Help wanted 18/12/2005
I’m preparing a submission on improving a newspaper’s net presence and figured the best source of useful information would be compulsive net news trekkers who sometimes drop into this site.
I’d welcome any links to small daily newspaper web sites that are doing the job well and differently.
And any suggestions on what you think such a site should offer would be most welcome, bearing in mind the first criterion is paying its way.
I’d suggest a discussion forum for responding to news stories, as well as for local issues, supported by advetising. This could be a focal point for the community.
Of course, I’m talking about a real newspaper discussion forum like this Swedish one, not a lame ABC or Fairfax effort where all comments are pre-moderated. That would waste a lot of paid staff time on a function that only makes the whole thing worse.
Here are two web sites that list a lot of Australian newspapers, which might be a start:
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/australi/htm
http://www.nla.gov.au/npapers/
Apologies, that first link should be:
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/australi.htm
It’s a goodie too. Every online bush paper must be there.
I don’t know about well and differently, but I read the following every day (my wife is from there) and I don’t think you will find more colour and movement on a quick-loading page – trust the Windies.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/
They have experimented with the format for years till they got it to a max of colour with the least loading hastle.
What’s the point? The Australian people no longer have the right of free speach, so adding comments to a newspaper blog isn’t really going to do anything except now you’ll have approved comments on approved articles.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Australian media isn’t allowed to identify Islamic extremists as Muslim, isn’t allowed to mention race or religion when discussing immigration, and seems to have one way of applying the law to people who are white and another, more lenient way, to people who aren’t white and aren’t christian.
Well of course you already know of the paragon of small town online journals…..”The Coober Pedy News” so here’s my hometown paper from Midland. They’ve really made some progress in the last years making it a more professional and useful website:
My West Texas
Two words:
1) All
2) Sport
As it happens, I’m working for a media monitoring group at the moment that handles that sort of thing. It’s not my main task, but I do do it.
You’re welcome to send me an email asking more detailed questions and I’ll answer as best I can.
Briefly, I’d say the ones that come across best on the web are those without too much fancy formatting (because of the program we use, which tends to get confused by that sort of thing).
Usually, we tend to cut out one or two sentences (often the opening lines) and send them through to clients. Also, I think the program we use tends to sift out articles which don’t contain buzzwords (apparently helping us target articles to clients).
G’day Slatts,
If you want to see how it’s done badly – take a look at the Gold Coast Bulletin’s web site – http://www.gcbulletin.com.au – it’s genuinely woeful for a Murdoch cash cow.
There are plenty of things which the GA can do to keep functionality but still keep it inexpensive to run and maintain.
First, to the money side, offering classified advertisers additional exposure through an online classifieds page is an outstanding value-add which could be passed on at a nominal charge (ie $1 a line or $1 per column centimetre).
Main body advertisers should be persuaded to advertise on the web site and there are a variety of ways to do – it might be like the classifieds model, it could be as a value add sweetener signing bonus for an advertiser, done on a campaign basis etc. It might be worth mentioning to the bean counter that online advertising in Australia outstripped outdoor advertising last year:
Spending on online advertising reached $388 million with advertisers spending 64% more online in 2004 than they did in 2003.
Spending on banner ads, classifieds and sponsored links through search engines was $61 million more than on posters, street furniture, buses and taxis, which last year accounted for $327 million of the Australian advertising market.
In the United States and the UK, online advertising has now outstripped radio advertising spend.
The largest single online advertising group: Finance sector with $31 million
As Evil Pundit mentioned, a forum on news of the day/letters to the editor will certainly drive traffic.
One things which is lacking in a lot of newspapers is a strong community focus, the good old fashioned ‘parish pump’ stuff, so a community calendar is another great traffic generator. I’m sure getting the local council or a local business to sponsor the page should be easy for a good ad rep.
While a full archive service for past editions may be too over the top the Tweed Daily News is pretty good – http://www.tweednews.com.au/
I hope it helps!
– Nora
1. Quick loading
2. Good index
3. Archive with index
4. Feedback of some type, (but how can you stop someone abusing/manipulating it?
Hope it works. Look fwd to seeing it.
And merry bloomin Christmas to all.
Here’s a local Pacific newspaper that does pretty well in something approximating blog format. It looks like they’re using a drupal system which is freeware:
http://www.solomonstarnews.com/
The attraction of blogs for me is the ability to quickly see how the rest of the world is ‘telling a story’. Nothing is more illuminating than to read how say the NYT reports an issue versus Fox News or the Guardian etc.
Otherwise, keep up your good work Slatts – from another ‘sleepy hollow’ graduate.