digital budgeting gatehouse media news & interactive

Digital budgeting

GateHouse MediaNews & Interactive

Agenda

Why budget for digital?

Your news meetings When should you meet? What should you discuss?

Sharing the budget

Sample budget

Put your plan to work

Sample digital schedule

Digital tools

Takeaways


Digital shouldn’t be an afterthought.Do you know what you’re doing tomorrow online?

You plan for your print paper; why wouldn’t you plan for digital? You don’t just produce a newspaper anymore. So know what you have and what you need for digital.

Don’t shortchange your online readers (there are at least 12 million a month across GateHouse), plus your social media followers.


Digital shouldn’t be an afterthought

ASK YOURSELF, YOUR NEWSROOM:

•What online content worked and what didn’t yesterday?

•What multimedia will you produce today? Tomorrow?

•When will you engage on social media?

•What will you live tweet today?


“Your company is no longer a newspaper. A newspaper is just one of the many things your company does. Your company is a media company, who needs to offer news and information to your readers in whatever format they wish to receive it.”

Buffy Andrews, social media coordinator, York Daily Record/Sunday News

Your news meetings

When should you meet?

Morning•You’ll need some time to get some information for the meeting, so consider gathering at about 10/10:30 a.m. • This meeting will look at the digital and print budgets laid out last

night and adjust as needed. • The meeting will focus on how, where and when you will present

news throughout the day.

This meeting is more about today’s news coverage than it is about tomorrow’s newspaper.

Your news meetings

When should you meet?

Late afternoon

•Your afternoon meeting should not just be about handing responsibility from the day to night staffs, but also getting the ball rolling on your budget for tomorrow.

•Get all the morning people back together, plus your night crew, at whatever time both are in the building.

Your news meetings

What should you discuss?

•What multimedia will you produce today/tomorrow?• p.m. meeting: Discuss what stories are being worked on

tomorrow (and throughout the week) so you can consider multimedia options, e.g. video, map, pdf of documents, etc. before it’s too late to shoot video, grab documents, etc.

• a.m. meeting: Review last night’s plans. Discuss breaking/developing news and what multimedia can be produced today.

Your news meetings

What should you discuss?•What worked online yesterday? What didn’t?• In the a.m. meeting, use these tools to inform your digital

budget:• Google Analytics (for most popular stories, search, referrals)• Most commented• Conversations on social media

You want to determine what’s buzzing. And what did people NOT respond to so you don’t spin your wheels next time?

Your news meetings


Google Analytics, most popular

•You may be surprised at what stories draw interest. It could help decide if a story should be followed the next day. It can also help decide what sorts of things you shouldn’t waste your time on anymore.

•Run a report (Behavior>Site Content>All Pages>Page Title) to find the top pageviews from yesterday.

Your news meetings


Google Analytics, most popular•You can also create a custom report that sorts by visits instead. This helps address a scenario such as:• 40 people read a long story that extends over 3 online pages

vs. 100 people read a short 1-page story. Which is more popular? The 1-page story. But a regular report will show the 3-page story at the top because it has more pageviews (people click three times to read the whole thing). This custom report sorts in a different way to make the 1-page story rise to the top.

Fill out this custom report as shown on the next page.

Hit SAVE at end.

#1

#2

#3

Your news meetings


Google Analytics, most popular•To run that custom report, you would click on Customization, choose that report, change the date range to what you want and it will show you the top stories by visit.

•You can schedule it so that report is sent to you daily. • Click on Email, fill out the info in the pop-up box.

Frequency = daily.

Your news meetings


Google Analytics - referrals•Determine how successful yesterday’s posts were on social media by checking the referral stats. This will show how many people clicked through to your site.

Here’s how ...

Your news meetings


Google Analytics - referrals•This Facebook post was viewed by 1,299 people. But how many people actually clicked to read the whole article on our site?

Your news meetings


Google Analytics - referrals•In Google Analytics, go to Acquisition>Social>Landing Pages

Your news meetings


Google Analytics - referrals•You will need the article ID# from the URL.

Your news meetings


Google Analytics - referrals•Plug the article ID# in to the Analytics search.

Your news meetings


Google Analytics – referrals•Click on the headline that matches your search. You’ll come to this page, which shows any social media networks that sent traffic to your site. In this case, Facebook sent 251 visits.

Your news meetings


Google Analytics – referrals•Although almost 1,300 people saw that post on Facebook, only 251 clicked on it. You can gauge by what your other stories have garnered in the past whether this is successful for you or not.

