Blogging guidelines, etc

Here's a really good story from the American Journalism Review, about newspaper blogs and developing guidelines.

Several thoughts that jumped out to me:
- Immediately setting forth what the purpose of each blog is.
- The idea of the newspaper inviting readers to blog, by submitting a topic and a sample posting or two. Then the paper would choose a few readers as bloggers.
- That the same legal guidelines that apply to the print product need to apply to blogging as well.
- Would one Northern Star editors' blog make more sense than having one for each editor? People could simply contribute when they had something good, and all of our Star-related conversations would occur in one blog.

A separate column from the same magazine talks about making online offerings more accessible to readers.

jim

The short list

After a meeting 11-22-06, here's the list of new-media priorities that emerged. These are in no particular order unless indicated. Obviously this isn't final, and these won't all get done right away. But it gives everyone a starting point.

Video
1. Create a partnership with Northern Television Center where the Star takes at least a couple of their video packages per week and puts them on our Web site.
2. Video Catch of the Day – every day, potentially sponsored


News
3. The “backpack reporter” – a reporter with a video camera and voice recorder in and around campus
4. News ticker for breaking campus news
5. Box scores in the sports section
6. Audio slide shows – narrated photos from a story that’s been in the paper
7. Adding photo captions to online stories


Online-only content
8. Extensive dining guide, to launch in January 2007. Allow advertisements that link to their page. People that advertise can get their own advertisement on their restaurant page that has a picture slideshow effect of their food and restaurant. Menus/hours.
9. Movie listings
10. Section for local bands. Have spots where bands can place samples of music, profiles, playing dates … advertise NSRadio’s local lounge there.
11. Horoscopes.
12. Online-only columns. An advice column like “Ask Elle” in the Sun-Times
13. Trivial facts: historical, fun/odd facts about people and places
14. Review of useful Web sites for college students (just plain fun / distracting)
15. Some form of travel section (day trips at college student level): Maybe an “On the Road Reporter” – finding historical places / oddball sites in the area

Interactive
16. Professor/course discussion boards for students
17. Flashmobs, where we tell people to show up at some random place at a certain time and potentially win something good, like an iPod.

Blogs
18. Huskie sports blog – especially during football and basketball seasons. Hosted by a Star sports columnist.
19. TV show blogs for some of the most popular shows
20. Blogs available for section editors


Radio and podcasts
21. Weekly live coverage – and also podcasted via audio or video


Promotion, etc.
22. Promote ALL of our new media stuff on FaceBook and MySpace, as well as in the paper. Basically, promote it to where the desired audience already is.
23. Edgier ads for NS Swap. Like, “SELL YOUR CRAP”
24. E-mail headlines and ads to users.
25. By next August: Kill the Northern Star Online and replace it with a new product. A community site that includes news but emphasizes the community stuff just as much. Do a huge promotional campaign when it launches.

Big list of new-media ideas from staff

Here's the list the Star staff came up with. Comments are from Eric Bambach, Star systems manager. Feel free to add your own comments or more ideas. - Jim

Video
1. Videos with NTC – a few newscasts or packages per week
Yes. Excellent. They said they wanted to do this. We want to do it. There is no reason not to do this.
2. Create a partnership with Northern Television Center where the Star takes at least a couple of their video packages per week and puts them on our Web site. Many papers and TV stations have these kinds of partnerships now.
See #1
3. AP Online Video network
What do you mean? A site where AP can come to us and post videos? Do they have videos we can use for our site?
4. Have a Catch of the Day – out on the town at the bars on Thurs-Fri-Sat.
5. One uber-important news item with narration
6. People love videos. Call it NIYouTube
And let NIU students post? That could be a lot of work....
7. Video. NTC meets people around campus. Sports clips, a diary of “put name here” show, and make ads for businesses. Do a lot of PR work with student activities. Allow organizations to submit work to be put online. For example, promotion of fundraisers … Greek organizations’ info films, etc. Hire Coms Media Studies students for video productions. Maybe work with some of the teachers to put the best student work up online. I know Prof. Laura Vasquez was trying to get stuff up on the Web.
8. Link to NTC newscasts / stories
9. Post clever, funny stuff with video every day. Maybe it’s a news report. Maybe it’s a field report – for example, wandering around the job fair and talking to people. Maybe some days it’s just a quick intro to a video submitted by a viewer.

