Some interesting openings in the Midwest digital media space…

• The Des Moines Register is filling a couple digital positions, hiring a college sports digital editor and a digital reporter to cover the Iowa Hawkeyes.

• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is hiring a social media editor. I don’t see a link online, but I got this via email. Here’s more info (thanks Will Sullivan for the link).

Social media promotions editor
Exempt, full time, reports to Interactive Director, Will Sullivan

We are looking for someone to reach out to the St. Louis audience and let them know about our work. Specifically … we want an intelligent, curious go-getter who will get the most out of social media in launching new products, building audiences and communities.

Send your application digitally to Will Sullivan at stltodayrules [at] gmail.com. Application deadline: Sunday, July 18th (We’re looking to move quickly on this.) No phone calls or paper applications accepted.

• The Chicago Tribune is hiring people for a “new consulting business in its digital department.”

The new business, called 435 Digital Services, will be hiring a handful of people for the effort and will redeploy existing employees to the project to create a unit of about 10 workers, says Bill Adee, the newspaper’s digital department vice-president.

Tribune has placed ads seeking new hires and hopes to install them by the end of this month, Mr. Adee says. One ad calls for a “social media guru” looking to “show off your sales skills.”

Here are some tips to think about before you hit publish on your next blog post:

1. Write an SEO-friendly headline. Tell me the “who” and the “what” in the headline, so readers and search engines know exactly what you are writing about.

2. Include at least two links that help readers find more valuable information on the topic. If those links are to previous posts on your blog, then all the better.

3. Make the most important text bold. If your readers only spend a few seconds trying to decide whether to read your post, make sure they are drawn to the best part. Also consider bolding all names, if you’re a name-dropping kind of person.

4. Pick the appropriate blog category. Categories are a great way to organize your content into the main themes you write about. Kind of like the older brother of tags…

5. Give your post some tags. Think of the keywords or key phrases people might search to find your post, and use them as tags. Names of people and names of towns or neighborhoods make for great tags.

6. Add an image or a video. Don’t have an image, try searching millions of royalty-free images at Flickr Creative Commons. If you’re not sure where to put your image in the post, put it at the top (near your headline).

7. Is your post long? Use subheads to break up the text and make it easier to scan.

8. Preview your post. Make sure everything looks the way you intended. Then hit “publish.”

9. Tell the world. Do you have Twitter or Facebook friends who would want to know this news? Share it with them.

Interested in starting your own blog? ChrisSniderDesign.com is happily hosted on Fatcow.

Photo by parislemon on Flickr.

I’ve worked with some amazing headline-writers in my career – newspaper copy editors who were almost poets when it came to writing the perfect turn of phrase to fit the space given.

Unfortunately those witty headlines that catch our attention in print (where they are packaged with a photo and a subhead) don’t always work in the more literal and search-engine-optimized world of online journalism.

There’s a whole new set of rules when it comes to writing headlines online:

1. Use keywords. Get the main subjects of the story in the headline. Think about what words readers would search in Google to find that story – and use those words in your headline. If the story is about a person, use their full name in the headline.

2. Tell me what’s new and unique about this story. Don’t back into the subject or give me a label headline. Write a headline that makes me want to click through to read the story. I’m a busy person, and if the headline doesn’t sell me on reading the story, odds are I won’t.

3. Grab my attention. Make a big claim. Point out the controversy. Or just say something interesting.

4. Keep it simple and straightforward. I know you’re clever. Clever doesn’t work well in online headlines. Literal does.

5. Study what headlines work. Check out the headlines that get to the top of Digg. They make big claims or just plain grab your attention. I’m not saying all of your headlines can do this, but look for the ones that can.

Do a Google News search for the topic you wrote about, and see what headlines made it to the top of Google’s algorithm. Getting to the top of Google News isn’t the number one goal (creating a good experience for your core readers is more important), but it sure is a nice bonus.

I noticed Twitter’s new Blackbird Pie feature today for the first time.

Have you ever come across a great tweet and wanted to share it with your blog readers? I have. And until today I had to take a screengrab of said tweet to post to my blog.

Not anymore. Twitters Blackbird Pie allows me to embed someone’s tweet, with all of the links intact.

I see a few good uses for media companies related to this:

• In sports coverage, if you want to show what athletes on your beat are tweeting about.
• If you cover a concert or event, and you want to show what others who attended were saying.
• In breaking news situations, you can show what others (especially eye witnesses) are sharing about the news.

