The application of ‘best practices’ often means the elimination of habits based on outdated attitudes about reader behavior. The idea web sites should seldom provide links to content off their site - like the idea a newspaper is the only source of local opinion and news - has been a fundamental newsroom belief perpetuated by incorrect and illogical assumptions. The time of its elimination may be at hand.

As the Dallas Morning News online opinion section recently learned, readers not only appreciate the connection to other opinions, but also value the Dallasnews.com as an online resource of contrasting information. They concluded news consumption was a process and today’s reader constantly searches for new ideas and insights.

“That reader wants the most interesting and useful opinions he can find, wherever they come from,” said Rod Dreher editorial columnist editor for the Dallas Morning News. “We want the Opinion page of Dallasnews.com to be a trusted gateway to the best of opinion journalism on the Internet, no matter where it comes from.

It’s not easy to accept the idea readers wish to form their own opinions rather than accept those of a newspaper’s writers. The historic reason for having staff editorialists share their opinions has always been based on a belief the writer for a newspaper is well-informed, has more to say and better ways to say it.

But evidence continues to mount that readers purposely look to at many places for ideas and opinion before reaching their own conclusions. And the more net-savvy the reader, the more likely he or she is to look for information at a variety of times throughout the day.

News grazing, Integrators and Net-Newsers

In an August 2008 survey, the Pew Research Center found a slim majority of Americans (51 percent) now say they check in on the news periodically during the day, rather than at specific times. Using the term “news grazers” to describe this audience, Pew researchers noted it was the first time since this survey of Americans began in 2002 that they labeled themselves this way.

This fit well with the Dallas decision to offer varied off-site materials as it became available.

“We certainly want to give traditional readers a web version of the print product, and we do,” said Dreher. “But we also want to be aggressive about giving readers who are simply looking for the most interesting op-ed material on the web at any particular moment a reason to keep checking back with our page throughout the day.

In the same Pew study, a sizable and growing portion of the news-consuming audience was described as “Integrators” - information-hungry consumers who go to multiple forms of print and web media to get their news fix. When combined with the “Net-Newsers” Pew identified as those who rely primarily on the Internet for news, these two groups made up nearly 40 percent of the news audience.

Only the “Traditionalist” group - those who traditionally get their news from TV -  made up a slightly higher percentage of the news audience at 46 percent.

The most interesting characteristic of the Integrator - Net-News group was its shared demographics of high education and high income versus the lower education and income characteristics of the Traditionalists.

Why it makes sense

Dallasnews.com decided to position their online opinion section as a resource populated with many ideas, not a destination containing just those of their opinion writers, because it recognized several important characteristics of its changing audience.

The growing information-seeking audience was in the groups who use the net and other media to collect information from a variety of sources so they can integrate that information while forming their own opinions.

Linking to information on other sites also has a positive affect on the search ranking results of your own site.

Providing links to other sites also produces positive returns on search optimization outcomes and if your readers learn your site is a trusted resource of relevant information, it will be visited with frequency and regularity.

A good example is the Drudge Report, . This site makes a business of engaging the reader with topical news then sends them away to news sites across the web. According to the Nielsen Online statistics for Top 30 news sites for May 2008, drudgereport.com was the top ranked destination with 21.2 sessions per person and 2,709,000 unique audience visits. In June 2008 Nielsen Online listed drudgereport.com on top with time spent on site per person of just less than 60 minutes (59:39 min.).

By helping readers find worthwhile, credible information we support our own position as an important part of their news and opinion consumption habit. The loss of a few page views on a day to day basis will be more than made up for with long term loyalty, frequent visits and longer stays as your readers come back to see what else you have found for them to use as they form their own opinions.

“Bridging Dallas’ North-South Gap” stands out as an outstanding example of “best practices” at work in the editorial sections of on line newspapers.  Described as a “crusade” by its editors, this ongoing project seeks to close the economic and social divides that have separated neighborhoods and peoples in this city for many years.

