I n reviewing higher education news sites, she had discovered that taken as a whole, the news presences of many higher education news organizations are poorly designed. The lack dynamic content, are unclear as to what audience they wish to serve, and are still displaying their content mainly as static text. When compared with the robust news options made available in the private sector, they are lackluster in their presentation and their percentage of available readers suffers.
94% of higher education news editors say that their online publications are more important than their print counterparts for reaching audiences. Yet only 38% say that their online budget has increased.
Higher ed finds itself stuck in the mid-90s when it comes to their news presence. For those that have spruced up their home pages, often it is window dressing that hides the lack of content beneath. Georgy compared this to the Potemkin villages of Russian folklore, elaborate facades with nothing behind them.
Solving the Problem
- Tufts went outside higher ed to find its inspiration for its news presence. It looked at how external media were responding tot he challenges of changing audience expectations
- Shoestring Budgets are not hindrances. Georgy pointed out that many robust news examples have come from the online presences of newspaper web sites. Newspaper budgets have been cut to the bone in recent years, yet have been capable of producing media rich experiences with the tools and resources at hands. Higher Education can do the same.
Determining Stock and Flow
Georgy identified two types on news content that is produced. Stock is the durable stuff that is good or interesting two years from now as it is today. In contrast, Flow is immediate content that has an expiration date.
Stock – the End of the Press Release
Stock content could be considered the replacement for the traditional press release. But don’t think of it as such. Think what extra content can be added? Can video or audio be included? What about a photo gallery? What stories on your web site enhance this story or would be of interest to the readers of the story? How can the stock content be leverage to use the power of your web site and the wealth of content in provides? Emotional stories that drive desired actions is a valuable formula for created web presences that meet goals.
The Social Graph – Building Flow
Allowing your users to share your content easily with their social media networks is a first step towards building a web presence that leverages the social graph. With new followers and fans you open opportunities to have them be a part of the story. Instagram and Storify are two applications that allow our audiences to create the content we then use to tell our stories and encourages them to continue supply content and contribute.
Tips for Building for the Future
- Journalists are flooding the job market due to the implosion of newspapers. This presents a golden opportunity for higher education institutions to hire them and use them to help execute a media strategy.
- Get buy-in and make it collaborative. All the people creating news are on the same team. They all work to communicate the story of the institution.
- Editorial calendars and an institution wide information sharing process for upcoming stories is essential. Without it, you’ll find yourself working at cross purposes or rewriting content or material readily available from another source on your campus.
- News is a special content type and it needs its own design and style from other content. Be thoughtful and pay attention to how the design delivers information. Where are you leading people, where do you want them to go?
- Work hand in hand with your developers. Communicating with them is essential for building the best tools for communicating your message. For example, Harvard News built a widget that can be embedded into any web site that delivers news content to any site.
