Some of our best journalists are actually getting
the most traffic. But some of our best journalists
aren’t. So what’s the distinction there? … ‘Hey
guys, some people are really contributing a lot,
and some people aren’t,’ and it’s the first time
we’ve ever talked about that. And it’s not an easy
conversation to have.
@grovesprof | @brizzyc
@grovesprof | @brizzyc
We've made this change after
extensive analysis of the comments
our articles have received over the
past two years. Some have been
thoughtful. Some have added useful
information or pointed out our
mistakes. Thank you for those. But
many comments have been non-
productive.
Dr. Jonathan Groves
Assistant Professor, Drury University
Twitter: @grovesprof
E-mail: jgroves@drury.edu
Blog: changingjournalism.org
Dr. Carrie Brown-Smith
Assistant Professor, University of Memphis
Twitter: @Brizzyc
E-mail: cbrown14@memphis.edu
Blog:
changingnewsroom.wordpress.co
m
Editor's Notes
The Monitor has become skilled at gaining traffic. But the traffic remains “drive-by.” Users typically don’t stay.
A central question at the organization has become “What is engagement?” Burnout.
The strength has been in its history: Seven Pulitzer Prizes. It’s where their identity is. They’ve defined themselves by their international coverage. But it’s not where the page views are. The central conflict: Who we are vs. what the audience wants. CB: I love this could even just read it briefly, about foreign correspondents: "You’re kind of yelling into the wilderness from half a world away, and is anybody even listening?"
Groves – I wonder if we can put the highlighted stuff in a different color like red or blue. Or is that too much? I think with the italics and white text it’s a little hard to really get the points of emphasis. I’m not a designer, tho.
One of the editors hit upon the constant conflict of traffic vs. content quality. CB: I might kill this slide. Seems like overkill. The traffic vs. quality point can be made easily.
I really liked this quote…but I dunno, could take it out.
We organized our data using Napoli’s model of engagement. We analyzed the varying perspectives of how interviewees at different parts of the organization viewed engagement. And what we found is that most conceptions in the newsroom are stuck at the early stages of engagement.
A central question at the organization has become “What is engagement?”
The Monitor isn’t alone in this perspective. It’s a profound belief in the value of their own content. But the audience wants to be involved post-publication.
Though the management team refers to the organization as being conversation, it is actually blurring the terms. Its idea of conversation is building loyalty. It is not with embracing the audience to contribute content and comments. CB You could mention here that they call these multipliers, and we could flash up quick examples of them – like 1 sec per slide of a quiz, list, gallery?
CB: Monitor is increasingly focusing on how to prominently showcase original, distinctive content here to promote loyalty; home page visits seen as loyalty. Using software to help with story placement based on audience behavior and improving load times. Show a screen shot here?
CB: Groves I just pasted data in there for now. I tried making a table at first but it looked like crap.
CB: I think we just need to be careful not to confuse them with this slide – we are saying loyalty is a step on the way to engagement, but can’t stop there. And frankly they are only part the way there with engagement, too.
The social-media team does do daily updates to Facebook and Twitter, although Twitter remains largely a feed of headlines.
We organized our data using Napoli’s model of engagement. We analyzed the varying perspectives of how interviewees at different parts of the organization viewed engagement. And what we found is that most conceptions in the newsroom are stuck at the early stages of engagement.
We organized our data using Napoli’s model of engagement. We analyzed the varying perspectives of how interviewees at different parts of the organization viewed engagement. And what we found is that most conceptions in the newsroom are stuck at the early stages of engagement.