INNER CIRCLE 2012 GATEHOUSE MEDIA INC. NEWS & INTERACTIVE DIVISION

Transcription

1 INNER CIRCLE 2012 GATEHOUSE MEDIA INC. NEWS & INTERACTIVE DIVISION

2 INTRODUCTION ABOUT INNER CIRCLE 2012 As you may be aware, GateHouse Media has embarked on a major intiative called Project Apple. The basic goals of the initiative are to help the company grow its digital offerings and audiences, as well as stabilize the audience and revenue of the print products. With those goals in mind, we are making some adjustments to the Inner Circle program and launching a variety of new initiatives that are part of Project Apple. The changes will take place beginning Q1 2012, but are being released to you today so you have plenty of time to implement them before we start certifying papers based on the new expectations. The Inner Circle program has had considerable impact on our newsrooms, increasing the amount of web content we're publishing, and introducing new alternative story formats and reader engagement that has made our print products more lively. But we recognize that our audiences and their expectations of how we deliver content to them are changing. The 2012 goals hit at the heart of this by shifting some focus to videos, community blogging, social media and platform-appropriate publishing. We have adjusted the Inner Circle guidelines for 2012 to create realistic expectations so newsrooms can meet the new criteria. As has been the case in the past, we will have regional meetings and on-site trainings that will provide newsrooms detailed, hands-on instruction that will help them meet the new guidelines. There's no doubting the fact that our newsrooms have made considerable progress in the past year. The number of current Inner Circle papers is proof of that. We applaud and thank every newspaper that has made progress with the initiatives. Now, we have to continue to evolve and help our newsrooms meet the growing needs of our readers across all platforms. The 2012 Inner Circle expectations will help us move in that direction. Brad Dennison Vice President, News & Interactive Division David Arkin Executive Director, News & Interactive Division 1

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS I OVERVIEW New Inner Circle initiatives expectations Adjustments to Inner Circle FAQ: New initiatives...7 Key dates... 9 II VIDEO Content Shooting video techniques Editing...17 Zope video analytics Zope how to: videos III COMMUNITY BLOGGING Recruiting community bloggers Working with community bloggers GateHouse News Service's national blog network Community blogs' look and launch How to set up a blog IV FACEBOOK...36 How to get started Promotion How to post V PLATFORM APPROPRIATE PUBLISHING Only in Print Only Online VI RESOURCES Video network house ad Opening, lower-thirds and ending slides templates Facebook house ad Only in Print and Only Online promotions Community blog materials

4 I SECTION I: OVERVIEW 2012 Inner Circle initiatives expectations Adjustments to Inner Circle FAQ: New initiatives Key dates

5 I overview notes: 2012 Inner Circle INITIATIVES GateHouse Media News & Interactive Division is rolling out four new initiatives and expectations starting in Strategy, expectations and how-to material is included in this handbook. video Goal: Produce consistent video that is in line with reporter assignments such as coach Q&A interviews, pets of the week and public service journalism updates. Expectations: 1-2 staff members: 1 video a week 3-5 staff members: 2 videos a week 6-19 staff members: 3 videos a week 19+ staff members: 5 videos a week COMMUNITY BLOGGING Goal: Develop a group of community bloggers who are experts in specific fields in an effort to build a robust network of community voices online. Expectations: 1-2 staff members: 2 community bloggers 3-5 staff: 2 community bloggers 6-19 staff: 3 community bloggers 19+: 6 community bloggers Every blog should be updated twice every seven days. Blogs need to be fed into Zope, not just linked to from your website. social media Goal: Engage daily (Monday through Friday) on your Facebook page, with status updates and community outreach, which will drive traffic to your website. Expectations: Two posts to your Facebook page daily, Monday through Friday. platform-appropriate publishing Goal: Rename the First in Print program Only in Print to make it clear that the content you re promoting will never go online. Also, introduce Only Online, a program that teases in print two online elements every day. Expectations: Only in Print appears daily in print and online, and teases three stories that are only in the print edition. Only Online appears daily in print and teases two online elements. Weekly newspapers need to produce Only in Print and Only Online once a week. 4

6 I 2012 EXPECTATIONS Below is a breakdown of production expectations used when grading newspapers. OVERVIEW Expectations key: Meets Doesn't meet digital evaluation Website updates: Newspapers need to produce unique updates that are relevant to that day, not print content held from the previous day. Some print content can go online, but this doesn't qualify as a "news now" update. 1-2 staff members: 0-1: 2 or more: 3-5 staff members: Fewer than 5: 5 or more: 6-19 staff members: Fewer than 10: 10 or more: Staff of 20 or more: Fewer than 15: 15 or more: Photo galleries: Based on one week 1-2 staff members: 0: 1: 3-5 staff members: 0-1: 2 or more: 6-19 staff members: 0-2: 3 or more: Staff of 20 or more: 0-4 : 5 or more: Social media: Newspapers should post content to their Facebook page Mondays- Fridays. Requirements are the same for all newspapers: 0-1 post per day, Monday-Friday: 2 posts per day, Monday-Friday: Video: Produce consistent video every week. 1-2 staff members: 0 per week: 1 per week: 3-5 staff members: 0-1 per week: 2 per week: 1-2 staff members: 0-1 bloggers: 2 bloggers: 3-5 staff members: 0-1 bloggers: 2 bloggers: 6-19 staff members: 0-2 per week: 3 per week: Staff of 20 or more: 0-4 per week: 5 per week: Community blogging: Every blog should be updated at least twice every seven days. Blogs need to be fed into Zope, not just linked to from your website staff members: 0-2 bloggers: 3 bloggers: Staff of 20 or more: 0-5 bloggers: 6 bloggers: Platform-appropriate publishing: Tease in your newspaper content like blogs and video that are only on the website. Requirements are the same for all newspapers: Tease fewer than one piece of content that's only online in each edition: Tease in print two pieces of content that are only online in each edition: print evaluation Community partner journalism/public service journalism: Newspapers must have weekly anchored positions for community profiles (volunteers, students and coaches of the week) OR for public service journalism formats ("what's your problem" and "what's going on here"). Newspapers have to produce one CPJ or one PSJ a week, not both. Requirements are the same for all newspapers: None: 1: Reader involvement: Newspapers must anchor reader callouts in every edition. Requirements are the same for all newspapers: None: 1: Platform-appropriate publishing: Tease stories in print and online that will only appear in the print product. Requirements are the same for all newspapers: Tease fewer than two stories in each edition and each day online that are print only: Tease three stories in each edition and each day online that are print only: 5

7 I OVERVIEW ADJUSTMENTS TO INNER CIRCLe Are you making adjustments to the expectations for Inner Circle certification for 2012? Yes. There are a few adjustments that will go into effect in Community Partner Journalism & Public Service Journalism For all newspapers: One Community Partner Journalism or Public Service Journalism feature per week. While the expectations have been adjusted, newspapers that are meeting the current expectations are encouraged to continue their good work. Online reader callouts GateHouse News Service in 2012 will be able to syndicate callouts to your websites, and through our user generated content technology, readers will be able to upload the photos to your website without having to the photos. This means in 2012 you will not need to place a callout online, though you could do callouts in addition to the news service callouts. Newspapers will still be expected to publish a print callout each time you publish. This adjustment will go into place on Jan. 1,

8 I OVERVIEW FAQ: NEW INITIATIVES Are these new initiatives part of Inner Circle certification? Yes. The expectations will go in place in first quarter That means the current expectations will be used for the third and fourth quarters of this year. This gives newsrooms time to implement the new expectations. Q&A: Video We don t have video cameras, so how are we supposed to meet the new expectations? Earlier this summer, the News & Interactive Division asked newspapers in a survey how many operational cameras they had that shot video. Nearly 80 newspapers didn t have operational cameras. We ll provide each of those newsrooms with one camera at upcoming regional meetings or in fall site visits. How did you determine if there were enough video cameras for those who already had them? As long as there was one video camera for every six content producers, a newsroom wouldn t receive a new one. What happens if we accidentally damage the camera? If you lose or damage the camera, each newspaper will be responsible for replacing or repairing it. Does Zope accept video? Yes, it accepts many formats. Because of News Distribution Network, every newspaper has a video player on its site today and has the ability to upload video. In early August, we re launching a new video player with a variety of enhancements. Doesn t it take a long time to produce a video? It can. But our strategy is focused around shooting a video once in a staged environment and uploading the video without editing. The strategy also calls for aligning the videos with content reporters already are producing. You previously told us not to focus on video. Why the change? This new strategy will simplify and speed up video production. One of the reasons we shifted our focus from video was the time commitment. However, the emergence of mobile technology has pushed us to make this a priority for our newsrooms. 7

