A community in conversation with itself

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• A community in conversation with itself

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Bluffton
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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

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• 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

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Readership estimates

• Do you or some member of your household read any
  portion of Bluffton Today?

72
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Certified Audit of Circulations, Inc. 155
Willowbrook Boulevard Wayne, NJ 07470

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Wheres the conversation?
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BlufftonToday.com

• Web site performance
• 8,000 registered users
• 13,400 blog items posted
• 600,000 page views
• 68,000 unique visitors

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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

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Page views

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

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When people go online

• Consistent visits throughout the day

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How we use blogs

• Users advise each other
• Reporters post breaking news
• Take story ideas from people
• Print insightful blogs in Bluffton Today

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Readers to each other

• Break news, warn others

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Reporters to readers

• Newsroom can post breaking news stories before
  the paper can get the word out

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Is it journalism?

• Readers give us story ideas

When they do, we jump on the story.
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Whoa, we can use this

• We started seeding the blogs.

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Getting choosy

• Now we can really make Best of the Web the best
  of the Web.

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Reporters jobs are safe

• Much of our blogging is chitchat and speculation
  only rarely do our bloggers research their
  opinions

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Reporters jobs are safe, II

• or their facts

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We spell relief B-L-O-G

• Editors of truly local papers cant rely on wire
  services to bail them out
• Blog content isnt as pithy as wire, but at
  least its local

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Why we think it works

• Takes readers seriously
• Connects directly
• Short n sweet
• Deeply involved with the community

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Community Involvement Works
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Community Focus Works

• Local editorial cartoons

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Community Participation Works

• Go Seek / Find Fang contests

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Community Participation Works

• User submitted photos

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Community Participation Works

• Vox

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Lessons Learned

• Understand time commitment
• Use a Blog Wrangler
• Dont try to predict passions or problems
• Set the tone
• Fluffiness is in the eye of the beholder