Smart Decision '08 Project

Initial Goals
Work together (enhance the 2006 experience)
Election content hub
Make election season fun
Come up with new ideas and execute

What Was SD08?
KOMU, KBIA, Columbia Missouri content
Student initiatives
Graduate student research
Statewide political bloggers
Non-profit ballot tool (November)

Initial Decisions
Separate website
Open Source Content Management System (CMS)
Collaborate through RSS
(No hand coding!)
Sales departments collaborate

Fall 2007
Work on communication
Technology collaboration
RSS feeds

Content Management System
Drupal
Open Source
Flexible, Aggregates, Collaborates
Needed RSS election feeds from all newsrooms

Content Management System
PROS
Free
Can aggregate news content
Offers forums, blogs
CONS
Inexperienced programmers
Didn’t work without expert help
Steep learning curve

Spring 2008
Technological challenges
Launch site
Reach out to communities
Keep up with content

The Site

First Election Test
Traffic statistics for April 4 local election
Live for one week: 754 visits, 2,123 page views 8:30 min/visit

Information gathering

Summer 2008
Continue with content
More community outreach
Bring cameras to events
Separate primary coverage

August Primary
Traffic statistics for August 5 primary election
1,416 visits, 3,907 page views, 2:23 min/visit

Fall 2008
New facilities, more potential
Ballot tool
Election night collaboration
Include Newsy.com

Election Night Planning
Content from KOMU, KBIA, Missourian, Newsy.com
Original content for the web/share content
Blog desk
Twitter desk
Commentary and insight in the studio
Watch Party

Election Night Planning
60+ people involved in planning and execution
RJI funding and multiple newsroom promotion
Bloggers, photographers, videographers, reporters, coordinators, technical assistance

Webcast Plan

Election Night

Election Day
Traffic statistics for November 4 local election
5001 visits, 10,772 page views, 2:21 min/visit

Post Smart Decision ‘08
Positive input from all newsrooms
Unsure how to move forward
Can this website continue
How can we continue to foster newsroom relationships?
Is all the energy worth it?

Some Ideas
Find an important theme and keep it going
Guarantee a promotional team anytime the newsrooms work together
Consider SD08 before killing it
Always be mindful of other collaborations
We need to continue to push and work with each other to find innovative ways to do good journalism

Smart Decision '08 Project

by Jen Reeves on Dec 17, 2008

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Smart Decision ’08 Project — Presentation Transcript