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May 28, 2008
Behind the Winning Entries: Savannahnow.com
Weekly, now through the end of summer, I’ll be posting one of the winning Digital Edge Award entries from the 2008 awards. All the entries are available in the report “Behind the Winning Entries,” but posting them here over time may make them more digestible and spark ideas in your newsroom as different issues come up in your communities. Here’s our latest installment:
Most Innovative Visitor Participation (print circ. <75,000):
'Creating a Two-Way Conversation with Our Community'
Savannahnow.com/Savannah Morning News
 Contact for This Entry:Susan Catron
Executive Editor
Savannah Morning News
Visitors to www.savannahnow.com can… post blogs, upload photos, interact on our message boards, rate a story, create a profile page, have their own avatar identifying them and their contributions, create an online group, vote in polls, comment on stories, bookmark pages, make a buddylist, place an ad, keep a blogroll, post an event, rate other users and hear their own voice from Vox Audio. In others words, we mean it when we tell our site visitors, “It’s not about us…it’s about you!”
Our Web site is creating a two-way conversation where before it was a one way-conversation. We are again becoming the voice of the people. Vox Populi is where people call in and leave messages about topics of interest. We used to print them in the newspaper and online but we wanted the public to be able to hear the voice of the person. We use Evoca technology and you can see how well it works.
Social networking is a large part of savannahnow.com. One of our main “food group” sections of our site is all about community interaction. It is the Share section. From Share, visitors can access all of the social networking and interactive areas or our site.
Blogging is one of the fastest growing parts of savannahnow.com. (Here is a blog about an out-of control bus driver, for example.)
PIXels is our photo sharing section of savannahnow.com. PIXels is broken down into two sections: Your Pix and Our Pix. We create community photo galleries around topics of interest. Site visitors can use the site to upload their own photos to share with friends, family and the community. They can also see photos taken at local events not often covered by the newspaper where the focus in on the experience and those attending an event, rather than reporting on the event itself.
Site guests can create Online Groups around areas of interest such as favorite TV shows, food, kayaking and many others. (Here is one on parenting.)
Each visitor can create an account, customize their member page, add friends, list likes, create groups and from their profile page. And, you can see their recent blog posts, stories, photos uploaded etc. Upon creating their account the visitor then has a dashboard at the top right of every page that offers quick links to accomplish key tasks.
All reporters have a profile page that is linked to from their bylines. Here is the personal profile page for Scott Larson, government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. This allows readers to get to know the staff and communicate directly with them.
Site visitors are encouraged to comment and rate stories. The option to comment and rate a story is available at the bottom of every story published on the site.
Savannahnow.com offers more opportunity for the community to have a conversation with itself. It holds the newspaper accountable by offering our readers an immediate way to provide feedback on our stories. It provides members of the community a voice to share their thoughts or ideas.
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