A Portfolio of Success
In 2005 we worked from the premise that our audience had much more to contribute to the digital dialogue. We created the award-winning Vita.mn, a social media site focused on encouraging readers help each other find relevant activities. This early social media effort included:
Professional journalism that was the basis of the user dialogue A wide variety of user-generated content such as guides, ratings, discussions, favorites A rich calendar of events The ability to save content such as reviews, favorite restaurants, bars, bands A variety of contesting Even the "About Us" page was a Wiki
The News-Times in Danbury, Connecticut, exploits Semantic Web and Search technologies such as text mining and other cutting-edge tools. They allowed: Highly relevant serendipitous content discovery Automated concept and topics pages around people, places, organization, etc. Radically improved, automated photo gallery creation Elimination of content path dead ends Automated inline hyper-linking to relevant concepts Seamless relevant federated search of all media types A much richer content experience without an increase in resources Traffic increases of more than 30% the first month
ShopMinnesota.com was created as a virtual shopping brand. It exploited local search technologies to provide complete retailer inventories but it's biggest strength is in the strategic partnerships: Local area chambers of commerce helped small retailers provide and maintain their inventories on the site The Minnesota Retailers Association provided the URL and access to its constituent retailers, as well as valuable feedback Both provided sales access to multiple retailers to create extremely effecient sales efforts
Seattle Post-Intelligencer is the largest metro daily newspaper to convert to an online-only business model for revenue and audience, an effort achieved in only six weeks. Results are exceeding expectations. The effort required: Deep analysis of audience traffic patterns Extensive revenue and expense modeling Strategic staffing models Extensive product and content analysis
VidaEnElValle.com is a bilingual site focused on the Central Valley's Latino readership: Produced in Spanish and English Focused on the fastest-growing audience segment Attracts non-traditional advertisers Expands brand Later expanded to cover the entire Central Valley Sister print publication
StarTribune.com is the leading news Web site in Minnesota by almost any measure and achieved many goals: Tripled revenues to more than $24 million annually Reduced expenses, improved profitability Sustained double-digit annual audience growth Consistently among the highest rated news sites for audience engagement Numerous industry awards
2007 NAA Edgie award winner for Best Local Guide and Entertainment site
Vita.mn was a site that allowed social media to provide the bulk of the content. User tagging, reviews, lists and guides flesh out the skeleton of highly relevant events listing tools.
For the second consecutive year StarTribune.com won the award for design. Judges commented that "the clean design of the ... Web site has made the user experience more positive. They have put the online focus on visual storytelling, multimedia and local content."
In 2007 NAA Edgie award winner for Best Local Shopping and Directory Strategy. ShopMinnesota.com had been the only winner in this circulation category for the two years this prize has been awarded. According to then president of the Digital Media Federation, "the judges this year bypassed the finalists stage, promoting one great entry to winner status."
The judges said, "In the nascent but fast-developing area of local shopping, ShopMinnesota understands the right formula for pleasing advertisers and site visitors. Other publisher's should take note of the site's relationship with a statewide retail association."
"Site visitors can quickly find the content and classifieds they're seeking because of StarTribune.com's thoughtful design," judges wrote. "The home page allows for customization to create a highly relevant experience for the user."