Get wired to win.
Some digital updates from Walla Walla
I recently was promoted to Online Services Manager and tasked with expanding and growing our online content and products. Which means: Create features and websites that will attract all of Walla Walla. And here is a part-time web content person. Oh and make sure you do more outreach into the community and help fill niches.
These are all challenges that I welcome. In particular the community outreach aspect of it really appeals to me. That is one of the priorities that I have set up for our new little Online Services Dept. Go out and talk to people.
Another greater challenge is helping the newsroom move forward toward a more web-first workflow. That is still in it's gestation period. We are in the process of switching to a more streamlined CMS courtesy of a beta-test with TownNews which will also entail a redesign of our website. Those are two huge steps forward. And I also think that it will help the newsroom evolve the way stories are developed. Many efforts will mean pushing people out of their comfort zones. And many of them are coming around and embracing this.
Our first big project was expanding our election coverage. In the past we've posted links to the local election offices and there were the obligatory wrap up stories the day after. This time we decided we would use a few of the digital tools available to us:
A couple of reporters were asked to live-blog from the local GOP and Democratic headquarters. We recruited local political science professors and their students to guest blog. And we even set up a couple of live video streams throughout the night using Ustream.tv. We set up an election blog that everything was fed into and then redirected all traffic coming to union-bulletin.com to the election coverage. We promoted heavily leading up to the elections and held our breath as election day rolled in. We saw our traffic spike considerably and we got a decent number of comments and a great number of blog posts from our staffers and guest bloggers. Our video streams also got a decent number of viewers. Generally speaking the feedback was all positive. Our publisher was ecstatic. I was very, very pleased with the reporters involved as they had never reported in this manner. It was by no means perfect but for a paper our size I think it was a great step forward. Here is the link to the election coverage:
U-B Election Coverage 2008
Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
These are all challenges that I welcome. In particular the community outreach aspect of it really appeals to me. That is one of the priorities that I have set up for our new little Online Services Dept. Go out and talk to people.
Another greater challenge is helping the newsroom move forward toward a more web-first workflow. That is still in it's gestation period. We are in the process of switching to a more streamlined CMS courtesy of a beta-test with TownNews which will also entail a redesign of our website. Those are two huge steps forward. And I also think that it will help the newsroom evolve the way stories are developed. Many efforts will mean pushing people out of their comfort zones. And many of them are coming around and embracing this.
Our first big project was expanding our election coverage. In the past we've posted links to the local election offices and there were the obligatory wrap up stories the day after. This time we decided we would use a few of the digital tools available to us:
A couple of reporters were asked to live-blog from the local GOP and Democratic headquarters. We recruited local political science professors and their students to guest blog. And we even set up a couple of live video streams throughout the night using Ustream.tv. We set up an election blog that everything was fed into and then redirected all traffic coming to union-bulletin.com to the election coverage. We promoted heavily leading up to the elections and held our breath as election day rolled in. We saw our traffic spike considerably and we got a decent number of comments and a great number of blog posts from our staffers and guest bloggers. Our video streams also got a decent number of viewers. Generally speaking the feedback was all positive. Our publisher was ecstatic. I was very, very pleased with the reporters involved as they had never reported in this manner. It was by no means perfect but for a paper our size I think it was a great step forward. Here is the link to the election coverage:
U-B Election Coverage 2008
Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Tags: election2008, electioncoverage, union-bulletin, wallawalla
Add a Comment
About
Where credit is due
Howard Owens and Zac Echola are the co-founders of Wired Journalists, sharing all the credit and blame with Ryan Sholin.
Patrick Thornton is around here somewhere, as well.
Contact any of us with questions, suggestions, or concerns.
Thanks!
Patrick Thornton is around here somewhere, as well.
Contact any of us with questions, suggestions, or concerns.
Thanks!
© 2009 Created by Ryan Sholin on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
You need to be a member of Wired Journalists to add comments!
Join this social network