Entry submitted by:Tim Lott
General Manager, Statesman.com
Austin American-Statesman
(512) 399-6611
To mark Austin360.com’s 10th year, staffers rolled out a variety of projects in 2007 designed to reinvigorate the site and encourage increased visitor participation. These included:
The A-List: Want to know what’s hip, hot and happening in Austin? Check out The A-List. Each week, we send photographers to selected events across the city, where they snap pictures and hand out cards promoting the site. The resulting galleries and blogs have been a huge hit, helping contribute to year-long, double-digit increases in page views.
It’s so popular, in fact, that event promoters now actively lobby in hopes of being picked. Your A-List: An expansion of The A-List, Your AList, gives readers control of the Web site. Each week, we let them tell us where to find the best of everything in Central Texas with our four new “best-of” polls. In the first month alone, more than 90,000 votes were cast. Winners get certificates and banners.
Soundcheck360: Austin is the “Live Music Capital of the World,” so it only makes sense that Austin360 would give the city’s musicians a place to showcase their work. That’s where SoundCheck360 comes in. In addition to listening to approximately 500 full-length tracks, visitors can also read about each featured band and view photos. The player also accepts videos.
Austin City Limits and South by Southwest Music Festivals: Austin360.com is the source for details on the city’s two annual music festivals, Austin City Limits and South by Southwest (SXSW). Multiple resources are deployed to ensure our coverage – before, during and after – is the most comprehensive on the Web. Our Austin Music Source blog features the latest reviews and updates, and our staff photographers and videographers capture the scenes – with a little help from The A-List crew.
Reader participation is also key – we actively solicit reader photos and feedback on our blogs. This includes our first-ever Austin Movie Awards. The reader poll wrapped up on the same day that the Oscars were presented. We’ve also launched multiple “hot or not”-style polls, including contests such as a search for the biggest “Star Wars” fan and hottest bachelor and bachelorette contest, coinciding with an Austinite’s appearance on “The Bachelor.” Reader blogs also get considerable play on the site.
We want readers to know they have an ownership stake in Austin360.com. It’s not our site; it’s theirs, and we’ve worked to show them that all year long.