9 I OVERVIEW Q&A: Community blogs How will we do community blogs in Zope? Our top development priority with Zope is developing functionality that will allow your community members to post content headlines, blogs, photos and videos into Zope. We expect that feature to be available sometime this fall. Before that feature arrives, if news organizations want to launch community blogs, they would need to have that resident the copy to an editor, who would paste the copy into a Zope blog. Do newspapers need to be on Zope blogs? Yes. The News & Interactive Division will be working on transitioning all blogs to Zope. Being on Zope blogs will allow your newspaper to better feature blog content, both staff and community blogs, on your website. Also, it s important that centrally we re able to manage staff and community blog content from one content management system. If we want to feature a community blogger who is on WordPress or another blog platform, how will we get that content into Zope? We ve built technology that will easily allow a newspaper to feed the content from a local blog, have it featured in Zope and look like Zope blogs. The News & Interactive Division will work with newspapers that have community bloggers on different platforms to get that content fed into Zope. In August, we ll share information on how a newspaper can take content from a current blogger s site and get it to appear in Zope. How will we get our staff blog content transitioned to Zope? You will use the same process as with community blogs. Once a staff blog is transitioned, though, staff content will be published in Zope, while community bloggers who are already on Word Press or another blog platform will be able to stay there and have their content fed. New community bloggers will be published in Zope. Whether we want to get started today on blogs or when the community blog functionality is released in Zope, how would we get one launched? Instructions on launching blogs are in the community blogs section of this handbook. When the community blog functionality becomes available in Zope, we ll also instructions to all of our newspapers. If you want to launch a blog before then or after the community blogs become available and are having difficulty with the instructions, simply submit a support ticket, and we ll handle the request. Will there be a national community blog network? We ve developed a national blog network of more than 30 bloggers who write on topics such as food, entertainment and fashion, and those blogs will be featured on your website with your local blogs. That platform will be launched in September for papers on Zope blogs or for papers that don t have community blogs. We ll work on a launch process with those newspapers that are on a different platform today. Q&A: Social Media What if we don t currently have a Facebook page? The News & Interactive Division has launched Facebook pages for those that didn t have them, and we ll be in touch with those papers about turning over administrative rights to them so they can populate content by the end of July. 8

10 I OVERVIEW More information Will there be more information about these new initiatives? From August through October, we ll hold regional meetings to discuss the initiatives in detail and hand out video cameras to those who don t have them. A schedule of the meetings is attached to this memo. You also can find the list in our training schedule on GHnewsroom.com. KEY DATES Aug. 11: New Zope video player launches Aug. 15: News & Interactive Division will have reached out to all newspapers on an external blog platform to start discussions of transitioning to Zope. Aug. 15: Central Illinois regional meeting (Springfield, Ill.) Aug. 16: Southern Illinois regional meeting (West Frankfort, Ill.) Aug. 17: Missouri regional meeting (Columbia, Mo.) Aug. 18: Missouri regional meeting (Springfield, Mo.) Aug. 23: New York regional meeting (Syracuse, N.Y.) Aug. 25: New England regional meeting (Needham, Mass.) Sept. 13: Pennsylvania regional meeting (Harrisburg, Pa.) Sept. 15: Delaware regional meeting (Dover, Del.) Sept. 15: Michigan regional meeting (Battlecreek, Mich.) Sept. 15: New community blog form featured on local sites Sept. 20: Community blog network launches for all papers on Zope blogs or those who don t have a blog platform today. Sept. 20: Ohio regional meeting (Canton, Ohio) Sept. 20: Louisiana regional meeting (Alexandria, La.) Sept. 22: Kansas regional meeting (Wichita, Kan.) Week of Oct. 3: Site visits for Minnesota, North Dakota and Colorado papers Week of Oct. 17: Arkansas regional meeting Week of Oct. 31: Site visits for California, Oklahoma, Tennessee papers 9

11 II SECTION II: VIDEO Content Shooting video techniques Editing...17 Zope video analytics Zope how to: videos

12 VIDEO II VIDEO Inner Circle Expectations 1-2 staff members: 1 video per week 3-5 staff members: 2 videos per week 6-19 staff members: 3 videos per week 20+ staff members: 5 videos per week WHY VIDEO? As we continue to evolve in the digital world, we want to explore all of the storytelling opportunities available to us, and video is sometimes the best way to tell a story or to add a layer to a story or package. It conveys immediacy, motion and emotion in a way that no other medium does. The key to managing video as an added layer is to aim for quick-hit, consistent elements. The more you work with video, the more comfortable you will be and the more efficient you ll become. The goal is consistency. You want to ensure that your community members know your website will feature fresh, locally produced video every week. People will look forward to new video offerings, and you ll see more page views and an increase in time on site, which are valuable as we continue to find ways to monetize our websites. We have two approaches to video: the quick-hit video and the higher-level multimedia projects. If you re a small paper, you will want to stick with the quicker-to-produce ideas. But if you have more resources, you will want to add the project videos into the mix. We ll describe ideas and best practices for both levels of video here. When you produce videos that require editing, the process can be timeconsuming. To manage the production time, we encourage papers to rely on staples that require little or no editing. Today, Zope video can appear on mobile devices, and as more newspapers launch on mobile applications, the appetite for video will grow among the audiences we serve. As more Americans use smartphones Morgan Stanley s report projects that more people will access the Internet via mobile than desktop computers by 2013 the audience for video on mobile devices will be huge. At any given time on any day, one in 10 mobile users is watching video, according to Bytemobile s Mobile Minute Metrics report in March The demand is there, and it s growing. GateHouse wants to capitalize on these trends and offer quick, interesting video on our websites. A video committee has been established at the corporate level that includes field advertising executives who are working on monetization plans of the video our newsrooms are expected to create. Before those plans can get off the ground, it s our newsrooms job to start creating the volume we ll need to monetize this effort. CONTENT What makes good video? Studies show people watch about a minute of your video, so keep it short. Look for motion and emotion. Here are topics that make for video that will get some attention: Breaking news: Fires, bad weather and accidents. Events: Festivals, fairs, reunions, school functions, sports. What if we don t have breaking news or events going on in town? Since we need consistency to build an audience, we need to look for other opportunities to keep video flowing on our websites and to allow us to practice and become proficient at producing video. Here are topics that can be used consistently. They will help develop a relationship with your viewers and offer useful information: What the newsroom is working on: This could be a regular Monday video that features the editor discussing upcoming stories to promote the newspaper. Or you can also have reporters discuss news, sports and lifestyles stories. Aim to have three stories for each video at least one news, one sports and one other. If you have one person talking, you can have that person in an 11

