By Ben Smith
Social Media Manager
Lawrence Journal-World / The World Company

Social media is more than an online fad. It’s changing the way we communicate with each other and with our communities. Here at the World Company, we have a tradition of embracing new technology, and of being leaders in news and communications. Many people in our organization have been using Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace — personally and professionally — since the networks were born. But we think that everyone in our company — from the customer rep in our cable TV division to the newspaper circulation manager — should be engaged in social media. So, over the last few months we’ve been implementing some major changes to include social media in our daily operations across all divisions of our organization.

A big part of social media is to be transparent and open, so here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re embracing social media.

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By Marc Wilson
General Manager
TownNews.com

Rupert Murdoch is in the headlines for threatening to block Google from indexing his newspaper web sites, but community newspaper publisher Mark Roby in South Dakota is already doing so — and has been for years.

Roby, publisher of the Public Opinion in Watertown, S.D., is a long-time personal friend (and former TownNews.com board member). We often talk about the impact of the Internet on newspapers, and several years ago I told him we can block Google and other major search engines from crawling and indexing sites. He asked that we do so.

Google, Yahoo and the other reputable search engines have honored the block. (Less reputable Internet companies won't honor the blocks, and when we set up technical roadblocks to stop their spiders, they will intentionally end-run our blocks.)

"Our philosophy," Roby said, "has been to not allow aggregators to crawl through our site. As with our print product, we want readers to come to our 'front page' and then go inside...."

When Internet gurus speak, they often will talk about "Internet 2.0," which — in brief — means a search-based Internet. Under "Internet 1.0", readers had to go to specific web sites and drill down to find information. So, for example, if readers wanted news about the Chicago Cubs they would go to chicagotribune.com, click on sports, then click on the baseball link, then the Cubs link. At every step along the way, the readers were exposed to advertising.

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By Deb Shaw
Editor, Suburban Publisher

Put the power of individual thought to work for your company

Did you see the report on the news recently about the groom who had just said his “I Do’s” and instead of leaning in to kiss his blushing bride, he pulled out his smart phone to update his marital status on Facebook? Traditionalists were no doubt horrified by such a social gaffe; but that singular act reflects the immediacy of conveying news when it’s important to the person who wants to tell it. There is a lesson here folks.

Social media has been getting lots of ink lately — it’s the current wave coming in from the swells of the big deep unknown of the technology evolution. Strategies abound for utilizing these tools to both disseminate and collect news; for connecting and engaging audiences in narrow channels; and for popularizing and embedding staff writers on more personal levels in the community they serve. SNA has hosted several webinars on relative aspects including a recent discussion on Real Time Syndication, Facebook & Twitter — How To Make These Tools Work In Your Online Newsroom featuring The Hour Company’s Web Development Director Matt Terenzio.

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By Susan Karol, Ph.D.
Executive Director, SNA Foundation

More than 3,000 randomly-chosen newspaper Web site users completed online surveys regarding their opinions on whether newspaper Web sites should accept user-generated content, what types of user submissions would be acceptable, how newspapers should manage and regulate these contributions, whether the newspaper’s credibility or integrity is comprised by the acceptance of this material, and more. In addition, more than 200 community newspaper editors and publishers were surveyed to gain their insight on these issues and add perspective to the public study.

Results show that newspaper Web site users do want the ability to participate on these sites. In particular, they are interested in sharing their opinions; such as providing comments on staff-generated stories, posting opinions, contributing to forum discussions, and providing reviews. When asked as to the value of user-submitted content, the most cited response was that this citizen participation allows for diverse points of view. Nearly half of the survey respondents have posted content on a newspaper Web site in the past and more than three-quarters have posted to non-newspaper sites.

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