MEETINGS, INTERVIEWS & ENGAGEMENT:
- Scott Lebar, managing editor
- Linda Gonzales, digital team/editor
- Bev Griffin, administrative support
- Nate Miller, digital team/analytics
- Brian Blomster, digital team/metro editor
- Andrew Seng, photographer/Instagram
- Amy Chance, political reporter and senior editor
- Ed Fletcher, city reporter
- Loretta Kalb, education reporter
- Tyler Stobbe and Kevin Rolf, developers/data project
- All-employee meeting July 21
- ONA Sacramento Meetup with Google News representative Stacie Chan July 23 with Nate Miller
- Intern lunch with Pat Talamantes July 24, 2015
TAKE-AWAYS & NOTES
PR/Media Relations
- Writing
- Online newsrooms are often valuable – keep them updated and current with press releases, broadcast/print-quality images, story starters, contacts
- Newly introduced to “top lines” and “high lines” providing value-add to online applications
- Do your homework on your reporter – embody their style, have awareness about length
- Relationships
- Connect with reporters before you need them
- Follow them on their social media and blogs – share, like, retweet, comment when appropriate
- Be a resource – even when it has nothing to do with the organization you represent
- Remember reporters are people too – be respectful, give and take, be mindful of how they like to communicate with you
- Be a partner. Help them do their job better.
- Behavior & Practice
- Transparency is paramount
- Pay attention to the reporter’s work. When you call – know the last three stories they wrote.
- Read the publication with emphasis on the relevant section for your organization – know the types of stories covered and plan accordingly.
- Be accessible – return calls even if you don’t have new information
- Be responsive especially in times of crisis or scandal – even if you don’t have the answers
- Provide unique access whenever possible – the first on a story, to people, to locations
Digital/Social Media
- Sac Bee digital focus areas – mobile web, apps, video and social sharing
- Highlighted recent updates:
- Visibility of sharing buttons and that they “travel” with scroll
- Responsive design
- New video player (hides length of video as to limit bounces)
- Stories are more visible and scannable
- Visible “high lines” showcasing stats, quotes, facts or numbers
- Visible “top lines” summarizing top 2-3 highlights of each story
- Facts
- Facebook 2015 monthly views are double from the same period in 2014
- Twitter views are up 55% from the same period in 2014
- In mobile five key sections are highlighted that increase depth of readership (Top Stories, Sports, Local News, Politics and Entertainment)
Analytics & Metrics
- Core tools used in the newsroom
- Google Analytics (real time page views)
- Newscurve: reporter-centric analytics (and Nate’s most valued resource for tracking social engagement, internal stickiness, direct traffic, search terms and referral traffic)
- Tweetdeck
- Twitter insights/analytics
- Facebook Insights
- Content Studio (CMS)
- Ominture (story traffic in local DMA and real time edits to headlines, story placement and leads based on readership)
- Domain Insights within Facebook
- Nate’s resource list to stay on top of trends and industry best practices:
- Peer newspapers
- Poynter
- Niemen Labs
- My Media Bistro
- “circles” in Google or LinkedIn with other individuals around the country with similar job descriptions
- Mashable
Branding
- The Sacramento Bee focuses on four pillars.
- Creates connections
- Watches the powerful in the community
- Be interesting
- Saves time and money
- All initiatives and goals should circle back and fit into one or more of these pillars.
- For example – how does a feature story on popular Sacramento hot spots for 20-somethings create connections [new sources for ad revenue] or generate interest [results in shares, likes, comments]?
- Series, stories and activities resonating the four pillars:
- Arena construction, drought/water issues, culture of sports, photo series, river dangers, homeless (creating connections)
- Vaccine debate, Capitol Bureau, nursing home ownership, “accountability reporting”, mayoral sexual harassment claims (powerful in the community)
- Wrong-way freeway collisions, affordability in home ownership, El Nino, engaging visual storytelling such as drone racing quadacopters an d SF 49ers playing ping pong in the locker room (be interesting)
- Subscription based email blasts (sports, weekend wrap ups), Wednesday’s edition, advertising integration into video and social media (saving time and money)
Advertising
- AGI is reshaping the organizational structure of the advertising department
- Updates coming for direct marketing now that Penny Saver is out of commission
- New focus on digital and capitalizing on digital opportunities in web, apps, social media and video
- Joint goals in development with Audience and News
- New initiatives for holidays
News/Information Industry (Sacramento Bee-centric)
- Priority areas: video integration and visual storytelling with added support in equipment and training, increasing advertising revenue, reorganization of newsroom to be “digital first”, capitalization on the modern print edition
- Firsts: Sacramento Bee was the first in McClatchy family to do 2020 initiative – setting the tone and paving the way for North and South Carolina and others that follow
- Advertising changes – audience restructuring, separation of local and non-local segments, new distributor model for long-term service improvements
Curriculum Impacts (so far)
- Restructuring emphasis on writing. Press releases matter but mostly in the context of organization newsrooms.
- Teach them how to write “top lines” and “high lines” in addition to the emphasis on SEO-centric headlines and leads
- Increase emphasis on value of story starter
- Increase emphasis on the email pitch and what that looks like (with reiteration on first step of relationship building)
- More discussion and assignments around reporter research and long-term following of social media and published work
- Add in simulation of reporter engagement (mock scenarios played out live in classroom)
- Introduce technologies used in the newsroom and their analytics and tracking
- Introduce the concept of brand in the context of the news and information industry
- Restructure SEO discussion based on insights from Google News – focus more on their four main criteria: originality, timeliness, relevance and authority
- Bring Google News interface into curriculum in COMSTRAT 383
NEWSROOM TECHNOLOGY & TOOLS
- Neodata out of Italy for database and audience
- Newscurve: reporter-centric analytics, story trend tool with real-time views, predictive modeling and views based on key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Database project – focus on creating a unique user experience through analysis, split-testing and real-time assessments
- CCI (Newsgate) – population of story content, headlines, top lines, high lines, SEO terms, photo, video
- Videolicious for capture, narration, editing of stories (phone app)
- Adobe Lightroom for streamlined photo editing