13 II VIDEO 12 office or at a desk, but be aware of the noise in the area where you re shooting. If you have multiple people speaking, keep them nearby so you can avoid needing to edit or having the camera follow you somewhere else in the room. You might position the people at one end of the newsroom so the shot shows the newsroom in the background. Or you can have them standing in front of a wall, which isn t as interesting visually but offers more control. What's coming up this weekend: This works perfectly to highlight events going on around town. You can shoot someone on staff who coordinates an events calendar and you can highlight three events. Or you could highlight one recreational event, one sports event and the weather forecast. Another option is to shoot someone in the community who knows about a variety of events. This could be an event coordinator at the parks and recreation district, the chamber of commerce or a college. Again, you can ask the person to discuss three upcoming events. You can shoot at the scene of the set-up for an event to give the video some visual appeal, too, although the quickest video to shoot here is a staff member in the office. Festival coverage: For a quick video, instead of trying to shoot the entire festival or event, zoom in on one story for your video. For example, you can choose someone at a booth to tell that person s story. Tip: Work on your print story and photos first, and save the video for the end. You re bound to come across someone who would be a great focus for a video. Pet of the week: Work with your local animal shelter to shoot a quick video of one of the pets. You ll want to interview someone who can speak about the animal. If possible, have the person hold the animal during the interview so you can capture both the person speaking and the animal without moving the camera or editing. What's happening here: This video works in conjunction with the Public Service Journalism format of the same name. Shoot the scene, preferably with someone explaining it right there so you don t have to edit for a voice over. These can be construction sites, roadwork, a new business going up or a business that is recently closed. You can use an official on site, or you can have someone shoot the reporter who can discuss the information. A minute with. You can rotate these to include any of the people on your list of Community Partner Journalism profiles: newsmakers, coaches, athletes, students, teachers, professors, pastors and more. You can also stick with one of these. For example, during football season, you can rotate among your coaches, or stick with a weekly minute with the head coach of your biggest team. If you choose someone you are profiling in a Community Profile Journalism template, you can ask the three questions you use in the Community Partner Journalism form. The quickest way to shoot this is to ask the person to come to your office for the video. Or, if you do a minute with a newsmaker, you can shoot the video after you interview the person whether that s in an office, on the field after the big game or on location at a business that is about to open, etc. Coach/athlete: You can grab the coach after the game for a quick observation about the game or a look ahead based on something that happened during the game. Sports events: At sports events, be sure to shoot more than just the players. Look for cheerleaders, the drill team, poms and band. Shoot an entire routine or song. Fan of the game: How about a fan of the game interview with someone who s dressed in team colors, has face paint on, etc.? If the person is totally decked out in fan gear, you can ask how they prepare for the game. You can also ask if they are supporting a specific player and details about the player (dad of the running back, etc.). Ask for their favorite cheer, favorite part of the game, what they bring to the game, what they thought of the game, what they think the prospects are for the season, etc. Plays, musicals and concerts: See if you can shoot a bit of a dress rehearsal, which makes an excellent promotion for a theater production or school production in town. Package it with your preview story. Kids band: You have a lot of options here, including marching band, concert band or garage band. Shoot part of a song or an entire song or routine to promote an upcoming show or game. Featured weddings: For big anniversaries shoot video with the couple talking about how they fell in love. Again, you can package the video online with your story. You can add to your anniversary form a box that people could check if they would be willing to be videotaped. Or you can have the clerk who takes the anniversary form ask about video and notify the editor to schedule a time for the couple to come to the office to be videotaped. Sermons: If your pastors rehearse their sermons, you can shoot part of the practice session at the church.

14 VIDEO II Weather this week: If you can find a meteorologist or even someone who loves weather as a hobby, this makes a great weekly video. History this week: Find someone who loves digging through archives or who is your town s official or unofficial historian to offer a few interesting stories about what happened locally during the week many years ago. Golf tips: You can rotate among the pros in your town to do a weekly golf tip that the pro demonstrates as you shoot. Or if you have one you can rely on, you can ask that person to come up with one tip per week. Doctor tips: You can rotate among doctors or choose a general practitioner to do a health tip of the week. You can also think of other health-related tips: nutritionist, trainer, sports medicine specialist, etc. Fashion: You might focus on just one shop owner or rotate and have someone demonstrate how to tie a scarf, use the trendiest colors to create a new look, etc. Autos: You can find a mechanic or rotate among several to offer tips on maintaining your car, getting better gas mileage, etc. How can I ensure that I ll meet expectations? Breaking news will drive the most views, but we all know those news events don t happen every day. To ensure consistency, you ll want to rely on the topics above to give you a steady flow of video. Here s a sample week: MONDAY: What we re working on this week, weather for the week ahead or history this week. TUESDAY: Tip of the week: These could be the golf, fashion, health or auto. WEDNESDAY: Pet of the week, featuring a pet from your local animal shelter. THURSDAY: A minute with FRIDAY: Weekend planner, showcasing what s going on around town this weekend. When would we use the quick-hit video? Quick-hit video will form the basis for your consistent video offerings. You can also use a simple video to post a breaking news video to your site when you ll want something up quickly. How do we do it? For the most part, you will post raw, unedited video. Once you have shot the video, you will upload it in Zope using the Zope video player. You can relate videos to stories or publish to the video player, which is similar to the photo gallery. What will the video look like on our website? Every GateHouse Media newspaper has a video player today. Instructions in this handbook explain how to upload videos into Zope. You can add specific sections for your videos, such as Coach of the Week, once you get enough volume, the exact same way you would create any other section in Zope. If you need assistance with creating new sections, please submit a support ticket. Will local video appear on my homepage? If you don t have a local video widget on your homepage, you can add one. Instructions are included in this section. 13

15 VIDEO II Will there be any GateHouse News Service videos produced as part of this initiative? Yes, starting in August, the news service will offer national videos on topics such as saving money at home, food and kids. MONDAYS: GHNS Shoestring Living columnist Molly Logan Anderson provides frugal-living tips in video form. Learn how to save at home, on the kids, in the kitchen and more. WEDNESDAYS: GHNS food writer Margaret Maples shows you how to make her original recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert offering her tricks and tips along the way. FRIDAYS: Kids can learn to draw characters, animals and other items on a weekly theme with children s book artist Mark Marderosian, of the public television show Drawing With Mark. In fall 2011, more videos will be added to the rotation on the topics of pets, health and fitness, technology, fashion and beauty. SHOOTING VIDEO TECHNIQUES What are best practices for shooting video? Here are basic tips for shooting video. basic strategy 1. Find your story: Before shooting, find the focus or point of your story. Look for these types of videos opportunities: How-to Visual interest Emotional topic/subject Interesting character 2. Length: Keep videos short. Aim for 1 to 2 minutes. 3. Interview: Make sure the source answers the basic questions about the event (who, what, where, when, why). Before you start shooting, let the source know what you ll ask or what you want them to address. Keep the interview conversational but focused to get the answers you need. Let the person know you want him or her to look at you, not the camera. Ask the person to rephrase the question in the answer, so it s a more complete thought. Avoid yes or no questions. Don t coach the person to give a specific answer. shooting your video 1. Audio Pay attention to the sound around you. Keep quiet while the subject is speaking. Use nonverbal cues, such as nodding your head and smiling. Pay attention to background noise, and try to move to a quieter location if possible. Get close to your source. Be aware of your own voice. 14

16 GATEHOUSE MEDIA INNER CIRCLE 2012 II VIDEO 2. Lighting 3. Framing Avoid background light. Remember the rule of thirds for print photographs. Don t put your subject in the middle of the shot. Watch for shadows on faces. Look for front-lighting. Pay attention to what s in the frame of the video to avoid distractions. Avoid darkness. Avoid bright sunlight. Hold the camera steady or use a tripod or something in the environment to steady the camera (this could be a wall, a table or your own body). 4. Different shots: The three basic shots to incorporate in your video reports are the wide shot (or establishing shot); the medium shot and the closeup. For example: Wide shot Medium shot Closeup Most commonly used to establish a scene, good opening shots to establish the scene for a viewer. Commonly used to bring viewers in closer to action. Commonly used to capture emotional scenes and subjects during interviewing and for detail-setting shots. 15

