1. Digitizing Spectator’s
Archives
Where Spec is today,
and where digitization can take
us tomorrow
June 27, 2012

2. State of the Spec
• Strong, but potential for growth is huge
• Successes
– Increased breadth and depth of coverage
– Expanded publication to new special issues
– Enhanced campus rapport
– Re-imagined online/social media presence
– Opened new revenue streams & remained profitable
• Potential
– Continued online development/marketing
– Revamp donor infrastructure
– Increased community presence
– Revenue-driven growth

3. Successes: Coverage
• 30 percent additional news content
• Cross-platform coverage

4. Successes: Coverage
• 50 percent additional A&E content

5. Successes: Special Issues
30 Years After Co-ed Global Centers
The Race for District 13 Baseball Supplement

6. Successes: Outreach
– Planned investigative reporting
program with director of
Columbia Journalism School’s
Stabile Center for Investigative
Journalism
– Hosted Student Council debates,
hosting discussions with student
groups and student governments
– Columbia Scholastic Press
Association HS event
– Assessing new trainees’
experience levels, diversity
discussions

7. Successes: Online
ColumbiaSpectator.com Social Media Referrals
Jan. 30-April 30 2012 vs 2011 Jan. 30-April 30, 2012 vs 2011
Visits: 7.84% Facebook
563,405 vs 522,456
Jan 30, 2012 - Apr 30, 2012 83,494
Unique Visitors: 5.69%
257,060 vs 243,220 Jan 30, 2011 - Apr 30, 2011 43,678
Pageviews: 26.60% % Change 91.16%
1,363,897 vs 1,077,360
Twitter
Pages/Visit: 17.40%
2.42 vs 2.06
Jan 30, 2012 - Apr 30, 2012 14,421
Avg. Visit Duration: -10.51% Jan 30, 2011 - Apr 30, 2011 0
00:02:32 vs 00:02:50
% Change 100.00%
Bounce Rate: -20.31%
54.65% vs 68.58%
% New Visits: -2.07%

8. Successes: Online
• Increased and
enabled video
content
• Additional graphics
capabilities
• Consistent use of
internal hyperlinks
to past coverage-
blog and daily
stories
• Press+

9. Successes: Profitability
 Costs: Cut and kept to a minimum
 Revenue: Online ads and subscriptions more than
doubled
 Created new alumni database, linking contact and
donation information

10. Successes: Profitability
 Newly monetized products
◦ Content resale system
◦ Photos, event listings
◦ New advertising platforms
◦ The Eye

11. Successes: Online

12. Successes: Profitability
 Continued transition to a 21st century media
organization, campus presence

13. Potential: Donation Infrastructure
• Currently: narrowly targets alumni, fails to
develop a broad appeal for Spectator, fails to
offer a wide variety of donation options
• Ambitions
– Provide a variety of funding instruments
– Appeal to corporations, charitable organizations,
parents, and high net worth individuals
– Easy to navigate and detailed information about
Spectator as an organization, our fundraising
initiatives, our ambitions, etc.

14. Digitization: Building on Success
and Fulfilling Potential
• Online: Adds component to online suite
• Community Connections: Bridges past and
present for alumni, students, and
neighborhood
• Donor Infrastructure: Supports alumni/
fundraising outreach
• Content Production: Makes resources easily
accessible to writers

15. Potential: Community Presence
• Spectator is a shared history: continue to
position Spectator as the heart of student
life for current students, alumni
• Serve as a neighborhood archive
• Easy access to Spec alumni work

16. Digitization: Building on Success
and Fulfilling Potential
• Contributes to image as 21st century media
organization
• Ease of public access
• In line with peer institutions

17. Digitization: Building on Success
and Fulfilling Potential