15 for '15 Online

Logan Aimone, MJE
Permission granted for educational classroom use only.
http://slideshare.net/loganaimone
http://loganaimone.com
15 for ’15
Improving your online 
news operation this year
O N L I N E E D I T I O N

15 for ’15: Online Edition
Why try?
•Improve constantly. Every year, every month, every
week, every story.
•Experiment. What you do, and how you do it, should be
in flux. Figure out the best practices for your site.
•Engage. Better content yields an engaged audience.
You want both.

Try some new endeavors to improve
your online news operation.
!
You don’t have to try all 15 at once,
but you can get started right away.

No more issues.
• Think online first. Don’t save things for the paper.
• The website is live. Update it frequently (like, every day).
• Don’t just dump your print content online. Post when
stories are ready.
• Nobody cares about your PDFs.
1

Go get the audience.
• The audience is well beyond your school/student body.
• Attract them through social media promotions and
referrals, commenting and contextual linking.
• Share more. Make it easy.
• Referrals matter.
2

Be the #1 news source.
• Your role on campus is to inform your audience, not just to
write stories or take photos.
• You have a responsibility — an obligation, even — to take
that seriously and to do it well.
• Your audience needs you to tell the story in a truthful,
authentic way.
3

Cover your school.
• Cover things your audience likes — and needs.
• More recreation and leisure (horseback riding, boating,
hiking, etc.), video games and student views.
• Less rehashing of world events, parroting professionals and
prognosticating about college/professional sports.
• When you commit to a category, you’ll create content for it
(health, fitness, finance, consumer news).
4

Use print + website.
• Don't assume the audience is reading both.
• If coverage spans both platforms, make sure a reader can
catch up through a printed summary or a digital sidebar.
• Use website for updates between printed editions.
• It’s not just about a story page. Social media posts
contribute to communicating to the audience. Consider
using Storify.
5

Provide context.
• Tag or categorize related stories.
• Use contextual linking, which aids the reader who might be
coming late to a story.
• Use mug shots and pull quotes. A sidebar can also add a list
of facts or summarize past coverage.
• Use short links, which are based on the database, not the
initial URL. Kill the “http://domain.com” for internal links.
6

Use the platform.
• Tell the story in the most appropriate format.
• Embed video and audio clips, images and multimedia
pieces to enhance the story for the reader.
• Don’t just upload the JPEG file from your paper. Make the
image come alive online.
• Take advantage of free multimedia resources like Prezi,
ThingLink and Infogr.am.
7

Do more lists.
• Listicle: A simple, arbitrary grouping 
Example: “18 selfies with dogs”
• Definitive list: All-encompassing inventory 
Example: “The 43 best moments from Homecoming 2013”
• Framework list: Only exists to structure a narrative; number
is arbitrary — whatever it takes to organize/tell the story 
Example: “36 reasons why you should volunteer for the Red
Cross”
• More info here, here and here.
8

Tell us about you.
• Include staff profiles with useful information and clear,
professional mugshots that fit the space provided.
• Put your policies, awards, practices and interesting trivia in
the “About” section where people can find them.
• Provide the name of school and physical address.
• Make it easy for visitors to contact you, even with a generic
“contact” email. With a form, make sure a confirmation is
sent when the form is submitted.
9

Engage your community.
• Allow and encourage comments. Develop a policy.
• Develop a robust and appropriate conversation with your
audience via story comments and social media. Interact.
• Ask followers for story ideas, tips, sources, submissions and
feedback on how you are doing. It’s a two-way
conversation.
• Nerd alert: Use Akismet (free for nonprofits; flags spam).
You’ll be glad you did.
10

Try new social media.
• Instagram, Tumblr, Vine, Reddit.
• Each has a distinct audience.
• Discover the journalistic use for things your peers are
already using.
• Anticipate what's next: Snapchat? Pop? Something else?
11

Know your audience.
• See what people are searching for, how they got to the site,
what they are spending time with.
• What’s popular? Why?
• Use them as a classroom motivator. Can you get more
visitors? Can you increase acquisition from certain
platforms?
12

Watch this, and think.

Audience experience.
• Is the site responsive for mobile and tablet readers?
• Focus on the content, and make it great.
• Have a well-designed UI.
• It’s about the UX!
13

Details matter.
• The home page is your dashboard.
• Reconfigure based on the news of the day. You have to
manage the site every time you post, including balancing
widget lengths.
• Showcase the most important stories in the carousel, not
just the most recent. Help the reader see what matters.
• Only use a Twitter feed that compiles tweets or mentions or
is specific (sports scores, other interesting links).
14

Design the story pages
• Because of referrals and social media, readers land on the
story page first.
• Less hub-and-spoke navigation to/from home page.
• More inter-category clicking.
• Make it easy for the reader to find information and
understand the story with context and navigation.
15

Remember the audience.
•Doing a good job means thinking about what the reader
needs and using tools to meet those needs
•It doesn’t mean just providing a digital version 
of the printed newspapers.

Thanks!
Questions?
!
logan@snosites.com
@loganaimone
http://loganaimone.com
slideshare.net/loganaimone

15 for '15 Online

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