What is most impressive about this effort is it demonstrates how effective the use of multiple forms of information delivery can be. When used by editorial board that has determined it wants to play an active role as the catalyst for community change, maps, videos and interactive discussions give readers an opportunity to learn about the problems within their community and contribute to the solutions.

As a standing navigation link on the Dallasnews.com Opinion section - http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/northsouth/ - the project is a many-faceted look at how an editorial staff can be a catalyst for change. It uses tools unique to the web to complement the well-edited and appropriately succinct text.

The centerpiece of the project was an interactive map (example above) which allowed the reader to navigate to strategically chosen neighborhoods identified as problem areas. The editors believed if problems within these areas could be resolved, the process could be replicated in surrounding neighborhoods.

Using tightly edited videos,  photo-audio slide shows, still photographs and interactive maps, the project’s display is a perfect example of using each media form to its potential.

Typical of the coverage, the neighborhood section “West Dallas Gateway”  not only describes issues found within one of the problem areas but also highlights the efforts of its residents to make things better.

Featured in a slide show (still images with audio) attached to the West Dallas section, Gerardo Romero describes the increase in his business since a new street and bridge have been built and community organizer talks about how new houses in the neighborhood translates into increased pride for the existing residents. Lopez, who is described by the editors as “exactly the kind of person needed..” in reference to their partners in the community, is typical of those who have renewed enthusiasm for change as a result of the editorial project.

Beyond the use of multimedia, a strength of this project, and something to be high on any “best practices” list, is the follow up the staff undertakes to be sure the project doesn’t drift into obscurity. A perfect example in this project is the “10 Drops in the Bucket,” list.

Initiated last December the “Bucket List” was a way for residents to identify neighborhood problems, and for the editors to define issues that might seem small at the individual level, but when seen as part of a larger trend, were likely a city-wide concern.

Just last week, the “Bucket” was updated with the editorial “10 small improvements for southern Dallas” with descriptions and outcomes of each of the original problems. The “Bucket” will continue to fill and empty as the project continues.

As the summer progresses, this blog, will focus on a specific practice and present links to good examples you might find useful in your editorial situation.

The Knight Digital Media Center invites guest contributors to share their experiences with effective online editorials and commentary.

If you wish to share, please contact me at: mikewms@ku.edu. Please put “best practice” in the email subject line.

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Welcome back to the conversation.

It’s been four months since professionals gathered in Los Angeles to discuss the best practices being employed by editorial and commentary writers online. As you see in the earlier postings on this blog, the working groups came up with several interesting variations on the concept of “community” and how readers can respond to the opinions of others.

Though not new, the idea that editorial and opinion pages need to be more of a conversation than a lecture became a central theme of the discussions. As several of the participants noted, this often flies against the tradition of editors who believe their experience and position in the media gives them special insight into the issues of their community. Most agreed the changing expectations of readers are having a dramatic impact on the challenges facing the editorial staff. New media options are giving readers, especially opinionated readers, new places for their voices to be heard.

But as we discussed in our Los Angeles sessions, and as many editors have found since then, the readers they serve still believe their local newspaper is a vital part of their community and they want to be involved in the opinion dialog published by that newspaper.

These are challenging times in the newsrooms of this country. As staffs are cut and news holes reduced, every aspect of the printed news product will be scrutinized by publishers and by readers.  If newspapers are going to remain a vital source of information in a community, they must continue to find ways to serve their readers. The opinion pages may well be one of the few places in the paper where truly local content can still be found. But as everyone in the newspaper world tries to do more with less, so will you.

In his presentation to the Los Angeles seminar participants about scenario building, Lawrence Wilkinson, of the consulting firm Heminge & Condell, described three key elements of strategy building:

1. Describing who we are: competences - strengthens and weaknesses
2. Deciding who we want to be: strategic intent
3. Defining where we have to work scenarios: the business environment

As you consider the future of your newspaper and its editorial section, these three elements are critical. These descriptions, decisions and definitions should be posted in a prominent location in your office. As you consider each attempt to improve your pages, reflect on these concepts to help focus your strategy.

