Steve Outing wrote a list of 10 words of advice for small newspapers for Editor & Publisher. Here’s the bullet point version (Outing’s list in bold), but you really need to read the whole thing. I’m adding college media-specific comments in italics.

1. Copy and build from the industry leaders
   Outing lists a number of for-profit newspapers that are doing innovative things online. I’d add that you should be paying attention to what some of the most innovative college media online sites are doing. See our College New Media Map for some sites who have been breaking ground in the online arena. And we’re always trying to find others. Remember, imitation isn’t only the sincerest form of flattery. It’s also a way you can navigate change.
   
2. Don’t hire print-focused employees
   Obviously, college media can’t not hire people just because they think online news is just a “fad” or print journalism is the highest form of journalism. But you shouldn’t promote those folks to newsroom leadership! We’ve been saying for over a year that if you want to get with the changing face of the media environment, the people who run your online presence need to be at or near the top of the chain of command. And those students who come to you with a print-centered mindset will change their mind eventually … we hope. If you don’t think this is still a problem, listen to Howard Owens: “I’ve run across far too many recent J-school grads that are as traditional in their thinking as any crusty old city editor you care to name. I’ve talked to other hiring managers about how hard it is to get recent J-school grads to take positions in the online departments — they all want to work for print. I’ve seen shiny new grads in newsrooms who won’t pick up a video camera or file a web-first story. It’s a pretty amazing phenomena. Instead, you need to develop an interview process that helps you discover who is really passionate about online.”
3. Hire a hot-dog programmer, one way or another
   Admittedly, this is a huge challenge for college media. Programmers cost money - lots more than reporters. That said, several papers have taken the step of hiring web programmers for their publications. Troll the computer science department, or even the computer design/art department. If you’re on a big campus, chances are there are some web gurus who are running weblogs or web sites who might have what you’re looking for. And if you can’t hire one, contract with one, or work with College Publisher to get your site to do what you need.
4. Find (free or cheap) help and go crazy with experimentation
   The first part of this equation is not a problem. We’ve got all kinds of free and cheap help around. The challenge is experimentation. And this is more of a problem than we’d like to admit. The truth is, we all fall in love with consistency and predictability - even college students. Experimentation takes risks, and it requires sometimes failing. But it must be done. Find the people who like to take risks (reasonable risks, if there is such a thing), and give them license to try new things. Again, open up the doors of the newsroom and look around on campus. Find someone who’s done something on YouTube and ask if they want to work with your staff. Come up with other experimental ideas.
5. Make a class assignment
   If you have a good relationship with your journalism department, find a professor who has the right attitude about new media (easier said than done, unfortunately), and see if she will work with you to come up with a class assignment that both challenges her students and meets a need for your media.
6. Join forces with other small papers
   Here’s a beauty of the Internet - it’s easy to connect. There are all sorts of groupings of newspapers that you can try to get together to solve common problems/challenges with new media. Look at the example shown by CSUwire last year.
7. Develop lots of localized online communities
   This is going to take work, and probably a dedicated staffer to help cultivate these communities. It’s also going to take an attitude that is willing to open up the gates of the news site to the readers. It’s a myth of online life that “if you build it, they will come.” You still have to engage the people in any kind of online situation, or the initiative will wither.
8. Utilize the camera-toting army
   If you’re not hosting or soliciting photographs from students on your campus, you need to. No excuses.
9. Mix up professional and citizen reporting
   If you want to get students passionate about your online site (and your news organization as a whole), there are two ways to do so: 1. Piss them off. 2. Give them a sense of ownership. It’s easy to find people (columnists, usually) who are adept at number 1, but much harder to commit to number 2. In the long run, number 1 is going to do more damage than good. The best way to achieve number 2 is to promote “citizen” (i.e., average student) content alongside your “professional” (i.e., student staff) content. This doesn’t mean you have to lower standards. But promote the contributed content in prominent places on your site. Don’t “ghetto-ize” it with a “citizen journalism” page.
10. Play off of what else is available online
    Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Creative Commons, etc. There are tons of useful tools available for free online. Make use of them. But read the Terms of Use closely.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Community, General Media, Multimedia views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.