Last transfer deadline day digital intern David Allison and I ran a CoverItLive blog from 8am through to 6.30pm. Hardly original, but we used several techniques to make it an engaging read for users and a fun (if stressful) day for us. For the next deadline we’re scaling up the operation and asking student journos to get involved.
>> Sunderland Echo transfer deadline day Summer 2009 coverage
The response in the summer – thanks to intense work, solid preparation and some support from our sport team – was phenomenal. 7,000 visitors viewed the coverage and left 2,400 comments. It was a hectic day, but it paid off spectacularly with hugely positive feedback from those who took part.
For February we’ll step up the coverage on two counts. Firstly, we’re working with John Price in the Media department at the University of Sunderland. We’re setting up a live transfer deadline day HQ with a suite of computers, TV coverage from other outlets piped in and hotlines to other football journalists. We’re taking over the newsroom at the David Puttnam Media Centre for a day. No news yet on what biscuits we’ll be laying on…
Once again the blog will be hosted at www.sunderlandecho.com. But part two of our plan to ramp up the operation is inviting digital editors and editors from all across the Johnston Press network of 300+ sites – from The Scotsman in the north down to the Portsmouth News in the south - to take our coverage. It’s likely several smaller titles, including some dailies, will be delighted to do so.
As a result of this two-pronged approach we’ll be competing with similar services from national news outlets. Exciting stuff…
Any media students who want to know more or who wish to take part should email me or comment on this post.
I’ve long been hunting for a decent interactive solution for tributes and user comments which is both easy to use and easy on the eye. Now I’ve found a site which ticks (almost) all the boxes on my wishlist.
Wallwisher.com is a free-to-register site which enables the easy creation of a noticeboard. Users can post messages to the board, which is embeddable on your site.
The only downsides I can see so far is that an extra click is required which takes users to a pop-up version of the wallwisher board. And adding photos requires you to place a path to the image, when I’d ideally like less web-savvy users to upload their snaps.
For text messages, this is a far more elegant solution than simple comments on an article. And with the option to link to videos and photos, this is a tool I’ll definitely experiment with.
As a resource realist, I could probably be described as an advocate of the ‘quick and dirty’ approach to video. That’s because user-generated footage of a city-centre blaze, police clips of a scuffle with local hooligans, or a simple talking head interview shot by one of our reporters will generally deliver a good return for our effort.
>> Ghost Hunt – North East Aircraft Museum FULL VIDEO
I rarely encourage the production of complex packages which are often seen by just a few hundred users despite eating up a day of a reporter’s time. This trade-off is especially galling when the journalist’s written words or a photo slideshow would have been a more effective means of telling the story.
Sometimes the compelling subject of a video (such as our forthcoming series of first-hand accounts of the Second World War) or its longevity make going that extra mile worth it. We spent a little more time on our Halloween video than the hits we’ll get this year would justify, for instance. But it can now be rolled out every year without dating, along with our other Halloween specials.
We don’t claim the camera-work, voiceover or editing are world class, but the overall effect will hopefully be enjoyed by our visitors and enhance the Sunderland Echo brand online. Plus – yes – I enjoyed pulling the project together in Avid. And maybe that’s the best reason of all to spend time on your video output…
New media poster boy Stephen Fry is one of the biggest names in the Twitter universe and has long-embraced the net to build his personal brand, but even he seems to struggle to make cash directly from the web.
Recently his Smallfry company announced the launch of a network of celebrity sites – a collective to monetise the activities of the already pretty rich online.
As an interesting aside to the news it emerged that www.StephenFry.com is struggling to make ad revenues, despite attracting upwards of one million unique users per month* (corrected figure).
Andrew Sampson, co-managing director of SamFry with Fry said: “We’re just taking network ads and are looking at other options.
“We’re only selling 50% of the inventory. At the moment we’re at the lowest yield, it’s not even worth talking about the number we’re getting in terms of revenue, but we are addressing that.”
So, Fry is making pennies per thousand clicks, despite his immense pulling power. Still, I wouldn’t mind betting those pennies add up to a few quid in the end…
How do you measure the success of a news website? How do you quantify its reach and popularity for the benefit of advertisers? Maybe there is no perfect, one-size-fits-all answer.
The current ABCe measure of different pairs of eyes on a site each month – unique users (UUs) - sometimes feels like about the worst fudge you could get from a regional newspaper viewpoint.
The trouble is, successfully attracting UUs is less about serving a community with content, more about appealling to as many different groups as possible. Fine, perhaps, for a national site which is gunning for a global audience on just about every topic going. But I have a problem with it for local news sites. Continue Reading »
Desperate for a clip of a creaking door for your Halloween vid? Need a bangin’ tune to accompany your weekly clubbing slideshow? Is your digital budget a big, fat zero? Here are a few links to royalty-free sound effect and music sites which you may find useful.
Oh, and they aren’t trying to sell your ringtones by the back door…
Sound effects
- www.soungle.com - ‘google for sounds’
- www.freesound.org – very well tagged, so eminently searchable
- www.soundsnap.com - also features premium, paid-for content
Music (usually requiring credit, but free)
- http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/
- http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/free-music.html
- http://sonnyboo.com/music/music.htm
- http://www.loganlproductions.com/pmp.html
- http://www.taylorhayward.org/freemusic.htm
- http://www.soundclick.com/business/license_list.cfm (sign up for free acc)
- http://derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/music.php
- http://www.publicdomain4u.com/http://opsound.org/
The long wait is over. A couple of weeks back I finally got my hands on an iPhone, which means I can now blog on the go with relative ease.
I know – call me Mr. Early Adopter.
In fact now I have ditched my enormous Nokia N95 – which I loved for it’s video capabilities – I can rarely be bothered to fire up my laptop for browsing.
Mind you, all those trips to McDonalds restaurants and chain pubs to use their free WIFi – I’m such a cheapskate and my employers won’t stump up for a dongle – have taken their toll.
My fingers are so bloated after a steady diet of web browsing with regular side orders of onion rings that this post has taken me ten minutes to hammer out.
Still – check out my new phone…
Johnston Press colleague George Hopkin – he’s our Search Engine Optimisation Evangelist no less – has set up an excellent service for those of you wishing to stay up-to-date with media news online.
He’s aggregating content from various feed readers into a single service.