Video General Comments
We are already creating a video framework so adding video content is easy. Once we get this framework we can add “Video Sections” or features as needed to expand the video content. Building the framework is the first step and after that new ideas should add easily.

News
10. Post stories to the Web site throughout the day
We have a web-only area. Reporters can also post stories to their respective sections too. This is already ridiculously easy we just need newsroom interest and motivation.
11. Photo captions for online stories
What do you mean? We can do this already. If we are not putting them up there then it's a small policy change for when we are posting stories.
12. The “backpack reporter” – a reporter with a video camera and voice recorder in and around campus
Awesome idea. This ties into the video and podcast system. The podcast system is already in place and the video framework is being set up.
13. Promote stories online the night before
With the new content management system and up-to-the minute budgeting this will be easier than before.
14. News ticker for breaking campus news
Very easy to do. I like it.
15. Box scores in the sports section
We can already do boxes, this is a newsroom interest/motivation thing, but an easy and worthwhile addition.
16. More national coverage
We pulled the AP news. So you want it back?
17. Links to major newspapers like the Chicago Tribune or Sun-Times
Then we should be reciprocal links on their site. Form a weak partnership. In the past sites generall “Trade Links”. Perhaps we could arrange to trade banner ads or something. We host theirs for free they host ours for free. It never hurts to ask. They charge a bit more, but we would probably be buried under more banner ads so it should even out.
18. Buy several digital point-and-shoot cameras that also shoot QuickTime movies, so that reporters can shoot mug shots, capture short video bytes, etc.
19. Buy several more digital audio recorders for reporters, so they can record interviews and other material for online components to their stories.
We have a new podcasting infrastructure that makes this drop dead simple. Reporters/sections could have their own podcasts.
20. An NIU crime database, based on what’s been in the Star police beat every day. Location map, date and time, type of crime.
Good idea. It would take a decent amount of manpower (120+ hours) to accomplish though. It should be a new site spin-off with its own domain name and look+feel like we do with ns swap and dining guide. NIUCrime.com?
21. Audio slide shows – narrated photos from a story that’s been in the paper
Fairly Simple with the new podcast system. Provide a link at the bottom of photo slideshows that opens a MP3.
22. NEW AP Newsfeed. The AP has an RSS feed publicly available for syndicating their content. We can subscribe to this feed for up-to-the-minute headlines on our site. The have different categories too like sports, world, etc.

