News Now Dec 2008

news now update G A T E H O U S E

THE POST

REPORT

The top 15 most active Wicked Local homepages in New England*

1. BELMONT Posts per day: 9.4 2. SOMERVILLE Posts per day: 8.1 3. SAUGUS Posts per day: 6.8 4. TAUNTON Posts per day: 6.7 5. GEORGETOWN Posts per day: 6.4 6. PLYMOUTH Posts per day: 5.9 7. ARLINGTON Posts per day: 5.9 8. DANVERS Posts per day: 5.7 9. CAMBRIDGE Posts per day: 5.6 10. WINCHESTER Posts per day: 5.5 11. LEXINGTON Posts per day: 5.3 12. EASTON Posts per day: 5.2 13. WATERTOWN Posts per day: 5.2 14. HINGHAM Posts per day: 5.1 15. WELLESLEY Posts per day: 5.0

* SOURCE: Google Reader homepage post survey, 30-day average; single town Wicked Local sites only

M E D I A

N E W

E N G L A N D

DECEMBER 2008

TIP OF THE MONTH: FLIP YOUR FEATURE

Rerank your feature story daily to emphasize a new story/art, keep the homepage fresh and to help draw return visitors. Use news, arts & entertainment and sports in a rotation.

TELLING STORIES IN

NEW FORMATS

NEWS NOW

MOVER

OF THE MONTH

KATHRYN O’BRIEN

Saugus Advertiser • wickedlocal.com/saugus

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Saugus Advertiser editor Kathy O’Brien keeps the Saugus homepage fresh all day, every day. Here, she offers some tips on how she pulls that off:

“As I open each e-mail, I edit the piece, drop the photo, and place it within a string (business, education, social, government etc.) for eventual publication in the newspaper,” Kathy says. “I then Zope it immediately to the Web site, spreading the items out over the week. My goal is to post a couple news stories a day plus an assortment of other items.

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PROFILE FORMAT

PUBLICATION: The MetroWest Daily News EDITOR: Nancy Olesin • DESIGN: Pat Capobianco For this Alternative Story Format, Nancy says she emailed the DJ 14 questions and ended up using five after editing down the questions and answers. The photos were from his agent. “I think this worked well because the topic was light, we had some good photos, and he was pretty open about answering some of the quirky questions I had,” she says. “And his answer to my last question, ‘Is there anything you'd like to add?’ provided me with a good quote for the short story.”

“I'd say 95 percent of my weekly submissions are received electronically. Most people are becoming more comfortable sending photos as well. “At main events, I distribute information cards that give my Web address and also list what can be found on our site. I advertise on my own Web site when I want to promote something. If engagements and weddings are in a lull, I repost the blurb about how to submit them on the homepage. ...” See www.ghnewsroom.com for more tips from Kathy

HAVE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS ABOUT NEWS NOW? Chris Biondi: [email protected] • Sarah Corbitt: [email protected]