Connecting news with communities
Posted by Mediascaper on April 14, 2009
A quick rundown of what The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times and a group of hyperlocal sites are doing to build audiences.
The New York Times takes a look at hyperlocal sites EveryBlock, Outside.in, Placeblogger and Patch,
Alan Murray, deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, offers his philosophy of what reporters need to do to grab eyeballs:
The art of a good blog is figuring out the right mix between the piece that you know is going to get maximum search-engine hits to the piece that really defines what you’re doing that’s uniquely valuable. That second piece might not bring in as much traffic, but it’s the piece that’s gonna keep the traffic once you get it in the door. So all of that, which is part of the job of building a community, building an audience — those are totally new skills.
Meanwhile, The Washington Times is embracing citizen journalism — in print:
The Times’ version ramps up the intensity and the outreach, focusing on six communities within the larger Washington area: academia on Monday, the Maryland and Virginia suburbs on Tuesday, the District on Wednesday, local military bases on Thursday, faith communities on Friday and the charitable and the public service community on Sunday.
The citizen journalists’ work will be showcased in the A-section as an additional page of Metro coverage and will provide a natural complement to the work of the newspaper’s reporters and editors.
This entry was posted on April 14, 2009 at 3:22 pm and is filed under New Media, Online journalism, blogging, citizen journalism, hyperlocal, news industry, newspaper websites, social media. Tagged: Alan Murray, citizen journalism, EveryBlock, New York Times, Outside.in, Patch, Placeblogger, social media, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Successful Goals / Resolutions said
Connecting news with communities. I really believe in the new trend of news online. The social media / Social network “Buzz” is full steam ahead. Becoming very popular with communities world-wide. Just launched a new “Social Value Network site at http://determined2.com Interactivity that promotes successful pursuit of life goals. Blogs need to focus on ways to reach the social media, giving them the resources to have a voice. To be an active participant with the news media. Bringing in the traffic, takes blogs of interest.