Technologies, techniques and strategies for hyperlocal news coverage

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Technologies, techniques and strategies for
hyper-local news coverage

• Knight Digital Media Center
• April 18, 2008

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The changing face of Bakersfield

• Huge oil, ag, prison military economies
• Amid massive population growth still has
  small-town feel
• Growing diversity
• Lots of newcomers, many with zero ties to the
  community
• Democrats held majority 20 years ago today, its
  GOP

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Embracing the niches

• In about a decade, The Californian has evolved
  from a single daily newspaper to include
• Tehachapi News (weekly newspaper)
• Northwest Voice and Southwest Voice, two biweekly
  web-first neighborhood newspapers
• Bakotopia, a biweekly alternative magazine
• Bakersfield Life, a monthly lifestyle magazine
• Mas, a weekly Hispanic magazine
• Kern Business, a monthly magazine
• Five phone books serving outlying communities
• 9 local websites
• and more to come

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So, why the dramatic change?

• We knew we needed to diversify our companys
  mission quickly because
• We have a tough market for a traditional paper
  our daily reach was eroding (BUT no time to
  read is a BS excuse from customers!)
• The digital revolution has changed the rules
• Classifieds and other advertising is threatened
  by nimble competitors

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Building marketshare

• Our mission today is not focused on propping up
  the daily core newspaper but on increasing our
  marketshare through a wide variety of products
• We see a future in products that reach niche
  audiences AND smaller advertisers who need
  affordable advertising options
• In some cases, our products compete against one
  another
• In some ways, our future is in what Chris
  Anderson calls The Long Tail.

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At the core of that mission

• ... is a belief that we must open up our products
  to our readers, and share our tools and platforms
  and audiences.
• If were to succeed against existing competition
  and nimble newcomers, we need our customers to
  feel like our products are their products.
• This is where contributed content enters the
  picture in a big way.

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Adopting a new mindset

• In order to improve our local coverage and truly
  serve our market, we had to acknowledge
• Our readers are as smart as we are
• Our readers are well-connected
• Our coverage often was boring and stale
• We should listen to our readers, not lecture
• We shouldnt be chained to tradition
• We should be more transparent in our decisions
• We must share our publishing tools and space

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The benefits of hyperlocal

• Stickiness -- community content is the
  fastest-growing part of our sites
• Diverse, often lively stories about real people
  by real people
• Community contributions often fill holes in staff
  coverage
• Viral marketing of content
• Goodwill, sense of ownership in your products
• Diversity of revenue and profits

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So is it working?

• Survey says
• Our niche products are now read by 40 of our
  local market.
• The Californians market reach has fallen to 71
• But when you do the math the total market reach
  of our products (Californian plus niche products
  minus overlap) 78 percent.

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Building community and hyperlocal content
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How we started transforming

• Consistent message from top executives
• Companywide business literacy
• Readers kept telling us they loved this new
  stuff
• Launched satellite products separate from the
  newsroom so we werent chained to tradition
• Devote at least 1 percent of our revenue to new
  product development.
• Created our own social-networking and publishing
  platform

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The Voices

• Northwest Voice and Southwest Voice
• Serve fast-growing areas filled with
  time-starved readers
• Narrowly focused neighborhood news
• One editor at each 95 percent of content is
  reader generated
• Nearly everything is published online the best
  is reprinted in the print version\
• Free, with a mix of mail, home and rack delivery
• Ad base is small businesses

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Californian newsroom reaction

• Northwest Voice was created outside the core
  because there was a fear that if we did it, the
  result would be traditional, lifeless and
  hampered with traditional workflows
• Our newsroom was skeptical -- until it got
  scooped on a major story. Then we created a NW
  beat
• Even today, our products compete against one
  another, although theres little competition for
  enterprise or investigative reporting
• Were more comfortable with contributed content,
  but buy-in isnt universal

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Newroom buy-in

• Getting scooped countered some initial skepticism
• We learned that CJ could fill voids in our
  coverage that we didnt feel warranted a FT beat
• We hired a contributions editor to coordinate
  outreach, manage submissions
• Readers responded warmly to reader submissions,
  particularly in coordinated packages
• Reporters no longer fear theyre going to be
  replaced by citizen journalists
• We havent had issues with major errors, ethical
  lapses, libel, etc.

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Community content in the mainsheet

• Stuff that works well local history, travel,
  first person pieces
• Contributed stories, including top of A1 (Wheres
  George Lynch?)
• More topical special packages built around
  contributed content
• Daily reader column on editorial pages
• Expanded letters to the editor
• Blog scrapes on hot topics gives coverage
  added dimension
• Publishing community content in print
  confirmation of quality and commitment to readers

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Home-grown publishing platform

• Bakomatic allows us to create niche sites that
  are marketed to different audiences, but are all
  on the same database.
• Social networking and interactivity are at the
  core of product development
• Scalable (now runs all or part of 10 local sites)
  
• Ongoing development, steady schedule of new
  features
• Licensing to other sites (Arizona Republic,
  Sacramento Bee, Pioneer Newspapers)

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The lessons of Bakotopia.com

• Bakotopia was created several years ago to
  compete against Craigslist
• Readers turned it into something else and were
  OK with it
• Blogs, profiles, photo galleries, unique stories,
  streaming local music
• A print biweekly just celebrated its first
  anniversary contains the best of the web
• Web version didnt draw advertising but the print
  version did

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Más

• Concept Más, a free weekly magazine in English
  focused on Latino style, culture and community.
• Replaced a traditional bilingual weekly
  newspaper
• Mas launched in September 2005 as an independent
  brand, with 20,000 copies home delivered and
  5,000 in racks.

