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Top Three Things To Grow Audience Without Spending a Dime
I'll answer the question posed in the description of this group.
I'm taking the "not spend a dime" limitation meaning that reorganizing existing staff is acceptable.
1) Get into the breaking news business. In other words, become an organization focused on web-first publishing. Nothing grows audience better than turning your newspaper.com into a blog, which means frequent updates -- when you have news to report, even if it isn't the "full" story, get it on your home page. Every reporter in the newsroom should be tasked with coming up with at least one newsworthy item every day that is posted during the day, well before the print deadline.
2) Fine somebody in the newsroom smart enough to learn PHP and MYSQL and tell them to learn how to make newspaper databases. Lots of great examples from the Gannett papers. Hopefully, you already have available within your hosting environment a LAMP server. If not, well you may have to spend a couple of dimes -- like less than $100 for the year, for a shared hosting server to get started.
3) Redesign your home page to be more usable and emphasize your core strength -- real time local news. Really concentrate on usability and what your users want.
I'm taking the "not spend a dime" limitation meaning that reorganizing existing staff is acceptable.
1) Get into the breaking news business. In other words, become an organization focused on web-first publishing. Nothing grows audience better than turning your newspaper.com into a blog, which means frequent updates -- when you have news to report, even if it isn't the "full" story, get it on your home page. Every reporter in the newsroom should be tasked with coming up with at least one newsworthy item every day that is posted during the day, well before the print deadline.
2) Fine somebody in the newsroom smart enough to learn PHP and MYSQL and tell them to learn how to make newspaper databases. Lots of great examples from the Gannett papers. Hopefully, you already have available within your hosting environment a LAMP server. If not, well you may have to spend a couple of dimes -- like less than $100 for the year, for a shared hosting server to get started.
3) Redesign your home page to be more usable and emphasize your core strength -- real time local news. Really concentrate on usability and what your users want.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Fred Schecker on -
These are all excellent suggestions. But not the answer my boss was looking for. We employ three, soon to be four, reporters to post breaking news to the websites. We recently implemented Drupal as our content management system, which is based on PHP, and we have extensive database experience. We realize we have to do more with databases, especially when it comes to hyperlocal news, but next steps require resources. We recently redesigned the homepages to provide more headlines and choices, but we made a few mistakes on HamptonRoads.com. We got a little to greedy with our new technology and will soon be making changes to display more text headlines. I agree with you, though. if you are not doing these things to grow audience - you should be - to whatever extent you can afford.
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Permalink Reply by Howard Owens on -
My post was really aimed at the larger WJ audience -- many people who may not be thinking in these terms yet.
But the brutal truth is, if your publisher is unwilling to spend money on growing audience, he's making a mistake.
With a good web site in place, and a good strategy developed -- you simply must spend money.
The #1 thing to spend money on is marketing. Of course, you can get lots of free marketing from your newspaper (first rule, a contextual mention of the web URL on every page (not just in the flag), but spending money on radio, TV, billboards and event marketing is essential.
And invest in content -- training for journalists to become better wired journalists.
You can't grow a business without investing something.
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Permalink Reply by Fred Schecker on
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Bless you Howard. Unfortunately, the argument that you have to spend money to make money isn't being heard in many newsrooms -online or print - right now.
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Permalink Reply by Zac Echola on
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What tends to happen is that management says there's no business plan. The business plan is to gain market share of readers and then monetize later. Especially if local competition is also twiddling their thumbs. Be the first out of the gate. Unfortunately that doesn't sound too promising to many of the gatekeepers.
Whether or not you're making money right now, you need to do everything in your power to grow audiences in the areas your (potential) readers and advertisers are: Mobile, video, and search.
Get as much input from your readers and your advertisers as you can and hand that to your bosses.
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Getting back to growing audience on the cheap.
Buy an SEO book or two and start practicing content strategies that increase your search visibility. Write or--re-Write if you have to--for the Web, not for your paper.
Also, I want to point out that small papers, particularly weeklies will see the highest ROI on posting daily, even if it's just a couple of items per day. That also gives you great feedback for putting out a better print product.
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Permalink Reply by Elaine Helm on -
Any suggestions for good SEO books, Zac?
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Permalink Reply by Shawn Smith on -
Thanks for the mention Zac. I just noticed today that Aaron Wall's famous SEO Bible had been replaced by a new member community that runs about $100.00/month. That's a little pricey, but if you're willing to invest on your own, you could possibly do some moonlighting in seo :)
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Permalink Reply by Fred Schecker on
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Elaine,
There are lots of tutorials out there and everyone seems to have a favorite based on their level of expertise, but I provide my staff with a copy of "Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day," by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin.
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