17 VIDEO II edited video If we re interested in producing higher-quality, edited video, can we do so? The decision is yours whether to produce unedited video, edited video or a combination of both to meet the expectations. Because of the time involved in shooting edited, high-quality video, we encourage news organizations that aren t producing weekly video now to go with the quicker, raw video to meet expectations. How do we do it? Edited video is much more involved than raw video. You ll want to organize your video using outlines or storyboards. And you ll need to shoot video differently and incorporate other elements into your video. 1. Length of video: Keep in mind that readers usually don t watch more than a minute of your video. Obviously, you can go longer to develop a video story, but the longer it is, the more you have to justify the length. 2. Create an outline: Whether it is on paper or in your head, just like developing a rough outline with print stories, a simple video shot list and outline can help focus the video and save time in the field and back in the office during editing. For example: If there is a car accident, determine the shots you need before getting to the scene. Establishing shot of accident. Cut to police chief interview (describing the who, what, where, when, how, etc.). Cut to footage of the accident scene over chief s interview. Cut to witness interview Cut to shots of the scene to match the witness interview. 3. Different shots: Be sure to get enough different types of shots. Aim for 50 percent detail or close-up shots, 25 percent medium and 25 percent wide angle. 4. How to shoot: After you interview your sources on film, you ll want to shoot establishing shots, called B-Roll. B-Roll is TV talk for shots that correspond with what the source is saying during a video report. Do your interviews first so you can match your B-Roll to what the person is saying. There are several uses for B-Roll footage. For example, it can be used to bridge two different soundbites you might want to use from one source. B-Roll is most useful for showing your viewers what the interviewee is describing and to keep your piece visually interesting. Examples of B-Roll in an accident story: An establishing shot of the accident scene. Police tape. Broken glass on the road. Emergency crews assisting the injured or directing traffic. Reaction shots of witnesses or onlookers. Shots of your source doing something related to story (assisting injured, directing traffic, etc.) These shots are a good way to introduce interviewees in a video. 5. Audio: You ll want to decide if a source is telling the story or you are going to do a voice-over, in which the reporter tells the story. When you re shooting, make sure the source answers all of the basic questions of the story (who, what, where, when, etc.). 6. Extras: Video stories can be enhanced by using existing content that may be available to you in your archives or through sources in the community. Are there archival video, photos or graphics available? Example: Photos from the car accident that could be used as B-Roll or archival video footage from an accident at the same intersection a month ago. Are there other photos or is there other art available? Example: Do emergency responders or readers have photos from the accident, fire, etc., that you could obtain for the video, crediting the source? 16

18 VIDEO II 7. Logging your videotape: A video log is a transcript of everything on your raw footage videotape or card. Logging is used to organize your raw footage before the editing process to determine the footage you ll want in the final video. Some producers only log what they need, noting the timecodes of the footage they want, in order to go to that footage when importing into the editing program. But for breaking-news video, you may not have time to log your footage at all. In those times, adhere to the shooting recommendations in this guide: When you get to your story, be it breaking news or a planned featured piece, get your interviews first then get the B-Roll footage you need. That way, you will be able to get matching shots of the items discussed in the interview. This will, at the least, let you know you have your sources at the beginning of the tape and your B-Roll footage after the interviews. EDITING Editing is the last step of the production process, whether you are using imovie, Final Cut Express or Pro, Adobe Premiere or some other editing program. Editing is where all the pieces of your video, source footage, B-Roll footage, graphics, voice-over, etc., come together to make your final video report. It is also where you will bring continuity in appearance and style to your paper s videos and among all GateHouse video. 1. Piecing your video together: Lay your source footage down first in your editing program and edit the sound bites to get the story organized. Once you have your source footage down, insert your B-Roll footage over the soundbites, matching those shots with your interviewee s words. 2. Transitions: Editing programs come with numerous transitions (wipes, etc.). But the three transitions you will want to use most often, if not always, are the straight cut, the dissolve and the fade. Note: If you are using a voice-over to narrate your video, that should be written and recorded before the edit process, to match your shots with the story. Cut A cut is an instantaneous change from one shot to the beginning of another. (Effective uses: change scenes, points of view, the most clean transition, feels more urgent and more powerful. Effective for almost all straightforward news pieces. The most seamless transition and most unnoticeable.) Dissolve A dissolve is a gradual transition in which the ongoing shot fades out at the same time/rate as the incoming shot. (Effective uses: to change time or location or both in a story. Or to soften a piece for emotion. Gentler than a cut.) Fade A fade (fade-in or fade-out) is a gradual transition from an image to black (or another color), or vice versa. (Effective uses: a feeling that something has ended or started. Should almost always only be used for closings.) 17

19 VIDEO II 3. Opening, lower-thirds and endings Here are simple guidelines for standardizing your openings, lower-thirds (or title tags) and endings. Openings Openings should include your site URL and the title of the video. Black background /Miller Display Light font / White / 36 to 48 points Lower-thirds Lower-third titles (or title tags) for sources should include your source s name on top line and additional identifying information on second line. Miller Display Light font / White / Black lower-third matte Endings Endings should include your site URL, title of video, GateHouse Media, Inc. tag, and copyright tag. Miller Display Light font / 25 point / White / Black background 18

20 VIDEO II equipment recommendations Editing equipment: 1. Mac-based: imovie (latest edition) / Final Cut Express 2. PC-based: MovieMaker / Premiere Cameras: Nikon D90: $1,300 (includes body and lens). This is a good camera for a staff photographer who needs to shoot front-page photos and video. Canon HV40: $850. This is recommended for higher-end video production. Nikon CoolPix S6100: $199. This is also recommended for basic video shooting and takes photo stills. CONTACT Managers of Content Development Jean Hodges at jhodges@gatehousemedia.com or Sarah Corbitt at scorbitt@gatehousemedia.com. 19

21 II ZOPE VIDEO ANALYTICS Now that the Google Analytics plugin is installed and configured, you ll want to start looking at the data being sent out about your videos. Google Analytics aggregates this data into reports, each of which can help answer some questions about your viewers. VIDEO NOTE Google Analytics generally updates its data once per day, at midnight, but it make take up to 48 hours for event tracking data to first appear. REPORTING Once you have logged into Google Analytics, click on Content, then Event Tracking to get an overview. From the Event Tracking / Overview page, you can click on Categories to see up to three categories of data. Video Plays Seconds Played Percentage Played 20

22 II FAQs VIDEO How many times were each of my videos viewed? How are viewers watching each of my videos? Clicking on Video Plays from the Categories page will bring up a report detailing which videos were started, listed by the URL of the video file. TOTAL EVENTS UNIQUE EVENTS WHAT IT MEANS The total number of times the specified video was started, across all sites. This includes views that occurred after the viewer pressed stop, or completed the video and pressed play again. The total number of unique viewers that viewed the specified video, across all sites. DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION Clicking on any video from Video Plays will give you a site-by-site breakdown of the number of plays of that video on that site. Clicking on any video from Video Plays will give you a site-by-site breakdown of the number of viewers that viewed the video on that site. Note: If viewers are rewatching your videos, the value of Total Events will be greater than the number of Unique Events. 21

23 II VIDEO Which websites are people using to watch my videos? Clicking on Detail Level: Label from the Video Plays category will give you a site-by-site breakdown of the number of plays. TOTAL EVENTS UNIQUE EVENTS WHAT IT MEANS The total number of times your videos were started on the specified site, across all videos. This includes views that occurred after the viewer pressed stop, or completed the video and pressed play again. The total number of unique viewers on the specified site, across all videos. DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION Clicking on any site will give you a videoby-video breakdown of the number of plays of that video on that site. Clicking on any site will give you a videoby-video breakdown of the number of viewers of that video on that site. Note: If viewers are rewatching your videos, the value of Total Events will be greater than the number of Unique Events. Where are my viewers located? What languages do my viewers speak? It is often interesting to see where a video is popular geographically, and to know the language they speak. After drilling down into a specific video, select from Language, Continent, Sub Continent Region, Country/Territory, Region, City from the Dimension drop-down. A report will be displayed outlining where each view of the specified video came from. 22