Online-only content
22. Online menus for local businesses
Dining guide? We had that. We need to bring it back. The problem I recall is that we charged restaurants and not all of them paid. Plus, it is a small pain to get all their menu's hand-typed onto the web site.
23. Post DeKalb restaurant, bar, fast-food and delivery menus, prices and business hours. Could add restaurant reviews by readers, or we could make that a separate thing.
See #22
24. A daily update of events on and around the campus – possibly also to collect advertisement on the site
Perhaps provide a site where groups can post their own events and ideas (they do this now on NS Swap) but hold the comments for moderation ( liability/libel/slander issues etc.). This could be fairly simple to do. Give organizations a really generic login/password to post news.
25. Put up more events around town. Have a better monthly calendar than NIU’s site. I hate that thing. Advertise events there.
Perhaps tie it in to #24? If we do it correctly, we could easily MAKE a calender based on what organizations are doing that day/month/year etc. It would be up-to-the minute calendar of events.
26. “Drunk of the Night” – think Catch of the Day
27. Page of student work. Allow students to submit their work to be put in an on line portfolio type of page.
What kind of work? Simple blog style? Portfolios? Sounds complex and generic. Could we get more specific?
I think it would be neat to have an “Artists Corner” where the community and the photo/graphics dept could share and post artwork, galleries, etc.
28. Extensive dining guide. Allow advertisements that link to their page. People that advertise can get their own advertisement on their restaurant page that has a picture slide show effect of their food and restaurant.
Expanding on #22. Good. We should work with ads to sell this (again...) to local restaurants.
29. Bring back the dining guide/menus/hours. That was the only thing my friends and I used to go to the Web site for.
Yes! See #22
30. Movie listings
Could be very easy to syndicate.
31. Final exam times
Usefulness? Sounds like it would be harder to gather the information and
create a page around it than the service it would provide. However, this idea should not be lost if we make a Rate my professor type site.
32. Section for nightlife. Post activities for students around the area. Put up pictures taken during events. Have bar advertisements there to show special events.
NIUBars.com?
33. Section for local bands. Have spots where bands can place samples of music, profiles, playing dates … advertise NSRadio’s local lounge there.
See #27. We could create a community website for bands to post and share themselves.
34. The site used to have employee profiles. They were neat.
35. More fun things. Put the horoscopes online.
36. Change the layout to a cnn.com template. This one’s too bland.
There is a redesign in progress. In fact before we put too much new content on the website we should redesign to attract and keep readers as well an making a site that accommodates all the new content we will be making.
37. New Web site design. I don’t like it. Sans serif fonts would be easier to read online
See #36
38. A better, more user-friendly housing guide
Already done. Waiting on Ads to get us the data.....
39. Online-only columns. An advice column like “Ask Elle” in the Sun-Times
Very easy to do. We have to get newsroom interest/motivation though.
40. New student guide / services on campus, all listed on one page
41. Trivial facts: historical, fun/odd facts about people and places
Flavor web-only columns? We have the ability already, we just need newsroom interest.
42. Review of useful Web sites for college students (just plain fun / distracting)
See #41
43. Some form of travel section (day trips at college student level)
44. “On the Road Reporter” – finding historical places / oddball sites in the area (see roadsideamerica.com)
45. History facts about the Northern Star
A more specific example of #46. See #46
46. History about incidents at NIU through the years
Flavor? Perhaps we can pull random stories from the archives into a box on flavor's section and display them?
47. Audio or video interviews with Star editors about a controversial story or a tough ethical decision. Let readers into that process of why the paper does what it does.
Again, goes with video and podcasting. The podcasting framework is excellent and can be done now. The videos can be posted, but it will take a little while before (50-70 man-hours) before we have a decent framework for posting videos.

Interactive
48. Comment boxes for news posts
Uhm...Done. Anonymous commenting. If you meant something else, please elaborate.
49. The comments on the stories online have been a really great feature. I think they may deserve more attention. Perhaps a refer on our Web site that brings attention to “what others think” or something like that. Basically, I think more people need to know these comments exist and they are able to post their own.
Ok very easy to do.
50. Professor/course discussion boards for students
Perhaps a whole NIUClasses.com or NIUProfessors.com where students
can rate classes and professors.
51. Interactive poll we put on the Web site and post the results on the front page of the paper – breaking the barrier between Web and print
52. More interactive games for students to get involved in. Maybe NIU trivia with giveaways as an incentive.
53. For sports, a Web-only extended “rant”
See Blogs. This is an excellent idea and we should use both the sports guys from NSRadio and the sports department to come up with stories, rants, and point/counterpoint things.
54. How about a section on the site where readers can post questions for staff writers where the staff can respond in a professional way? Commenting on the site “as is” would be considered unprofessional.
Very true. Ask me about the “Dialog” system which is LIKE anonymous commenting, but involves the editors in a very public and official way. Instead of e-mailing section editors or specific reporters they click “Ask a question about this story” or “Start a Dialog on this story”. The section editor would get an e-mail and be able to reply to comments made and they would be posted to the website.
55. Some form of debate (Huskie Dog Pound / Dog Fight) where two views are present and arguing for and against some issue (politics, what NIU should be doing, etc.)
Can be done easily as web-only content (stories) now unless you want
to develop a specific section for this.
56. Editorials from students
Could be intersting and dangerous. This goes along with idea #24 on Online-Only Content. Create an editorial system on line that lets people submit editorials on line. Editorial board could review/edit/post them on line. We could have many more editorials that the print version allows us to publish.
57. Online surveys / voting
58. User-generated content. In an infinite variety of forms, but all centering on life at NIU. Conversations, videos, still photos, issue discussions, rate that ____ (CD, movie, restaurant, etc).
NIUProfessors.com, Photo/Artist sharing network, forums, dialog system, anonymous commenting.
59. Host Flickr groups where we encourage students to post their photos from various NIU events. Maybe a different group every week.
60. Find a way to connect with an audience via cell phones.
61. On the main Web site, announce Northern Star flashmobs once every couple of weeks, where we tell people to show up at some random place at a certain time and potentially win something good, like an iPod. (We’d have a drawing from among the people who showed up.) Example: Show up wearing a bandanna at 4:47 p.m. Thursday in front of the main doors of the library. You could instantly win a $50 Best Buy gift certificate.
62. NEW Interactive dining guide. Allow students to post reviews/commentary on restaurants like the anonymous commenting system for articles.


