Podcast: Getting people to directly support journalism at MinnPost.com

David Brauer and MinnPost.com are doing something a little crazy: They are trying to get people to pay for journalism. Well, at least donate some money for it.

MinnPost ran a micro-sponsor campaign around one of its most popular blogs, the BrauBlog. The campaign will raise about $12,000 for MinnPost in $10 and $25 increments. Half of that money is a matching grant from Harnisch Foundation.

While this micro-sponsor campaign did raise money to help support journalism at the non-profit MinnPost, it’s larger goal was to get people into the mindset of supporting journalism with money.

“Really, the bigger mission here is that direct support is something that you’ll have to consider,” Brauer said. “I think that this is in large part about retraining the audience.”

MinnPost is supported by large donors and advertising. Recently, Brauer and publisher Joel Kramer had an idea to start a micro-sponsor campaign, to try to expand the donor pool and revenue base.

“I think it as one arrow in the quiver,” Brauer said about small donor fundraising. “There are a number of different ways that people are going to have to raise money. I like the fact that MinnPost now, in the addition to advertising, has not just a big donor program, but also a small donor program.”

Brauer believes, however, that limiting donations to $10 and $25 may have limited the amount of donations. In the future, MinnPost may have a different donating model. But the fundraiser was a success overall, because it accomplished its main goal of increasing MinnPost’s donor base.

“Just like colleges, on some level, are happy to get that initial donation from new graduates, even if it isn’t big money, because hopefully you form a bond that lasts as they make more and reap it down the road,” he said. “It has some short term advantages, but I think the power is really in the longer term.”

And consider this: about 300 people were willing to put down money to help support local journalism without asking for anything additional in return. There are no premium features, or even gifts to say thank you to donors. People donated because they wanted to support local journalism.

Also consider that about two-thirds of donors donated the higher, $25 amount. With a more flexible donation model in the future, MinnPost might be able to get many of these small donors to donate more than $25.

On the blogging front, Brauer is yet another blogger that has noticed that frequency is important to success on the Web. Frequency, however, can have drawbacks. Perhaps the biggest, and not always openly discussed drawback, is burnout.

“What it ended up doing, at its worst for me, is that it contributed to some real burnout that I’m wrestling with,” he said.

Bloggers like Brauer produce copious amounts of copy, much more than they did as print reporters. People prefer more shorter posts to fewer longer posts on the Web.

In the end, Brauer is writing more copy than ever before. He says writing individual blog posts is easier than writing a print story, but he just writes considerably more copy now.

Now, Brauer is not writing more because his editors are requiring him to write so much; Rather, Brauer has access to Web analytics, which can be intoxicating for many bloggers. He knows that the more content he produces, the more page views and unique visitors he gets. Just about every blogger wants more.

“My boss has not been on my butt about this at all,” he said. “I know for myself that the flip side of creativity is mania. I’ve discovered new levels of obsessive compulsion that I never thought I had. There is a certain, ‘I get on the treadmill and I feel like I can’t get off’”

Brauer said he is trying to seek a better balance and has cut down on how much copy he has been producing lately.

Brauer has found himself reporting stories in a serial manner. Instead of waiting for a story to be finished or for a big moment to occur, Brauer reports as the story unfolds. Often several blog posts will come together to tell the complete story.

“Instead, I can sort of tell people, ‘here is what I know now; it’s not complete,’” he said. “I find people really like that. It’s easier to digest.”

Not only do readers enjoy this different take on reporting, but it’s easier on Brauer too. He doesn’t have to write big stories all the time. He can just write what he knows at the time.

This is also a good way to get users involved. Reporting stories as they unfold gives users a chance to contact Brauer with tips and additional information.

Brauer also actively asks his readers to help out, and enjoys the crowdsourcing that beatblogging allows. “Inviting people to help, not just getting it when they offer” leads to better stories and journalism, Brauer said.

We also discuss in this podcast:

• Why and how did he get into blogging?
• How has blogging improved his journalism?
• What kind of community has sprung up around BrauBlog and how has that changed his reporting?
• How does mixing reporting with opinion make journalists more transparent?
• How does being open and honest about mistakes boost credibility?

Click here to stream the interview. Or download the MP3.

Leaderboard for week of 6-1-2006: Collaborative podcast edition

This week’s leaderboard focuses on collaboration between news organizations to create new products.

Podcasting is becoming a more popular medium, and more news organizations are partaking in it. Podcasts are often recorded live with a live user chat along side them. Podcasts make both good live interactive events for journalists and users, while also making good mobile content later on.

Collaboration is helping to make podcasts and journalism better. Sometimes one news organization or reporter is not enough to properly cover a story or produce a feature. That’s where collaboration comes in.

We are looking at a few podcasts that would not have been possible if news organizations weren’t willing to collaborate.

