These are slides about possible projects for community news operations to undertake.

1. A Digital Project
for Your Community
Steve Buttry
Texas Center for Community Journalism
March 7, 2013
#tccj

2. Read more about it
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• sbuttry@digitalfirstmedia.com
• @stevebuttry

3. Projects we’ll discuss
• Live coverage
• Community blogs
• Community Pinboards
• National anthem
• Commissioned obituaries (life stories)
• Class of 2013 (if we have time)
• Weddings (if we have time)

4. Why live coverage?
• You’re at those events anyway
• Work differently, not more work (mostly)
• You’re a newspaper & this is news
• Deep engagement
• Turns weekly (& daily) into now

5. Livetweeting
• Set context: Event, where you are
• Use hashtag
• Feed into site (widget or ScribbleLive)
• Prep (check spellings, get program,
reports, etc.)
• You’re reporting, not transcribing

6. Live-tweeting tips
• OK to pause for checking facts, names
• Note significant pause (halftime, lunch)
• Fun interludes, exchanges, anecdotes
• Read, fact-check before you hit “tweet”

7. Live-tweeting situations
• Trials
• Meetings
• Sporting events (curate w/ public tweets:
Friday Night Tweets)
• Festivals
• Breaking stories
• Remember to feed live-tweets into site

11. Friday night tweets
• Sports writers use hashtag(s)
• Feed tweets into your website
• Recruit high school journos to tweet
scores from their teams
• Use hashtag(s) for region, maybe teams
• Use players’ @ usernames
• Encourage fans to use hashtag(s)

13. Other live opportunities
• Live chat (regular or special)
• Live webcam (wildlife, storm, disaster)
• Hangout chat or interview, livestreamed
using YouTube
• Pick up livestream embed from public
agency
• U-Stream, Qik

14. Community blogs
• Network w/ existing blogs
• Network w/ community social media
(Facebook pages, Twitter, YouTube)
• Host blogs around community topics
(you get to sell the ads)
• Pitch opportunity to tell their stories

15. Possible group blogs
• Community clubs
• Youth sports
• Worship organizations
• Music (choirs, marching bands, garage
bands, youth recitals)
• Businesses (adverblogs?)

16. National anthem contest
• People in community sing “Star-Spangled
Banner”
• Enter by YouTube
• Set up ballot
• Community picks finalists
• Finalists sing live w/ judges
• Winner sings at community event (July
4?)

17. Other contest possibilities
• March Madness
• Mother’s Day
• Father’s Day
• Valentine’s
• Any holiday
• Your ideas?

20. Community Pinboards
• Food, fashion, weddings, travel
• Bridal content (more on that later)
• Sports team photos
• Wanted posters
• Remember-when photos
• Crosspost on Facebook

25. Personal content
• Births • Divorce
• Youth milestones • Jobs, pets, holidays,
• School food, interests, health
• Graduation • Illness
• College life • Empty nesters
• Military service • Retirement
• Weddings • Reunions
• Parenthood • Obituaries

26. Obituaries (life stories)
• Free obits are formulaic
• Paid obits, written by relatives or funeral
directors, can be amateurish
• Would some families commission obits?
• Story, booklet, video, book (pre-planned)
• Other milestone occasions (anniversary,
retirement, big birthday)

27. Graduation
• Many newspapers gather mugs, names
anyway for graduation section
• Launch page for each graduate
• Senior, family fill in stories, photos, videos
• Gift registry
• Fill in school, target ads appear
• Fill in career, sign up for email, text alerts
• Interface w/ Facebook, Pinterest

29. Weddings
• You get engagement & wedding
announcements anyway
• Many newspapers do bridal guide
• Why not play matchmaker (brides &
vendors)?
• Why not gift registry?
• Life story opportunity?

30. Weddings
• Facebook (share buttons, maybe a FB
group)
• Pinterest (dresses, venues, cakes)

33. Innovation in a small staff
• Engage the community (not free labor,
but multiplying your labor)
• Lack resources, but more nimble
• Publish digital first, edit for print
• Consider innovation “vacations”
• Community partnerships, internships
• Collaborate (TPA, TCCJ, universities,
nearby news orgs, community orgs)

34. Work on an idea
• Personal content (obits, graduation,
weddings, something else)
• Live coverage (upcoming events)
• Pinterest
• Community blogs
• Community contest
• What else?

35. Our only rule
Today, for this discussion,
everything is possible:
Don’t worry about money,
technology, skills, staffing, time …