comments.

LinkedIn Training When a Sacramento man died in a bike accident, the Bee found telling details on his LinkedIn profile and included them in the article:
Former Senate staffer Robb Deignan dies in Davis-to-Fairfield bike ride | Sacramento Bee http://bit.ly/v74VGP

His LinkedIn profile described his current occupation as "Semi-Retired/Dog Walker" at "Self-Amused Inc.""Semi-retired and hanging out with my dog, Buddy, and cycling junkies," he wrote in the description field.

Few projects are followed as closely as the development of a new video game system. These trade publications found evidence about a next-generation Xbox console by closely examining LinkedIn profiles: 

1. LinkedIn resumes reveal new Xbox console in development http://bit.ly/sN1o8L

2. Four MS employees working on “Xbox next-gen,” says LinkedIn CVs |  http://bit.ly/t5XGqn

Did you know that LinkedIn trains journalists how to get scoops via LinkedIn? (Click fo more examples of how LinkedIn can help reporters.) The next session for journos is on 11/3  http://linkd.in/pMW0qX The free half-hour sessions are through a call-in number and the demo can be followed on a computer by anyone with an internet connection.

 

Phoenix Jones, Open Newsroom, Scanning Photos: Tips for Editors

Prompt of the Day
Does your town need a superhero to fight crime? Make a reference to Phoenix Jones, the self-styled superhero arrested in a paper spray incident in Seattle. Jones's names is at the top of the Google hot search list early Tuesday morning. Here's the rest of the round up of editor tips (short url's includede to make sharing easier).

Open newsroom
Call it budget, sked or newslist - when newsrooms turn process into product and plan in the open, everyone wins: http://bit.ly/ptWxaK The Guardian has started publishing its news budget on the web, letting readers in on the process. From Dan Roberts, a Guardian editor -- Have Your Say:

What if all those experts who delight in telling us what's wrong with our stories after they've been published could be enlisted into giving us more clues beforehand? What if the process of working out what to investigate actually becomes part of the news itself?
It might seem a minority pursuit, but the experience of covering breaking news already suggests otherwise. Like many websites, we are discovering some of our best-read stories are the live blogs that report events as they unfold, often with brutal honesty about what we don't know or hope to find out.

What do we learn? The Guardian business news desk is kicking of the earnings season with a report on Alcoa's earnings and a politician's plan to crackdown on internet porn will be subject to a "reality check." It turns out the hidden plans of a newsroom gain nothing by being kept private.

In praising this step, Matthew Ingram of GigaOm (Memo to Newspapers: Let Your Readers Inside the Wall) says the time for secrecy is over: "Either newspapers develop a more balanced relationship with the people formerly known as the audience, by allowing them to contribute to the process, or they will find their audience has gone elsewhere."

Value of Photos -- From Your Archives, From the Police
In Conway, Ark., the Log Cabin Democrat has been scanning and publishing 5,000 photos a month. It organized them into what it calls the Conwaypedia. Another initiative from this Morris newspaper is Faulkner County Booked, which is attracting 300,000 pageviews a month.
These steps are part of the Morris drive to put digital first. A Morris exec, Derek May, posted this more detailed explanation of what the company is doing in an attempt to reverse a 40% drop in revenue and a 75% drop in profits over five years.
Digital first might have a familiar ring: Digital First, of course is the holding company for the JRC and MediaNews Group newspapers, from San Jose to New Haven.
It's also the rallying cry in papers from Seattle to Wichita:
In Seattle Times’ new digital-first newsroom, roles change to ‘creation, curation, community’ | Poynter. http://bit.ly/n0nzcE
Wichita Eagle: Testing a new organizational model for a digital-first newsroom | Knight Digital Media Center http://bit.ly/okhsUf
Making the most of every frame captured by staff photographers and your readers keeps readers engaged. When my hometown paper published a gallery showing the opening of a new fire station, our family was delighted to find this photo of my father: Photo Gallery: Canton's New Fire Station -  CantonRep.com http://bit.ly/nIKxE6  One tip: allow readers to add caption material.

Pumpkins, Unicef and Pet Costumes: Halloween Ideas
Who runs the pumpkin contest in your market? Size matters: 1,704-pound pumpkin earns CA farmer $10,224 in Pumpkin Weigh-off prize money: http://bit.ly/p7K0Ma

Unicef Halloween drive is a good peg for a prompt: Are you donating to Unicef this year?
UNICEF's Little Orange Box Goes Digital This Halloween http://on.mash.to/qlPEZc

Favorite pet costumes: MainStreet.com has a pet costume roundup: http://bit.ly/rqKgyO

Have you brainstormed your Halloween coverage plan? Have you been inspired by the Guardian to publish a list of stories your have in the works?

Occupy Your Town, OccupyWallStreet: Tips for Editors

Occupy Your Town
Occupy Wall Street is not just about Wall Street. How to track similar protest movements in your town? Look at this list from Occupy Together. The site says there are organizers working in 1,271 towns (now 1,302 towns), including major metros but also smaller towns from San Luis Obispo, CA, to Greensboro, NC, from Allentown, PA, to Springfield, MO.