24 II How much time are viewers spending watching my videos? Clicking on Seconds Played from the Categories page will bring up a report detailing how much time each viewer spent watching your videos, listed by the URL of the video file. VIDEO EVENT VALUE AVG. VALUE WHAT IT MEANS The total number of seconds all viewers spent watching the specified video, across all sites. This includes time spent rewatching a section. The number of seconds the average viewer spent watching the specified video, across all sites. DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION Clicking on any video will give you a site-by-site breakdown of the number of seconds viewers spent watching your video. Clicking on any video will give you a site-by-site breakdown of the number of seconds the average viewer spent watching your video. If viewers are rewatching the video, the average value of Seconds Played will increase. In order to determine which sites are generating the greatest amount of video viewing, simply click on the Detail Level: Label from the Seconds Played category as demonstrated above in the Video Plays section of this user guide. Additionally, you can find information on the language groups and geographic regions that are watching your videos by using the Dimension drop-down, which is also demonstrated in the Video Plays section of this user guide. How much of my videos are viewers watching? Clicking on Percentage Played from the Categories page will bring up a report detailing what percentage of each video the average viewer watched, listed by the URL of the video file. AVG. VALUE WHAT IT MEANS The percentage of the total video content played by the average viewer, across all sites. This does not include sections that were rewatched. DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION Clicking on any video will give you a siteby-site breakdown of the percentage of your video watched by the average viewer. In order to determine which sites are generating the greatest amount of video viewing, simply click on the Detail Level: Label from the Seconds Played category as demonstrated above in the Video Plays section of this user guide. Additionally, you can find information on the language groups and geographic regions that are watching your videos by using the Dimension drop-down, which is also demonstrated in the Video Plays section of this user guide. 23

25 VIDEO II ZOPE HOW TO: VIDEOS Add a video section Under section view, choose Deep Dish: Zope Video. Because you can have channels or sections for your video, be sure to select Deep Dish: Zope Video, for all of those sections. 1. In Zope, go to add and add video. 2. Add title, keywords, byline, copyright. 3. Browse to find your video on your computer and click add to start uploading the video. While your video is uploading, the window needs to remain open until the upload is complete. Add a poster frame You have three options to add a poster frame (the image that will serve as the tease for your video): You can upload an image from your computer. You can add an existing photo as the poster frame if the image already exists in Zope. You can set a poster frame from the video once it is uploaded and transcoded in Zope by using the scrubber to find the image you want to use in the video and clicking on set poster frame. The video player page offers you the opportunity to have sections for your video. When creating sections, select Deep Dish: Zope Video. Click on Save > Publication > Choose your Publication Targets > Click Save Relating a video to a story If you want video to appear that s related to a story, you would relate it through the related content tool, the same way that you relate all other content. You can also paste the embed code in the story (you ll want to click on source before and after pasting the embed code into the story in Zope). 24

26 VIDEO II Setting up video on your homepage 1. Choose your homepage from the section dropdown menu. 2. Navigate to Section slots and choose the home_media type. 3. From the gray bar at the bottom of the page, choose Add widget. 4. Choose home_video_origin from the menu. 5. In Section Tease, choose your video section. 6. Under Number of items, choose Under side-by-side display, choose false to have the widget present in a horizontal line (for 3 widgets or fewer) and true to present the widgets side-by-side (for 4 widgets). 8. Press Add. 25

27 III SECTION III: COMMUNITY BLOGGING Recruiting community bloggers Working with community bloggers National blog network Community blogs' look and launch How to set up a blog

28 III COMMUNITY BLOGGING community blogging Inner Circle Expectations 1-2 staff members: 2 community bloggers 3-5 staff members: 2 community bloggers 6-19 staff members: 3 community bloggers 20+ staff members: 6 community bloggers Blogs should be updated at least twice a week with two new posts, not simply updates on previous posts. Updating older posts is fine, but the expectation is for two new posts each week for each blog. Q&A What is the community bloggers initiative? Our strategy is for newsrooms to partner with existing bloggers within the communities they cover, as well as recruit community members who are not currently blogging to become our community blogging partners. Why are we doing this? We want our websites to become true hubs of the community conversation online. Community bloggers will provide a rich resource of voices and viewpoints that our online readers can use, our newsrooms can draw upon for expanded online coverage of topics and for reverse publishing as well. How do we recruit community bloggers? Post a note on your website, anchored in your carousel, asking folks if they currently have a blog, and inviting them to partner with us. You should post a link to our community blogger form in the story (this will be available Sept. 15 and will be communicated through our newsletter). If you want to start recruiting bloggers before the form is available, post the copy in Example 1 below without the form. Example 1: Are you blogging on WordPress, Blogspot or some other blogging platform? Want to increase your audience and page views? Partner with us here at newspaper.com and see your blog take off! Contact editor John Smith (HYPERLINK "mailto:jsmith@newspaper.com"jsmith@ newspaper.com) and get your work noticed. Or you can fill out this online form. Example 2: Always wanted to blog, but weren t sure how to get started? Let us know, and we ll work with you, training you on all the ins and outs of the blogosphere. GateHouse News Service has designed a graphic you can use in your carousel and for print promotion that could be used with your callout for bloggers. com/features/x /communityblog-house-ads-collateral In September, a blogger application form will be launched for all of our sites and will work very much like the weddings and engagement forms, meaning it will be a global form that will go to an editor s address. It will be a nice way to offer potential community bloggers an opportunity to express interest. The next page shows what will be on the form. Other promotional recommendations: Post a link to the story on Facebook and Twitter. Post the same note in print in every edition in a prominent, consistent spot: page A1 rail, Your News or page 2. Run the promotion for a few weeks, until you have several community bloggers signed up. 27

29 III COMMUNITY BLOGGING Community blogger application form We want to partner with members of our community as local bloggers. If you are interested in becoming one of our community blogging partners, please fill out the form below. We will get back to you as soon as we can. Your name: Your Your phone number: Why do you want to become one of our community blogging partners? What would the topic of your blog be? Are you willing to update your blog at least twice a week with new blog posts? Have you ever blogged before? If you have blogged before, please include a link to your blog here: If you ve never blogged before, please give us a sample blog post on your chosen topic: Tell us a little bit about yourself (where you live, your connection to our community, what you do, why you chose the topic you d like to blog about). Recruiting community bloggers How should I contact established bloggers? Do a search for blogs in your area in Google, on WordPress.com and at Blogspot.com: blogs in Helena, Arkansas or Helena blogs. When you find a local blog, see if it meets these guidelines: Blogs should have good, community or topical content that is updated regularly (at least twice a week). The content should add value and information to your website. If the blog meets these guidelines, reach out to the blogger. Send the blogger an , using the contact information on the blog, and invite them to partner with you. Example: Hello, Helena-West Helena Animal Hospital blogger. We here at the Helena Daily World love your blog, and would like to partner with you on our website. If you partner with us, your blog will have more exposure and more traffic since it will be seen by more people. We would set you up on our blogging platform that will be featured prominently on our website. We think your blog will make a great addition to our coverage of our community, giving our readers added perspective on life in Helena. Please reply back to this or give us a call at You can also fill out the form on this link. Thanks, Editor s Name Paper Website link 28

