RJI FUTURES LAB CONVERGENCE CAPSTONE, SPRING 2013

RJI FUTURES LAB IS… A weekly, online video show that covers the latest innovations in journalism and is designed specifically to reach out and inform newsroom leaders across the nation.

WE WILL ADDRESS 1)Who we are and what we have done this semester 2)What we have learned about our audience 3)Recommendations to improve the show 4)Suggestions of ways to sustain Futures Lab

A SAMPLING OF THE SHOWS WE’VE PUBLISHED

FUTURES LAB TEAM Two editors: Reuben Stern and Olga Kyle Four capstone reporters One GRA reporter One volunteer graduate student

QUICK STATS Launched March 20, 2013 Nine episodes published to date 8-10 minute episodes 40 stories produced 90-minutes of video content published More than 80 interviews with sources from all over the world Nearly 2,000 YouTube views

PRODUCTION CYCLE Pitch stories to editors Do research, conduct interviews and gather b-roll Produce story and incorporate editor feedback Complete story

HOW DOES THIS WORK? Reporters typically are working on 2-4 stories at a time on this three-week production cycle. Each story takes approximately 15 hours to research, report and produce. Reporters completed an average of eight stories per person.

SUMMARY OF AUDIENCE RESEARCH Website Analytics Social Media Analytics Focus Group Insights

WEBSITE ANALYTICS Users stay on Futures Lab pages for an average of 5:51. Average time on page for the RJI site is 2:03.

WHAT THE WEBSITE ANALYTICS TELL US Users aren’t watching the whole video The viewers who watch the longest come through a direct link Users coming to the Futures Lab page consume other RJI content while they are there

SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS Platforms used: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube 117 Facebook Fans, 54 Twitter Followers Majority of those audiences are still Missouri School of Journalism faculty and students Hootsuite analytics tell us that the most popular tweets included handles for organizations and people featured in the episodes and general, searchable hashtags. Because this is a work-related show, it can expand to LinkedIn and other professional social networks

FACEBOOK FANS The majority of Facebook followers are females ages Source: Facebook Analytics Female fans Male fans

WHO ACTUALLY WATCHES THE SHOW YouTube viewers skew older and male. Source: YouTube Analytics Female viewers Male viewers female male

FOCUS GROUP METHODOLOGY Hosted a focus group of five editors from a variety of newsrooms in mid- Missouri Asked for their thoughts about the show and to analyze the usefulness for their own newsroom

FOCUS GROUP Positives 10-minute show lengthVideo format Wrap-up stories of conferences they were unable to attend Themed episodes

FOCUS GROUP Negatives Sound and visual quality on Skype/Google+ Interviews Inability to view single stories within an episode Lack of diversity in sourcingOccasionally unrelated visuals

FOCUS GROUP KEY TAKEAWAYS Likely to watch on a computer while at work Likely to share one story with other, but not the whole episode Would like to receive specific how-to information in video segments Would like more coverage of mobile and social engagement issues

RECOMMENDATION 1: IMPROVE STORY QUALITY WITH MORE IN-PERSON REPORTING Challenge: Most of the stories for this show don’t occur in Columbia, Missouri Establish a traveling budget for reporting trips to sites like New York or Silicon Valley  2-3 people could report several stories over the course of a few days.

Send a small team of reporters/editors to important industry conferences where there are high concentrations of sources.  Focus group participants cited conference recaps as some of the most useful stories  Potential conferences to attend: ONA, IRE, SXSW, NAB Show Seven stories came out of the interviews done at the SXSW conference this year. RECOMMENDATION 1 (CONT): IMPROVE STORY QUALITY WITH MORE IN-PERSON REPORTING

RECOMMENDATION 2: IMPLEMENT STRATEGIES TO BETTER REACH TARGET AUDIENCES Create a communication/outreach team of students to Compile a list of target audience Push subscriptions Build strong social media following Work with professional journalism organizations Identify online communities that would find the content useful Ex. LinkedIn and Facebook Groups