With the renewal of this blog, the Knight Digital Media Center invites guest contributors to share their experiences with effective online editorials and commentary. Each week we will focus on a specific practice, present links to good examples and work together to move things in a positive, executable direction. A “success story” feature will highlight the efforts some of you have made to extend the reach of your editorials online.

Not every idea will be suitable for every publication, but the energy of shared idea generation will open the door to potential improvement for everyone who participates.

If you wish to share, please contact me at: mikewms@ku.edu. Please put “best practice” in the email subject line.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.  Thanks.

This group’s recommended:
1. Draw community bloggers under the newspapers’ online site.
-recruit community-based bloggers and engage the readers in the selection.
-provides exposure to the bloggers and also expands the links of the papers to other online sites.
What I like about this idea is it incorporates the community almost in a job-like basis with the paper. There are several sports websites already doing this, and MLB.com was basically started this way. It is important to have very specific guidelines for the bloggers so it does not get out of hand. I think the creation of these pages needs to be done in the most creative manner possible to attract readers and encourage the bloggers to treat their site seriously. I also think this idea opens doors for young reporters like myself who are looking for a foothold in the journalism world.

2. A simple search mechanism. Getting more traffic to the website is obviously the key. Some online news sites, such as http://www.grist.org, utilize search words very well. This will require a decent amount of consultation with staff in order for this to be plausible and effective. The monthly report showing changes will be essential to drawing advertisers and should be given adequate attention.

3. Neighborhood connections. Creating a network of newspaper opinion communities. I think this is a great idea, if other papers are willing to participate. There are so many ways to ask for help, advice or brainstorm ideas with other papers. I do think this could get political if some corporate newspaper owners don’t like the idea of papers getting help from one another. This is a very proactive idea, and would take a lot of time and coordination to work and operate successfully.

This group’s thoughts included:
1. Blog as Focal Point.
2. Accessories: AltOp forms: Finding alternative ways to solicit and post audience expressions in forms other than writing. One of the ways to do this that I found interesting was integrating music as a form of expression. This will definitely target the younger audiences who download music practically all day long. Music = expression, and I think bringing journalism and music together is a new and exciting idea.
3. Daily TwitterView: Showing lede and link to most diverting opinion piece recently. This would take a time to get going, but could work if Twitter continues to grow.
4. Targeted emails. This is similar to the cell phone text idea. I think reaching out to readers through email and cell phones will be an essential part of keeping newspapers attractive to younger readers.

This group’s strategies included:

1. A daily “quick thought” by members of the editorial board that allow reader feedback. I think this is a good idea because a lot of times editorial writers have a mysterious, all-knowing quality about them when you only read about them through their carefully crafted opinions.
2. Set up a standing “Ask the Board” box for emailed questions and post answers.
3. Set up an “Editorial Page Blog to explain thought processes, decisions, voting and possibly a short dissenting opinion.
4. “Instant Opinion” for breaking news and instant feedback.
5. Seek opportunities for radio and television appearances by editorial board members to promote newspaper and increase credibility.
6. Add reader members to editorial board to help inform the paper’s opinion and serve as community ambassadors.

All of these ideas are great, and have already been implemented in other newspapers. Once again, I would like to reference http://www.voiceofsandiego.org, a news website that uses all of these suggestions and is subsequently increasing in readership by the day. The website has stories that are posted daily as well as a section for breaking news and blog entries about the breaking news.

The thought of bringing personalities out from the shadows of the editorial board was a bit controversial around the room. But what is important to remember, like one of the editors here mentioned, is that knowing that the editorial board member enjoys fishing and poetry doesn’t negate their voice as an editorial writer. I see both sides of the argument, however, because newspapers do have a long standing tradition of being the voice of reason and transparency. Newspapers aren’t supposed to have personalities, some say, but in the online world everything is immediate and in your face and the newspapers need to adapt to this change.

