Learning from ACES 2012

Ty Hinton shares what he learned at the American Copy Editors Association 2012 meeting in New Orleans.

Transcript

1. LESSONS FROM ACES 2012 !1
2. Keeping newspapers relevant • Changing audience • Changing work • Changing philosophy !2
3. With a small staff we must ... • Spread workload • Become more efficient • Have regular staff meetings • Have more communication about projects !3
4. With a small staff We must ... • Follow a style guide • Eliminate common errors like: • Ponte Vedra Beach • Use of Dr. • Online • Fundraiser • website !4
5. Building and keeping online audience Create online goals or initiatives for staff, like: i. Number of tweets per hour or Facebook posts per day ii. Reach a daily, weekly and monthly average of clicks iii. Changing front page of site every hour 1. Repackage news to appear fresh 2. Highlight a different story online and on Facebook !5
6. Building and keeping online audience Get readers involved 1. Invite readers to participate with questions i. Be conversational, people want to talk back 2. Invite readers to share what they see !6 Facebook question from Topeka Capital-Journal
7. Building and keeping online audience Get readers involved 3. Use to refer to upcoming stories, polls, websites or chats 4. Retweet often to build credibility and provide news to audience. Become a go-to destination. !7 Tease from @dispatcheditor
8. Social media as a tool • Readers want their news in different ways. • This means they use Facebook and Twitter to find out what's happening in their world. • Frank Russell, right, of the University of Missouri, says we should be using social media as a reporting and community engagement tool. !8
9. Frank Russell/ACES 2012 Frank Russell suggests keeping the regular journalistic integrity while becoming more conversational with the audience. !9
10. Building and keeping online audience Morris Communications has focused on 'Audience First' with three goals: • To turn Morris Publishing Group from contraction to growth in three years. • To change ourselves from a newspaper company into a digital-first media company that publishes newspapers. • To become and remain the dominant convener and server of community audiences in our markets. !10
11. Building and keeping online audience "We need to dedicate ourselves to serving the much wider range of needs and interests that will help local people lead fulfilled lives. This must include many kinds of information, discussion, discovery and interaction, covering a limitless range of topics." -- Billy Morris !11
12. Building and keeping online audience From ACES 2012 • Using Facebook and Twitter will be integral to reaching our goal of doubling the hits on our site. • Don’t hesitate: post news as soon as its verified. Readers want to see something new. In fact, many will be seeing the event as well and want to share what they are seeing. • Be positive as well: we know readers like crime stories, but we should balance that with good news. !12
13. To see what's popular, we can check the Omniture site at https://sc.omniture.com/sc13_5/reports/index.html? g=13_5&f=1&jpj=3242037978&row=50. !13
14. Tracking Web hits Another way to see what our audience is doing is by checking Chartbeat, shown here. (http:// chartbeat.com /publishing/ home/? autoredirect= true) !14
15. Examine what readers want to see i. Check Omniture for trends (https://sc.omniture.com/sc13_5/reports/ index.html?version_options=13_5&f=1&jpj=3242037978&row=50) ii. Find key words that readers are looking at in headlines !15
16. Building and keeping online audience Keywords for The Record Most popular search terms for people ending up at www.staugustine.com. • For 2012 St Augustine record, st. Augustine record, staugustine.com, saint Augustine record, st Augustine record, st Augustine, st Augustine Florida, staugustinerecord, st Augustine news, st Augustine fl, st augustine.com, st aug record. • For April 2012 St Augustine record, st. Augustine record, staugustine.com, saint Augustine record, st.augustine record, Quinn Gray, st Augustine, staugustine news, st Augustine florida, st augustine.com, st Augustine fl, staugustinerecord, st aug record, the staugustine record, staugustine newspaper. !16
17. Headlines !17
18. Headlines Writing headlines for the web 1. Good headlines will sell the story 2. Write clear SEO headlines 3. Avoid headline-ese 4. Avoid acronyms 5. Avoid long headlines – 10 to 12 words max 6. Be specific – use proper nouns 7. Find key words and use them !18
19. Corrections !19
20. Corrections Create a corrections policy Here's an example from the BBC: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/ march/complaints_framework.shtml) • Create a corrections and clarifications page on the BBC website; • Appoint a ‘Chief Complaints Editor’ within the BBC to coordinate complaints handling activity across the BBC Executive, ‘fast-tracking’ specific complaints if necessary; and • Establish a guide informing people where to complain (both within the BBC and externally). !20
21. Corrections Tips and ideas 1. Run clear corrections in the paper 2. For corrections online, put a correction notice at the top or bottom of the story that is being changed and be clear about the change and the date and time the change was made. 3. Create an easy way for readers to submit corrections on each story. !21
22. Corrections 4. Create a corrections page online, like the New York Times did at http:// www.nytimes.com/pages/ corrections/index.html--------> 5. Don’t keep repeating mistake once the correction has run. 6. Run correction on twitter and, if possible, request those who retweeted the story to retweet the correction. This is from @BBCLondonNews----> !22
23. The San Francisco Chronicle corrections policy at www.sfgate.com/pages/corrections/ !23
24. A correction at the San Francisco Chronicle website www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/03/MNSB1NTN4B.DTL !24
25. The Washington Post corrections form at www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/interactivity/corrections/ !25
26. This is how the San Jose Mercury News used a correction on a story. http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county-times/ ci_20462761/supreme-court-ruling-mental-health-testing-clears-way? IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com !26
27. LESSONS FROM ACES 2012 Our goal is to serve the readers, or audience. With a small staff it will be harder. But these four things I have talked about today -- increasing the usage of social media, writing more SEO headlines, finding out what our audience is interested in reading and creating a corrections policy -- are possible if we can work together. !27