APSE’s Atlantic Coast Region meeting kicked off last week with a session entitled "Practical ways to increase online content." The panel included: Gerry Ahern, Assistant Managing Editor / Colleges for Yahoo! Sports; Eric Frederick, managing editor for (Raleigh) newsobserver.com; and Dan Spears, sports editor at the Wilmington (N.C.) Star News.
While all three shared ideas, there were a few common themes. Building user engagement was a prime topic.
"While unique visitors to the site are important, what our people are really looking at is time spent," Ahern said. "We don’t just want to get them to the site, we want to keep them there.
"One of the best ways to do that is keep them involved. People want to have a voice, and they want someone to hear it. We can give them a forum for that."
Ahern said providing live chats during games is a great way to boost engagement.
"Instead of just yelling at the TV, they can have a live discussion on why the referee’s call was bad," Ahern said.
Another theme was photo involvement. One APSE member suggested photo galleries of fans at football and basketball games, an idea he admitted he stole from Newport News sports editor Nick Mathews during last year’s APSE Atlantic Region meeting. Spears said they execute similar ideas at his paper.
"Especially with secondary sports," he said. "We’ve been going out and shooting them, and maybe running a stand-alone photo in the section and dumping all the other photos into a gallery. Even without a story we’ve been getting comments on how great our coverage has been this year."
Frederick said it’s important to think outside the box when dealing with online content.
"People use online content differently than they use the paper," he said. "Things that might not work in the paper will work online.
"So its important to be think that way."
