A community in conversation with itself

Bluffton

“Community in conversation”  Hyperlocal focus  Short, pithy, fun – like a commuter paper  Introduce people to each other and to the things that make Bluffton special  Not like the competition

2+2=5  Everyone gets a free paper (17,500; 98.9 percent of households “regularly receive” BT)  Everyone gets a free blog  Use the paper to drive people to the Web site; use the Web site to drive content in the paper

 Do you or some member of your household read any portion of Bluffton Today? Readership estimates 72% 24% 2% Certified Audit of Circulations, Inc. 155 Willowbrook Boulevard Wayne, NJ 07470

Where’s the conversation?

BlufftonToday.com  Web site performance 8,000 registered users 13,400 blog items posted 600,000 page views 68,000 unique visitors

BlufftonToday.com  Web site reach 65% of visitors return more than once per day 10 minutes spent per visit; 25% spend 1 hour or more per visit Each household visits 6.8 times per month

Page views  Growth since launch - page views doubled in less than one year

When people go online  Consistent visits throughout the day

How we use blogs  Users advise each other  Reporters post breaking news  Take story ideas from people  Print insightful blogs in Bluffton Today

Readers to each other  Break news, warn others

Reporters to readers  Newsroom can post breaking news stories before the paper can get the word out

Is it journalism?  Readers give us story ideas When they do, we jump on the story.

Whoa, we can use this  We started seeding the blogs.

Getting choosy  Now we can really make Best of the Web the best of the Web.

Reporters’ jobs are safe  Much of our blogging is chitchat and speculation; only rarely do our bloggers research their opinions…

Reporters’ jobs are safe, II  …or their facts

We spell relief B-L-O-G  Editors of truly local papers can’t rely on wire services to bail them out  Blog content isn’t as pithy as wire, but at least it’s local

Why we think it works  Takes readers seriously  Connects directly  Short ’n’ sweet  Deeply involved with the community

Community Involvement Works

Community Focus Works  Local editorial cartoons

Community Participation Works  Go Seek / Find Fang contests

Community Participation Works  User submitted photos

Community Participation Works  Vox

Lessons Learned  Understand time commitment  Use a ‘Blog Wrangler’  Don’t try to predict passions or problems  Set the tone  Fluffiness is in the eye of the beholder