Here’s what the embedded tweets look like:

I made a few updates to my online breaking news checklist today.

Download the updated PDF here.

These are not newsroom openings, but they seem like some pretty decent jobs for any creative types and designers in Des Moines.

See the full listings and application info on CareerBuilder.

Client Solutions Group

Creative Director (FT): Experienced creative talent with strategic vision and the ability to lead a highly qualified creative team. This team is responsible for building strategic and integrated solutions across all media platforms including print, digital, broadcast, social media, direct mail and collateral, and all forms of outdoor for clients in a variety of industries, both local and regionally. Qualified candidates will have proven leadership experience and an exceptional level of understanding in working with business leaders. Qualified candidates will have a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience with a minimum of 10-years experience. Exceptional creative skills and proficient knowledge and experience with various computer design/graphics applications such as Photoshop, Quark, InDesign, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver and Avid. Experience managing a creative team required. Experience in advertising, working with or for an interactive or traditional advertising agency is preferred.

Digital Strategist (FT): Work with local and regional clients to conceive, communicate and execute digital solutions across all channels, integrate with offline media and push interactive innovation. Will be a leader in all aspects of interactive marketing and emerging media, possessing communication skills to present high-tech opportunities to clients. Responsibilities include: developing programs and solutions by utilizing technical and marketing knowledge, developing and delivering presentations and leading implementation of the digital component within a high-performing marketing team. A solid understanding of advertising, marketing and strategic brand management and how to best leverage these in a combination of print and digital environment is required to provide clients with solutions. Ideal candidate will have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience. Minimum seven years digital media and/or marketing experience and previous management experience is preferred. Knowledge and/or experience of media solutions such as print, digital, video, audio and mobile preferred. Experience in advertising, working with or for an interactive agency is a plus.

Marketing Coordinator (FT): Support the digital and marketing strategists in the development of effective integrated marketing solutions. Position works closely with team members from concept through execution, serving new and existing clients, creating proposals and producing presentations. Along with the CSG Director, the Marketing Coordinator serves as a liaison between the local Client Solutions Group and other regional marketing groups across Gannett. Qualified candidate will have a Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing or related field. Three years previous marketing experience required. A self-starter with excellent organizational and analytical skills needed. Proficiency with Microsoft Office products strongly desired. Previous experience in a sales environment is a plus.

The Des Moines Register Marketing

Sr Graphic Designer (FT): Innovative designer to develop and execute creative and highly effective marketing campaigns for the Des Moines Register Media. Qualified candidates will have the ability to create campaigns across all media including print, direct mail, digital, outdoor and specialized publications while maintaining a strong focus on brand image and The Des Moines Register’s identity and standards. The ability to work creatively and quickly under short deadlines is important. Requires 2-year associate degree in marketing or related field. At least three years experience in the creative industry or similar work experience required. Proficiency in the operation of MacIntosh and its design programs along with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign strongly preferred.

Advertising

Account Relationship Specialist (FT): Responsible for achieving monthly and annual advertising revenue goals by working in a team with Field Sales Representatives to present and sell an effective mix of products and programs to new and existing clients. In addition to sales, duties include organizing and submitting ad copy, art and layout by deadline, completing accurate advertising orders, submitting client contracts and completing sales reporting. Top-notch customer service skills are essential. Requires a minimum of two years relevant sales experience or equivalent education. Marketing and business coursework or experience is a plus. Must have excellent verbal and written communication skills. Computer skills should include 40 wpm typing and a working knowledge of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, e-mail, internet and database applications.

The Sunday paper is still a money-maker. With all those circulars and real estate ads, it’s clear why newspapers are putting most of their promotional efforts into increasing circulation of the Sunday product.

More and more, papers are now using their web sites to promote the Sunday print product. Some (see the Indianapolis Star image above) are going so far as to withhold stories from the online edition of the paper in an effort to get people to go buy a copy of the Sunday paper.

I’m not a fan of withholding information from digital readers for a few reasons: (1) Not all of our readers live in an area where they can go buy a copy of the paper. (2) You lose the ability for your content to go viral. (3) You give someone else the opportunity to own discussion around that topic online. (4) You lose out on online ad revenue by having less content online.

But I do think there is merit in better digital promotion of the Sunday paper. So I’ve created a worksheet/checklist to help you better promote your Sunday products to your digital readers. The worksheet is intended to help you promote your best Sunday work during the week (Friday) and again on Sunday. I hope you find it to have value.

