(Rich Gordon)

Earlier this year, I wrote that news organizations should try to build networks - links between people and between content - as the core of their digital strategy. I differentiated this approach from what I've seen most newspapers try, which is to build a "destination" Web site for their audience.

To some extent, I'll admit, the distinction is artificial. A site that presents relevant content in engaging ways can be both a destination and a network hub. But thinking of your Web site as part of a network of interconnections between people and content can be a useful exercise - because the Web is inherently *about* links and connections:

• Persistent links between Web pages guide people to relevant content.


• Google and other search engines rely on links to build their algorithms to deliver relevant search results.


• Web sites that facilitate connections between people - whether you call them online communities or social networking sites - have grown enormously in the past couple of years.

I tested this proposition a few months ago with a group of media executives attending the Advanced Executive Program at Northwestern's Media Management Center. I made the case for a network-based digital strategy, then facilitated a group exercise in which participants brainstormed ideas for building networks. Here are their ideas, supplemented with a few interesting examples that I've seen more recently.


The basics

(1) Hyperlink from news content to:

• source material, such as documents, audio and video relevant to a story;


• related coverage on your Web site;


• related coverage on other Web sites;


• blogs that cover the same topic.

(2) Make your archive more accessible. The most radical idea is to make previously published content available on the Web indefinitely instead of selling archive access. If this would reduce revenue too much, extend the amount of time that content remains on the free Web (instead of a week or two, to a month or six months or a year). Or pull content selectively from the paid archive to the free site when relevant to a current story.

(3) Syndicate content widely - through RSS headline feeds, embeddable audio/video players, or formal syndication agreements with sites such as trade associations and civic groups.


More specific content-linking ideas

(1) Link from articles about:

• fires and disasters, to Web sites of organizations that can help;


• feature stories, to sites where "how to" guidance is provided;


• food articles, to more information about the ingredients or alternative approaches to a particular dish.

(2) Link from calendar items to:

• related events;


• Web sites of performers;


• maps and directions;


• publicly posted reviews and user comments.

(3) Create a page for each significant local government official (mayor, legislators, etc.) that can be linked from any mention of that person, containing:

• a biography;


• previous coverage of this official;


• constituent comments;


• related links.

(4) Create a profile page for every journalist, with a biography, photo, contact information and links to articles they've written.


Connections with readers/users

(1) Post announcements of stories being worked on, ask readers for information and sources (often called "crowdsourcing").

(2) Ask users to vote online on what they think top stories are for the day.

(3) If a story breaks during the day, publish selected online comments with the version published in print the next morning.

(4) Create a photo shooting/sharing service like "Spotted" from Morris Communications.


Web site functionality

(1) Create a default profile page for anyone who posts a comment, enabling users to see other comments by the same person.

(2) Create a reputation management system for user comments, allowing highly rated commenters to be recognized the same way "power sellers" stand out on eBay.

(3) Alert commenters when someone else has added a comment to the same article or discussion thread.

(4) Intercept users who arrive from search engines and give them links to related content based on the search terms they used (this is done routinely by News.com).


Advertising

(1) Ask users what categories of banner advertising they are most interested in (connecting users to ad content they will like).

(2) Allow respondents to classified ads to email sellers (if the sellers agree, of course).


New sites for niche audiences

(1) Create a youth sports site for athletes and their parents, with schedules and social-networking capabilities.

(2) Create a site for people interested in education. (The Knoxville News-Sentinel has launched a 'School Matters' site using the Ning "roll-your-own" social network service.)

(3) Create a discussion-based site for moms. (Many newspapers are doing this - for instance, the Indianapolis Star's IndyMoms.com.)

(4) Create a site focusing on commuting and traffic, where people can commiserate, find car pool matches and keep up on highway construction plans.

(5) Replace a newspaper's annual print-only "Best of Your City" section with a year-round Web site where users can rate and comment on local businesses and institutions, with the print section created based on the online content.

(6) When photographers are sent on lengthy remote assignments (this idea came from the editor of National Geographic), create a site where interested users can follow the project, including:

• links to tourism information in case people want to go there too;


• links to archival content;


• links to relevant Flickr photos and YouTube videos;


• photos that are geocoded so people can go to the same spot themselves.

'Evergreen' content that draws ongoing interest

In any market or market segment, there are ongoing topics that continue to be covered regularly. Building a site with "evergreen" content on these topics can attract niche audiences interested in that content and also serve as a resource that can be linked to from current news coverage. Both of the ideas mentioned here came from Mizell Stewart, who was then the managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal, who suggested building sites devoted to the All-American Soap Box Derby (which is based in Akron) and the U.S. tire industry (which is heavily concentrated there).

I can't resist adding my favorite recent discovery of this kind of ongoing site. Since the start of 2007, Los Angeles Times crime reporter Jill Leovy has been maintaining a blog with information about every murder in Los Angeles County (as of early September, this was more than 500 murders). Last month, the paper added a visual interface to the blog, creating the Los Angeles Homicide Map. It's a great example of capturing regularly reported information in a form that enables user to explore. And it also connects people to each other and to individual murder stories. If you do nothing else, navigate to some murders where users have added comments (examples here and here), which are interesting and sometimes heart-breaking.

The homicide map is a great example of networked content.


Thanks to the AEP participants who generated this list of ideas: Edwina Blackwell Clark from Cox Ohio Publishing, Pim Halkes from AO Nieuws Media in the Netherlands, Chris Johns from National Geographic, Mike Kellogg from the Stillwater (OK) News Press,
Kai-fai Koo from Radio Television Hong Kong, Danai Kramgomut from Nation Multimedia Group in Thailand, Pierre Marcoux from Transcontinental Inc. in Quebec, Borys Mejia from El Norte in Ecuador, Daniel Patino from Diario El Telegrafo in Ecuador, Mark Nusbaum from The Topeka Capital-Journal, Ginny Sohn from The (Santa Fe) New Mexican, Mizell Stewart from the Evansville Courier & Press, David Thiemann from Northern Colorado Communications, Stephan Thurm from Vorarlberger Medienhaus in Austria, Jackie Wang from the Medill School at Northwestern and Jill Williams from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.


By Rich Gordon (richgor@northwestern.edu)
Rich Gordon is Associate Professor and Director of Digital Technology in Education at Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.