Blogs
63. We have completely ignored the growing cult-TV fandom this semester. How about a Web-only blog for “Lost,” “Battlestar Gallactica” and “Heroes” – TV shows more college students watch than watch movies? Can I write the “Lost” blog? – Tom Bukowski
You most certainly can write a move/TV show blog. Blogs take systems all of 3 minutes to create. The problem is in linking and promoting it. If you think you can promote it on facebook,AIM,friends, Id love to have more people approach me enthusiastically about Blog ideas.
64. Section editors can have a blog
Done. We need to generate interest and ideas within the sections and push
people to constantly (once-twice a week) update it.
65. Voices editor should host a blog on NIU issues. Could add this to the job description.
Awesome.
66. Huskie sports blog – especially during football and basketball seasons. Hosted by a Star sports columnist.
See #53


Radio and podcasts
67. Weekly live coverage
68. One home game from sports with commentary
69. Decide what NSRadio should evolve into. Does the station have a future playing commercial music? Local music that also can be podcast? Talk shows that also can be podcast? Sports events? Should the station do strictly podcasts? Maybe NSRadio as an entity disappears and its remaining content becomes part of the aforementioned new, all-encompassing Web site. We do live streaming when it’s warranted – sports events, live bands in-studio or remotes from events, for instance. But otherwise, we produce podcasts that can be downloaded and consumed at the user’s convenience. We’d stop buying the TMCentury music service and we’d stop Webcasting copyrighted music. I’m not sure there’s any reason to keep doing this, given our lack of audience and revenue. Internet users who want music are not coming to the Star or NS Radio unless it’s local music they can’t get anywhere else.

Archives / search
70. Old story search engine
We have this. Any specific feature it's missing?
71. Yellow Pages search
How would we keed this updated? How would we verify it's accuracy? Collect information? Seems like too much work and competing with too many other well-established products.
72. Archive the PDF’s on Web site
Easily done. We have all the old PDF's. We just need to make a page to display them. 10-16 man-hours of work.

Promotion, etc.
73. Promote ALL of our new media stuff on FaceBook and MySpace, as well as in the paper. Basically, promote it to where the desired audience already is.
74. Should the Star continue to publish a regular paper on Fridays? Should it be smaller, with lots of promos for online material that would help students plan their weekend? How much money would we save by reducing the paper to 8 pages on Fridays or – shudder – not having a print edition at all on Fridays?
75. Instead of InCopy, create all stories in an XML template or other format that can be quickly placed online. The question to answer here is, would it be easier to move stuff into InCopy or directly into Indesign than it is to move current data to an online format? I think K4 can tag and database these stories just as easily as InCopy stories, right?
We should be very careful about how we decide to tie K4 into the website. It has been proposed that the stories come directly from K4 when they are tagged as “Done”. If a story is wrong we could edit it in InCopy and the website would reflect the changes. However we should NOT do this because such a direct coupling of the K4 database and the website will allow a hacker to change the data. That is, if we provide a direct link between K4 and the website, if we ever got hacked actual story content could be changed without us knowing. At least now we have a pristine copy of the articles if something every gets hacked we will know that is not what we published.
76. I saw a great ad in St. Louis for a service like NS Swap. It said, “SELL YOUR CRAP” in huge type.
77. Kill the Northern Star Online and replace it with a new product. A community site that includes news but emphasizes the community stuff just as much. Give it a catchy name. Do a huge promotional campaign when it launches. Make users register (free) so we have their e-mails and can send them daily e-mail promos of what’s on the site, including ads.
We NEED to do this. We cannot get even a quarter of the new ideas here on the current website. Before we just start bolting crap onto the current front page we should create a new design that is MADE to accommodate all the new features. Timeline for this should be middle of the Spring Semester.
78. Start a new-media bulletin board somewhere in the Star office, where anyone can post ideas, articles, whatever. Put this emphasis front-and-center and keep people thinking about it.
Starweb/wiki?
79. NEW. Email system. Allow people to subscribe to a daily e-mailing of our headlines/content/features. Put banner ads in the e-mails. We used to do this.


