Another popular way publishers have established themselves on new platforms is through a community-driven approach.
Take Jersey Shore Hurricane News as an example. Launched after Hurricane Sandy, this news brand focused on local New Jersey news. The brand started with a shared Facebook page and Instagram account, and it is built around contributor culture. None of the content on Instagram, for instance, is created by Jersey Shore Hurricane News. Instead, the publisher relies on its community to tag and share content using a dedicated hashtag. Jersey Shore Hurricane News reposts all user content with credit to spread goodwill and grow its following.
If you aren’t ready to turn your whole account over, takeovers can also be a great way to highlight a mix of outside content. This is the way that Quartz approaches Snapchat. Because it’s a small publisher with reporters all around the world, building a large Snapchat-dedicated team was impossible.
Instead, Quartz organizes daily Snapchat takeovers with reporters and contributors around the globe. This approach has allowed the brand to provide an ever-changing mix of interesting content and has garnered a global audience of followers.
Partnering with other publishers can also be a powerful way forward. When The Daily Beast decided it needed more lifestyle-focused content in its Facebook Live videos, it partnered with Food52. The two brands collaborate on cooking videos, cocktail tastings, and more. Partnering allows them to leverage both their audiences and reach more users than they would alone.
Other publishers have collaborated on group Facebook pages aimed at sharing a mix of each other’s content to achieve rapid growth. The Daily Dot, for instance, partnered with Nerdist, Someecards and Mental Floss on a group Facebook page that they all contribute content to. This “rising tide lifts all boats” approach has allowed the publishers involved to grow new audiences.
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- Be pragmatic
- Integrate distributed content into the newsroom process
- Build relationships with platform companies
- Launch platform-first sub-brands
- Leverage community and partnerships to be more effective
- We’re all in this together
- Distributed content: The best ways to build sustainable platform strategies
- Choose the right platform for you
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Leaning into local identity and history can move our journalism from ‘we provide facts alone’ to ‘we provide facts and serve other important community functions.’
Here are a few ideas for activating your archives that participants brought to the recent API Summit on Local History, Community and Identity in Nashville — plus some ideas we all brought home to try out in the weeks and months to come.
Programming will involve both publicly available training, including webinars, and resources for the field, such as those from API’s work with influencer collaborations.
