Here's a look at how Chalkbeat, an education news startup covering public schools, is thinking about its strategy for how to better engage with its readers. Chalkbeat defines "engagement" as the work of maximizing our readers’ opportunities to access, learn from, interact with, contribute to, and act on our journalism.

1. Chalkbeat’s
engagement strategy

2. How do we define engagement and
how does it fit into our overall strategy?

3. Across Chalkbeat, we aim for growth in four areas:
READERSHIP ENGAGEMENT
IMPACT ORGANIZATIONAL
STRENGTH

4. Engagement is
the work of maximizing our readers’
opportunities to access, learn from, interact
with, contribute to, and act on our
journalism.

5. What does the engagement team do?

6. Who is part of the engagement team?
Anika
Sarah G.
Potentially bureau community editors in the
future

7. Audience
research
Editorial
engagement
Distribution &
Partnerships
Impact
measurement
Who is our
audience and
what do they
care about?
How can we make
our content more
interesting and
engaging? How can
we build
conversations and
community around
our content?
How can we make
sure the people who
need to see this
story see it?
Is our work
succeeding in giving
people the
information they
need to make better
informed decisions
about education?
The engagement team is working to answer these questions:

8. ● Design a reader survey
● Use digital storytelling tools (like interactive maps and
quizzes) to make content more engaging
● Design or improve your newsletter strategy
● Figure out what content is having an impact
More specifically, we can help you...

9. To engage authentically with
our readers, our engagement
work has to be baked into our
journalistic process.

10. And “engagement” can’t just be
a box we check off after we’ve
written a story.

11. How can you incorporate “engagement”
into your daily work?

12. Your process as journalists is roughly
broken down into these three steps:
Reporting Distribution Conversation
The reporting you do to
produce content
How you get readers to
read your content
How you build conversation
and community around content

13. These questions help inform how we think about
engagement at every step of the process.
Reporting Distribution Conversation
The reporting you do to produce
content for readers
How you get readers to read your
content
How you build conversation and
community around content
What sources are you looking for, and how could
we get creative about finding them? (This could be
specific people, or communities of people.)
Who would be the most interested in this story?
Is there conversation that might (or should)
happen after a story is published? If so, what
should we do to facilitate or be a part of that
conversation?
Is there an opportunity for — and would there be
benefit from — letting the community know what
you’re working on as you’re still reporting? Is there
any danger in doing that?
Who do you think most needs — or would most
enjoy — the story you’re telling and information
you’re providing?
How can you build a community of people around
this topic or story? What’s the value for them?
What can we produce that highlights our readers'
voices, answers their questions and makes content
more interesting and fun to interact with?
How can you make sure readers will see what you
produce and will interact with it?
What can the audience DO with your story, or in
response to it?

14. Of those questions, I think these are the most
important to ask before beginning any story:
1. Who would be the most interested in this story?
2. How can you make sure they will see what you’ve produced?
3. What can readers DO with your story, or in response to it?

15. What types of goals can you set
around engagement?

16. These are examples of engagement goals and strategies that
you could set for REPORTING.
Bureau goal Strategies
Improve the visual presentation of data. Use digital storytelling tools like a timeline or infogram or
interactive maps
Find ways to teach readers about a particular story or topic
in a more engaging way.
Experiment with stand-alone quizzes and quizzes
embedded in stories
Produce one project that involves teachers sharing their
experiences or stories about the Common Core
Crowdsource teachers for bad vs. good examples of a
Common Core-aligned question/problem and the
standard it corresponds to
Improve diversity of sources. *Utilize CRM to input sources and keep track of how many
times you’ve quoted someone

17. These are examples of engagement goals and strategies that
you could set for DISTRIBUTION.
Bureau goal Strategies
Grow number of newsletter readers -- Promote newsletter in blurbs at the end of articles.
-- Do weekly social media campaigns to encourage
signups
Increase daily presence and engagement with users on
social media
Implement the lineleader system, ensuring that one person
every day is responsible for pushing content out on social
media
Ensure that the people who need to see a story see it Email at least three places from distribution list after
publishing a story
Grow readership among teachers Partner with local teacher groups, teacher unions and
teaching programs to distribute Chalkbeat stories

18. These are examples of engagement goals and strategies that
you could set for CONVERSATION.
Bureau goal Strategies
Highlight readers voices on a regular basis Once a week, ask readers a question and do a roundup of
their responses.
Encourage productive conversation in the comments
section
End articles with a guiding question for readers, respond
to readers and ask follow up questions, monitor comments
section for off-topic/inappropriate comments
Learn from readers how Chalkbeat can be improving its
coverage and serving them better
Hold a reader feedback meeting or send our surveys to
gather reader responses
Promote conversation between educators about teacher
evaluations
Hold a workshop event when teachers are asked how
would they evaluate their own ability to teach well

19. What tools and resources can help
you achieve those goals?

20. Reporting Distribution Conversation
Pitch worksheet: Questions to ask
when pitching a series, a project or an
event.
Distribution checklist: A checklist of
things to do after publishing a story
Twitter/Facebook tips: A basic how-
to guide and some tips + tricks
Digital storytelling tools: How to
create more engaging content.
Distribution lists: A comprehensive
resource of people to distribute your
work to in your state
Highlighting reader voices: Best
practices on how to feature reader
voices and build conversation and
community around them
Resources you can use to help achieve your
engagement goals.
*Coming soon: A guide to events, How to tap into online communities

21. Our policies on building
conversation:
Comment policy
Social media policy

22. How will we know if we’re
successful at engaging with
readers?

23. ● Goal setting/measures of success
● Weekly reports
● Sarah as a resource
● Your feedback!
● MORI progress

24. News doesn’t exist without
readers.
In summary…