•This can help you determine the best kind of content to post to Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Your news meetings


Most commented

•Check out the Most Commented bucket on your homepage to see what stories have people talking. • Use that to inform your poll

question, your Facebook posts, your Tweets. It may suggest you should follow up on something with a day-two story.

Your news meetingsWhat should you discuss?

Conversations on social media•Take a look at what you posted on Facebook, Twitter, etc. yesterday. Did anything generate a lot of conversation? • Should you follow the story today?• Does it inform today’s poll

question?• Do any comments require you to

answer questions, provide info?

Your news meetings

What should you discuss?•When will you engage on social media?• Sample Facebook/Twitter schedule shown later in this

presentation; also includes suggested web updates throughout the day. Have this with you at the meeting to fill out.

You don’t have to follow the exact timing and content of the schedule, but it gets you thinking about the type of content you could post and the frequency at which you could post it.

Develop your own schedule.

Your news meetings


•What will you live tweet today?• As you review coverage at the a.m. and p.m. meetings, try to

identify at least one thing, every day, that can be “live tweeted,” meaning the reporter will tweet updates live throughout the event or meeting.

• PROMOTE: Let your readers know on your website and Twitter what you’ll be live tweeting later that day or tomorrow. What @reporter account and/or #hashtag should they follow?

Your news meetings


•EVERGREEN ANNUAL ITEMS• Keep a Google Doc or add to a shared Calendar annual

evergreen events and days• Local annual events such as town pride day, holiday parades• Anniversaries of big news – fire, murder, opening of business,

establishment of city/town• “Holidays” such as Administrative Assistants’ Day, Grandparents

Day, Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

Your news meetings

What should you discuss?• Build callouts and post to social media around these evergreen

topics leading up to and/or on the day of the event.

Sharing the budget

The best way to share•Your budget should be accessible to everyone – editors, reporters, photographers, designers.

•The most efficient way for everyone to access the budget is as a Google Doc shared in Drive. • Drive>Create>Document• Click on “Untitled document” and give it a name.• The file saves as you go. Multiple people can be in the file at once.• When you’re done, click Share.• Invite People: Plug in the email addresses of the people who need

access to this file. You can reuse the doc for each day, week.

Sharing the budget

Sharing the budget

Give reporters power

• Although reporters should continue to discuss story ideas with assignment editors, the reporter should be the one responsible for adding a story to the budget.

• When plugging their story in to a template, they will be reminded of the digital components they should be thinking about.

•They will be reminded, hopefully before it’s too late, of what else they should gather while on assignment.

Sharing the budget

Give others powerIn general, your digital editor should not be the only one thinking digitally. It should be top-of-mind for all staff. By sharing the budget with everyone, you expose them to the template and empower them to contribute.• Photographers can poke in to the budget to get an idea of art

that is needed.• Designers can take a look to think of graphics, layout ideas.• Editors can fill in the blanks, clean things up, identify gaps.

Sample budget

A template to follow

•Between print and digital, there are a lot of moving parts. Most of us have the mental checklist of print elements to consider memorized. But we don’t always remember all there is to do digitally.

•Each editor and reporter should post a digital checklist (sample available) at their desk and run through it as they develop their stories. Run through it again when pitching the story to an assignment editor and when adding it to the budget.

Sample budget

A template to follow

•If you use a template or shell from which to build your budget everyday, it reduces the chances of forgetting something.

•Budget at least a week out.

•The next page offers a sample budget template. Each staff bylined budget item should include this list to start, to get people thinking about the blanks they should fill in (also refer to the digital checklist). Delete whichever items aren’t filled in to eliminate budget clutter.

List all you know for print AND online. In addition to print deadlines, list times items will be posted online, and in which section (carousel, top stories, etc.).

Sample digital checklist

Here is a sample digital checklist for a reporter to hang at his/her desk

Sample digital checklist

Here is a sample digital checklist for a digital editor to hang at his/her desk


Posting your content online

•The night before, your news meeting discussed: • what will be covered the next day• deadline, length for print• what multimedia will be produced• what will be posted to social media• what will be posted online



•This morning, the news meeting discussed:• a review of last night’s plan with adjustments from today• deadline, length for print• what multimedia will be produced• what will be posted to social media• what will be posted online• timing of online posts

Now that you know what’s coming, it’s time to organize it.



•Come up with a daily schedule that posts content online throughout the day – web updates, Facebook, Twitter and other (e.g. Instagram archive photos on Thursdays; post food photos to Pinterest on Mondays).

