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.