Twitter is one of the best listening posts. Here is a list, from Listorious, a web company that pulls together guides to related material on Twitter, of many of the Occupy Twitter feeds.

Do a Twitter search: http://twitter.com/#!/search-home
Enter "occupytownname" all as one word, using your town and nearby communities. Example: http://twitter.com/#!/search/occupyallentown

Many communities have seedbeds of anger over high unemployment rates and a sense that immoral financial activity enriched a privileged few while knocking millions of others into poverty. There is an equally strong sentiment that more government intervention or higher taxes will not solve the problem. Are you tapping into the strong feelings on all sides of this issue? Put up some prompts on Twitter and Facebook, with references to what is happening from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale.

A sign that organizers of these modern-day Hoovervilles are planning for the long term? Have they made provisions for toilets, hygiene, and bad weather?

Teens and tanning beds
Now that California has banned anyone under 18 from using a tanning bed, teenagers and parents in your area may have strong opinions on the role of government and the health impact of indoor tanning.
Possible prompts: Should our state ban tanning beds for anyone under 18? Would you allow your teenager to use a tanning bed? California has the highest age limit. Other states have bans for under 14 year olds or for different age groups.

Parent Unions
Parent unions are another California idea that may be taking root in your town. This weekend, the AP ran a piece about a new type of parent group organized to push for fundamental change in local schools. 'Parent unions' spring up in school districts from San Diego to Buffalo, N.Y., pushing for academic reform: http://apne.ws/pvf8V8
Is there a parent union in your area? Do parents want the ability to force change through petition? What role should parents have in running local schools?
From the article:

Behind the parent empowerment movement is a feisty Los Angeles-based nonprofit, Parent Revolution, which in 2010 pushed through a landmark law giving parents authority to force turnarounds at failing schools through a petition.

Known as the "parent trigger," the California law was the first of its kind in the nation. It inspired Texas and Mississippi to adopt similar laws and legislation is under consideration in 20 other states. Two states have voted down parent trigger bills.

Lee Cowan of NBC Nightly News covered this last month: 'Trigger law' put to the test in Compton, Calif.

Cowan's lede:

On its face, the idea sounds so simple: if a school is persistently failing, give parents the power to change it. But the reality of putting that notion into practice is proving challenging, at best.

In the last two years, California, Texas and Mississippi have passed so-called "parent trigger" laws. In each, the law stipulates that if at least 51 percent of the parents of children enrolled in a school sign a petition, they can trigger change.

Diane Ravitch, a professor at NYU, attacks what she calls a "deceptive scheme" in this letter about the trigger laws, published in the Washington Post.

The experts are solidifying their views. What do your readers think?

Traffic and Real Estate
Readers are always fascinated by traffic and the status of major commercial real estate properties. As the experts of their own realms, they are also vocal. Here are examples from the Centre Daily Times page on Facebook that showed good social media instincts and good reader engagement:
Traffic: A reporter and photographer are on the scene. We'll have updates online. Crash closes U.S. Route 322
Real estate: Wonder why the former A&P has been vacant for all of these years? Today's story provides the background. 
By including Facebook as a conversation platform, the CDT involved readers in the conversation.

Follow the Money
Looking to learn more about money in politics? @OpenSecretsDC Resource Center has guides for beginners, FAQs and more http://ow.ly/6LUTP
Much of what is published here for voters is very useful, too, for reporters.

Living Legends, Lessons From a Postal Stamp Prompt

Who in your area should be on a stamp?

What's the point of of questioning the audience? In your newsroom, when you ask a question across your site and social media platforms, do you have a metric for success? Is it 20 responses? 200? Somewhere in between? 

Do you know what brings more responses -- time of day, wording of question, amplification by repeating across platforms? Is someone in charge of keeping track of what works and what doesn't and issuing guidance?

If you typically ask one question a day and generate 100 comments or responses a week, what can you do to increase that by a factor of 10? Who in the newsroom has suggestions for steps to take that might make that much of a difference?

Asking a question is not a resource issue -- it takes two minutes to go to Facebook and ask "what should we cover today?" or "how are we doing?" 

It does take a few more minutes to monitor your activity and make adjustments so that week by week you engage more readers.

The Objective A highly engaged audience that is regularly creating content, a newsroom that initiates discussion, readers who react to news by spending time with your brand. 

Measures of Success Comments, likes, clicks, page views, new questions, discussion threads -- and journalists who repurpose those discussions into articles or posts for a website or a print product.

Who's doing it well? Here's some evidence from a postal prompt about what works and what doesn't. If you have not asked a "who should be on a stamp" question, today is a good day. (Short url's included to ease sharing.)

The Indianapolis Star in one day had 17 Facebook likes and about 80 comments on a survey: who from Indiana should be on a stamp? Who will it be? Time for Indiana living legend on postage stamp | indystar.com http://bit.ly/nD5tYm Note the large photo of a favorite son.