•Use the sample digital schedule coming up as a starting point. Breaking news and top headlines should be included throughout the day – swap out for other things in this sample as you see fit.

•Have the schedule with you at the meetings and fill in the blanks.



WHERE ON YOUR SITE?

•You should think about what fresh content will be posted to key areas on your website, such as the carousel and Top Stories.

•Have the sample digital schedule with you at the meetings and note which items will post to which spots on your site. You could also use a separate website placement schedule (also provided).

Sample digital scheduleWebsite Twitter Facebook

7a Day in history Day in history

8 To do – calendar Shout out to @follower Link to weather

9 Today’s front Today’s front Today’s front

10 Promo Instagram/Pinterest Yesterday’s poll result ICYMI – video/photos

11 The Buzz – what’s getting hits? The Buzz Editorial/oped

12p promo live tweeting Promo live tweeting Hot story of the day

1 What people are saying – comments What people are saying What people are saying

2 Blogger promo Blogger promo Blogger promo

3 Storify local/national Meetings covered tonight Today’s best pix/gallery

4 Poll – link to story/editorial Promo live tweet again Poll

5 callout/crowdsource for tomorrow Callout/crowdsource Callout/crowdsource

8 Delay to post 1 item Delay to post 1 item Delay to post 1 item

Sample digital schedule

Weekend* – Web Twitter Facebook

7a Day in history Day in history

8 To do – calendar Link to weather Link to weather

9 Today’s front Today’s front Today’s front

11 Editorial/letter Editorial/letter Editorial/letter

12p big story of day Big story Big story

2 Blogger promo Blogger promo Blogger promo

4 Sports – coming up or results

Sports Sports

5 Callout Callout Callout

8 Delay to post Delay to post Delay to post

* Staffed newsroom, tweak to delay content Friday for non-staffed newsroom

Website placement schedule

CHOOSE ONE FOR EACH:

FEATURES CAROUSEL

TOP STORY


FEATURES CAROUSEL

TOP STORY


FEATURES CAROUSEL

TOP STORY

Website placement

7a Day in History

8 To do – calendar

9 Today’s front

10 Promo Instagram/Pinterest

11 The Buzz – what’s getting hits

12p promo live tweeting

1 What people are saying – comments

2 Blogger promo

3 Storify local/national story

4 Poll – link to story/editorial

5 Callout/crowdsource for tomorrow

8 Something delayed

Digital tools

Here are some tools you can use for online content:

•STORIFY: Curate tweets, Facebook posts and photos to tell a story through the eyes (and smartphones) of your readers.

•MAP: Use Saxo to pinpoint a place on a map. Or use a Google map to show multiple points in relation to each other; can draw lines to connect points or show boundaries. Google Fusion pulls info from multiple files to layer information on a map.

Digital tools

Here are some tools you can use for online content.

•MEOGRAPH: Create a presentation that can include photos, video, audio, maps, text and links.

•INSTAGRAM OR VINE VIDEOS: Shoot 15-second (Instagram) or six-second (Vine) videos using an app on a smartphone. Share the video with your social media followers.

•What other tools are you using and comfortable with?

Digital tools

Where can you learn how to use these tools?

•GHNEWSROOM: Check out ghnewsroom.com for all kinds of information.

•DIGITAL BLOG: Specifically, you can find a lot of information at Nicole Simmons’ blog,

ghnewsroom.com/blogs/nicolesimmons

Takeaways

• GATHER INFO: Arm yourself with information about what’s happening online before you meet in the morning.

• A.M. MEETING: Discuss how you’re covering the news today first. Then consider how it will look in tomorrow’s paper.

• DIGITAL SCHEDULE: Fill in this schedule while you’re meeting. Have a game plan for online like you do for print.

• SHARE: Share your budget with everyone. Empower reporters to add their stories so they can fill in the template and be reminded of the digital things they should consider.

Takeaways

• TEMPLATE: Restructure your budget to include a template of print AND digital things to plan/follow.

• P.M. MEETING: Talk about tomorrow’s print and digital plans; not just a handoff from day to night staffs.

• DIGITAL TOOLS: Learn and use digital tools to enhance your web presence. Think multimedia for every story. Not everything will make it in to print. That’s OK.

More information

• If you have questions or suggestions, contact New England Regional Digital Editor Nicole Simmons.• [email protected]• ghnewsroom.com/blogs/nicolesimmons• 508-626-3923• @Digital_Nicole• Instagram: WickedLocalPix

mailto:[email protected]

Digital budgeting

GateHouse MediaNews & Interactive

digital budgeting gatehouse media news & interactive

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