30 III COMMUNITY BLOGGING How should I contact community members without their own blogs? We have a list of potential bloggers (see below) that we think will work well on our websites. Find people from these groups in your community and call, or approach them in person. When you reach out to these people, tell them you would like to work with them as a community blogging partner because you think they have a valuable perspective to add to your coverage of the community (if they don t represent organizations, such as a master gardener or first-year teacher) or have valuable information to share with the community (if they represent an organization such as a hospital or chamber). What do I do once I have recruited a community blogger? Make sure they understand the need to update their blog at least twice a week with new posts. Make sure they understand that if they don t already have a blog, they will blog on your Zope blogging platform. If they have a blog, make sure they understand that we would feed content from their blog and have the content appear on your website. Also: Provide them with our blogging tip sheet for best blogging practices. You will find the tip sheet in this guide. Set up the community blogger with a blogger account in Zope (we will provide training to local editors on setting up Zope blog accounts). Zope blog accounts provide the blogger with limited access to Zope, allowing them to publish only to the areas the local editor chooses. Local editors will need to create new sections in Zope for each community blogger. Training on setting up new sections in Zope also will be provided. Monitor their blogs on a regular basis to make sure they are updating regularly and the content meets expectations. Provide them with feedback and traffic data for their blog (instructions for finding traffic data for blogs in Google Analytics are at the end of this guide). Zope community blogs are in development. If you wish to launch a community blog prior to the Zope release, the blogger will have to posts for you to copy and paste into Zope. Whether you wait for the community blog functionality to arrive or follow the manual process, you will want to create a blog through Zope for the content. Directions on how to do that are in this guide. What are the community blogging partner guidelines for newsrooms? Do not partner with business blogs that are primarily promoting their business, and, in general, use caution when partnering with controversial opinion or politics blogs. It s not to say that you shouldn t ever run a political or opinion blog, just consider the content and the community perception around running it. We are looking primarily for topical blogs: blogs about parenting, books, movies, music, sports and the like. Who are potential community bloggers? There are many opportunities, and the list varies based on your community. Here are some suggestions: Hospital: The public relations manager can post photos about the latest news from the hospital, along with blog posts about new staff hires, new equipment, blood drives and special events. Chamber: The chamber director or PR person can post photos about chamber events, and posts about corporate sponsorship opportunities, fundraisers, etc. Park district: A public relations manager or a special events manager can blog about upcoming events and post photos after events. If the parks department has a Facebook page, you can encourage them to post that on the blog. Religious leaders: Invite a religious leader to blog about the sermon of the week, and post photos of church groups and activities. Cheerleader moms: Is there a mom whose child is on the high school cheerleading squad who is very active and submits content to your paper about the squad? See if she would be interested in posting updates about the team, photos from games, practices and competitions. Veterans organization: Local veterans organizations are usually eager to get word out about the help they can offer local veterans, as well as to recruit new members. A blog on your website, where they can post news and information about their organization, as well as post photos from events, will help them get the word out. 29

31 III COMMUNITY BLOGGING Arts council: Arts councils offer programs to the public, facilitate funding for artists, hold exhibits and generally promote the arts. The public information officer for your local arts council would be a good community blogger. Agricultural or cooperative extension office: County agricultural or cooperative extension offices offer a wide array of services to the community. Work with the public information officer, who can post updates and photos about programs and events. Therapist: Is there a local marriage or family therapist who would be willing to post an informational blog about marriage or family issues? Parents: Parents often make good bloggers, as they share the ups and downs of parenting. Check out parenting groups or playgroups to find new parents. Also, check with the libraries, parks and recreation departments or your PTA to find parents who could blog about issues related to school-age children. Foodies: Is there someone in your town who is known as an amazing baker or cook, or someone who constantly wins ribbons for pies or barbeque at the county fair? See if they d like to blog about their passion and post photos of their creations or videos with how-to tips for cooking. Gardeners: Gardeners often love to share tips and stories. Check your local gardening club for a gardener or group of gardeners who would like to blog about tips and post photos of their plants. Athletes: Check out local running, skiing, sailing, golfing, tennis or rowing clubs to see if there is a local athlete who would like to blog about his or her sport. See if the sports organization would like its own blog to post news, information and photos about the club. High school organizations, such as band, newspaper: High school band members could be invited to post updates and photos about the band competitions, trips, performances and practices. A staffer at the high school newspaper could be invited to blog about a topic of their choice. Make sure you set clear ground rules for high school blogger topics and monitor the blogs. Local clubs: Local Scouting organizations, 4-Hers and other local clubs are often eager to get the word out about their group how to join and what they do. A community partner blog would be a good way for them to do that. Pet owners: We know pet owners LOVE their pets. See if one or more of your readers who have responded to pet reader callouts would like to blog about their furry (or feathered) friends. Animal shelter workers: The animal shelter director can share information about animals available for adoption, volunteer opportunities and fundraisers. First-year teacher: A new teacher would be a good candidate for a community blog. Work with principals to find someone willing to share observations about his or her first year in the classroom. working with community bloggers Will we have to pay the bloggers? We encourage newsrooms to work with people who simply want exposure for themselves or their organizations those who want to share their news and thoughts on the most relevant local news and information site in their community. Should community bloggers sign a freelancer contract? Yes. In the resources chapter of this handbook is our non-paid freelancer contract. Should we provide guidelines for community bloggers? Yes. Before you set up a community blogger, each would agree to post at least twice a week. The posts will be brief observations on community issues and events, or their topic of interest. As part of this document, a tip sheet for bloggers includes: Frequency of posts: If the blogger drops below two new posts per week for more than one month, you will pull the blog. Length of posts: Remind bloggers to keep posts short, which means under 300 words. Other best practices: Links, specific headlines, photos. Tone and content: You can establish parameters, such as sticking to an agreed topic, to avoid problems such as someone using a blog to campaign for political office. 30

32 III COMMUNITY BLOGGING Make sure you contact the blogger well before pulling the blog. If posting frequency is down one week, make sure the blog is working for that blogger. If post frequency is down a second week, contact the blogger again to say that if posting frequency continues to lag, you will have to shut the blog down. Keep your conversations with the blogger polite and friendly, but let him or her know you are serious. If it happens for a fourth week, pull the blog by submitting a support ticket. Once Zope functionality becomes available, a how-to-post content guide will be built that newspapers can provide community bloggers. Will newsrooms clear the posts? The Zope community blogging technology will not have the ability for an editor to approve the content before it s published. It s not efficient for editors to have to approve blog posts before they go live, so it s important that newspapers pick bloggers who are responsible and who editors feel comfortable with. That s why we ask for sample blog posts before choosing a blogger. How can we avoid problems with our bloggers? The goal is to find trusted bloggers. If someone is already blogging in your community, you can judge for yourself if this is a blog you want on your website. Perhaps someone already writes a column or has been a contributor to your newspaper in another way. What if elected officials want to blog? In some communities, the mayor is a figurehead, appears at events, knows everyone in town and doesn t vote on issues. But if the mayor is elected, political season presents a problem if an established blogger wants to discuss the campaign or use the blog as a campaign tool. The goal is to be fair to all candidates. You might offer all candidates the opportunity to blog during the lead-up to the election to be fair, or you might decide you don t want any political blogging on your website. Again, strive to be fair and to make the decision that would best help your community to be informed at the polls. Gatehouse News Service's national blog network What kind of bloggers will be featured in the GateHouse News Service blog network? GateHouse has compiled a network of national blogs that will be profiled on each of our newspaper s websites, aimed at offering advice and information for readers on such popular topics as entertainment, family, health, food and sports. Newspapers will get all the page traffic for views for the blogs on your site. Our bloggers and topics: ENTERTAINMENT Comic book author and Rockford (Ill.) Register Star movie reviewer Will Pfeifer blogs about movies, comics, Hollywood and more. Author and GateHouse freelance columnist D.A. Kentner interviews some of today s top writers. GateHouse News Service columnist and author Melissa Crawley writes about what s hot on TV. Play GateHouse s weekly Sudoku puzzles, and get tips on becoming a master. Bruce Springsteen fans from Asbury Park and beyond (including GateHouse Wicked Local staffers) blog about The Boss and his music legacy. LIFESTYLE AND CULTURE Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin freelancer Racquelle Nash dishes on fashion, trends and who wore it best. Rockford Register Star senior copy editor Barry Wood writes about grammar and how words and phrases came to be. GateHouse News Service columnist Jeff Vrabel has a humorous take on family, music and culture. 31

