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On Air. Online. On Demand. On Air. Online. On Demand. Interactive media strategies from Guam’s News Network Jason Salas [email protected] www.jasonsalas.com/insideKUAM
On Air. Online. On Demand.On Air. Online. On Demand.Interactive media strategies from Guam’s News Network
Jason Salas [email protected] www.jasonsalas.com/insideKUAM
Just good enough just isn’t good enough
The news media biz
Extremely easy to get into- …but phenomenally difficult to be good at
Audience expectations monumentally high- Users deserve better ways to experience information- One chance to get it right
Hypercompetitive- The Web is mass media’s Great Equalizer- Constant battle for eyeballs- It’s nearly impossible to keep up
Mainstream media challenges
News was the first industry the Internet really touched
Strategy decay across mediums- Print has been dying for years- Radio’s business model is horrendous- TV already heading down the same path
It’s not the profession, it’s the platform
Online news challenges
Doing web news right means you have to be really, really, really good
News sites are perpetually unfinished projectsAvoiding shovelwareThe Web’s most complex sites deal with news
- Syndication- Deep linking- Breadth of formats- Device support
- Frequency - Volume- Responsiveness - Search - Multimedia
Breaking news on the Web
Reporting online…first- You can’t scoop yourself- Video remains the ultimate delivery platform
Responsible, next-gen journalism- Updating, not backdating- Synching your data- Being informative without being intrusive
“Developing coverage” is no excuse for lazy storytelling
Growing a winning news site
Concentrate on customers, not competitors- Audiences gravitate towards conversational media - User-driven innovation
Understand volume & scaleKey elements
- Content, tools, search, community- Compelling headlines as linkbait
Leverage points- Syndication, Multimedia, Deep interactivity, Mobility, Personalization, Stickiness
Serve The Long Tail
We’ve changed the way Guam gets its news
The Guam news value chain
EngineeringInfrastructure
DevelopingContent
DistributingData
GatheringNews
We’re in the content business
We Distribute It
We Transform It
We Archive ItWe Share It
We Create It
Guam business challenges
Guam isn’t the epicenter of anything, much less high tech- Many technologies don’t translate into sustainable local businesses- Geographic separation hurts consumer products
Local companies with sites don’t market effectivelyMost local (online) entrepreneurs
- Don’t think big or pragmatically- Lack vision & a solid strategy
Many Guam consumers aren’t technically sophisticated- Limited consumer electronics, prohibitive costs- Slow rate of adoption
Guam is grossly deficient in computer science- Philippines & Saipan both way ahead of us
Web revenue challenges
Homegrown banner ad campaigns don’t workReputation more important than beer money
- Obscurity a fate worse than death
New media can’t subsidize traditional platformsMarkets growing, but unproven
- Web video advertising, RSS ads
The best innovation is born of common sense
We really “get” the Web
KUAM.com
KUAM Alerts
KUAM Web Tools
KUAM Desktop
KUAM Broadband
KUAM Wireless
KUAM KUAM InteractiveInteractive
The KUAM Experience
Seven Secrets to our Success
1. Branding
2. Innovation
3. 360-degree experiences
4. Philanthropy
5. Hiring very smart, very passionate people
6. We’re crazy enough to try anything once
7. We eat our own dog food
We know we can’t do this alone
Give it away, give it away now…
All of our services are…free!- Access - Search- Streaming- Web services- Downloads - Membership
Providing full-on & atomic access to content- Live & archived newscasts- Individual stories and exhibits
Content delivery a la carte
Horror stories
Users gaming KUAM SearchInappropriate user-generated content on Familiar Faces
AJAX atrocitiesCaching calamities
Anytime, anywhere, on any device
News web site traffic
Demand constant, access without costEvery story, segment, series & special we produce has a URL- …and most have an RSS feed, too
Microchunking - Tens of thousands tap our RSS feeds- Thousands have downloaded our toolbar - Hundreds use our JavaScript imports- Many call our APIs
KUAM.com Traffic
KUAM.comKUAM.com
WebWeb RSSRSS APIsAPIs
41%41% 47%47% 5%5%
MobileMobile
7%7%
Multiplatform access
World Wide Web - Largest archive of online stories - Unmetered search capability
RSS- Stories, reporter/columnist newsfeeds, photostreams
