A presentation for publia media station WHYY. Five things I learned in launching NPR's StateImpact network and before that, The Texas Tribune.

1. Five Things I Learned
From Launching
StateImpact &
The Texas Tribune
(WHAT I CAN REMEMBER, ANYWAY)
Elise Hu | @elisewho
Thursday, June 7, 2012

2. How I Spent 2009-2011
Thursday, June 7, 2012

3. What’s The Texas Tribune?
This is Evan. He’ll explain.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

4. #1
Context, Context , Context
Knowledge, Not Just News
Thursday, June 7, 2012

5. Provide Unique Value
Mission-Driven Focus
“It wasn’t our story. Should
we have just been one more
news organization rushing
to Fort Hood? I don’t think
so,” said Mr. Stiles, who
joined the Web site from The
Houston Chronicle.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

6. Wikipedia Style Topic Pages
Most popular,
long-tail content
on StateImpact
are topic pages
Perform strong
with search
Thursday, June 7, 2012

7. Topic Pages Target Different Audiences
Background for those
who know nothing
about the topic.
Key Links for those
“just joining us” on a
running topic.
Key Stories/Latest
News aggregates all
coverage for junkies.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

8. Data Journalism as Differentiator
Users want more than just
narrative text stories. They
want data. They want to
search the data. They want
to see the data visualized.
Teach them how to use it.
WITF’s Scott Detrow with NPR’s Matt Stiles
Thursday, June 7, 2012

9. Searchable Databases and Interactives
Users can see every natural gas well, operator and violation
in PA. Users can also explore by county or municipality.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

10. Resources: Webinars
http:stateimpact.npr.org/teamblog
Thursday, June 7, 2012

11. Resources: Documentation
Webinars and How-To’s available on StateImpact Team Blog
Thursday, June 7, 2012

12. #2
Combine Original Content
with Smart Curation
True for The Texas Tribune, NPR’s Project Argo
and StateImpact
Thursday, June 7, 2012

13. Original Content to Cut
Through the Clutter
StateImpact: Explanation is our franchise.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

14. THE OLD WAY
Organizations covering the THE NOW WAY
same straight story. Curating, aggregating the
straight story so there’s time for
your original take.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

15. Frequency Breeds Web Success
New York Magazine publishes content every six minutes.
StateImpact reporters expected to post at least five times a
day.
NPR’s Two-Way Blog (the news blog) posts 12-17 times per
day.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

16. “Do what you do best,
link to the rest.”
-Jeff Jarvis
Thursday, June 7, 2012

17. Smart Curation: Link Roundups
Curated by the reporters each morning as part of their post diets.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

18. Smart Curation: Links Modules
These aren’t automated.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

19. Smart Curation: Curated Posts
Attribute, Attribute, Attribute. No one hoards news nuggets
anymore.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

20. Tribune Office, March 2010
Publishing is only the beginning.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

21. Everything is a discrete unit of news.
Units of news exist out of context of a home page. Audiences
largely encounter news out of context.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

22. #3
Be Open
For Open Government, For Open Source, For Sharing
Thursday, June 7, 2012

23. Open Government
This is still the core of what we do as journalists.
“Yes, journalists have made tons of mistakes and
always will. But without their enterprise, to take a few
representative recent examples, we would not have
known about the wretched conditions for our veterans
at Walter Reed, the government’s warrantless
wiretapping, the scams at Enron or steroids in
baseball.” -Frank Rich
Thursday, June 7, 2012

24. Open Source
Anything you build, you should share. Especially if it helps other newsrooms.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

25. #4
Events Are Journalism, Too
(And Money Makers)
Thursday, June 7, 2012

26. The Texas Tribune Festival, 2011
“Real-Time Was The Original Platform”
Promote public discourse and engagement.
Thursday, June 7, 2012

27. Thursday, June 7, 2012

28. #5
Sustain Yo’Self
Diversify Your Revenue Sources
Thursday, June 7, 2012

29. “Non-profit is a tax status,
not a business plan.”
-John Bracken, The Knight Foundation
Thursday, June 7, 2012

30. Diversify!
Member + Major Gift + Philanthropy + Earned Income
Have a business plan as if you were for-profit
Thursday, June 7, 2012

31. Events Can Raise Revenue
“...Even the free events, including the TribLive speaker series,
have been money-makers. They are cheap to produce, for
one thing, and often underwritten by corporate sponsors.
Smith estimates the Tribune raised about $650,000 in
corporate support last year, which includes events.” -Nieman Lab
Thursday, June 7, 2012

32. Diversity = Sustainability
Thursday, June 7, 2012

33. Questions?
ehu@npr.org
@elisewho
Thursday, June 7, 2012