33 III COMMUNITY BLOGGING FAMILY Canton (Ohio) Repository reporter Melissa Griffy Seeton writes about working and taking care of her young children. Parenting educator and GateHouse freelance columnist Diana Boggia writes about surviving the parenting struggle. MetroWest (Mass.) Daily News contributor Sai Ghose is a stay-at-home dad who blogs about relationships, fatherhood and more. GateHouse News Service s Shoestring Living columnist Molly Logan Anderson is an at-home mom of three active kids who tries to live as frugally as possible. Nationally syndicated columnist, GateHouse News Service contributor and author Tracy Beckerman is Lost in Suburbia managing the chaos with a healthy dose of humor. Family Time offers advice, kid-friendly movie and book reviews, and other family tidbits, compiled by GateHouse News Service. Augusta (Kan.) Gazette publisher Kent Bush has adopted two sons, one from Ethiopia, and tells of his adventures in adoption and fatherhood. SPORTS NASCAR Week looks at upcoming races, who took home the checkered flag last week, and who s ranked where through the season, compiled by GateHouse News Service. Sports Watch features videos from News Distribution Network on national pro teams. HOME & GARDEN Wicked Local blogger Joe Reppucci writes about dogs and keeping them a healthy part of the family. Home Help offers garden tips, DIY and décor advice, green living tidbits and information for homesellers, compiled by GateHouse News Service. FOOD Food for Thought has entertaining tips, new product reviews, simple recipes and more, compiled by GateHouse News Service. MetroWest s Norman Miller, aka The Beer Nut, reviews brews, offers food pairings and writes about breweries. Author and culinary school teacher Linda Bassett, also a columnist for Wicked Local, provides recipes for and tips on the season s freshest ingredients. HEALTH & FITNESS Health Watch offers information on the latest research and studies, better-health tips, and advice for children s and seniors health, compiled by GateHouse News Service. Get in shape with the Fitness League a dozen personal trainers who offer exercise tips and nutrition advice, from the Springfield (Ill.) State Journal-Register s BeHealthySpringfield.com. Doctors, nurses and other health experts provide information on health and wellness in our Health Experts blog, also from BeHealthySpringfield.com. 32 BUSINESS Eric Bloom of Manager Mechanics, a GateHouse News Service columnist, provides advice for managers in any industry. Biz Bits has consumer tips from the Better Business Bureau, job-search advice and technology news, compiled by GateHouse News Service. Author Stephen Balzac s Business Sensei blog offers ways businesses can increase revenue and attract more clients.

34 III COMMUNITY BLOGGING AUTO Auto Bits has advice on keeping your vehicles in good condition, saving on gas and tips from national auto columnist Junior Damato, compiled by GateHouse News Service. Syndicated auto writer Silvio Calabi reviews the latest cars and trucks. POLITICS GateHouse News Service cartoonist Dave Granlund s blog features his editorial cartoons on politics and current events. Writers for the MetroWest Daily News Opinion pages blog about national politics and issues at Holmes & Co. Pat Cunningham of the Rockford Register Star writes Applesauce, an an unabashedly liberal perspective on national politics. community blogs' look and launch How will community blogs appear on our websites? The design of the individual blogs can be seen on numerous GateHouse websites today, including GHnewsroom. This will be the same design for community blogs. What will the community blog landing page look like? The page will display local blogs prominently, but also feature links to categories, a mix of local staff blogs, community blogs and GateHouse News Service blogs. The goal of the network is to help readers find local blogs, but also find topics of general interest. When will the landing page launch? The blog landing page will launch Sept. 20 for newspapers that are on Zope blogs already or don t have any blogs launched today. Even if a site doesn t have community blogs launched, the platform will launch and will feature the national content until local blogs are launched. Newspapers that are on an external blog platform will have a launch date coordinated with the News & Interactive Division. How can I find stats for blogs in Google Analytics? Go to your Google Analytics account. Click on Content in the left rail. Click on Top Content. Scroll down to the bottom of the listing in the middle of the page to the gray bar that says Filter. Fill in the box next to containing with blogs. Click on Go. This will pull up a listing of the page views and other stats for your blogs. 33

35 III COMMUNITY BLOGGING how to set up a blog Creating the blogs header and about areas: 1. From the Add... dropdown menu in Zope, choose Blog Entry. 2. Enter a title. 3. Upload a photo as related content: This photo will appear in the header. 4. Enter a synopsis. This text will appear below the title in the header 5. Write your blog entry in the body area. This is the text in the About this Blog area 6. Publish to the blog section that you wish for this information to be displayed 7. From the Section drop down choose the blog section that this post had been published to. 8. Click the Content ranking tab 9. Locate the newly created post and rank it as the Featured Story Adding widgets to the right rail of a blog s landing page: 1. From the Choose section. dropdown choose a blog section 2. Locate the blog_section_right slot 3. From the Add Widget menu choose an available widget to add Create a new blog entry: 1. From the Add dropdown menu in Zope, choose Blog Entry. 2. Enter a title. 3. Enter an author s name. 4. Enter a synopsis. 5. Write your blog entry in the body area. 34

36 III COMMUNITY BLOGGING Adding photos to a blog: If you have a single photo that you want to appear at the top of your blog post, you can add it as related content (the way you normally do for a story). Upload photo as related content: 1. Choose Add related from the right side of the page. 2. Choose Add Content in the related content box that appears. 3. From the Add a content item dropdown menu, choose Photo. 4. Choose Add photos. Select the images you would like to add. 5. Once the photo is uploaded, enter a title, caption, image credit and source. 6. Choose relate all. If you have multiple photos that you want to appear at different places in your blog, here s how to do it. Upload inline photo: 1. From the WYSIWYG menu in the body of the post click the furthest icon to the right. 2. From the widgets dropdown menu select inline_images. 3. Click the Select Content button. 4. Enter the title in the Search field and/or press the select button to the right of the image. 5. The image that you have selected will appear in the widget. Select the Add button. Publish the blog entry: 1. Choose Save. 2. Choose Publication from the yellow bar at the top. 3. Choose the appropriate sections you would like the blog to be published to. 4. Click Save. 35

37 IV SECTION IV: FACEBOOK How to get started Promotion Five examples of good Facebook posts

38 IV FACEBOOK FACEBOOK INNER CIRCLE EXPECTATIONS Each newsroom is expected to post two status updates daily on Facebook Mondays-Fridays. INTRODUCTION Facebook s primary purpose for newsrooms is to drive traffic to our websites by encouraging user interaction through links, polls, photo galleries, reader callouts and conversation. Facebook is an indispensable outreach tool that helps newsrooms and journalists connect with the communities they support. Facebook also serves as a way to attract new readers to your site and drive more page views. GateHouse sites get more referrals from Facebook than any other social network. In April 2011, Facebook referred 754,299 visits to GateHouse sites, an increase of 149 percent from April Page views were 2.1 million for April How to get started Should we have pages or profiles? Facebook profiles must represent an individual by name. Facebook pages are created specifically for businesses and are managed by administrators who also must keep personal profiles. As a business, you should have an official business page. If your newspaper is currently using a personal profile, you run the risk of having the profile deleted by Facebook and having to start from scratch to build a fan base. Using a personal profile as a business is a violation of Facebook s terms of use. Facebook pages have grown significantly in the past year in their ability and reach, and they now closely resemble personal profiles in their functionality. If your newspaper is using Facebook as a profile and not a page, we recommend creating a business page as soon as possible. After the page is created, send messages out to all of your current friends asking them to like your new page and informing them that the profile will be deleted. If we don t currently have a page, how do we get started? The News & Interactive Division has created a page for each GateHouse newspaper that isn t using Facebook. To access this page, you must first find your official page using the Facebook search box, then like that page. A News & Interactive staff member will then make you an admin of your page. Admins have the ability to manage all aspects of Facebook pages, including posting stories, creating polls, editing your profile, and responding to any posts on your wall. Anything an admin posts on the newspaper s page shows up with that page s icon, not a personal profile picture. PROMOTION How should we promote our pages? Advertise and link to your Facebook page on your website, signatures and wherever your paper has a Web presence. Run a house ad in your newspaper letting readers know about the page. Consider a promotion in the rail on your newspaper s front page. A house ad promoting your Facebook page is available at this link: x /facebook-house-ad 37

