APME GREAT IDEAS 2017
GREAT
IDEAS
PRESENTED BY: Associated Press Media Editors OUR VISION We foster newsroom leaders. We empower journalists to succeed. We cultivate ideas that work. OUR MEMBERS The Associated Press Media Editors is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization of newsroom leaders and journalism educators that works closely with The Associated Press to promote journalism excellence. Anyone with senior responsibilities in an AP-affiliated organization, and any journalism educator or student media leader, is invited to join. OUR MISSION APME advances the principles and practices of responsible journalism. We support and mentor a diverse network of current and emerging newsroom leaders. We champion the First Amendment and promote freedom of information. We train journalists to realize their aspirations and thrive in a rapidly changing environment. We promote forward-looking ideas that benefit news organizations and the communities they serve. We work closely with the Associated Press, the largest independent media operation in the world.
APME GREAT IDEAS 2017 SPONSORED BY: YWCA USA
APME members: YWCA USA salutes your great ideas. In 2017, it is more important than ever for journalists to report on the nation’s history of race and gender oppression. YWCA has been in the forefront of the most pressing social movements for over 150 years - from voting rights to civil rights, from affordable housing to pay equity, from violence prevention to health care reform. Today, we combine programming and advocacy in order to generate institutional change in three key areas: racial justice and civil rights, empowerment and economic advancement, and health and safety of women and girls. YWCA is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. www.ywca.org
MUSIC WEDNESDAYS
Chattanooga Times Free Press / Chattanooga, Tenn.
T
he Chattanooga Times Free Press launched “Music Wednesdays” in August 2016 to tap into the growing local music scene in our city through the newly introduced Facebook Live platform. At first, we wanted to see whether 30 to 45 minutes of music and conversation during the city’s lunch break would make an impact on the newspaper’s readership.
More than 30 shows later, the popular weekly performance has grown to encompass genres ranging from opera to bluegrass and has expanded the newspaper’s profile among younger demographics and non-readers. We have broadcast live from our newspaper; on location from performance venues across the city; and once from a popular pedestrian bridge. We also did an extended Christmas version of “Music Wednesdays,” which featured multiple musicians and collected peanut butter for the Chattanooga Food Bank. “Music Wednesdays” also have introduced musicians to a broader audience, and we are now being approached on a regular basis by musicians asking to be a part of the show. The broadcasts also have raised the profile our entertainment reporter and our news broadcaster, who host “Music Wednesdays.” Full disclosure: We were inspired to created “Music Wednesdays” after seeing a “Great Ideas” about “Windows on the World” by the Columbus Dispatch. — Alison Gerber
GOING TO THE DOGS
The Daily Astorian / Astoria, Oregon
I
n the second year of our salute to National Dog Day, we doubled the reader photos and nearly quintupled the revenue on this alldog photo section. It grew from five broadsheet pages to 24 tab pages, fully sponsored and very loved in the community.
This one is a keeper. Rules were simple: Dog’s name, age and breed, peoples’ names and town and contact info. If you played last year, we need a different photo. — Laura Sellers
ROUNDTABLE FOLLOW-UPS
Boston Herald / Boston, Massachusetts
F
ollowing up special reports on important issues with roundtable discussions of next steps in dealing with problems raised has been a very effective way to push our coverage ahead while engaging the communities we serve.
A report on opioid abuse fueling sex trafficking was followed by a livestreamed roundtable at the newspaper, led by the attorney general and featuring advocates, police and survivors. Recently, the mayor moderated a similar panel on teen homelessness after our special report. These events are fully covered on all our platforms - print, radio, video, digital. Too often, important coverage fades away after the day of publication. This new roundtable protocol keeps the conversation going - and the Herald’s continuing reporting front and center in the quest to find solutions. — Joe Sciacca
FACEBOOK LIVE WITHOUT THE CELL PHONE
The Providence Journal / Providence, RHODE ISLAND
U
sing OBS Studio (free, open-source), we can capture a video feed and stream it onto Facebook Live via desktop. This allows us to pick up highly produced video content from television partners and public access, with their permission, and share it directly with our audience.
This accomplishes three major goals in a single broadcast: We’re able to expose our audience to major breaking events live, engage with Facebook Live, and offer viewers higher quality live video than would otherwise be available. Hat tip: We were introduced to OBS Studios by Matt Karolian at The Boston Globe. — Whitman Littlefield
FACES OF THE REGION
The Times of Northwest Indiana / Munster, Indiana
A
fter the success of the Facebook page Humans of New York, we decided to launch a local version called Faces of the Region. We created a Facebook page that took off — nwi.com/ facesoftheregion — that has photos and quotes from everyday Northwest Indiana people.
Then we expanded further and started Faces of the Region galleries, where we took large galleries of people mugging for the camera at events. It has added millions of pageviews to our site. — Summer Moore
2016 ELECTION ENDORSEMENTS The Daily Astorian / Astoria, Oregon
R
ather than sprinkle out our local, state and national endorsements, we took over our Friday Weekend Break section and promoted it heavily in print and digital. The feedback was good as our area voters in Oregon vote by mail and appreciated the early timing and the one-stop approach. — Laura Sellers
SIMPLE STARTUP FOR CREATING PODCASTS Journal Star / Peoria, Illinois
M
obile is our fastest-growing audience; 65 percent of our digital audience is mobile, up from 40 percent 18 months ago. And there isn’t a more mobile medium than podcasts, which let you interact with the audience on their terms, while they eat breakfast, work out or commute.