The AP asked on Facebook and received 96 comments in the first day: http://on.fb.me/potHOi They amplified the request with a Twitter prompt that did two important things: directed people to Facebook and seeded the question with some possible answers from top names trending on Google search: Twitter / @AP: Interesting ideas of who belongs on a stamp — Wangari Maathai? Chuck Norris? — are on our Facebook page http://bit.ly/oBJFIAThe AP tweet to 500,000 followers had two dozen retweets: https://bitly.com/potHOi+

The Tennessean asked on its site and across social media feeds for local living legends worth featuring on a stamp. From the managing editor's Twitter feed @megdowney: I vote John Seigenthaler. @Tennessean. Which living TN legend would you want to see on a stamp? http://t.co/FQYiUpmI

Seeding the conversation with a few names seems to work. The Des Moines Register drew 50 comments on Facebook on the first day with this prompt:What living Iowan should be on a stamp? The U.S. Postal Service has changed the rules to allow living people to be honored on postage stamps. So -- who would be your Iowa choice? (Around the newsroom, suggestions included Hayden Fry, Slipknot, Fred Hoiberg, Shawn Johnson and Captain James T. Kirk.)  http://on.fb.me/nrxUyi

A post on the Register's site had a bold call out asking readers to go to the Facebook page to answer: Who do you think should be first living Iowan on a stamp? | DesMoinesRegister.com http://bit.ly/pkeFDu

Lauren Wilbert List, a community producer for the Times-Picayune website, Nola.com, received more than 20 comments when she asked the question: Which living person would you like to see on a stamp?  http://bit.ly/oakFyw

The LA Times fashion writer set up a survey: Poll: Which living face of fashion belongs on a U.S. stamp? - latimes.com http://lat.ms/nMFfTf

There were 89 comments in a day and a half on this Florida news site, and note that the writer included an email address for readers who wanted to add a suggestion without leaving a comment. Does that mean there will be a followup? What living American would you like to see on a stamp? Let us know - St. Petersburg Times http://bit.ly/p4ll6k

How many news organizations will do more than just collect a few comments? The Postal Service is inviting official submissions. Here are the official stamp criteria from the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee http://bit.ly/nfjDx4

This is an opportunity to keep the conversation going, to solicit a list of names, to put out a poll, to narrow the list to the top five, to formally submit the names on behalf of your audience, and to report back the status of the request. The requests can be segmented by geography or topic area: who would be your metro area choice? your state choice? who would be your choice from among local sports stars? fashion stars? business stars? civic leaders? entertainers?

Each one of those points is an opportunity for deeper audience engagement. 

What is working for you? 

Fall Splendor, Obama and Schools, Heirloom Veggies, Crowdsourcing

Some ideas for social media prompts from newsrooms. Short url's included to make sharing easier.

Fall Welcome

It's fall and these first days of the season are a good time to ask your audience a related question. In Nashville, the paper put together a list and asked for more suggestions:

On Twitter / @karenleeryan: 20 things to love about fall -- what is on your list? http://bit.ly/qAb4CB

On Facebook 20 things we love about fall http://on.fb.me/qkI3VV

President's Back-to-School speech

On Wednesday, President Obama continues his annual practice of presenting a back-to-school speech. His focus has been personal responsibility. Every year, schools discuss if this is a government event that everyone should watch or a political event. Here we go again: Teachers decide whether students can watch Obama’s school speech | The Jamestown Sun | http://bit.ly/nkHoy3

Will classrooms in your area be tuned to the speech?

From the 2010 Obama school speech (in Philadelphia): "But you’ve got a job, too.  You’ve got to show up to school on time.  You’ve got to pay attention in your class.  You’ve got to do your homework.  You’ve got to study for exams." - http://1.usa.gov/poP9Lu

From the 2009 Obama school speech (in Arlington): "none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed." - http://1.usa.gov/pGdxd4

Harvest time

Are you running a best harvest contest? Asking readers for photos of giant squash? Helping your audience make plans for next year? Today, Sothebys is running an auction of heirloom vegetables - kale, squash and cabbage:  http://bit.ly/qIB4F9

Are their heirloom garden growers in your area? How are they saving their seeds for next year? What are some favorite meals and recipes that use the harvests?

The Future is Here

Jon Dube summed up the ONA meeting in Boston: Highlights from the 2011 Online News Association conference | CyberJournalist.net http://bit.ly/pnfHtX

A key point: the future is here (even if it is unevenly distributed). Jon's report includes a great set of links to more resources. "Users rule the web" is his version of John Paton's "How the Crowd Saved Our Company," which includes this: "The Crowd collectively knows more about any subject, city or event we choose to cover than we do." -- http://bit.ly/qz9Bxu

Every suggested prompt I send out is a recognition 1. that the crowd is already engaged in a vibrant conversation about important topics and 2. that you can extend and amplify that discussion on your platform under your brand.