Trends in New Media
How does search engine optimization affect news organizations?
Note: This is a continuation of last week’s post on search engine optimization. As the influence of search on Web users’ habits increases, understanding how to create content optimized for search engines is increasingly important. That is especially true for professional communicators who create online content. In news, media companies have hired search engine optimization professionals and [...]
Why does search engine optimization matter?
No doubt communications professionals, whether in journalism, advertising or public relations, are used to working with a wide range of specialists – photographers, copy editors, designers, sales representatives, etc. But there’s a new position in many organizations that has grown out of a need to put professionally-produced content in front of new readers: the SEO. [...]
What are the skills of the online journalist?
The Web presents many challenges for news organizations – new consumption patterns, multi-platform distribution and a whole new business model. But it also presents new challenges for individual journalists because producing news online requires many new skills that had previously been absent from legacy media. There is still an emphasis on traditional reporting skills. In [...]
Is the nonprofit news model sustainable?
Nonprofit news organizations continue to emerge through university partnerships, local communities foundations and wealthy local philanthropists. While few question the motives of these organizations, many of which tackle topics no longer addressed by legacy media, the sustainability of these organizations is repeatedly called into question. One of the most prominent critiques of late was written [...]
What’s the best way to measure traffic online?
Media managers have long had access to simple statistics about their product’s consumption. Newspaper publishers, for example, have relatively easy access to circulation figures. But more detailed information about consumption habits traditionally has only been available via extensive research, often from outside providers. That is far from the case online, though. Free blogging platforms track [...]
Why can’t news organizations monetize traffic spikes?
For news websites, big stories often mean big traffic. That traffic can come when a local story goes national, when a story gains profile through social media recommendations, or when an item gets prominent placement on a news aggregator. But even though web advertising is often sold by “impressions”, the number of views an ad [...]
Does checkbook journalism pay?
With all the attention garnered by the “balloon boy” story, any information available about the boy and his family became fodder for news outlets. Amid all the coverage, one online news site was able to score a rather valuable interview — one with a Denver college student who supposedly had knowledge of a plan by [...]
How do divisions in social networks affect professional communicators?
In front of a packed audience in a New York City auditorium, researcher Danah Boyd posed a question. She asked the roomful of political junkies, activists and tech aficionados at the annual Personal Democracy Forum how many were on Facebook. Almost all raised their hands. Then she repeated the question, instead asking about MySpace. Almost [...]
Are niche social networks the future of social networking?
When the topic turns to social networks the conversation tends to be about the typical players – Facebook and MySpace. However, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of online social networks out there that don’t even begin to rival the millions of users of the big ones but instead cater to niche audiences. Many of [...]
Can nonprofit status save news organizations?
Last week’s post discussed how nonprofits and other advocacy groups are becoming producers of news in the Internet age, distributing direct to news consumers alongside traditional news organizations. Recently, though, news organizations have been emerging as nonprofits at a rapid rate. These nonprofit news organizations are opening up possibilities for an entirely new business model [...]