You may also like:

• Online breaking news checklist.
• Covering breaking weather news online.

I had the pleasure of speaking to journalists about writing for the web and search engine optimization today at Drake University.

Here are the slides from my presentation. I’ve also set up a workshop page so you can find out about future workshops (I plan to keep offering them at Drake). If there are certain workshops you would like to see offered (or offered again), please share your ideas in the comments area.

Interested in attending future workshops on related topics? Get more information on my workshop page.

The way people consume information online is different from the way they consume information in print. And more importantly, the way people get to your information online is very different than in print.

Below is a preview of what I will be talking about at Drake University Saturday for a session titled Writing for the Web. I’ll also be giving an introduction to search engine optimization. Here’s more info on the session Writing for the Web and Intro to SEO.

1. How people read online

• They don’t read every word
• They scan (quickly), looking for information they want
• If they don’t find it fast, they click on something else
• They jump from site to site (meaning they expect you to link to great content on other sites)
• They avoid ads (and anything that looks like an ad)
• They read across the top, then down, then across, then down, like an F…
• They don’t scroll

2. What gets read online

• Short paragraphs
• Bulleted lists
• Occasional use of bold to prevent skimming
• Short sentence fragments
• Explanatory subheads
• Literal headlines

3. The web is very literal. Be straightforward. Those pun headlines that work great in print won’t work online – especially when we consider how much of our traffic is coming from search engines (searches are straightforward … Iowa football, Des Moines newspaper, Britney Spears naked).

4. Use links. They’re the currency of the web. They’re a great way to add context to what you are writing for readers who want more information.

5. Explore alternative story forms. Not everything should be a 15-inch story. In fact, not everything should be a “story.” We have a wealth of tools online to use to present information to readers.

• Lists
• Photos
• Videos
• Thought posts
• Interviews
• Live chats
• Live videos
• Slideshows
• Best of posts

6. Link to your related content. Don’t assume today’s readers have been with you from the start. Help them easily find your previous content.

7. Comment back to people. The story doesn’t end when you hit “publish.” The web is social. When someone leaves a comment on your site, comment back and keep the conversation going.

8. Make it easy to share your content and easy to subscribe to your content. In addition to offering an RSS feed, use Feedburner to let people subscribe to your new posts via e-mail.

9. Comment on other people’s blogs. Do you really expect others to comment on your posts when you’re not commenting on other blogs yourself?

10. Know your metrics. Use Google Analytics to see which of your content is most popular and which isn’t getting read at all. Do more of the popular stuff and less of the unpopular stuff.

Photo by dbdbrobot via Flickr

Ranking high in Google News search results is a great way to drive more traffic to your breaking news stories. And jumping to the top of the Google News list isn’t as difficult as you may think.

We’ve been experimenting with getting our content higher in Google News search results for the past few months. Here are some tips to get your content ranked at or near the top:

Google News likes content that is: Original, recent, from a source close to the event and from a trusted source. So focus more on your local stories instead of trying to rank high for big, national news that happens outside of your coverage area.

Use keywords in headlines – preferably at the beginning. If you want people to find your article by searching “Iowa Hawkeyes football,” then ideally your headline will start with the words “Iowa Hawkeyes football.” At the very least, be sure to get all three words somewhere in your headline.

Not sure which keywords or key phrases to use? Tools like the Google keywords tool and Google trends are a great place to see what words people actually search.

Use your keywords in the first paragraph. You’ll want to repeat your keywords in the first paragraph of your story. Again, these will ideally go at the beginning of your story. Try to avoid feature lead-ins and stick to news leads online.

Use a photo. Preferably a jpeg that appears near the headline and is between 250×250 and 400-400 pixels. Make sure your image has a caption and alt text.

Include a video. Google likes multimedia, so embedding a video helps your ranking.

Include links. Make sure you are linking to other content – whether on your site or on other sites. Google likes links. And make sure those are in-text links (links from actual words within the article).

Get other people to link to your story. OK, so you can’t really control this, but the more other people link to your story the more authority Google gives that story. If you’re part of a network of sites, try to get others to link to your story.

Point internal links to your new story. Add in-text links from sidebar stories to point to your main story. This helps build the authority of the main story.

Include a dateline. Google news groups stories by location.

Keep your story organized. Google likes well-organized content that is logically divided, easy to scan and read. Google also likes bulleted lists and stories chunked into small parts with subheads.

