The Daily Tar Heel
Serving a diverse audience in an online age
Brian, I modeled the proposal much like Marina’s. As I mention in the proposal, I have some other good stats I hope to include when I get them to further illuminate my discussion of audience. I know we’re going to continue adapting this piece, but I wanted to let you know that some of my research wasn’t done by today. Let me know if you don’t think this is “academic” enough. I could do a more “standard” research piece, but I think this is an idea worth exploring and it would be an interesting experiment in new media writing and other online functions, such as social networking, which we discuss constantly.
Proposal: To leverage dailytarheel.com into an online gathering place for young alumni and current students through a blog and open forum. I will lead a blog and online discussion from the perspective of a young alumnus, interviewing and involving other recent alumni. I’d like to discuss, among other items: how prepared college makes us to enter the “real world” and to live on our own; how our generation is viewed in the workplace (in light of our increasing mobility and ambitiousness); how the IT and online revolutions are changing our work habits and our marketability; how our generation views traditions such as marriage and parenting, as well as other “more traditional” institutions.
For the purposes of this assignment, I’ll create a few posts in addition to the model for this platform.
Audience: The Daily Tar Heel’s audience is unique, in both print and online. In print, it is a mix of students (~60%), university personnel (~25%) and community members (~15%). I have more exact numbers on this, but the person who has them was out of town until Monday. I will update when I have those.
Online, that diversity is even more unique, with alumni and fans making up a large percentage and students less so. Of current registered users on the site, almost 48% categorize themselves as alumni. (More specific numbers to come, once I’ve been able to do a more robust traffic analysis with the online staff.) The newspaper has operated a Web site since 1994, with traffic growing steadily each year. In 2005-06, the site averaged about 400,000 monthly page views, which was in the top 10 for College Publisher-operated Web sites. Traffic drops each year during the summer months, when the newspaper stops its daily production, which impacts the numbers. Still, 350,000/month is about the average for the past two years, which is an all-time best for the Web site. This number is smaller than the University Web site and General Alumni Association Web site, which shows the room for growth if we tap more into that type of audience.
Staff emphasis on the Web site also has grown considerably in the recent years, which has created more of a local audience. Still, the audience online is heavily dominated by alumni, parents, relations and sports fans. Many people visit the site, as well as the University home page, as alumni to “re-connect” with their alma mater. This is why I think a forum like I propose could be so popular.
Purpose of the site
For the general Web site it is to inform on university and area happenings; to spark dialogue on a diversity of subjects, most with a university focus; to illuminate on a variety of subjects through multimedia and multiple platforms.
The site isn’t doing enough to provide interactive opportunities in its current state. The sites offers a few staff-written blogs; there are polls; there is a comment feature on articles. But an externally operated blog and message board-type system would deepen engagement. This, in part, is the focus of my initiative: to create chances for user input and to build and strengthen a young alumni community, which already is a big part of the site readership. With an audience tied by a “Carolina connection,” we really could start an online dialogue on a number of issues. While this proposal is specific to my experience, I think site operators could start any number of similar platforms targeted to different cohorts.
First and foremost, this initiative would be about rallying a group of users with similar experiences to a community forum.
Frequency of publication
This would be a blog, which I hope would be heavy on user engagement and guest contributions. (In fact, it might be a better message board platform, but I’d start it as a blog.) That said, I would expect to create original posts at least three to four times a week.
The competition
The blogosphere is chock full of Web logs dedicated to the types of cultural questions I intend to discuss, but there are not many platforms like these on UNC-centric Web sites, nor on sites with the scope of dailytarheel.com. The General Alumni Association has some discussion groups, but they are clunky and not well-supported. There isn’t a place, right now, for this type of online community.
Generally, though, the General Alumni Association and general University Web site would be the main competition for this type of UNC-centered platform. There are independent blogs maintained by UNC alumni and current students, but they don’t have the marketing power you would get with a dailytarheel.com-like association.
I don’t expect competition to play a large role in this initiative. As I’ll discuss later, in fact, I plan to leverage these other “competitors” as part of the initiative.
Geographical information
Our audience extends beyond geography. Readers come to the site from all over, as Carolina alumni extend the nation and globe. This would be the case for an alumni-focused initiative such as this one. There will be little ethnic or linguistic implications because of these demographics, though there will be some “cultural ones.” This feature will have a “younger” focus, though it won’t be age-restrictive. I expect that most readers would be younger, but if the content is compelling enough, and the operation smooth enough, we will be able to attract readers of all ages.
Challenges
Soliciting user feedback and interaction is always a slippery-slope. It’s about compelling content as much as it is about presentation and functionality. We have to work to make the platform as easy as possible, in terms of enabling user input. I would model the platform after a site like the footnoted business blog, which allows users many options in addition to just adding comments. You can “digg” the article, link it to del.icio.us, syndicate the content. The most recent comments are prominent, as is the categorization. This platform also should have a post submission component, which would allow users to submit their own distinct content, instead of just reacting to existing posts. I’d also like to see us use a platform with Snag-It, or other easy-to-use hyperlink functions, such as on Newser. RSS is a must, but we also could offer a widget to add to customized home-page services like Net Vibes or iGoogle. Social networking functions, such as friends lists a la facebook, and tagging also should be a part of this platform. If we’re to harness a young, Web-savvy audience, our platform should reflect the tools many online users have come to expect.
