Content Plan For Gazetteonline

Content Plan Prepared For

GazetteOnline.com Thursday, February 12, 2009 Version 1.0

Prepared By

Jason Kristufek [email protected]

Page 1 of 12

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009

Overview The quality, relevance, accessibility, usefulness, uniqueness and trustworthiness of the content on GazetteOnline has never been more vital to increasing and engaging visitors as audiences become more segmented and competition for eyeballs increases. The content on GazetteOnline must act as an enabling mechanism to connect users by topic, geography and the relationships formed by those with like interests, while helping to deliver audiences that are attractive to advertisers. It is important to point out that amount of content and the number sources producing content is extremely decentralized, meaning the significance of sorting, choosing and displaying content could not be more important.

POINTS

OF EMPHASIS

Current trends in usage and research suggests that content should focus on these five key areas: breaking news, live coverage, news and information not found anywhere else, contextual and a category I call experimentation. BREAKING NEWS : This area is the most consumed and most consistently demanded. Content in this area will include weather, traffic, crime and events of timely interest. L IVE COVERAGE: Recent trends suggest this is the fasting growing content area. Live coverage of meetings and sporting events provides significant, timely content from multiple sources. This should be expanded. NEW AND INFORMATION NOT FOUND ANYWHERE ELSE: This is a significant area of demand and has great potential for growth. This will include photo galleries, video, other multimedia, databases, archives, sports, local news, events, culture, knowledge, prom photos and the vast majority of content collected within Gazette Family of Companies that suits a more general news and information audience. CONTEXTUAL: This, too, is an area that offers a great deal of growth and significant value to the user. Providing contextual content experiences increases trust, participation and more content. This will be in the form of links, aggregation, reverse syndication, crowd reports, curation, user-generated items or any from any other source that adds value. EXPERIMENTATION : Out of the bunch, this is the wildcard. This area speaks to the heart of people not knowing what they want until you give it to them. One example of this area could include content from coverage of Little League, which could eventually lead to its own niche. The point being that GazetteOnline has to be open to explore and experiment with many content models to find and discover what works and here is the section that highlights that need.

Page 2 of 12

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009

Goals THE

CONTENT PLAN WILL :

•

Provide content creation guidelines and recommendations

•

Engage stakeholders

•

Identify key themes and areas of concentration

•

Help guide the creation of the site architecture

•

Be a catalyst for metadata and search engine optimization

CONTENT

ON

GAZETTEONLINE

WILL :

•

Be trustworthy, accurate, timely, relevant and contextual in providing the ultimate experience for users

•

Enable conversation, engagement, enlightenment and decision-making of end-users and stakeholders

•

Be categorized and tagged according to topic, geography and affinity

•

Provide answers to questions

•

Be provided by the Information and Content Enterprise, The Gazette print edition, KCRG-TV9, other internal stakeholders, external sources, users, members of connected communities and any other trustworthy source deemed appropriate

•

Focus on breaking news, live coverage and news and information that cannot be found anywhere else

•

Come in a multitude of formats: text, photo, video, audio, database, Tweets, status messages, comments, ratings, lists, links, wikis, text messages, etc.

•

Be usable, accessible, sharable and searchable

•

Be tracked by its elements – the sources, quotes, facts, people, places, events, ideas and opinions

•

Expanded to include information not currently being collected

Page 3 of 12

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009

Success measures THE

CONTENT PLAN WILL SUCCEED IF

•

Content recommendations are accepted

•

Stakeholders are engaged and collaboration efforts are put in place

•

Content themes are identified and accepted

•

Site architecture is proposed

CONTENT

ON

GAZETTEONLINE

WILL BE SUCCESSFUL IF

...

To determine whether the content is helping to achieve GazetteOnline’s content and overall goals data will be gathered and evaluated by analyzing •

Number of visits, unique visitors and page views

•

Amount of user participation

•

Days and time of days of consumption and participation

•

Ongoing feedback and periodic user testing and surveys

•

Amount and variety of sources supplying valued content

•

Amount and variety of new content being published

•

Number of corrections

•

Search engine optimization efforts

Page 4 of 12

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009

Stakeholders There are a number of stakeholders that will need to be engaged if this content plan is to succeed. This is simply a list to identify those that are known.

