Week 6 assignment:

1. For a series of assignments that begin with this one, you will need to identify a publication, company or organization for or about which you will create online content. This entity can be real or imagined, corporate or non-profit, local or national or international. Some examples: Outside Magazine, The New York Times, Coin Collector’s Digest, Coca-Cola, Habitat for Humanity, World Vision, International Association of Business Communicators, the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador. The entity you choose should be a publication or organization with which you have or want to have some connection or affiliation, and one with which you are already familiar. Your organization can be the one for which you already work, or one for which you want to work in the future.Your assignment this week is to write as much as you can about the point of view you are taking and about the publication or organization for or about which you will be creating content. So, do some research. Your finished piece should tell us much about your audience. Use the questions in Chapter 5 of the textbook to inform your work. Include somewhere in your submission the style guide you will adhere to when creating online content, such as Associated Press, Chicago, MLA, Wired, etc. If you will be developing your own style guide, state that.

 

Summary of audience needs for my site

The site for which I am creating content is an in-house training manual designed for members of the student newspaper staff and others who may be interested in its operations. The end goals include:

• Easy-to-find training materials
• FAQ
• Transparency into policies and procedures for the university community

Audience profile

The audience includes student media members and others interested in the student newspaper and newspaper’s website for N.C. A&T State University.

 

The audience is very specific. We’re drawing from a narrow segment of the campus population and to provide information in an engaging manner.

This site will be for student media members and for those affiliated with the campus newspaper.

Key audience members are:

• Current staff members
  • Editors
  • Business staff (sales, manager)
  • Interns
  • Editorial assistants
  • Contributors
  • Prospective editors/paid staff
  • Current staff members’ families
  • Current board members
  • Prospective students

Current staff members

The students who are most vested in the content housed on the site are the paid staff (editors, reporters, business staff) and those who hope to become paid staff members.

The current staffers have little time for meetings, try to sandwich training sessions between classes and jobs, and have a desire to produce a strong newspaper and website.

The 2012-13 staff is very young. There are three returning paid editors and four returning writers. Everyone else, from the business sales staff to the photo editors, is new.

This staff will face challenges:

• Living up to the past staff’s work ethic and desire to break stories
• Molding raw talent into the stuff on which newsrooms are built
• Keeping the product at the level to which the campus has become accustomed.
• Recruitment and retention of contributors
• Finding their replacements

Other challenges may include:

• Bumps and bruises while the new leaders learn the ropes
• Increase in wire content as contributors become familiar with news writing
• Deadlines: some contributors aren’t buying into the newsroom (completing assignments on time)
• Advertising revenue is down, locally and nationally, and this will effect commission sales
• Time management (class comes first)

Parents

Parents may consult the site to learn about training opportunities available for their children.

Parents are invited to tour the newsroom during their visits to campus.

Based on history, parents of student media members:

• Follow their child’s progress
• Subscribe to the newspaper and RSS feeds
• Support their child’s pursuits in the field of JOMC

 

Board members

Members of the newspaper’s advisory board might find material of interest on the site. Information can be easily obtained, offering them a quick look at:

• Board meeting dates, minutes and agendas
• Newspaper policies and procedures

Prospective students

The site can be used as a recruitment tool, drawing users from the audience of students who will attend the university.

Future student media members want to connect with the editors and the adviser. They’ll find the following on the site:

• Multimedia presentation of what we do and how we do it
• Staff application kit
• Connection options with the editors (Facebook and Twitter)

Purpose of this publication

This site will provide information about:

• Training manual and current training schedule
  • Business staff training manual
  • News staff training manual
  • Advertising information with publication schedule
  • Deadlines
  • Hiring process
    • Job descriptions
    • Payroll schedule (per academic year)
    • Mission statement
    • Policies
      • Advertising
      • Attendance
      • Disciplinary action
      • News
      • Ethics
      • Libel
      • plagiarism
      • Travel
      • Web first approach to news
      • Procedures
        • Breaking news
        • Page production process
        • Story assignment process
        • Advertising sales and commission process
        • Web first approach to news
        • Terminology (news lingo)

List of the competition (who else wants my audience)

Possible competition:

• Rival newspapers
  • FAMU
  • Howard
  • NCCU
  • Rival schools
    • Other schools with similar JOMC departments/schools in our

Style issues

The newspaper’s in-house style is a mash-up of:

• The Associated Press
• News & Record (local daily newspaper)

Information challenges

The two challenges we face are

• Keeping the content up to date
• Maintaining audience engagement

Your response to information challenges

• Incorporate multimedia
  • Videos of “what we do”
    • Great as a recruitment tool for incoming freshmen
    • Fun for staff moral
    • Cheap to make in house
• Use social media to engage staff and followers
  • Tweet updates
  • Create FaceBook groups
    • Where are they now? For former editors, staff
    • Want to join the fun? For incoming students
    • Get the 411 for current staff