Digiwatchdog » Entries tagged with "St. Louis Beacon"
Chicago News Cooperative digitally retools a classic fundraising approach
If there’s one thing we’ve established looking at evolving non-profit investigative news models online this year, it’s that digital platforms necessitate a completely new perspective on business and publishing strategies. Some roles, such as investigative reporting and fundraising, still depend on tried and true core instincts, though. In regards to the latter, we noticed the Chicago News Cooperative doing something innovative that harkens back to a tried and true print tradition of publishing supporters’ names. The … Read entire article »
Filed under: Media business
You Have to Give a Little to Get a Little: How to show supporters you care
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been blogging more and more frequently about our work for the Chicago Reporter. We’ve covered how we’re approaching logo redesign, attracting foundation support, SEO best practices and a new social media plan. (And don’t forget to check out our white paper on what’s working for watchdog news organizations). This week I will expand on the article about attracting foundation money by explaining our approach to attracting another important supporter: the reader. For news organization, a key component to sustainability is the increasing need to corral smaller donations. But how do you do it? Of course, there’s no single answer, but here are a couple of suggestions based on the research we’ve done so far: (1) Language plays a huge role. The language you use to attract individuals will, in many instances, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Sustainability
Blog or not? The Digiwatchdog team works on naming the Reporter’s “Radar”
How do you differentiate between blog entries and regular news articles? That’s a question we’ve been pondering as we go about redesigning The Chicago Reporter’s website. Since blog entries, which often contain opinionated commentary, are very different beasts from objectively reported stories, it’s imperative that website visitors realize exactly what they are reading and what to expect when they click on a link to content on the site. We’ve come up with a simple way to differentiate blog content from regular stories: a distinctive name/logo. This logo will appear anywhere the blog feed is featured on the site, as well as in conjunction with individual blog entries. Still, there was some debate about what that name should be. Should we include the word “blog” in the name to make it absolutely … Read entire article »
Filed under: Web development
A good reputation goes a long way: Attracting and keeping readers with quality content
At the Street Fight Summit this week in New York, GoLocal co-founder Josh Fenton explained how his local digital media start-up took off and made itself stand out from the crowd: quality content, social media and breaking news. GoLocal, which got its start in Providence last year, aims to produce better news stories in less time and for less money than newspapers, according to Fenton. Although The Chicago Reporter, with its focus on thoroughly analyzed stories, probably wouldn’t go in for Fenton’s fast news philosophy, building a reputation based on quality content is definitely a concept that could carry over. Thoughtful and accurate articles seem to attract readers and keep them coming back. It doesn’t hurt when it comes to getting donations either, as I learned from my industry research interview with … Read entire article »
Filed under: Audience Engagement
The St. Louis Beacon publishes online but connects with readers offline
For local non-profit news organizations, figuring out how to capture and keep an audience of interested readers can prove challenging. The Digiwatchdog team conducted some research in the past couple of weeks to figure out ways that the Chicago Reporter can attract more readers. One source for ideas is the St. Louis Beacon, an online-only publication that aims to give readers news that matters and a place to thoughtfully discuss it, according to the site’s mission … Read entire article »
Filed under: Audience Engagement, Watchdog profile