1. (Or, IT’S THE AUDIENCE, STUPID)
Serve and empower
(Or, IT’S THE AUDIENCE, STUPID)

2. Who
Academics editor, Crimson White, University of Alabama,
Reporter/editor, The Tuscaloosa News, The Selma Times Journal,
Reporter/editor/assistant bureau chief, The Associated Press,
Editor/crime reporter, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Georgia Perimeter College, coordinator of student publications,
Georgia Southern University, director of student media, 2014-

4. Simon
Sinek
(Find him on
YouTube)

6. Why are we here?
Start here.
Sure.
But it’s not just “inform people.”
But it’s
not just “inform people.”

7. Why are we here?
We build community.

8. Jeff Jarvis says ...
I believe that we must shift not only from print to digital but also from volume to value, building relationships with people based on relevance. The way we will do that is to listen to the communities we serve — communities of geography, interest, demography, or use case — and then find new ways to help them answer their needs and meet their goals with the tools we now have and the new products we make.

9. We build community
We engage and
inform our audience.

10. We build community
Those engaged, informed students make a better university and a better world.

11. We build community
How do we do it?

12. How do we do it?
We engage our
audience every day.

13. We engage students who ...
would never look at “campus news” on their phone but will read our print newspaper.

14. We engage students who ...
would never pick up a newspaper -- but will accept one if we hand it to them.

15. don’t know us -- but will look at something interesting
We engage students who ...
don’t know us -- but will look at something interesting
if it’s shared by a friend.

16. We engage students ...
at campus events.

17. talking to them every day.
We engage students ...
by interviewing and
talking to them every day.

18. We tell students' stories with words, photography, video and design.
We make connections
We tell students' stories
with words, photography, video and design.

19. We celebrate diversity because our audience and the world are diverse.
We make connections
We celebrate diversity
because our audience
and the world are diverse.

20. Traditional student newspapers fail at all of this.
Bad news
Traditional student
newspapers
fail at all of this.

21. #collegemediafail
We don’t really care if anybody reads us. Or at least we behave that way.

22. Old model
WHAT:
Articles
HOW:
Writers
WHY:
Assumed
readers

23. New model
WHY:
Build
community
HOW:
Engage
WHAT:
A lot

25. Now what? Print distribution. Print presentation.
New content EVERY DAY.
Social - be part of the conversation EVERY DAY.
Physical (IRL!) interaction with audience EVERY DAY.
Video EVERY DAY.
Events.

26. 7 people x $10 = $70 per edition How else can advertisers do this?
Hand out the newspaper!
Press run = 5,500
Street Team hands out 2,800
7 people x $10 = $70 per edition
How else can advertisers do this?

28. traditional newspapers?
Print presentation
Does our audience read
traditional newspapers?

29. NO
Nielsen,
2014

30. Millennials more than Boomers read:
“women’s magazines like Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and Vogue, music magazines like Rolling Stone, technology magazines like Wired …”
--Nielsen Company, 2014

31. Those magazines look like this ...

32. … and this .

33. So why do we look like this?

34. OK, your cover is better than this. What about inside pages?

35. Who reads blobs of text?
NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY. NOBODY.

36. These are great stories!
But ...
These are great stories!

37. So we can just blame our designers? NO.
Try not being so boring.
Boring article format
Boring writing

38. Is cancer important?
Your story:
“When you go to the beach this summer … “
So many paragraphs

39. Most popular WashPo digital headline EVER
7 million views
Would your editors write that headline?
Source: Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, Washington Post managing editor for digital, speech to Digital Journalism Conference, 3/10/16, reported by

40. And it’s not just print. EVERY DAY:
New content
Be part of conversation on social media
Interact PHYSICALLY
Video
Lions and tigers and bears ...

41. I know what you’re thinking!
THIS WILL
NEVER WORK

43. Simpson’s Law of Print Gravitational Pull
If any part of a student’s job is the print newspaper, print will be their top and often only priority. If you rely on them for anything else, you will fail.

44. Hey, I’m not failing -- am I?
Are you doing everything you would do to engage your digital audience if you did not have a print newspaper?
If not, you are failing.

45. video
Which brings us to ...
VIDEO!

46. OMG, how are we supposed to do this?
Restructure.
The same people can’t do everything.
Move jobs from print to digital.

47. OMG, how are we supposed to do this?
Let print be print!
Leaner and meaner, focused on a few high-quality elements.

48. But how do you fill the newspaper?
Create a digital-only staff to produce content every day.
That feeds your newspaper.

49. Part of Print’s job is to curate/package Digital output.
The Circle of Content
Part of Print’s job is to curate/package Digital output.
Part of Digital’s job is great digital rollout of Print content.

50. The first time we created a Digital Division, we got this
thecirclegsu.com
The first time we created a Digital Division, we got this

51. If you’re imagining gear and software, STOP
Your students take video on their phones.
ALL. THE. TIME.

52. If you have ONE editor to run it ...
… you can start a video operation now.

53. Give your video staff ONE job:
Post one video
every day by lunch.

54. Physical engagement: Events
Not just “yay, First Amendment”
Revenue-producing: Spring Break, etc.
Build readership. (In my case, magazine.)

55. Physical engagement: “Studio”.