Overall: These are great ideas and I look forward to developing some of them. However, we should not get too hasty and put out crappy 1st draft websites/features. We have to remember that the website does not have and does not need daily deadlines. We should emphasize usability and appeal. If we don't do that we will lose credibility with the community and each feature we push out after that will get a smaller and smaller reception. We need to start designing each of these from the ground up and in conjuction with a website redesign. This will allow us to put out polished working and usuable products when they launch. Some features will work easily on the existing site, but some ideas should be held until we finish a re-design.

20 new-media ideas for the Star

Here's a list of random ideas to help get everyone thinking. Feel free to post your own lists in replies.

1. User-generated content. In an infinite variety of forms, but all centering on life at NIU. Conversations, videos, still photos, issue discussions, rate that ____ (CD, movie, restaurant, etc).

2. Voices editor should host a blog on NIU issues. Could add this to the job description.

3. Huskie sports blog – especially during football and basketball seasons. Hosted by a Star sports columnist.

4. Promote ALL of our new media stuff on FaceBook and MySpace, as well as in the paper. Basically, promote it to where the desired audience already is.

5. Host Flickr groups where we encourage students to post their photos from various NIU events. Maybe a different group every week.

6. Post DeKalb restaurant, bar, fast-food and delivery menus, prices and business hours. Could add restaurant reviews by readers, or we could make that a separate thing.

7. Buy several digital point-and-shoot cameras that reporters can use to shoot mug shots, capture short video bytes, etc.

8. Buy several more digital audio recorders for reporters, so they can record interviews and other material for online components to their stories.

9. Instead of InCopy, create all stories in an XML template or other format that can be quickly placed online. The question to answer here is, would it be easier to move stuff into InCopy or directly into Indesign than it is to move current data to an online format?
I think K4 can tag and database these stories just as easily as InCopy stories, right?

10. Find a way to connect with an audience via cell phones.

11. Create a partnership with Northern Television Center where the Star takes at least a couple of their video packages per week and puts them on our Web site. Many papers and TV stations have these kinds of partnerships now.

12. Post clever, funny stuff with video every day. Maybe it’s a news report. Maybe it’s a field report – for example, wandering around the job fair and talking to people. Maybe some days it’s just a quick intro to a video submitted by a viewer.

NIUTube?

13. Audio or video interviews with Star editors about a controversial story or a tough ethical decision. Let readers into that process of why the paper does what it does.

14. Should the Star continue to publish a regular paper on Fridays? Should it be smaller, with lots of promos for online material that would help students plan their weekend? How much money would we save by reducing the paper to 8 pages on Fridays or – shudder – not having a print edition at all on Fridays?

15. On the main Web site, announce Northern Star flashmobs once every couple of weeks, where we tell people to show up at some random place at a certain time and potentially win something good, like an iPod. (We’d have a drawing from among the people who showed up.) Example: Show up wearing a bandana at 4:47 p.m. Thursday in front of the main doors of the library. You could instantly win a $50 Best Buy gift certificate.

