Tiered commenting system rewards quality commenters

The commenting structure on the Gawker family of Web sites has undergone some major changes. In the previous system, stars were given to commenters who had a large following. In the new system, priority placement of comments will be given to commenters who provide thoughtful insight. Posting hateful comments, irrelevant soliloquys or garbage? You get put in the second tier. Preferred comments are in the first tier, which appear directly below the story. Tier 2 comments can be viewed when a reader clicks on the "View all comments" link. Starred commenters have access to more features like the ability to approve comments from others and edit comments.

Read a review of the new comment system from Poynter's Dorian Benkoil for more details.

What is storystreaming?

Lifestreaming is a chronological aggregated view of your life activities both online and offline. Kevin Sablan has taken that simple idea and applied it to the news media. He has an idea for a platform that would allow any piece of content to blossom into a real-time curated story powered by social media.

Read more: http://almightylink.ksablan.com/2009/06/lifestreaming-why-not-a-storystreaming-platform/

And here's a link to a rough sketch of Sablan's idea: http://almightylink.ksablan.com/2009/07/first-rough-sketch-of-storystreaming-platform-twitter-first/

A new way of bringing the news to the community

Daniel Bachhuber has come up with an innovative take on bringing news to the community in The Newsroom as a Cafe. He says this concept is about "repositioning the news organization as the information hub for the community."

The idea is part citizen journalism, part Starbucks, part MashupCamp and totally out-of-the-box, which is why I like it so much.

Great example of crowdsourcing

For its coverage of the health care reform legislation in Washington, NPR was putting together Dollar Politics, a series looking at how lobbyists are trying to influence the debate. That's when they began their crowdsourcing project, "Turning the Camera Around." They took a panoramic photo of the audience attending a June 17 Senate hearing and turned to the audience for help in naming the lobbyists.

Poynter.org has a nice interview about it: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=165824

Alltop - Magic City remix?

Much like the popular news aggregator Alltop, The Miami Herald plans to unveil a page that will aggregate content from more than 200 blogs and other media outlets throughout South Florida. The Herald also created a widget that would allow bloggers to embed a feed of all or a portion of the South Florida blogs directly into their own blog.

Read more about it here: http://carlosmiller.com/2009/06/08/check-out-the-miami-heralds-new-blog-aggregator/

Newspaper Web site advertising experiment using Real-Time Ads

Small local advertisers represent a $24 billion market nationwide. MinnPost.com is trying to tap into that market by offering advertisers a short feed on certain parts of their Web site for a modest weekly fee.

It's easy for advertisers, it's cheap and it's not a lot of work for the news organization. Knight Digital Media Center's Michele McLellan asks, "Do you think this model would work for your site? How are you capturing local advertising dollars online?"

Spreading the wealth and keeping it local

South Carolina's Aiken Standard did something a lot of community newspapers have forgotten how to do: mobilize their community. By helping local businesses, they helped themselves to some hard-earned revenue. Read the inspiring story.

Sell more than the news

How often do you write about new products you received a press release about? What about top 10 lists of things your readers must have? Fashion? Home and garden? Movies and books? Why aren't you selling what you're talking about? Bloggers do it all the time.

You can link from your stories to your own online store like The Guardian, or go through a third party as an affiliate, like Amazon Associates.

Sure, it might now be millions of dollars, but something is better than nothing.

Create an elite niche product

Why do people spend $400 on Jimmy Choo shoes? I don't know, but I do know that people will pay big bucks for something they percieve as elite. Have you heard about what they're doing at Worth magazine? They have created a smaller, higher-quality version of the magazine with thicker-stock paper, more photography, and a matte finish and they're mailing it free to carefully selected high-net-worth households (i.e. rich folks who like read about money). They've also decided to be more picky about advertisers, selecting only top performing wealth advisers.

What if you're not rich and want to read Worth? Pick it up for $20 at the newsstand. Will this new approach work? We'll keep our eyes on it.

Get your editorial and marketing teams on the same page.

Do you really know what your readers like to read about? Just ask them. A Chicago Tribune collaboration surveyed "would-be readers" about general news topics and previous story coverage. You could do this in your own market and even get reader opinions on different story angles. This kind of information can be useful in so many ways. Read on: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=162884.

Using Flickr to add value, traffic

(This picture was taken by Rachel Sian.)

Having a Flickr account is good for promoting your community events and company awards, but it can be used in ways you never thought about.

For example: Say you're putting together a theme issue or a special section or a microsite and your budget is nil. Flickr to the rescue. Get free photo of the location you're writing about, the product you're trying to sell or special events you're promoting. Not only that, but if you post the photo on your website (and link back to Flickr) and notify the owner of the photo that you featured them, you get a little traffic from them sending their peeps over to you to check out the photo.

Flickr is a free service, but there are many advantages to upgrading to the "pro", plus it's a cheap $25/year to upgrade. You'll want to search for Creative Commons-licensed content that is available for commercial use.

Read Getting Links and Content From Flickr for some really great ideas on how to use Flickr to your advantage.


For more information on copyright and Creative Commons, check out these links:

Flickr's Creative Commons guidelines
Creative Commons FAQ

Creative Commons + Flickr = 22 Million Sharable Photosby Mark Glaser

Man cannot live by bread alone

Multiple revenue streams, people. I say it again and again. You cannot solely depend on adverting dollars to succeed. You've got to find other ways of supporting real journalism and sometimes that means providing a related service like a tourism guide or a book of lists.

Here's a great idea I came across today: http://newsvideographer.com/2009/02/12/another-interesting-journalistic-service. Use your multimedia journalists to offer a local business a professionally created video or web element. It's added revenue dollars using skilled employees that you already have.

What do you think? Best idea or bad idea? Comment and let us know!

Work your watchdog

The News-Press in Ft. Myers, FL is located in a town that has become the poster child for the current economic state, but that hasn't stop them from making watchdog journalism the foundation of their newsroom. They have begun a new program on their website where the plan to share information with their readers via databases and blogs. Three long-time reporters and 15 citizens will "scrutinize, investigate and hold people accountable". They welcome tips from whistleblowers and hope to make Lee County a better place.

http://www.news-press.com/article/20090208/OPINION/902080374/1015/OPINION

How is your newspaper doing in the area of watchdog journalism? What are you doing to encourage a more transparent and accountable government?

Here's your 90-second pitch

Seattle just held a Startup Weekend, where 47 presentions were given 90 seconds each to pitch their ideas. One idea that might have merit for newspapers? A crowdsourcing site about your city...hosted by the local news outlet. Watch the pitch below.

Taking web innovation in different directions

The best newspaper stories are inspirational. Maybe a profile inspires hope, maybe an investigative piece inspires outrage, maybe a feature inspires goodwill. What if a newspaper story inspired music?

What if the news site encouraged its stories to inspire music? Read more and tell us what you think of this idea: How to promote the local music scene and deliver killer content to your news site.