Really thinking outside the box in terms of personnel structure

Here's a radical idea stemming from a conversation with Bryan Murley, Assistant Professor of New and Emerging Media at Eastern Illinois University: "I had a student tell me recently his idea was a reversal of hierarchy: Have the older journos serve as interns and let the twentysomethings run the show and attract younger readers."

And while we're thinking outside the box, let's picture other scenarios: two-person teams on each beat...one to cover it as a mainstream journalist would and one make it enaging on the Web. A team that shares info and teaches each other...

What ground-breaking ideas do you have? Let us know!

Adding functionality to your Web site

So, someone's on your Web site and they see this awesome article and they want to share it. Do you offer some sort of "email this" feature?

Here's a tool for anyone that wants to add functionality to their Web site, but does not have the technical background to do so. Many of the newer content managment systems for the Web offer this is some sort of format, but if you handle your own Web site design, here's something to keep in mind: People get on the internet to be social. Hence the explosion of social networking applications.

	So, help them be social. Add This can help. Roll your mouse over the button to the right...see what happens.
Add This is a little button that can help your story reach a lot of people by allowing readers to email the article or post it to their social network or bookmarking site with one click. And it's fully customizeable. AND IT'S FREE!
Try it. Tell me what you think.

The kids have started doing it, too

The Cronkite News Service, the student-run news bureau at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has begun offering news in mobile formats. Now you can access their content on your iPhone or Blackberry.

In addition to stories and photos, they've got terrific online video that you can watch anytime, anywhere.

My challenge to you: Enhance your Web site with mobile accessibilty. If students can do it, so can you!

FYI: For more info on the Cronkite News Service, contact Steve Elliott.

Best Ideas Roundtable Luncheon

Thanks to all who attended the ANA 2008 Fall Convention. The ideas we generated are listed here. And most of these are super-simple to implement!

In no particular order:

• Rule #1: Promote your Web site thoroughly in your print product.
  
• Text breaking news to mobile phones (Examples: Miami Herald, Des Moines Register and WYFF Channel 4)
  
• Send out email alerts for breaking news (Examples: Lawrence Journal-World, Texarkana Gazette and The Daily Journal.
  
• Have a different poll on your Web site each week (Create free polls at: SurveyMonkey, PollDaddy or ZapSurvey.)
  
• Link back to your advertisers (This should be a no-brainer)
  
• Get more reader interaction with comments
  
• Post local events (Examples: The Arizona Republic, Austin American-Stateman)
  
• Create special community contests such as "Pet Idol", "Best workplace smile" or "Best ____ in your town"
  
• Use audio and video to do a portrait on someone in the community
  
• Get listed with Google News Archive Search
  
• Create a Twitter presence
  
• Linkbacks: If someone emails you about a new band, impending nuptials, store grand opening, etc., email them a link back to that story. Nothing spreads like word of mouth (or grandma's emails).
  
• Photo slideshows: Quick, easy and better than just plain text (Example: Las Vegas Sun, Arizona Daily Star)
  
• Email newsletters or e-editions (Examples: Green Valley News and Sun, Abilene Reporter-News)
  
• Recognizing leaders in the community: Extraordinary women, true volunteers, exceptional teachers
  
• Promote garage sales bigtime. Who doesn't like a bargain?
  
• Making smarter use of niche products
  
• Delving into the community's culture: Navajo language, motorcycles, etc.
  
• Get listed with Topix
  

The most important thing to remember? Give your community something that keeps them coming back for more. Think outside the box. See a great idea that's not listed here? Post it to the comments section.

How much multimedia is on your site?

Video, sound and images...how do you use those to draw your readers in? How do you use multimedia to disseminate information? Take a look at this video. It takes typically boring data from a study and presents it to the community in an attention-grabbing way easily understandable way.

Reverse revenue model

Lucas Grindley, online managing editor for NationalJournal.com takes "thinking outside the box" to a new level with his nontraditional approach to employment ads. His idea? Don't charge for the recruitment ad...charge for the replies. It's called lead generation. Bad idea or brilliant idea? You tell us.

Improve your online photo gallery

Thank you, Mindy McAdams for pointing out what many photo galleries on news sites are lacking and what can be done to raise the bar. She says: "A great gallery player is The Week in Pictures from MSNBC.com. It’s fast. It’s easy and pleasant to use. It’s way better than good enough." I suggest you check it out.

Give good photos their due

This post courtesy of Steve Yelvington:

Codrie, La., after Hurricane Gustav

It's "just" a 360-degree picture, something that's been around on a lot of news sites since the early days of iPix and Quicktime VR.

But it's huge.

And I tell you what, on a 20-inch Apple Cinema monitor, you feel like you're going to get dunked. The detail is just dazzling. Click and spin and look around.

It makes me painfully aware of how badly most news sites treat photography: Little tiny thumbnail images that (if we're lucky) click through to semi-tiny versions.

It's as if we're still catering to the 14.4kbps dialup crowd.

In a broadband, high-definition world, we should be giving images their due.

New Statesman investigates...

The UK’s New Statesman asked its readers to vote on the subject for the periodical’s next investigation. It's been called "an experiment with merit". Do you think this is a good way to get readers involved in the journalism process? Would this fly in Arizona?

Alphabet City

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch attracts readers with “Alphabet City”, an online game that features pictures of different shops and landmarks in St. Louis. How easy would it be to put something like this together and get advertisers involved? You could use it to the boost the advertising as well as draw in a few more unique visitors! What do you think? Tell us!

Welcome to ANA’s “Best Ideas” blog

During this time of industry-defining change, the Arizona Newspapers Association wants to encourage its newspapers to experiment and move beyond the status quo. Every week, we’ll share new ideas on this blog that will emphasize community and/or revenue generation. Please feel free to also share any interesting ideas you might come across or anything new and exciting that your newspaper is doing.