More tips:

• Having trouble ranking high for your keyword? Use keywords tools to find alternative keywords. They may not drive as much traffic as the main keywords, but you’ll increase your chances of getting to the top.
• Make sure your URLs have at least three digits – which helps Google News determine it’s an article and not a static page.
• Don’t break up the body of your story with related links, multiple pages or user comments.

Interested in learning more? Sign up for my March 27 workshop on SEO and writing for the web?

I sat in on a Poynter webinar on multimedia tools for journalists – from point-and-shoot cameras to $21,000 3-D video cameras.

While I don’t see the Des Moines Register springing for the 3-D camera anytime soon, I did find some equipment that would suit us just fine. Here’s a list of the items that caught my eye:

Here’s a great presentation from Nathan Wright of Lava Row on how newspapers can foster community with social media.

Read Nathan’s full post on the subject here.

I’m honored to once again be teaching journalists about new media tools on Feb. 13 at Drake University.

I’m even more excited about who will be joining me for the workshop. Nathan Wright will be teaching and answering your questions about how journalists can use social media. And Pete Jones will talk about how he built a strong following for his blog, desmoinesisnotboring.com.

If you attend, I promise you’ll learn these things:

• How to create your own blog.
• How twitter, facebook and linkedin can make you a better journalist (or to find a job).
• 20+ tools to make you a more efficient journalist.
• Hands-on with using RSS feeds.
• Hands-on with live chats using CoverItLive.
• How to find and edit photos for your blog.
• How to broadcast live video from your computer.

Cost is $100. To register: Contact Shari Tenney in the Drake School of Journalism and Mass communication, shari.tenney@drake.edu or 271-3194.

For more information: Contact Patricia Prijatel, E.T. Meredith Distinguished Professor Emeritus, patricia.prijatel@drake.edu

More info about the workshop here.

Mashable asked that question on Sunday. The answer?

No.

BUT… Let’s look at this from a more positive standpoint. If the NYT can get that “Yes” number up to 10 percent, then perhaps they’re onto something. The question: Is one paying subscriber more valuable than 10 non-paying?

Perhaps.

I’ll be teaching entrepreneurial journalism at Drake again this semester. Last semester, we relied on readings from the web for class. This semester, I think I found four books that will really help the students think about how journalism (and the web) is changing.

Here’s the list:

• ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
• Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust
• Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation
• The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

Are there any other books you’d recommend for entrepreneurial journalists right now? I’d love to expand or improve my reading list in future semesters.

Last night I read the 2007 book The Dip by Seth Godin. It’s a quick read and an inspiring book, but one passage certainly stood out to me:

Persistent people are able to visualize the idea of light at the end of the tunnel when others can’t see it. At the same time, the smartest people are realistic about not imagining light when there isn’t any.

If you work at a big city newspaper, you can see that there’s no light at the end of that career-choice tunnel. Circulation is dropping, and it’s going to drop even faster. Most papers have little chance of replacing their traditional business with an online alternative. As a result, every day at most papers is going to be just a little bit worse than the day before. Every day you stay is a bad strategic decision for your career because every day you get better at something that isn’t that useful – and you fall another day behind others who are learning something more useful. The only reason to stay is the short-term pain associated with quitting. Winners understand that taking the pain now prevents a lot more pain later.

It’s nor fair to judge two paragraphs without context of the whole book, but I felt I should share anyway. To me, the point of the book was that it’s not worth doing something unless you’re willing to push yourself to be the best. It’s much better to be the best at one thing that to be pretty good at several things.

My digital focus in 2010 for the Des Moines Register is simple – stop trying to add more and more features to the web site, and start focusing on doing a small number of things better than anyone else.

As for Godin’s advice on getting out of newspapers, I can’t disagree. We’ve heard about the end of printed newspapers for a long time. If you’re a journalist whose skills are exclusive to the print product, it’s time to start learning some digital skills. Or get out.

Last week, Mother Nature dumped 16 inches of snow on Des Moines. And while most of the town simply shut down for a day or two, the Des Moines Register didn’t have that option. We went into breaking news mode and tried to compete with the local TV stations for readers’ attention.

And as usual, we learned a few things. Here are some tips for covering breaking weather news online:

Promote your mobile site

We saw a nice bump in traffic to our mobile site while readers were stuck at home (or elsewhere). We used Twitter, Facebook and our own web site to remind people that the mobile site was available for latest weather news and closings.

