Futureproofingand evaluation

City UniversityMagazines MA - Online journalism

March 8 2012

Recap of the course

What have we done so far?

1. Social reading

● using Google Reader● using Delicious● using Twitter ● Choosing networks and proposing platforms

2. Defining and serving networks

● Answering questions posed by your community and publishing for them

● Understanding of platforms

3. Content strategy

● How, why and where to contact people in your community

● Using analytics to find stories leads

4. More content strategy

● People● Objectives● Strategy● Technology ● Using all four to build content

5. Multimedia

● Video tools● How web m-media is different● Importance of video and audio, slideshows

6. Mobile journalism

● Reporting from the scene● Using technology to report live● Researching prior to event

7. Data - cleaning and compiling

● Finding datasets, advanced searching● Interrogating data, understanding it● Manipulating the numbers to get news out

8. Data - communicating

● Preparing data to be published● Visualisation techniques

THINK ABOUT STRATEGY

"A plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim." -- What did you do?-- Why? What research did you undertake?

THINK ABOUT MEASUREMENT

-- Readership volume (daily, monthly)-- Social footprint (followers, likes)-- Quality of interactions online and socially -- PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF EVERYTHING n.b. use the right terminology, so unique browsers, not "hits"

Your own evaluation

● Talk us through what you did

● What's the thing you're most proud of?● What could you improve on?

● What are you going to do about it

Social feedback (and indie cereal)

"NME reported a 14% drop year-on-year, to 27,650 sales – a 4.7% decline compared to the previous six months"

ABC, July-December 2011

NME.com - 8 million unique browsers in

February (according to Luke)

Community reporting

Multimedia - reporting with confidence

Networking

@JoshHalliday

"[Twitter] was a way to get into those circles without being too pushy… then I got invited down to London and meet people

which I wouldn’t have otherwise as I don’t have friends or family here

You should market yourself in a way that’s likeable… It’s about talking to people about things that you’re interested in, for me it

was media and technology."

More at http://bit.ly/psmithjosh

Self-promotion

Data in action - telling stories

Don't be a churnalist

"If you're a journalist and you re-write the odd press release and make a few phone calls, then I don't like you. I don't want you in my business." Adam Smallman, Lloyds List head of content, Paywall Strategies 2012 Add value in everything you do, don't follow

the crowd.

Don't stop learning

● http://onlinejournalismblog.com/● http://www.journalism.co.uk/● http://blog.digidave.org/● http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/

How can you keep on learning new skills?