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Bakomatic now powers

• Bakotopia
• Northwest Voice
• Southwest Voice
• Tehachapi News
• Mas
• New to Bakersfield
• Bakersfield Life
• CIE Bakersfield
• The Californian
• intranet
• and part of bakersfield.com

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Embracing interactivity

• When readers can share in the ownership of
  content, theyre building a powerful
  psychological tether to your product.

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Blogging

• More than 1,100 community blogs
• More than 50 staff blogs (not just news)
• Most news is broken in our beat blogs
• Topical blogs (barbecuing, living green
  lifestyles)
• Bakosphere spotlight on competing media
• Some content scraped for print

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Social networking through Bakomatic

• Fastest growing source of traffic on our sites
• More than 22,000 unique personal profiles across
  our network of 10 sites
• Each profile features a guestbook, favorite
  links, personal interests
• Friend lists
• Staff and community blogs
• Contributors tag content with keywords (more
  than 3,259 different interests)
• Photo galleries

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Interactive Business Directory

• Reader reviews and ratings, all tied into social
  networking
• Trusted reviewers
• Reviews reprinted in newspaper
• Platform allows businesses to interact with
  readers, advertise at low cost
• Long Tail of advertising, with base of 15,000
  local businesses

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Layering in interactivity

• We asked readers to plot potholes
• Added ability to ping local government
• Voila! Some got fixed.

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Some maps have legs
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Mapping

• Great way to get hyperlocal
• More than 50 standing maps on a wide variety of
  topics
• More and more are interactive and tap into
  peoples passions
• Weve used three vendors (ZeeMaps, QuikMaps,
  Atlas)
• Started slow, then layered in some complexity

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Have some fun!

• Weird stuff has wide appeal
• Earning a smile is priceless
• stickiness

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Tools for community art
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Snap!

• Community photos of real people
• Focus is on happy events
• Freelance photographers hand out cards directing
  people to see Snap! galleries on bakersfield.com

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Whats next?
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Raising Bakersfield

• Web site will target young parents
• Site centered around building an online community
• Quarterly print magazine
• Strong events marketing tied to product brand
• Inexpensive but targeted and value-added
  advertising

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Content interest groups

• Interest Groups will take hyperlocal to a new
  depth and power
• Tagging and category structure will pull content
  throughout our Bakomatic network to into specific
  topic categories
• Were creating the high-level taxonomy but
  readers will dictate the subcategories
• As they tag their content with keywords, theyll
  be contributing to dynamically created verticals
  built around topics of interest
• Will allow us to deliver personalized advertising

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Whats next?

• Personalization engine
• Facebook-style tools
• Greater integration of community feedback into
  daily coverage
• Lots of mobile photos
• Contributed video
• Expanded geotagging

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What we learned

• Check your egos at the door develop a thick skin
• Dont overthink everything. Just try something
• Dont be afraid to go low-fi at first (in an era
  of YouTube, sophistication isnt always required)
  
• Celebrate failure, particularly when you have to
  pull the plug on a product.
• Redefine whats news respect the media thats
  being produced in your backyard
• Link to your new competition especially if they
  scoop you

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What we learned

• Building a strong community costs money. Invest
  in staff and treat the investment as you would
  the price of a top-notch journalist.
• Tell new hires youre hiring journalists -- not
  specialists chained to one beat -- and that their
  jobs will constantly evolve.
• Embrace the early adopters, give them room to
  roam.
• Recognize that stubborness to change often is
  anxiousness about change. Most people want to do
  the right thing.

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What we learned

• Dont underestimate your markets tolerance to
  push the envelope.
• Case in point Our 2006 print redesign disturbed
  some staffers and offended design purists
  worldwide.
• Our readers? 3 months after the new design, they
  told us, Dont you dare go back to that boring
  old design.

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Dont let workflows strangle you
You must understand your companys process flows
and legacy systems if you expect to get
anywhere in a 24-7 digital age where the target
moves daily
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Unanswered questions

• Large-scale revenue models are uncertain
• Advertising is still too expensive for many
  businesses how can we lower the cost of sale?
• Should we pay for reader contributions? If so,
  whats the model?
• Just how many community contributors are there?
• Delivery has been challenging
• How many new products can we handle?

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Thank you!

• Logan Molen
• Vice president / Interactive Media
• The Bakersfield Californian
• lmolen_at_bakersfield.com