In severe weather, there’s also the possibility of people losing power – so your mobile site may be their only way to access important information.

Take the news to the people

If people aren’t at work, they’ve not on their computer. So they’re probably not spending as much time on your site. We used Twitter, Facebook, text alerts, e-mail alerts and RSS feeds to draw them in as important news broke throughout the day.

Ask readers to submit specific photos

We’ve had modest success getting people to submit weather photos, but one small tweak seemed to really help this time. We asked readers to specifically send us photos of their big snow drifts – and we promised we’d run the best in print the next day. And it worked – we got more than 80 photos (and not all were snow drifts).

Create a Twitter hashtag

Create a Twitter hashtag and use it for all your tweets – or better yet figure out what hashtag your local Twitter users are already using and join in. Our local community was using #winterdeathstorm. Considering that people actually die in such storms, we decided to go with the safer #dmweather. We saw quite a few others joining in, so we’ll certainly use that again in the future.

Check Google Trends to see what people are searching

When it comes to severe weather, people turn first to their local TV station – even online. Google Trends shows this:

What was hot on Google Trends during the height of our storm on Dec. 8? The call letters from local television stations (KCCI, KCRG, KWWL). All three showed up for hours as hot trends. These terms also made appearances: KCCI school cancellations, Iowa DOT road conditions, Des Moines public schools, KCCI weather, Iowa road conditions and winter storm.

Local newspapers – Des Moines Register, Waterloo Courier and Cedar Rapids Gazette – never showed up.

But that doesn’t mean we should give up on winning the search war. We clearly could rate high for terms like Iowa DOT road conditions, Iowa road conditions and winter storm with a little SEO finesse. Or simply buy keywords for those words.

Create a live chat for readers

We set up a CoverItLive chat and asked readers to share info about their commute, what their business was doing because of the storm, etc. We got a little bit of that, but also found that the chat was a great way for members of our staff to instantly post the little updates they were getting throughout the day.

Create a severe weather page

We’re still working on this, but it became clear there are certain things we always need links to during a storm: road conditions, traffic cams, airport delays, snow routes and energy outages.

So, we’re creating a severe weather page that combines those links with a twitter feed, stories, radar, blog posts, video, photos and traffic cameras. It will be a one-stop shop during severe weather.

Dig into your archives

We have hundreds of great photos from past snow storms. With more time, it also would have been great to bring back stories from previous huge storms and historic front pages.

1. This tweet from @TracyGardner pretty much sums up what I’ve been trying to teach my Online Entrepreneurial Journalism class this semester as they try to find their niche in the digital media world.

2. Chris Brogan shares his advice for businesses getting started on social media. Read more about what he’s saying here.

Chris Brogan Shares Social Media Tips from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

3. If your blog needs a redesign (I’m starting to think that mine does), here are some great WordPress themes via Smashing Magazine.

4. Like new tools but hate spending money? Check out these free alternatives to some common multimedia tools.

The Yankees won the 2009 World Series last night. So let’s take a quick look at pages from a couple national sports sites and the New York newspapers.

ESPN

Sports Illustrated

New York Times

New York Post

New York Daily News

I like what the Post did with the background image on the page. I like the overall look of ESPN the best. And I appreciate how SI.com was able to go big and keep an ad above the scroll.

Your thoughts?

We don’t have pro sports teams in Iowa. We don’t host Superbowls or NCAA Final Fours. But every year we do get one game that captures our local sports audience like no other.

Iowa vs. Iowa State in football. We call it the “Big Game.” (Clever, huh?) And here’s a look at all of the coverage we do leading up to the game.

Big Game Fan Map: Our attempt to determine what areas of the state prefer Hawkeyes and what areas prefer Cyclones.

Big Game Challenge: Readers get to pick various prop bets on the game – with a $500 prize for the person who gets the most correct.

Jokes: Readers share their favorite Iowa and Iowa State jokes.

Field goal game: It’s hard to actually work the week of the game, so this helps readers slack off.

Past photos: Hugely popular. People love to look at old photos (even ones that are only one year old).

Posters: Readers can print out these posters to decorate their cubicle at work – or their neighbor’s cubicle.

Bars: Sometimes people watch games in bars, we hear. We help them figure out where to go.

Of course, we also cover all of the “news” of the week with stories and videos. But those are the main components that make up a successful “Big Game” week around here. You can see all of our coverage right here.

And GO HAWKEYES!