This week over on GrowingAudience.com, NAA released the latest in an ongoing series of Audience Building Initiative case studies. These case studies, by Rich Gordon of the Medill School of Journalism, look at initiatives that have successfully grown newspaper Web site traffic. This time, Gordon focused on The Racine (Wis.) Journal Times.
The Racine (Wis.) Journal Times (print circulation 28,000 daily, 30,000 Sunday) built an active online community by offering Web site users the opportunity to comment on the news. Using simple (and free, open source) technology, the paper’s journalists have posted content, solicited user comments and managed user interaction to keep conversations lively and on track.
In 2007, the “News and Views Weblogs” section on journaltimes.com has been averaging more than 200 user comments a day. As user participation grew, so did the paper’s Web site traffic. In just two years, the number of online users who visit the site regularly (once a week or more) more than doubled, and monthly page views more than tripled.
Learn more about the Journal Times' initiative here.