One very interesting idea is the use of cell phones to alert readers. ESPN.com already does this. I know because about 20 times a day I get text messages telling me about the NCAA scores, NBA signings and MLB spring training news. The idea of the group took it a step further by having the text messages include questions to the reader. I do think the privacy issue with this (not to mention the cost of text messaging) could pose problems.

The challenge, I think, is to treat people to apply that same standard of note-taking to computer notes. I’m one of few people taking notes by hand. I need to learn to take notes by computer and NOT be a stenographer. That should transition in analytical note-taking also should be goal for educators.

The letter to the editor are a crucial part of newspapers and are really the original user comment section. This group’s presentation was really about how to incorporate new technology to make the letter to the editor process better. Often times, people who write letters to the editor are turned away because of time and space constraints. However, I think it is important to point out that the selection process for letters to the editor is also sometimes political. So the real question is if this new technology will taking the editorial selection out of the letter to the editor process. If that is the case, then I think it would be a win-win solution.

1. Create a letters blog where readers can comment on individual letters.
2. Print the letters from the blog in the paper (reverse publish).
3. Let readers rank letters and reward those who write especially well-written pieces and have them printed in the paper.

It was debated whether or not the paper should be able to decide which letters ultimately get chosen to be printed. I think even if the readers are being told their highest rank piece will be printed, this may not be true. However, even if it isn’t printed in the paper, at least now all the letters to the editor can be included at least online. One of the best ideas this group had was to keep track of how their paper was being received by using Digg, Technorati, Twitter etc. This is a sign that the editors at this conference are beginning to feel more comfortable using these tools on a daily basis. They suggested becoming involved in the critical discussions of them on these sites, which I think is a very proactive approach.

Their strategies included:
1. Require registration for user comments to serve reader interests and the agenda of the newspaper. One paper currently doing this is USA Today’s website. On USA Today they actually take pull quotes from user comments and put them up at the banner of the page. I think this means the paper wants to show their readers they care about their user comments, and they even have user profiles. This is borderline “MySpace-y,” but if it is managed well, I think it could work. The biggest idea behind user comments is to create discussions and then nourish them along. This will require a lot of staff time at first, and I think this is something the editors need to be aware of.
2.Utilize Widgets on website. These tiny windows of information are portable and can be taken from the newspaper and placed on people’s own blogs or websites and passed around.
3. Geo-tagging. This concept was discussed on Monday, and although the concept seems very complicated, it can be very useful. You really just need to have stories tagged to specific places and geographical coordinates. A good way to see where you should have geo-tags is to see where the majority of your users are from and then have stories tagged to that location. This is another good way to utilize user comments and incorporate their content and voice onto your page. The real point behind this is to let people use the computer to virtually visit a location and then join a discussion.

I am happy to see some mid-size dailies taking a part in the discussion of improved online content. What I think they need to remember is that just because their papers may have a local focus, that does not mean they need to have sub-par interactive capabilities. Local focus news is very conducive to these types of tools because communities really care about “their” paper and its content.

As the world of newspapers continue to change and evolve into a paperless era, the role of advertising in online content will also need to change. In online advertising, keeping a person on a page for a certain amount of time equals success, but this is difficult in the ADD-personality of online web surfing. So this means it is up to the editors and reporters to come up with user-friendly and interactive websites that make readers want to stick around, not just click and leave. Learning more about this process is what this conference is about, and now each of the editor teams will present their projects and I am interested to see what new ideas will come forward. I am a future employer (hopefully!) of the people in this room, and there ability to think outside of the box will help ensure my future in the business. I don’t want to see newspapers fold, I don’t think anyone does,  but it is time to let go of the notion that things can stay the way they have been for the last 100 years.