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engagement

Coffee, muffins and community engagement at The Register Citizen

For the citizens of Torrington, Connecticut, the local newsroom of The Register Citizen is as readily accessible as any other coffee shop, offering free Wi-Fi, computers, and open discussion between journalists and readers Monday through Saturday. As we previously reported, Journal Register Co.’s The Register Citizen opened its Newsroom Café in December 2010 as a way to include members of the community in the local journalism process, embracing digital-first policies in accordance with CEO John Paton’s vision for the company.

Readers are invited to sit in on editorial meetings, which are held at 4 pm each day and live-streamed online, as well as contribute story ideas and inform editors of article corrections needed. The newsroom also has a Community Media Lab, which provides workspace for local bloggers, citizen journalists and researchers, as well as offering full access to The Register Citizen archives.

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Gianna Walton's picture

Gianna Walton

Date

2012-04-20 17:23

Rusbridger on Open Journalism at the Guardian

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger answered readers’ questions about open journalism in a live chat on the paper’s website this afternoon, following the paper’s ‘Open Weekend,’ which aimed to put the principle of open journalism fully into practice.

Rusbridger lists the paper’s ten principles of open journalism: essentially it is journalism which embraces information from others and enters into a dialogue with the wider world. 

The issues he addressed in the chat include:

Transparency

Rusbrider said that the paper does already give background data in the form of facts and figures in some cases so that readers can make their own judgments. But “we could, and should, do more, he continued. “I've always been keen on the idea of footnotes. Difficult in print, easier on the web. Ditto links.”

Paywalls and advertising

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Emma Goodman's picture

Emma Goodman

Date

2012-03-26 18:51

Facebook's new pages give brands more flexibility

Facebook has introduced new brand pages that more closely resemble the 'timelines' that have already been available to individuals for some time. An introductory video from the social network's marketing team says "We will be giving you new ways to tell your story and express your page's identity" and promises "better tools to manage the activity on your page and to have conversations with your audience."

One key change is the introduction of a 'cover photo' - a large picture across the top of the page - in addition to the profile picture. Facebook advises that the cover photo should be a unique photo that expresses your page, and forbids placing advertisements or promotions here. It recommends pictures of your product, or of people using your services. The profile picture will continue to be used around Facebook, and the company therefore suggests using a logo.

The new layout also allows brands to highlight content more effectively. They can now 'pin' a post to the top of the timeline stream for up to a week, or 'star' a post to make it wider. 'Milestones' are larger, dated posts that can be used to emphasise important moments in the history of a brand or company, and to create a more thorough timeline, you can change the post date of content so you can go back and fill in gaps. The New York Times has used this to highlight 'select moments' from its 160+ year history such as the 1928 presidential election or the 1977 blackout.

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Emma Goodman's picture

Emma Goodman

Date

2012-02-29 18:58

Trib Nation from the Chicago Tribune invites readers to "talk to us"

Two years ago the Chicago Tribune introduced a new reader engagement programme featuring real life contact with readers through large events and smaller meetings, under the banner of Trib Nation.

 

A recent event saw Wael Ghonim interviewed by the Chicago Tribune's culture critic Julia Keller at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium, in front of 500 people, followed by a reception and book-signing.

Other event series include Chicago Live, a comedy/discussion stage show which is also transmitted by radio, hosted by a well-known journalist, in partnership with The Second City. Chicago Forward presents 'conversations about the future,' moderated by the Tribune's journalists. TribU ('the university of you') events are held regularly at the paper on how to use social media, how to grow your blog, or how to start a successful book club, for example.

The newsroom will produce more than 100 events this year, with two to four happening in a week. Some are hosted at the Tribune, but larger ones are held at venues around the city.

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Emma Goodman's picture

Emma Goodman

Date

2012-02-13 15:51

Digging into the comments streams

Engage. Listen to your readers. Build a community.

All good advice coming in newspapers' direction. But when it comes to responding to comments on their websites, disappointingly few are putting it into practice.

The Washington Post is one of the exceptions. Nieman Lab recently reported that the paper is encouraging its reporters to take part in the conversation on its website. In addition to the six people dedicated to comments full-time, over 40 reporters have contributed to the comment threads over recent weeks, Joe DeNunzio, the Post's interactivity editor, wrote in a blog post.

"The interactivity team here started taking a more active approach to getting reporters into the comments late last year because we were pretty sure it could help the comment threads - and the journalism," DeNunzio told Nieman. Based on the evidence so far, it appears that this is exactly what has happened.

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Teemu Henriksson's picture

Teemu Henriksson

Date

2012-02-10 16:55

The Guardian continues to open up with Newsdesk live

by Hannah Vinter

"So... What are you working on?"

Now some Guardian journalists are prepared to give us the answer to that question, as yesterday the paper unrolled Newsdesk live, a blog that promises to "bring you the news as we break it, explain how we choose what we report and why - and ask you to get involved."

This new blog from The Guardian's national news team puts the audience at the heart of the news-writing process, asking them to get in touch via comments, emails or Tweets to provide editors with ideas and information to help create stories.

The blog builds on The Guardian's Open Newslist, launched last October, which published a selection of the stories that journalists were working on, and allowed readers to Tweet at those journalists in real time.

For more on this story please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com

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Federica Cherubini's picture

Federica Cherubini

Date

2012-02-01 16:37

The Winnipeg Free Press's new news café

Who doesn't like to read the morning paper over a cup of coffee? Well, in Winnipeg, Canada, you can do just that whilst sitting in the newspaper's very own café.

The Winnipeg Free Press, which has a Monday- Friday circulation of 115,827, has set up a café in downtown Winnipeg where members of the public can drop in to grab a sandwich and maybe a quick chat with the paper's multimedia reporter and multimedia editor.

The two journalists, Tania Kohut and Tyler Walsh, have permanent desks in the café, positioned in amongst the TV monitors on the wall and plates of what is, by all accounts, delicious food. Though the working environment is unusual, it is all done in the name of community engagement.

So much is done via social media to encourage feedback and interaction with readers, but for local publications, having an established, physical presence within the community can be a huge asset. You only have to look at the community feedback to see how much the people of Winnipeg seem to love the project.

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Author

Katherine Travers

Date

2011-09-02 13:12

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Editors Weblog

The World Editors Forum is the organization within the World Association of Newspapers devoted to newspaper editors worldwide. The Editors Weblog (www.editorsweblog.org), launched in January 2004, is a WEF initiative designed to facilitate the diffusion of information relevant to newspapers and their editors.

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