The News-Gazette in Champaign, Ill., has launched a special online section to get local kids involved in the newspaper and Web site – all centered around Harry Potter. The fifth Harry Potter movie hit theaters earlier this week, and children (and adults) across the world are eagerly awaiting the seventh and final book, to be released later this month.
The News-Gazette Potter site includes comments from local children (and some adults) responding to questions such as, “What do you think will happen in book seven?” and “Is Snape a good guy or a bad guy?” Other features include a calendar of Harry Potter-related events, polls, photos from readers and a spell feature where site visitors can create their own spells, guess what other people’s spells do and more.
The most popular feature is “Send a Howler.” (For those who haven’t read the first six books yet, a howler is an audio-telegram many students at Hogwarts receive from their parents when the parents are upset. A student who opens the telegram gets to hear his or her dear parents yelling at them from miles away.) Readers can send their own Howlers, or the much-nicer Owl message.
Jean McDonald, director of information systems at the News-Gazette, wrote in an e-mail the recently added Harry Potter trivia feature is quickly gaining in popularity. The newspaper partnered with local book store Pages for All Ages with trivia contest prizes (book and food coupons) for those who answered at least eight (out of 10) questions correctly.
McDonald wrote, “We wanted to try something different and interactive, aiming at younger readers – an age group that isn’t likely to be drawn to our site right now.” There is significant promotion on the News-Gazette newspaper Web site for the niche site.
This is a good example of using a current event to attract a valuable demographic while partnering with a local advertiser and creating an engaging newspaper experience.
Note: Thanks for Jean McDonald at the News-Gazette for telling us about the project. If your newspaper has launched an interesting new project, please let us know!