16. I saw a great ad in St. Louis for a service like NS Swap. It said, “SELL YOUR CRAP” in huge type.

17. Kill the Northern Star online and replace it with a new product, something like what Vanderbilt is doing. A community site that includes news but emphasizes the community stuff just as much. Give it a catchy name. Do a huge promotional campaign when it launches. Make users register (free) so we have their e-mails and can send them daily e-mail promos of what’s on the site, including ads.


18. Decide what NSRadio should evolve into. Does the station have a future playing commercial music? Local music that also can be podcast? Talk shows that also can be podcast? Sports events? Should the station do strictly podcasts?
Maybe NSRadio as an entity disappears and its remaining content becomes part of the aforementioned new, all-encompassing Web site. We do live streaming when it’s warranted – sports events, live bands in-studio or remotes from events, for instance. But otherwise, we produce podcasts that can be downloaded and consumed at the user’s convenience.
We’d stop buying the TMCentury music service and we’d stop Webcasting copyrighted music. I’m not sure there’s any reason to keep doing this, given our lack of audience and revenue. Internet users who want music are not coming to the Star or NS Radio unless it’s local music they can’t get anywhere else.


19. Start a new-media bulletin board somewhere in the Star office, where anyone can post ideas, articles, whatever. Put this emphasis front-and-center and keep people thinking about it.

20. An NIU crime database, based on what’s been in the Star police beat every day. Location map, date and time, type of crime.

Vlogs and other new-media ideas

A few new-media ideas for the Star and NS Radio:

Vlog is short for video blog. See www.rocketboom.com for an example. I don’t think hard news would be the best fare for this to succeed on the Star's site. Something more entertainment related. Maybe Flavor could help develop and contribute to it, since some of their content translates well to a video format. Sports, too. A couple of minutes a day would be long enough. For example:

• The Diet Coke and Mentos experiment you did this spring, and other strange science experiments, would be perfect for this.
• How-to cooking features
• Photo polls
• Football tailgating
• Funny takes on soft news stories that have been in the Star, like the Cole fountain, new Subway (could even play it like you think NIU is getting an underground train).
  Tours of campus buildings and random interviews with people inside.

We have budgeted for a digital video camera this year. Remember, though, that this kind of stuff needn’t have high production value. In fact, sometimes the cheesier it looks, the more fun and better received it is. The key factors: Is it smart and funny? And we also would want regular hosts who are good on camera.

We could sell advertising around this, obviously. If it’s consistently well-done, I think we could build a loyal audience.

NS Radio and Star Sports could do a daily Huskie Sports video update, too – maybe incorporating highlight video from sports info.

I wonder if this might be the future for NS Radio – producing audio and video podcasts and vlogs that users could download and play any time, anywhere.

- Jim

Redesign update from Star editors

As the Star's redesign enters week 2, the editors did a lengthy piece on today's Voices page to update readers about the changes. See http://www.northernstar.info/articles/?id=13798. Or just read it below:

Addressing common redesign concerns

It has been a week since the Northern Star unveiled its new look and layout. The staff editorial Tuesday explained the basis for needing a change, but it was intentionally brief as to why specific alterations were made. We felt it best to wait and see which items garnered the most compliments and, more importantly, the most criticism or questions. We’ve tracked readers’ concerns through the voice mails and letters that flooded our mailboxes, as well as four different message board threads. Any change this drastic rarely occurs all at once. Many improvements are still in the works, as the initial premiere was just a step. After seeing a few reoccurring critiques, we feel it is time to explain why certain decisions were made and clear up any further questions regarding this product.

What’s new?
One large concern for the new paper is that things are difficult to find or decipher. This is our fault, having not run a table of contents or a list of terms the first day. Here are some basics:

• "Flavor" - Entertainment page
• "Voices" (formerly the "Perspectives" page) - A page that features our columnists’ opinions, as well as our staff editorial, an opinion piece written by the five-member Northern Star Editorial Board
• "News" - A combination of the former "Campus" and "Metro" pages into one larger, three-page DeKalb-encompassing layout
• "Around 60115" (formerly the "FYI" calendar) - a place to find out what is happening around NIU and DeKalb
• "On the map" - U.S. and Illinois news
• "On the globe" - World news
• "Starstruck" - Celebrity news
• "In the game" - Athletics beyond NIU

Page order
The paper has two specific ways to read it. The first half will provide people with headlines, followed by news, then editorials commenting on news, before reaching the middle, transitional pages. Entering the Northern Star through the back, readers will get celebrity news, entertainment and sports before backing into the middle portion. This provides readers with a clear cut way to get the "need to know" through the front, and the "want to know" through the back.

