Briggs Ch. 11 March 9, 2011
Posted by acusumano in : Assignments , add a commentAlthough most of the Briggs book focuses on aspects of digital journalism that display its strengths versus print, this chapter acknowledges something both good and bad for aspiring journalists: while print was at one time the only real legitimate news source, there are countless news sites online and it’s much harder to compete for an audience than print in its heyday.
Here are some tactics one can use to increase readership:
- Tracking your site content as well as page views and reader response. Briggs suggests setting benchmarks based on these figures.
- Optimize your site for search engines.
- Write effective headlines and stories for the Internet audience. That goes just as much for robots as well as regular readers.
- Distribute and advertise via social media.
- According to Monica Wright, the most important tip is:
Above all–good writing still prevails. Quality, relevant, in-depth content will not only attract the bots, but will capture new audiences as well.
Mike Starr - Getty Images
As a test, I did a Google News search on recently deceased Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr to see which results were the most prominent. While the news of his death is clearly the biggest part of the story and probably what readers are most interested in, it’s interesting to note that only three of the top five entries (as of this writing) are reports of that while the other two are about fan reactions and comments from Starr’s fellow “Celebrity Rehab” cast members. Those two articles are both courtesy of MTV, which says quite a lot about their position in the blogosphere. Check out “Man in the Box” from Alice in Chains’ debut album, “Facelift.”