INTERNAL •

Information and Content Enterprise o Superbloggers, visual journalists, enterprise team, social media advocates, leadership team, data team, archives

•

The Gazette print edition

•

KCRG-TV9 o Videographers, digital producers, reporters, online producers

•

Sales Organization

•

Others in the Product, Planning and Development Group o Product Managers o Product Planners o Others involved in the planning, selected, editing and presenting of content across products

•

IT/Web Development o Web developers, Information architects, Data Analysts

•

Audience Development and Marketing

•

Customer Care

EXTERNAL •

Connected Communities o This includes both known and yet to be discovered users who are part of networked communities that already do have a stake in content on GazetteOnline or who could potentially o Bloggers, community catalysts, subject matter experts

•

Users o Gluttons, diners, sniffers

•

Customers o Advertisers

Page 5 of 12

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009

Audiences In developing the content plan it is important to have some understanding of the audience. A survey was completed in January 2009 that helps provide some details. • • • • • • •

60 percent are female and 40 percent male 64 percent are between the age of 35 and 64 60 percent live in Linn County 55 percent subscribe to the print edition of The Gazette 78.3 percent visit KCRG.com regularly 49 percent don’t belong to a social network A majority have a moderate internet experience level

AUDIENCE SEGMENT 1 – THE GLUTTON Personal characteristics

Female, Linn County resident, 35-49 years old, print subscriber

Computer expertise

moderate

Top audience objectives Top obstacle to site use

- Wants to know why stuck in traffic on way to work - Seeks info of local issues that affect home, family, neighborhood - Likes to consume a little to a lot of everything Site organization, search, contextual all lacking

AUDIENCE SEGMENT 2 – THE DINER Personal characteristics

Male, lives outside DMA, 50-67 y/o, sometimes print subscriber

Computer expertise

Novice to moderate

Top audience objectives Top obstacle to site use

- Wants to know what’s happening where he used to live - E-Edition, obits, local government, sports - Sometimes participate through article comments The right content too difficult to find

AUDIENCE SEGMENT 3 – THE

SNIFFER

Personal characteristics

Male, Eastern Iowa resident, 20-34 year old, non print subscriber

Computer expertise

moderate

Top audience objectives

- Just wants a quick snippet of what’s happening right now - Interested in blog, opinionated content

Top obstacles to site use

Doesn’t see value in most of the content offered

Page 6 of 12

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009

Content Inventory The content inventory is essential to gaining attention, interaction, participation and the generation of additional content. Great strides have been made in the past 18 months but more will be done in the future and is reflected below. It should be noted that it is equally important to select what content not to publish on GazetteOnline as it is to choose what to publish. “Do what you do best and link to the rest.”

CONTENT

AUDIENCE

PRIORITY

UPDATED

Breaking News

All

High

Often

Weather

All

High

Often

Public Safety

All

High

Often

Live coverage

1,2

Moderate

As needed

Obits, E-Edition

1,2

High

Often

Events

1,3

High

Often

Comments, Participation, Social media

All

High

Often

Search

All

High

Often

Topical

All

High

Often

Page 7 of 12

DESCRIPTION Expanded & more sources that includes traffic, weather, crime, jobs, economy. A reflect of what is happening right now that affects the users lives Expanded greatly, opportunity for much collaboration and use of free content feeds, 5-day forecast, radar, easy for users submitted updates Crime maps, cold cases, better use of databases, daily arrest log, live scanner feeds, fires More live sporting event coverage, more meeting event coverage, CoverItLive Expand functionality of both to make the user experience and sharing of these categories easier. Legacy, Technavia as potential partners Provide a list of relevant events, broken out by category, easily searchable, usable and accessible, easy to submit, Helios NewsMixer tools, rating system ability for user to display or not display comments, report abuse function, Facebook Connect, Twitter, Yammer, Flickr Ability to search content by topic, geography, affinity, date and keyword. Updated sitemap Government, politics, religion education, watchdog, general news of interest, explanatory

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009

CONTENT

AUDIENCE

PRIORITY

UPDATED

Sports

All

High

Often

Neighborhoods

1,2

Moderate

Often

Lifestyles

1,2

Moderate

Often

Aggregation

All

High

Often

Business

1,2

Moderate

Often

Vital Statistics

All

High

Often

Opinion

1,2

Moderate

Often

Multimedia

All

High

Often

User submitted

All

High

Often

Syndication

All

Moderate

Often

Archives

1,2

Moderate

Often

Customer Care

All

High

Often

Page 8 of 12

DESCRIPTION Prep, Hawkeyes, minor leagues, more college and a big emphasis on recreation, links to other sources Newsgarden, User-generated, more links, photos, community interest content, focus on Cedar Rapids quadrants Food, entertainment, knowledge, arts, home, beautiful people, personal finance, links to other sources. Puzzles, Milestones Ability to link, provide context to external and other internal sources through aggregation Stocks of local interest, Who’s News, local businesses, business directory, iGuide Databases integrated into the appropriate content areas with a focus on data across multiple topical areas Letters to the Editor, editorials, columnists, bloggers, guest opinions Expanded video selection, slideshows and photo galleries. How-to, short interviews, Prom, New Year’s Eve, young-adult scene, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr More, easily submitted, more value, trusted sources, Newsgarden Expand the amount of RSS feeds, newsletters, text alerts available. Mashable content streams. Feedburner. Links, updates, purchase options. Expand areas of key interests like people, places, events and periods of time. Zemanta Subscriptions, self-submit, reprints, merchandise, press releases, e-commerce