39 IV FACEBOOK Send messages to friends through your personal Facebook profile suggesting they like your newspaper s page. If you use Twitter, ask followers to like you on Facebook, also. Don t be white noise: Post only the most compelling stories that have the best chance of interaction. Don t use an RSS feed. Don t link to the headlines only. Don t post everything you put up on your website, or people will be tempted to unlike you. Use the like button: Use the recommend tools at the top of each story on your website. When you like a story, a link will then appear on your personal Facebook profile wall for your friends to see. To help drive traffic to your site, you can encourage other newsroom staffers to recommend stories to their friends. Be consistently good: If you build it, they will come. Facebook has more than 750 million active users. Many of these users are in your area. If you are a thoughtful and active source of reliable local news on Facebook, you will gain more fans. how to post How many stories should we post? At the very least, post two updates a day. Larger papers should be closer to four a day. When should we post? We recommend posting once in the morning, to hit the early riser Facebook traffic, and once in the evening after 6 p.m. Any extra posts can be spaced out between those two, but keep in mind that afternoon and evening posts seem to get the most traction, with a Facebook high in traffic occurring around 9 p.m. We recommend using free online tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck to time posts to update throughout the day and evening when you might not be available to post. How should we post? Your Facebook posts should be written in a conversational voice that aims to interact with fans and encourage conversation. Always respond to criticism, comments and questions that are posted to your wall, and remember that your fans are potential leads and sources, so be professional. Five examples of good Facebook posts: 1. Link to a story on your website Don t post every news item on your Facebook page; choose the ones that will spark the most conversation. Write engaging one-sentence intros and link to the story on your website. Ask thoughtful questions. Story headline: Smith ousted as city council president Facebook post headline: Yet another shakeup at City Hall. What do you think should be the first thing on the agenda for the new president? 2. Link to a poll Link to a story on your website with a related daily poll. If your poll is only on your homepage, create a story to promote your poll (vote in our poll on Christmas shopping, for example) and add the poll using related content (the same way you had a photo to a story in Zope). You can post the poll in Top Stories or in your highlight area. Then, you can link to the story with the poll attached on Facebook. Facebook post headline: Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? Let us know on our latest poll. 3. Ask for reader content Facebook is the perfect place to fish for reader submissions of stories, pictures, comments and more. Use your Facebook fan base to call for this information and link back to your website. Facebook post headline: Calling all ghouls and goblins, pumpkins and princesses! We re looking for the best Halloween costumes in town. Think you have what it takes? 38

40 IV FACEBOOK 4. Use your fans as sources Ask your Facebook fans questions to help generate sources or ideas for stories you're working on. Look for story ideas, search for sources, and ask for historical information and archive materials or for tips in breaking news situations. Facebook post headline: We re looking for residents who had family survive the big East Coast storm last week. Know anyone? Let us know. 5. Post photo galleries Post two or three photos from a gallery, then link to the gallery on your site with a headline. Facebook post headline: Here are a few of our best shots from last night s state basketball championship, including that amazing buzzer beater. Find more at the link below. TRACKING THE SUCCESS OF YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE Reaction and participation to your questions and callouts is one way to tell how effective your individual posts are. Another is to track referrals from Facebook. In Google Analytics, find the traffic overview on your dashboard and click view report to find your top traffic sources. MORE INFORMATION For updates on uses for pages and tips for journalists using Faceboook, follow these pages: Facebook.com/media Facebook.com/pages GateHouse News Service has a package of house ads you can use in print promote your Facebook page. 39

41 V SECTION V: PLATFORM APPROPRIATE PUBLISHING Only in Print Only Online

42 V PLATFORM APPROPRIATE PUBLISHING PLATFORM APPROPRIATE PUBLISHING What is the strategy? GateHouse Media's platform-appropriate publishing strategy highlights content that readers can only find in print and only online. Because your website is not a laundry list of what s in the day s paper, the print promotion is a way to remind readers of the compelling, in-depth stories and local content the newspaper provides them every day. The Web promotion is a way for newspapers to bring attention to the special features and multimedia content our newspapers produce online. ONLY IN PRINT Is there a brand for the print promotion piece? Locally, you can make that choice. But the corporate-recommended brand is "Only in Print. This brand makes it clear the content will only be in the printed edition and not online. We recommend not using "First in Print" as a brand any longer because of the confusion it creates that the content will eventually go online. To be certified into Inner Circle, we re just looking to make sure you have a brand. A paper won t lose certification if they don t use Only in Print. Should the print content we re promoting never go online? Correct. The goal of the program is to show the print reader the value they're getting by buying or picking up your newspaper. By eventually putting that content on the Web, you're devaluing that experience for the print reader. Also, this kind of content has been proven to be unsuccessful online based on the page traffic it generates. How does the Only in Print program work? Every day (or week, in a weekly newspaper), anchor a list of three stories that are print-only in a rail on your front page, section front or your skybox. You should explain to readers in this promotion that these stories are only in print. Or you could put a logo above the headline of a story that is print only, with an explainer that readers won t find that content online. Every day online, also promote that day s print-only content in your carousel. The promotion should tease to your e-edition, encouraging readers to purchase the service to find the article, or include a link to a page about circulation rates or a phone number to your circulation department. 41

43 V PLATFORM APPROPRIATE PUBLISHING What kinds of stories should I promote as print only? Appropriate stories include but are not limited to long-form feature stories, non-narrative profiles, such as a neighbor of the week, community columns, honor roll lists, submitted community and education news and any type of content we have established as appropriate only for the print edition in the Newsroom Handbook. ONLY ONLINE How does the Only Online program work? Every day in print, you should promote two pieces of content that are only on your website. These promotions could be anchored in your rail, like Only in Print, or they could appear as a promotion in a story that has related online content. The promotion only needs to appear in print. It doesn t need to go online, as it s clear to online readers that the content is online only (such as video or blog content). It also could create some duplication, as we anticipate some of the content will already be posted to a paper s carousel. What kind of content should we promote as Only Online? Many of the new initiatives you will be rolling out are perfect for Only Online, such as video and community blogs. Other ideas include photo galleries, polls, online archives, weather, Radar Frog, Daily Deals, social media and Local Loop. How specific do we need to be in the promotions? Very. Don t do general teasers like check out our videos or upload your photos to Local Loop. Be specific. Check out a video from last weekend s strawberry festival. See photos readers submitted from the July 4th weekend. See what readers on our Facebook page had to say about last night s council meeting. When should we start using these elements? If you decide to change the name of the print-only promotion, you can start immediately. You are encouraged to start Only Online promotions immediately, as well, though expectations won t be part of the Inner Circle certification process until the first quarter of Are there logos we can use? The News & Interactive Division has Only in Print logos and Only Online logos that you can use in print and also for your carousel. Find the logos at logos 42

44 VI SECTION VI: RESOURCES Video network house ad Opening, lower-thirds and ending slides templates Facebook house ad Only in Print and Only Online promotions Community blog materials

45 VI resources RESOURCES Find the complete package of resources to promote the new Inner Circle initiatives at gatehousenewsservice.com/ghns_pages/house_ads/x /inner-circle collateral?page=none. If links don't work, copy and paste the URL into your web browser. Video network house ad Only in Print & Only Online promotions Facebook house ad Run in print to promote all of the new local video that will be on your site. You could also use this to promote the syndicate video that GateHouse News Service will have on your website. housenewsservice. com/features/ x /videonetwork-house-ad If you change from First in Print to Only in Print, use these logos (both in print and online). Also, you ll find the Only Online logo. housenews service.com/ ghns_pages/ house_ads/ Only-in- Print-logos Use to encourage readers to friend your Facebook page. housenewsservice. com/features/ x / Facebook-house-ad Opening, lower-thirds and ending slides Use these recommended slides for videos that have been edited. 44

46 GATEHOUSE MEDIA INNER CIRCLE 2012 VI resources COMMUNITY BLOG MATERIALS Community blog house ads and collateral can all be found at the following address: gatehousenewsservice.com/ghns_pages/house_ads/x /community-blog-houseads-collateral. Find the complete package of resources to promote the new Inner Circle initiatives at If the links don't work, copy and paste the URL into your web browser. Customized community blogger house ad template Once you launch a community blog, use this house ad template to promote a specific local blogger. Independent Journalist Agreement for community bloggers Before a resident starts blogging, you should have them sign this contract. Community blogger tip sheet Once you get community bloggers signed up, provide them the following tip sheet. Community blogging network house ad You will have more than 30 national blogs on your site. This house ad can be used to promote the network. Community blogger graphic Use this in your carousel to get those who might be interested in blogging to contact your newspaper. 45