RECOMMENDATION 3: MAKE CONTENT MORE SEO-FRIENDLY AND SEARCHABLE Video format makes it harder for people to find our content  Part of this can be solved by increased use of meta tags  More text and specific headlines with individuals stories will increase search traffic to our site through SEO ranking

RECOMMENDATION 3 (CONT): MAKE CONTENT MORE SEO-FRIENDLY AND SEARCHABLE HOMEPAGE EPISODE PAGESTORY PAGE

RECOMMENDATION 3 (C0NT): MAKE CONTENT MORE SEO-FRIENDLY AND SEARCHABLE Futures Lab Landing Page Episode Page Proposed: Story- level page Page with individual video and text story

Focus group participants would like to watch individual segments or skip over segments within an episode.  “I am going to watch all the stories. I just may not be able to watch them all at one time.” Presentation can be changed to include:  Time stamps when the story begins  Links to YouTube videos that jump to the start of the story  Individual story videos embedded below the main episode RECOMMENDATION 4: MAKE INDIVIDUAL STORIES EASIER TO FIND WITHIN EPISODES

We recommend that each story addresses the following questions:  How much does this idea cost?  How much time would I have to dedicate to this idea?  How can I implement this in my newsroom right now? Some editors wanted step-by-step processes. Others just want to know what innovations are possible.  Include supplemental content that shows detailed processes so main episodes remain less than 10 minutes RECOMMENDATION 5: INCLUDE MORE LOGISTICAL AND HOW-TO DETAILS

RECOMMENDATIONS TO BETTER SERVE AUDIENCES Improve story quality with more in- person reporting Implement strategies to better reach target audience Make content more SEO-friendly and searchable Make individual stories easier to find within episodes Include more logistical and how-to details in stories

HOW WE CAN SUSTAIN THE SHOW  Reporters have already been selected to work during the summer  For Fall 2013, continue as a project for students in Convergence capstone class with the assistance of two GRAs  Long term goal: create a Futures Lab class

FUTURES LAB CLASS We propose to create a course that would be responsible for reporting this show. The ideal team would be: Five reporters Two communication/outreach team members Two graduate research assistants Editor/Advisor Reporter Comm/Outreach GRA

ROLE OF THE GRA  Help flow/stability of newsroom and ease reporter transitions if they held assistantship for more than one semester  Serve as a middle management position  Help reporters develop story ideas and plan out episodes  Assist in editing and producing stories  Estimated hours per week: 10

ROLE OF THE REPORTERS  Eligibility:  Independent study course should have completed Broadcast II, Convergence Editing and Producing or equivalent experiences with video reporting  Responsible for  Pitching, shooting and editing packages  Complete stories in the 16-week semester  Estimated hours per week: 15

ROLE OF THE COMMUNICATION AND OUTREACH TEAM  Primary goals:  Grow audience  Manage social media  Analytics  Connect interested audiences to content by  Using relevant #hashtags  Identifying online communities  Crowdsource ideas  Creating a presence on LinkedIn and other platforms  Estimated hours per week: 15

ROLE OF THE COMMUNICATION AND OUTREACH TEAM  Potential future projects  Plan and execute live Google Hangouts with news innovators  Guests featured in the Tuesday show “hangs out” with Futures Lab viewers to answer audience questions  Implement an awards program that recognizes newsroom innovators  Work with RJI to interject a Futures Lab presence at RJI events

SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE WORKFLOW  Implement a beat system for reporters  Plan out episodes around a certain theme  Implement a system to keep track of sources interviewed in the show  Create a master calendar of Missouri School of Journalism Events, RJI events and special guests

CONCLUSION  With the proposed changes, RJI Futures Lab can continue to aide  Newsroom leaders  RJI’s mission  Student journalists  Tomorrow’s newsroom leaders

Questions?