We launched our podcast operation - podcasts.pjstar.com - in spring 2016. It was a relatively inexpensive: $400 for a mixer, four microphones, headphones and a headphone distributor. It helped to have people in the newsroom who are enthusiastic about the medium. In the past year, we’ve created 130 episodes, a little over two per week. Between our podcast app and our website, we’ve had 40,000 downloads. About 20 percent of the downloads are on the app. We also have a regular sponsor -- a local plumbing company. It’s not a lot of money, but the podcasts bring value to our newspaper brand, lending our reporters’ and editors’ voice, experience and engagement with a non-traditional newspaper reader. It doesn’t require much time to record or produce the podcasts. There’s little editing involved, other than adding the sponsor’s ad. In many cases, these are conversations that are happening in the newsroom anyway, we just happen to record them. — Adam Gerik
GIVING THEM THE TIME OF DAY Quad-City Times / Davenport, Iowa
W
e’ve learned that our digital readers respond well to two things: Content that’s predictable, allowing them to form a habit around it; and content that’s associated with a person or personality.
Realizing this, we developed a series of digital touch points throughout the day – Rick’s Six, Jack’s Notes @ Noon, Ryan’s Wrap-Up. Readers start the day with a 6 a.m. push alert on their phone for Rick’s Six. It’s a conversational write-up with images and occasional video by morning online editor Rick Rector looking at six things readers need to know on their way to work – traffic conditions and road closures, weather, a quick look at the stories people at work might want to talk about. At noon, they get another push alert with a story from our Sense of Place reporter Jack Cullen. Jack searches the streets of the Quad-Cities for the off-beat, the obscure, the curious and the culturally embedded. He writes these slice of life stories each morning and has them online for our audience each day at noon. Feedback has been tremendous and these stories are often our most popular offering of the day. Jack’s Notes also publish as a column the following day in print. At 5 p.m., readers get a push alert from digital editor Ryan Jaster called “Ryan’s Wrap-Up.” It’s a conversational look at what readers enjoyed and how they responded to the news of the day on our website. It’s a great way for the evening crowd to catch up on news they missed while they were at work. — Autumn Phillips
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS / NEWS LITERACY
The Times of Northwest Indiana / Munster, Indiana
W
e have been plugging digital subscriptions with every story. Here’s the text: “Reporting like this is brought to you by a staff of experienced local journalists committed to telling the stories of your community. Support from subscribers is vital to continue our mission.” It has been successful for us so far.
— Summer Moore
THE HOUSING CRUNCH
The Daily Astorian / Astoria, Oregon
C
latsop County has a housing crunch that touches all income levels, from low-wage workers to six-figure executives, from renters just starting out to would-be homeowners looking to plant roots. The shortage has no easy solutions, in part because it arose from a perfect storm of trends.
The Daily Astorian examined the housing crunch through the eyes of elected officials, economic experts, real-estate professionals, developers, homeowners and renters. The series explored the forces driving the issue, along with what is and is not possible for the North Coast to achieve. This turned out to be an ongoing, occasional series as it remains a key topic in our area. — Laura Sellers
FRIDAY EXTRA
The Daily Astorian / Astoria, Oregon
I
n 2015, we launched a four-page section in our Friday publicationand a section online called Friday Extra. It offers full-page or nearly full-page display for reporters, photographers and some community members. It has an often quirky, fun attitude, paired with “sense of place” columns and stories and occasionally even entices paid advertising.
— Laura Sellers
ON THE JOB: MAKING THE NORTH COAST WORK The Daily Astorian, Astoria, Oregon
F
or the second year, The Daily Astorian saluted workers in its Weekend Break/Friday Extra section. This generated five pages of photos and caption stories with sponsoring ads. — David Pero
SPIRE CoLab: OUR STORY BEGINS HERE Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota, FLORIDA
W
e’re defined by where we live. It explains our favorite bumper stickers, gathering places, and even the stories we tell. “Where are you from?” is a familiar ice breaker with new friends because it tells us who we are and how we view our world.
What we’ve learned is that community pride evolves from those who recognize that solutions happen only after you identify the problems. The reality is that community problems share many ZIP codes. Even in Sarasota, Florida – a place that locals affectionately call “Paradise” – residents are deeply involved in social issues ranging from grade-level reading to homelessness to mental health. We’ve created SPIRE CoLab, a partnership between journalism and philanthropy to create compelling media that inspire, inform and empower communities to take action on relevant social issues. SPIRE CoLab is led by the Herald-Tribune Media Group with support from The Patterson Foundation. The purpose of SPIRE CoLab is to tell meaningful stories and make them available to media organizations in your community, to spur discussion and spark action, because ultimately, it’s the place you call home. — Scott Carroll
FINISHED BUSINESS: STATE CHAMPS The Daily Astorian / Astoria, Oregon
O
ne of our towns had both boys and girls in the state basketball championships after storied seasons. The boys won it all; the girls took third. We planned a special four-page section in advance, advertising found sponsors (win or lose) and it created a memorable keepsake with poster-worthy front and back pages and a recap of the seasons inside.
— Laura Sellers
MOBILE APP VIDEO PROMO
The Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis, Indiana
I
saw this Indy Star video on Facebook encouraging readers to explore the Star’s mobile app, and thought it was entertaining, informative and very funny. Watch the video by clicking here. — Anne Brennan Metrowest Daily News Framingham, Mass.
GREAT
IDEAS