Print+Online

Balancing both worldsMelissa 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