Then, the challenge is about promotion. Blog traffic has been slow on dailytarheel.com, like any news group that hasn’t ever effectively promoted and used its blogs. Or, really, for any site that hasn’t had true blogs with compelling, personal, exclusive content, which this site would provide. The DTH started its blogs in 2005, with interest and staff input slipping each of the last three years. Capturing an audience begins with the content and presentation, and then it’s about promotion. Viral promotion, in particular, is so important when it comes to blogs. We would want to promote this feature through partnerships with the GAA, or with the University at www.unc.edu. But we’d also want to cross-promote on Technorati and other UNC-type blogs. Then, on the dailytarheel.com it would be about placement. Recent posts should filter onto the home page and into the various sections based on content. As the author, I would need to work with the site operators to maximize this promotion.
FAQs
How can I submit to this platform?
Can I become a regular contributor?
Are there other platforms like these for different generation groups?
What is RSS syndication?
What is social networking?
Who are you? Or: Who are the site operators?
Other sources of information
- Technorati.com
- GAA
- www.unc.edu
- tarheelblue.com (sports message boards)
**There aren’t many competitors to this type of platform, which will make promotion all the more essential. People don’t have this sort of outlet related to their alma mater right now – if we provide one, we have to make them aware of it.
What we know about our audience
The growing field of community journalism is predicated on the idea of building communities and strengthening existing ones. As our culture grows increasingly mobile, especially in the younger generations, this sense of place is essential. That benchmark is increasingly being found online, or in common institutions like one’s alma mater. Also, consider that the tenets of civic journalism are “that people accept information when they own some of it. And they own it, not when it’s spoon-fed, but when they help gather it, discuss it, examine trade-offs and envision solutions,” according to the University of Maryland’s J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism.
This sort of direct buy-in site would engage users in community journalism online, which is finding popularity in many markets across the globe. J-Lab estimates in a special report on citizen media that there are more than 1,000 of these sites in the U.S. alone.
In addition, younger readers are increasingly reliant on mobile technologies and social networking applications such as facebook and MySpace, not to mention flickr and other means of building communities based on common interests or experiences. With something like your alma mater, the ability to build an online network will be even easier. People will respond to an open-input forum on topics they are living and breathing, such as being young and being from Carolina. I would expect this type of platform to be quite popular, if marketed and executed well.
As long as the platform is sound, the focus will be on the content. If you can do that right, the audience will come.
Technical limitations
As the target audience with this initiative is in the early 20s, there shouldn’t be much of a concern with technical limitations. Young graduates of the University of North Carolina should be familiar with social networking platforms and blogging. In fact, the expectations from such an audience will place the onus on us to design the site in a way that offers myriad tools and options. The big issue, as I’ve been indicating, will be promotion: getting the word out, building an audience and then retaining and building that user base through consistently compelling content. As long as the platform and content is solid, and syndication and sharing is easy, it will come down to promotion.
Style Guide
The Associated Press Stylebook
Ryan,
Certainly this project is your sweet spot, combining your experience with your current occupational experiences. I like synergy. I worry a little about it being so completely in your competencies that it doesn’t stretch you, but only a little. Virtually any Web venture takes us down roads we can’t predict, particularly any venture dependent on or serving communities of interest.
That said, I have a few questions to help you. First, what will be in it for young alumni to participate? How will their involvement be incented? Encouraged?
You mention that in your target audience the diversity is “even more unique” online. I didn’t catch what is unique about the audience offline. You mention percentages, but is this breakdown unique? Do you mean unique from general interest sites? Or unique within academia? And how is it yet more unique online?
The issues you mention as driving discussion are good ones. I ask now, when it’s free, if they are enough to sustain activity over time?
In “the competition,” I would think Facebook should appear. I see a great deal of crossover in intent and appeal.
Using DTH blogs as examples, you see you will have to promote effectively and develop better content. I wonder if even those steps would significantly boost DTH blog traffic. Isn’t it possible people just don’t look to a campus paper for that kind of content? IT’s worth asking.
For your FAQs, continue to flesh these out. And I strongly suggest using language regular people use. “Platform” is not one of these words. I can’t get too warm and fuzzy about my “platform” of choice. I dive off one; I launch rockets from one. I relate to communities of interest. If that makes sense.
And a few niggles:
no hyphen in slippery slope
I don’t recommend “harnessing” a young, Web-savvy audience, like horses. Serve them instead.
Carolina alumni extend “throughout” the nation and globe.
Good work here, and I look forward to seeing how it develops.
[...] my responses to questions from my week 8 post: First, what will be in it for young alumni to participate? How will their involvement be incented? [...]