Streaming, VOD, podcasts - WAP devices, PDAs, Blackberries, Windows Mobile devices, smartphones
Mobile video - Alerts
E-mail, SMSDesktop
- Widgets, toolbar
Desktop tools
Free utilities to help you stay constantly connected to KUAM, even if you’re not on KUAM.com
Attention Data
Tracking the Group Voice
Content popularity as dictated by user behavior17% traffic boost
Real-time views
Get up-to-the-second glimpses of what people are researching with KUAM LiveSearch
Accelerated publishing volume
World-class work is born of world-class challenges
A homegrown product
We developed our own CMS - “Arpeggio”- Publishing, administration, archival & syndication- All content repurposed in multiple formats- Lightning-fast, multiplatform responsiveness
We upgrade all the timeKUAM.com isn’t…
- A kit we bought- A corporate mandate- Some outsourcing gig- An O&O offshoot or affiliate hand-me-down
Guam’s most decorated web site
Gauging success- Commercial profitability- Audience approval- Critical acclaim
We’ve won an unprecedented 4 Edward R. Murrow Awards- Best Regional News Web Site: 2005, 2006, 2007- Best National News Web Site: 2006- Very exclusive company
- WashingtonPost.com- CourtTV.com- NPR
We’ve been Web 2.0 for years
User-generated content- Community Commentary
Social networks- Familiar Faces
XMLHTTP requests- Decision 2002 election results
RSS- We’ve been syndicating data since 2003
Multimedia- Streaming video / embedded players were our calling card
APIs / web services- KUAM Developer Network
Tag clouds- KUAM LiveSearch
Attention Data- The Most
Traffic with a Web 2.0 twist
Page views Web service calls Desktop widgets WAP pages AJAX-based polling & UIs
RSS feeds Flash UI presentations Flash Video clips Remote embedded videos Podcatcher clients
Your bandwidth, someone else’s trafficWeb servers supporting desktop HTTP transactionsBeing on the Internet means managing scale
The Long Tail for news
Stories on KUAM.com (measured over 2 hours)
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
# of
pag
e re
que
sts
The highest concentration of reading is at the head, being current news articles immediately available.
Such content is found on our homepage, WAP site, RSS feeds, e-mail/SMS alerts, in-page 'breaking news' callouts, web service calls, external mashups, etc.
Current Stories (26 items) Older stories (191 items)
Older stories in our back catalog make up a much longer tail, having significantly less traffic but being of much greater number in the aggregate.
Such stories are found via Google searches, our internal search tool, external news services, e-mail recommendations, client aggregators, deep linking, or legacy browsing.
We didn’t bring the Web to Guam…we made it work
Guam’s most popular web site
Launched in 1997 Redesigned in 1999, 2002, 2006 & 2008 30,000+ articles 55,000+ user-submitted images 2,100+ daily search queries 8 GB video, 1 GB audio, 700 MB PDFs 68% of traffic from off-island
- 83% from U.S. mainland/Hawaii
Average viewing session is 12 minutes, 33 seconds- Users average 3.6 sessions per day- Users visit 8.2 pages per session
Among the region’s most-read publications
Version 1.0 (circa 1998)
Version 2.0 (circa 2000)
Version 3.0 (circa 2003)
So what’s next?
Mobile video- Streaming presentations of your favorite KUAM shows- Live TV - Breaking news
Wireless alerts- Customized notification services- Geography-specific push- On demand information for your situation
KUAM Mobile
Customized news
Get local news exactly how you want it- Have your own personalized portal with web widgets- Rearrange our page to your liking- Recommendation engine refers new content & functionality widgets
based on your choices
Globalization
Multilingual translation engine renders news stories in multiple languages- English - Chamorro- Tagalog- Japanese
Desktop RIAs
Downloadable applications- News readers- Newstickers- Image galleries- RSS-powered screen savers
Cross-platform- Windows- Mac OS- Linux
Offline access- Doesn’t matter if you’re not connected to the ‘Net
Work in places without Internet access- In the car, on the plane
KUAM Developer Network
Remix our stuff - Data opened up to programmers
Build cool tools & new value- Personal, professional, academic
Content licensing for premium access
Exhibits to take away
Download!Download!- Slides and MP3 audio of today’s talk
- www.jasonsalas.com - Get involved!Get involved!- KUAM.com Beta Community
- www.kuam.com/researchanddevelopment
Register!Register!- KUAM Developer Network
Thanks for interacting with KUAM!