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009

Content Categories TOPICS Watchdog Education Business Health Obits Bloggers E-Edition

BREAKING NEWS Weather Traffic Crime Live Coverage Twitter Road Conditions

PUBLIC SAFETY Fires Crimes Crime map Daily arrest log Criminal charges Cold cases

NEIGHBORHOODS Cedar Rapids NE Cedar Rapids NW Cedar Rapids SE Cedar Rapids SW Iowa City Linn County Johnson County

CULTURE Food Home Arts, Entertainment Events Marriages, Engagements Travel

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE Business Directory Personal finance How to Salaries Bankruptcy Church Directory Census, Building Permits

SPORTS Hawkeyes High School Minor Leagues/Amateur Other college Recreation leagues Iowa football history

OPINION Letters to the editor Editorials Columnists Bloggers

FLOOD RECOVERY Homes Businesses Government Involvement Faces of the Flood Iowa Flood Stories Buyouts

WEATHER Satellite & Radar Current Conditions Sunrise/Sunset tables Watches & Warnings Averages & Records Precipitation gauge River levels Weather in the news Area weather stations Regional live web cams Weather words

ARCHIVES Search Sitemap/Index Tags Categories

CUSTOMER CARE FAQ Policies Press releases RSS Promotions Contact Us About Us Pay a bill Delivery/Subscriptions Technical problems

UTRIBE User-Submitted

TALK Local wiki

VIDEO

Page 9 of 12

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009

Search Engine Optimization KEY

TERMS

• •

PAGE

Cedar rapids gazette Gazette online TITLES AND DESCRIPTIONS

PAGE Home Topics Breaking News Public Safety

(NOT COMPLETE)

TITLE Eastern Iowa Breaking News and Headlines Eastern Iowa Local and Regional News Eastern Iowa Breaking News and Headlines Eastern Iowa Crime and Public Safety Coverage

Sports

Eastern Iowa Sports News, Scores and Stats

Weather

Eastern Iowa Weather, Severe Weather and Forecast Coverage

Obits

Eastern Iowa Obituaries and Death Notices

Neighborhoods

Learn About Neighborhoods in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Eastern Iowa

Business

Eastern Iowa Business and Financial News

Customer Care

Forms, Service, Subscription Help for The Gazette and GazetteOnline.com

Flood Recovery

Eastern Iowa Flood News and Recovery Coverage

Page 10 of 12

DESCRIPTION Eastern Iowa Breaking News and Headlines News stories from eastern Iowa, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City featuring stories, photo galleries and audio/visual clips Breaking News and Information for Eastern Iowa Crime and public safety news and information for Eastern Iowa Sports news and information for eastern Iowa professional, college and high school sports teams including stats, photo galleries, blogs and audio visual clips News, information, watches, warnings and forecasts for Eastern Iowa GazetteOnline features online obituaries for eastern Iowa, including the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City area. Find obituaries printed in the Cedar Rapids Gazette beginning in 2007. News and information for specific geographical regions in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Linn County, Johnson County and Eastern Iowa. Eastern Iowa business and financial news, feature stories, personal finance and Iowa market information Need assistance with your Gazette Account? Find information on subscriptions, pay your bill, report technical or delivery problems and update your account information. The recovery and rebuilding process across Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and eastern Iowa from the floods of 2008

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009

Home Page Prototype

Page 11 of 12

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009

My thoughts VISION

To create a consumer driven online information destination that uses smart tools to engage and inform numerous micro-communities of specific topic, geography and affinity. ACHIEVE

THAT BY

...

•

Rebuilding GazetteOnline using smart open-source tools and technology.

•

Retooling content so that it is easily accessible, usable and trustworthy and acts primarily as an enabler

•

Increase transparency, engagement and participation with internal and external stakeholders to build trust and loyalty. Input and collaboration at all stages.

•

Build the GazetteOnline brand through quality, credibility, voice and perspective.

•

Monetize content by creating rich, targeted audience experiences. Advertising is still a main source of revenue.

•

Recognizing that content, tools and services = attention, participation, interaction, more content

•

“Do what you do best and link to the rest”

•

Engage distributed networks

Page 12 of 12

Jason K

Last revised 4/14/2009