23 Engagement Though Voice of San Diego built its reputation and popularity on its investigative journalism, the ongoing challenge is developing tools and methods for fostering sustained readership and participation. Lewis said doing so will help VoSD with revenue generation and strengthen its value statement to community members and potential sponsors.
Creating internal community vs. pushing content into the stream
Several participants discussed the tension between wanting to create their own communities of audience members and wanting to push their content into the outside information stream. Though different organizations had different opinions on the ideal balance between these goals, the most evident conclusion is that both are possible and, in most cases, necessary. Each news organization, whether it exists at the local, state or national level, is likely to have its own niche geographic or issue audience from which it could build an internally engaged community. However this cannot be done at the expense of attention on effectively pushing information to the outside world. Texas Tribune Director of Technology Higinio Maycotte said the Tribune made the right decision deciding not to “silo” its content by keeping it only on its site. Realizing that “content lives in the stream,” the Tribune distributes its work onto a variety of outside portals such as Digg and Reddit, where stories will receive thousands of views and thousands of comments. Though Texas Tribune and its funders would ideally prefer this activity to take place on the Tribune site, Maycotte acknowledged the benefits to readership and impact that result from being “magnanimous.” Statewide organizations expressed an interest in creating engagement through localization, opening community bureaus and special sections or partnering with local media to build distinct geographic audiences. For example, California Watch discussed its interest in hiring community managers and creating local content through partnerships, such as with ethnic media networks in San Jose.
Measurement and metrics
All participant organizations were dissatisfied with the available tools for measuring audience participation and engagement online. Most web measurements are focused on usage (views, unique visitors, pages per visit, time on site, bounces and exits), rather than on engagement (What features are people interacting with? Which portions of a page are “Seeking Sustainability” Summary & Report April 26, 2010 - Austin, TX