60 ways to improve your news site

By Jonathan Dube

Here are 60 ways to improve your news site. How many does your site do?

1. Offer readers access to real estate ads a day or two earlier online (or send via e-mail) and charge extra for this access or limit to print subscribers
2. Develop a database of e-mail addresses and phone numbers of readers who you can tap for quotes when writing stories on deadline
3. Offer an online coupon section
4. Click-and-buy prints option on all online photos
5. Have readers send in photos and make slide shows from them
6. Pick the best posts on your message boards and highlight them in separate features – or on your home page -- so readers don’t have to dig through
7. Create timely special packages from archived content and sell them to sponsors
8. Set up online town hall meetings (i.e. chats) with local political candidates
9. Create Web-based publishing tool so classified advertisers can enter their information themselves, saving you work (should still be proof-read)
10. Find another media company in town to partner with... Find a media company from out of town to partner with
11. Create a downloadable MP3 section and let local bands upload their tunes for readers to download
12. Create multimedia obituaries online and charge extra for them. Then
13. Create multimedia wedding announcements online and charge extra for them
14. Use the Weblog format to cover a breaking news event
15. Figure out which writers or TV reporters always write too long for air or the paper and offer them an online column
16. Have popular columnists supplement their regular column with an e-mail extra... Only let newspaper subscribers get it
17. Let readers vote on their favorite local school sports player and give winners a symbolic award
18. Have newspaper or station top editor send e-mails to all e-mail subscribers occasionally to let them know how the newspaper or TV station is improving
19. Hold short story contests and print winners online
20. Tell stories through online games created in Flash or other tools (i.e. let readers try balancing the budget)
21. Tell an entire story that would normally be written in plain text entirely through a slide show
22. Instead of linking bylines to e-mail addresses, link them to staff bios with photos and e-mail info so readers get to know you
23. Sell prints of your front pages online, plus current and back issues
24. Make online display ads interactive – games, quizzes, etc – to grab readers attention (and of course charge extra for these!)
25. Offer special fan e-mail newsletters for local sports teams
26. Give all reporters digital audio recorders and digital cameras to take out on stories to get material for posting on Web
27. Wire all newsroom telephones to a recording system so reporters can easily record phone interviews (after asking sources’ permission) and put online
28. Send readers news alerts through instant messenger tools
29. Allow advertisers to put photos online with classified ads and signal to newspaper readers to go online to see them
30. Create special news alerts for whatever topics are hot among local readers
31. Create topic-specific photo galleries on random, fun topics (dog slide show; smiling people slide show; etc…)
32. Use the Web to ask readers for fresh ideas. Actually read them. Choose at least one and actually do it.
33. Rotate content on your home page based on dayparting usage.
34. Get someone to audiotape big local high school sports games and post the sound online
35. Have sports writers blog live from local school sports games they’re covering
36. Have everyone in your organization trade jobs with someone else in a different department at some point
37. If you’re the boss, work the worst shift/job on your team for a whole week. Watch your employees respect leap, and your knowledge of your newsroom grow.
38. Develop an online corrections policy (or reassess and improve one if you actually have one).
39. Add online elements to your company-wide ethics policy (or create a company-wide ethics policy that covers the web if no policy exists)
40. Make sure all ads are clearly labeled. For real.
41. Create a reader-appreciation week and have no pop-ups or animated ads all week.
42. Offer readers an ad-free version of your site for an extra cost
43. Give local politicians or newsmakers or experts Weblogs on your site.
44. Link datelines on all stories to pages with maps and information about the location (perhaps on a partner encyclopedia site)
45. Create a whole special section online for younger readers. Find local student journalists to help write for it
46. Create a special section on your Web site for readers who speak a different language (that has a large population in your area); translate some stories and write special features for them
47. Create a site-wide disaster coverage plan
48. Make training a priority and figure out a way to give everyone on the staff some sort of training within the next year
49. When local big shots die, set up online memorials on your site or via legacy.com
50. When print or TV journalists contribute something impressive to the Web site, applaud them in front of the whole company – maybe post their work for all to see – to encourage others to do so
51. Create internal companywide awards for good online work
52. Launch a public service project online, tied to some ongoing issue or project in the community; invite readers to submit their ideas online and pass them on to the local government
53. Create a template in Flash or another tool for a breaking news multimedia package so that when big news happens, you can slap it in and publish before the traffic spike has passed
54. Cut the number of links on your home page in half. See if your traffic and page views change at all.
55. Offer readers a way to save articles they like on your site for later reading and create a personal page for them with all of those stories
56. Interview your reporters on major stories and post the audio or video online
57. Have reporters answer reader questions online (live or not) about a big story and then post the answers
58. Let readers vote on their favorite stories and photos and post those lists online
59. Each afternoon post something on your home page telling readers something special that will be in the next day’s newspaper or on that evening’s newscast. Don’t post that online.
60. Do at least one thing on this list.

Jun 18, 2003 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(1)

Discussion

1 comments about '60 ways to improve your news site'

could you guide me how to start from zero-tech-experience a "News and Sense "page online and the most simple way :seven items /a day ?
I am 62,and sofarlived in France,Japan and the US
chris

Posted by chris lenczner at October 29, 2003 8:11 PM

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