Balancing Online+Print

Print+Online
Balancing both worlds
Melissa Lalum + Lilianna Oustinovskaya + Jacky Guerrero

Feeding the beasts

Print isn’t dead
76 percent of college students have read their college newspaper in the past month
92 percent for those campus papers that publish on a daily basis
76 percent of faculty members have read their publication in the last month
51 percent have read it in the last week
Source: Alloy Media + Marketing, College Newspaper Audience study, MORI Research

Who is going online?

Traditional print on campus still garners the most views, with just less than 20 percent stating they accessed their campus newspaper online in the past 30 days

Source: Alloy Media + Marketing, College Newspaper Audience study, MORI Research

Study your Web traffic

Study your Web traffic
Identify peak traffic times
Days
Hourly
Adjust time of updates
Create a daily plan, not including breaking news
Identify top stories, origination of traffic
Share traffic with staff

Time management
Get on a schedule
Set aside specific times each day to update online content
Posting earlier is as good, if not better than, later
Eases nightly/weekly print deadlines, too

Reconsider workflow
Stagger deadlines
Enter stories directly into CMS
Give staff online accounts to enter content there first
Adjust copy editing schedule
Avoid the online news dump once a day/week

Before & After
Source: News Journal, American Press Institute

Rethink newsroom jobs
Source: Arizona Republic, American Press Institute

Change newsroom layout
Open newsroom = Better communication
Walls down • Online in the center
One assignment desk
Source: American Press Institute

Rethink assignments, deadlines
Assign newsroom shifts for staff members
Require that every assignment have unique print, online component
Post online stories immediately — make traditional deadlines disappear
Move to assignment desk with rolling deadlines

Make content distinct
Online should not mirror print
Play up the appropriate medium
Rotate online content… you have everything to choose from on homepage
Experiment to see what your audience is interested in

Easy ways to freshen your Web site
Rotate content
Repurpose, repackage popular, evergreen content
Play up blog posts/RSS feed
Consider a Twitter feed on homepage
Consider plan during breaks; move up blogs

Listen to your audience
Converse with audience all day
Use social media tools
Read comments carefully
Follow traffic
Search for sources using Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Take advantage of real-time search

Redefine jobs
Make section editors responsible for posting content in real-time
Online editor manages daily update schedule (weekends, too)
Automate evergreen content updates
Be competitive: Celebrate being first

Print tips
Set up templates for common pages
Save creative resources for open pages: Page 1, Sports cover, etc.
Always have evergreen content ready to go
Adopt a nightly checklist

Communicate
BRUCE SERETA

“Journalistic quality has always involved a combination of
speed,
thoroughness,
authority,
discovery,
seriousness,
humor
and many other things that sometimes conflict with each other. The trick is to find the right balance.”
— Jonathan Landman, New York Times deputy managing editor in charge of Web operations
Source: Britannica.com