Advertising
One common observation is that there are more ads. This is not true. There is 40 percent of the paper allotted to ad space, which is the same amount as before. However, many days throughout the year we don’t use all 40 percent because of market conditions. We fill the remaining space with excess stories. The first week of classes finds many clients (i.e., book stores) buying full page slots and vying more heavily for your business. Thus, it appears we have more ads because all available space is taken. Yet the criticism that there is less room for content factually is incorrect, and we assure you the ratio of news to ads is the same.

Sports
Another predominant topic of conversation regarding the new design is the removal of the Sports section from the back page. In an extensive survey compiled by NIU’s Department of Marketing last June, it was reported only 14 percent of student’s primary reason for reading the Star are the Sports pages. Additionally, the students, faculty and staff surveyed were asked to rank the importance of each section from 1 (not at all important) to 4 (very important). NIU sports received an average vote of 2.58, which placed it 13 out of 19 categories. These statistics, when put up against the feedback for moving the section to the inside, led us to one conclusion: Those who read Sports do so more loyally than any other section in the paper. However, those who avoid it do so more regularly than any other section as well. There is a limited crossover audience. Therefore, we felt this section could be placed anywhere in the paper and maintain its readership. Also, we made the section larger and upped the minimum number of guaranteed daily pages from one to two. This new location allows for full two-page spreads and greater layout packages.

Web site
We understand we have maintained an award-winning Web site for several years. However, we were unable to launch both a new paper and a new site at the same time. Keeping the former site, complete with outdated staff listings, section names, logos and information would have been amateurish. We have full intentions of rebuilding our site back to the quantity of information visitors are accustomed to. This process, as it was before, will be gradual and should be completed in its entirety by the end of the semester. Hang in there, we assure you it is far from complete.

Voices
This section was, and still is, one of the most affected areas of the paper. In fact, the staff and layout is not yet complete. The editorial pages have been dropped from three to two. This does not mean we are limiting the number of perspectives allowed in our paper. We have plans to increase the number of columnists both in the print as well as online versions of the Star. Also, as some have speculated, we have not eliminated the Letters to the Editor section. Your comments will begin to run this week, and will continue to be a staple of the paper as long as you send your feedback.

Weekender
The weekly entertainment insert is no more. We found a number of students only read the paper on Thursdays because of Weekender. Instead of offering this audience only one day worth of interesting material, we decided to provide the same content, just each day of the week instead of one lone insert. The Flavor page will still feature local band interviews, album and movie reviews, art coverage and entertainment. It also will be more interactive and entertaining.

Shorter stories
As is the case with questions regarding advertising, those concerned with story brevity are a bit misinformed. Yes, the text of our stories are shorter. However, the information removed from the body of each piece has not been eliminated. It has been moved from paragraphs and inserted in boxes and charts. When skimming a page, as statistical evidence shows most readers do, these boxes are read more often than lengthy paragraphs. Breaking information down into graphics provides the same amount of data in a quicker-to-process manor. No information is being withheld. No information is being "dumbed down," as many like to say. It is the same material, different mediums. Additionally, we have included an "In Brief" portion for most articles to sum up the entire piece in a sentence or two.

Front page
This has been the biggest change. First, you will notice we now feature full-color front pages daily. In the past we used color only once or twice a week. This acquisition was the No. 1 priority in our re-design. Since we are entirely self-funded and receive no student fees, some concessions were made to offset this cost (i.e., allowing ads on the back page).

