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What is your paper's approach to the web?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by flexmaster33, Jan 9, 2011.

  1. podunk press

    podunk press Active Member

    We've tried the video route. Never got more than 2,000 hits on anything out here in Podunk, where high-speed internet access remains spotty.

    I don't worry about the revenue aspect of it because I can't control it. I'm just trying to drum up as many hits as I can for our site. So I post frequently, post hits on our Facebook site and our Twitter feed, and I hope for the best.
     
  2. Central-KY-Kid

    Central-KY-Kid Well-Known Member

    Paper gets out first, then we put stuff online. However, since we don't have a Saturday edition, short, non-quote recaps of Friday night hoops/basketball games that were staffed will be put online. Those are replaced with the optional.

    If you want the TV schedule, high school sports schedule, community notice bulletin board, youth/rec/outdoors photos, you have to buy the paper or get the e-edition two days later.

    Adding a pay wall later on. Editor wants very few things to be free, such as obits, traffic or weather warnings and disaster/catastrophe/shooting type of things. So for sports, we might not have much in terms of free for the web.

    Print subscribers will have a passwords for the pay wall that are locked into IP addresses, IIRC.
     
  3. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Our paper's approach to the web was to carefully tip-toe up to it, sniff around suspiciously, let it lie there for a while and watch from the bushes, pee on it after a while and then decide it's your new best friend.
     
  4. Turtle Wexler

    Turtle Wexler Member

    Was 2,000 the single high point, or was that closer to average? I'd say that's pretty darn good for the Podunk Press in an area with spotty high-speed.
     
  5. Gomer

    Gomer Active Member

    We used to only post a few stories but have moved to an automated system that posts everything, with a paywall built in. We go in after deadline and make a select few stories free to read.

    We tried video, but staff layoffs have forced that to be scaled back in a big way.

    We had a Twitter feed that was automated off of RSS feeds, but was stagnant for the past year until a couple people in the office decided to start using it today. In between I started using Twitter in a work capacity.

    We've had full print PDF's online for print subscribers for the past four years as well. Opened an online-only subscription in the past year.
     
  6. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    I think hooking up print subscribers with full web access is a great option...I would be more inspired to do web work if I knew people were paying for the product.

    Supplying freeloaders with information others are paying for boggles my mind.

    Non-subscribers should get short snippets only...enough to read a headline and a paragraph or two to see who won the game...if you want the full story you should be buying a subscription.
     
  7. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    Our approach seems to change quite frequently.

    First, it was post everything. Then it was just short game summaries, leave the long gamers and features for the paper. Who knows what it will be next.

    I understand things need to change from time to time when you learn what works and what doesn't and that it is my responsibility to keep up with the changes, but keeping up with them can be frustrating.

    I also have stringers who are still in the "turn in the story for the paper once a week" mindset (we're weeklies). Because we can't pay them any more than we already do, I wonder how fair it is to ask them to file right after games. Maybe I've always been afraid to be too demanding of stringers because I look at it as they're doing me the favor and if I ask too much without a commensurate increase in pay, they'd just leave and I'd be stuck with more work, but maybe it is a case of you get what you demand.

    I've said this before too, but based on my own unscientific observations, our readers view us as a newspaper, not a Web site. I've had people ask us if a competitor's site is owned by us. With sports, I think people seem to want more scrapbook stuff and the print edition seems to be what they want for that.
     
  8. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    Web readers aren't freeloaders and that's a terrible mindset. No one is forcing your paper to give its content away for free. I don't see why people who like the Web would take the paper. I don't need to see kids and puppies on the front page.
     
  9. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    Our paper's approach ... like many 25K or less newspapers ... is to have the copy desk upload the top 4 or 5 news stories and the top 2 or 3 sports stories at the end of the shift, after the print deadline, and the website is automatically updated at 5 or 6 a.m. (can't remember which).

    Then, just like the printed version of the paper, those same stories sit there. All day.

    The only reason to check on our paper's web site after that is to see what hateful dingbats leave anonymous comments on the stories.

    In my view, the best thing would be to have a SEPARATE online staff that files crime briefs, posts photos and/or video of interesting events/news from the area, and even some opinion/commentary on breaking national stories during the business day. The existing newsroom worries about putting out the print product, with of course coordination on coverage.

    We all know why thi$$$$ will never happen ...
     
  10. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    The 5 a.m. updating thing sound reasonable for a smaller daily. Most people are going to read stories after kids are at school or when they get to work.
     
  11. I worked at a 10K daily a few years ago that had us set stories to show up on the web at about 10 a.m. each morning so people would have to buy the paper if they wanted it at breakfast or before work. That paper has since gone to an online subscription service that sends out a PDF of the paper each morning and they now only post one news story and a list of that day's A1 headlines online.
     
  12. Den1983

    Den1983 Active Member

    I'm at a 16 K. We have had a paywall for the last two years. We only put short 3-4 graphs of big news up on our breaking news tabs, nothing more. Since then, we've had 500 people subscribe just for the online e-edition. Since then, however, only God knows how many people we've turned away (we used to have everything up for free).
     
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