Politics As Usual | The Morning Call

• While this politics podcast is officially hosted by The Morning Call, it is actually a collaboration between three journalists from three different news organizations, from three different mediums. The Morning Call’s John Micek brings the print prospective, while Politics PA’s Alex Roarty brings the Web perspective and Scott Detrow of Public Radio Capital News brings the broadcast perspective.
• What makes this podcast special? It features three different political reporters from three different news organizations getting together to discuss local Pennsylvanian politics. This is the kind of mash up of news organizations and mediums that we didn’t see a few  years ago. Thankfully this kind of collaboration is becoming more common.
• This is a lively, fun and informative podcast that helps make local politics more accessible to the average Pa. resident. The three discuss recent political news and what they have been hearing behind the scenes, while also giving their expert opinions on a variety of topics.
• None of these organizations could do a podcast like this themselves. They simply don’t have enough knowledgeable employees on hand to have a politics round table. By collaborating with other news organizations, they have been able to create a new product that helps serve users.
• I asked Roarty if he or his bosses were concerned about working with the “competition” and he said the old ways of thinking of other news organizations as competitors no longer apply. “I think the idea is, on the Web, there’s room enough for all of us,” he said.

Previewing Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals | Cleveland.com

• Cleveland.com had a podcast with a beat writers covering the Cavs and Magic for game five of the Eastern Conference Finals. In order to make this happen, Cleveland.com got beat reporters Brian Windhorst from The Plain Dealer and Brian Schmitz from the Orlando Sentinel on the phone together.
• Cleveland.com’s host asked their opinions on the series up to that point, their opinions on certain calls and situations in the series and their thoughts on the series moving forward. Schmitz and Windhorst are two the most knowledgeable people around about these two teams. Cleveland.com does weekly chats with Windhorst, and he frequently puts his knowledge of the Cavs on display and helps answer reader questions, but adding in an expert on the Orlando Magic took this podcast to a higher level.
• Not only is this kind of collaboration rare, but getting together around an event like a playoff series is even rarer. But it just makes sense. By working together, they were able to create a better product.
• Combine this concept with Cleveland.com’s chat room that allows fans to ask questions, and I think you have an absolute winner. Cleveland.com normally has a live chat room during its podcasts where users can ask questions. Since this wasn’t a regularly scheduled podcast there was no chat room.

Why did DISD’s ratings go sky high? | Tawnell Hobbs

• Hobbs is asking her readers to help her get to the bottom of a story. She is wondering why the DISD is projecting a record number of exemplary and recognized schools. Her readers are helping to get to the bottom of this story. Did students really improve that much or is something else at work here?
• Users are chiming in, helping to clarify the situation. Some are posting links to district documents as well.
• The DISD Blog has a lot of district insider’s reading it. They have been a big help to the bloggers covering the beat because they are often able to clarify district policies and provide documents.
• Not only are a lot of facts, figures and information being posted on this blog post, but there is also a healthy discussion about the standardized tests in question. Are they any good? Is what the state considers “acceptable” really acceptable? This is the kind of thoughtful debate that is possible with a good beatblog and a blogger who is willing to take ownership of the comments on her blog.

Wired Journalists starts a tutorial series

At Wired Journalists we’ve started a series of tutorials to help journalists get wired and learn new skills.

Many of these tutorials will be of interest to beat bloggers. The first tutorial is how to quickly, easily and cheaply start a podcast. Podcasting is a lot easier to do than many people think and can be a great way for a beat reporter to diversify content (and advertiser love them too).

Some of the top podcasts like Buzz Out Loud employ beat blogging to help report. If you think writing a few stories a day is tough, try producing a daily 40-minute podcast on tech. Buzz Out Loud relies heavily on its user community to help send in tips. They are great at two-way communication through a variety of mediums.

Eric Page, another Leadeboard winner, used podcasts and weekly chats to help diversify his beat reporting for the Quad-City Times. 

Please let us know of what kinds of tutorials you are interested in. Relevant tutorials, like podcasting, will show up at BeatBlogging.Org.

Audio interview with Eric Berger on building an online community

Eric Berger, the SciGuy over at the Houston Chronicle, has had success building a blog with a strong community around it.

Building a community requires hard work and dedication. It takes a blogger who embraces two-way communication. Just writing print stories online won’t build a community, but it doesn’t take crazy ideas to get people interacting on a blog.

“Simple things like ending a post with a question,” Berger said. “Once you get people commenting, they feel compelled to come back.”

Building a community involves a lot of reader interaction. Berger gets a lot of reader comments on his blog, and he moderates the blog himself. Plus, Berger tries to respond as much as possible to comments on his blog.

Moderating comments can take a lot of time, especially with contentious issues like global warming, intelligent design and others.

“It does take time to moderate, but it makes for a much better community,” Berger said.

His paper has unmoderated comments on stories and the discussion and community isn’t the same. Often the comments on stories quickly devolve into banal arguments. Berger believes interacting with users keeps the discussion more on topic and less inflammatory.

“If people know that someone is going to read what they’re writing and perhaps judge them, they’ll be more careful with what they write,” Berger said. “It’s good in the sense that people recognize that there is going to be a presence of someone in there.”

What hasn’t worked for Berger: podcasting and video. He could do 3-4 blog entries in the same time he could do one video, and more people would look at the blog posts. Podcasting was a lot of effort for a few hundred people to listen to.

His blog, on the other hand, usually generates 100,000+ page views a month.

Berger also gives advice on why you should blog.

“It really does improve your reporting of the beat,” Berger said.

But he cautions that if you don’t want to blog and build a community, you won’t be successful. Building a community takes time and effort. You have to want to do it.

Check out the full interview for Berger’s thoughts on building an online community around a beat.

Click here to stream the interview. Or click here to download the MP3.