Secondly, we no longer run full stories on our cover. Instead, we have several headlines, summaries and art items. Though we understand the concept of "front page news," we also feel it is our responsibility to get the greatest amount of information to readers as quickly as possible. This layout gives us a chance to utilize as many reference items as possible, and does not restrict us to the limitations of conventional design. Before this new layout, glancing at the front page only told you what was on the front page. Now readers get an increased overview of our complete content.

Lastly, a large concern has been story placement. Many people questioned whether stories such as those regarding WiFi locations and video game technology merit a place on the front. In actuality, those stories ran on page five - the final page of the news section - following more traditional, hard-hitting news items. Just because a story is referenced on the cover along side serious news topics does not mean its placement within the paper will be on the same level. We feel we should not be in the practice of telling readers what to think is the most important news item of the day. That should be up to readers’ individual tastes; after all, news varies per person and should reflect every reader. Our job is to provide as much news as possible and allow individuals the right to choose what is read first.

The Star's new redesign

The Star's redesign launched today (Tuesday, 1-17-06). I've posted most of the pages here. Whether you love it or hate it, we would love to hear your comments.

Quick rundown of the major changes:
- A magazine-style cover each day, in full color.
- Sports moves from the back page to two full pages inside.
- A daily entertainment page, called "Flavor," instead of a weekly Weekender section.
- Big emphasis on reader-friendly tools like breakout boxes, subheads, numerous points of entry to every story or package.
- Sudoku.
- All-new flag and typography.

Also worth noting is that our students remain fully committed to being an aggressive newspaper with a big emphasis on in-depth and investigative reporting. Everything is just repackaged with busy (and sometimes uninformed) readers in mind.

Missouri's e-paper

Here's what they're doing at the University of Missouri: a true e-paper.

Star editors, consider subscribing to this for ideas. Subscribe at: http://emprint.dns.overdrive.com/Register.asp.

Thanks to Bob Palermini at the LA Times for pointing out this site.

fewer print editions?

One interesting suggestion from a suburban editor said the Star should consider publishing fewer print editions - his reason being that ink on paper is no longer the best way to report breaking news. The Web site and radio station/podcast, on the other hand, would be updated several times each day.

Let's say the Star were to stop doing a paper edition on Fridays (traditionally our lowest-circulation day). Would this drive readers/listeners and advertisers to the Web, or would we simply lose most of our audience for a day? What if we did it on another weekday instead?

If we were to try this, maybe initially we'd load up online features and special ads one day a week, then promote it heavily in the paper, with flyers, on buses, whatever. Build that audience for a few weeks before pulling the plug on print that day?

Your thoughts?

As we get started ...

I'll be raising a lot of "what if" questions in these posts, and would encourage all of you to do the same. Don't panic if you see what looks like an incredibly stupid idea. It doesn't mean the Star is adopting it. This blog is just a collective thinking process where no idea is too lame to share.

Suggestions for improving the blog are most welcome.

Here's some background about the Star today: It is a 16,000-circulation campus newspaper, a Web site and an online radio station. All components are run completely by about 200 students and all are located in NIU's Campus Life Building. The Star covers news from NIU, DeKalb, Sycamore and surrounding areas. It subscribes to The Associated Press for non-local stories, photos and graphics.

Maria Krull and I are the only professional staffers - Maria as the business adviser and me as the news adviser. We also employ a graduate assistant, Deanna Cabinian, as NS Radio Station Manager. The editor in chief this year is Derek Wright.

The Star consistently wins national and state awards for reporting, photography, design, editing and its online entities. But, like so many other newspaper companies, we are concerned about declining readership and advertising revenues. Our Web site is in a period of transition and our radio station is still in the formative stages. So, we view this as an ideal time to talk about exactly what role those products should play in the Star's media presence.

Welcome

Hello! You found us. This blog will serve as a meeting room for conversation about the future of the Northern Star, the daily student newspaper, Web site and online radio station at Northern Illinois University. Students, alumni and others in the newspaper industry already have begun this conversation by answering our online questionnaire. Now we'll start posting some of the ideas we've gathered, along with a lot of questions that we can explore as a group. We look forward to your participation as we decide what exactly student media should look like in the coming years.

- Jim