Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue To Dialogue

April 2011
Newspapers and Social Media:

From Monologue to Dialogue
Dawn McMullan
Newspapers and Social Media:
From Monologue to Dialogue By Dawn McMullan
Table of Contents 03 Introduction 30 Chapter 5:

Structuring Social Media as
05 Chapter 1: Revenue or Brand Opportunity
What Social Media Means
to a News Publisher 33 Chapter 6:
Social Media Optimisation
08 Chapter 2: (SMO) for Publishers
The Short Social Media
Revolution at Newspapers 36 Chapter 7:
A. The marketing transition Social Media’s Next Steps at
B. The social media department News Organisations
C. Huffington Post
38 Chapter 8:
12 Chapter 3: Conclusion
Applying Engagement and
Dawn McMullan is a freelance Conversation to Consumer Types
writer and editor living in Dallas. A. Your place or mine?
She is the editor of INMA’s ideas B. Engagement
C. Three types of news consumers
magazine and former editor of
Consumer Trends e-newsletter. 18 Chapter 4:
Her work has also appeared in The How 8 Newspapers are
Practically Using Social Media
Dallas Morning News, D Magazine,
A. Chicago Tribune (United States)
and on National Public Radio. B. Financial Review Group
(Australia)
C. Folha de S.Paulo (Brazil)
D. The Guardian (United Kingdom)
Author E. Mediahouse Limburg (Belgium)
Dawn McMullan F. Metro (Canada)
G. The Press-Enterprise (United
Edited by States)
Andrea Loubier H. SOL (Portugal)
INMA Partner in Business
Layout & Design
Danna Emde
Cover art includes: The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, SOL
INMA Inc. © Copyright 2011

The contents contained within this report are the exclusive domain of INMA Inc. and may not be
reproduced without the express written consent of INMA.
About INMA INMA (International Newsmedia Marketing Association) is the world’s largest and premier newsmedia marketing
organisation. This practical network of progressive marketing professionals now totals nearly 5,000 members in 82 countries worldwide. Members
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INMA ❙ 2
Introduction
Newspapers historically have been in the monologue business by broadcasting information
to the masses, one size fits all. By contrast, social media is about dialogue, the community, and
niche audiences — a complement to the new direction of news publishing.
It appears news media and social media cannot thrive  What the social media revolution looks like on the
without each other. ground.
While social media carries its fair share of personal back  Whether news publishers should bring the
and forth, the crux of social media content comes from conversation from social media sites like Facebook
information produced by professionals. The news and Twitter onto their sites.
industry must embrace this phenomenon because it is
changing the way people consume news.  Whether social media is a revenue opportunity or a
brand opportunity for publishers.
“For mainstream media to survive, if not thrive, it must
embrace social media and take on the critical role of  What early-adopter newspapers are doing with
curator of the conversation,” says Khris Loux, CEO of Echo social media today.
States, a San Francisco-based real-time commenting
engine for publishers. “For social media to remain “We’re at a huge transition,” Loux says. “Internally, we
relevant and avoid slipping further into a wall of noise, it liken it to the transition between the quill and the
must work hand in hand with news organisations to printing press. It’s that significant of a change. There
create a symbiotic storytelling relationship.” were those that didn’t make the jump and those that
said, ‘Hey, wait a second, we can now print every day,’
What do social media and the changing consumer and completely opened up their markets and
habits surrounding it mean for the news industry? transformed themselves. Not having lived through that
INMA interviewed dozens of social media experts to time, it’s a bit of a guess, but I imagine the ones that
gather insight on: made it were the ones who got into the business of
understanding, owning, and operating printing
 How social media in the newspaper’s context is resources. They didn’t outsource printing presses. They
defined. didn’t stay at arms length from it. They bought the
“If you want to keep or strengthen the relationship you have through your local
audiences, you have to understand what these people care about and then you have to
supply that kind of information.”
KHRIS LOUX CEO, Echo States
Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 3

Introduction
machines, brought them in-house, and learned how to outside, really facing an existential choice — to be
use them. orphaned or to really embrace those technologies.
There’s no middle ground.” 
“In that same way, publishers are standing on the

1
What Social Media Means
to a News Publisher
The first known use of the phrase “social media” came in 2004, which Merriam-Webster defines
as “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging)
through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and
other content (as videos).”
Seven years later, it’s impossible to get through a day And much like they did with the Internet, smartphones,
without a social media reference. We “fan” groups we like. and more recently tablets, news publishers feel the
We “friend” people we live next door to, some we went to need to be there. The how and the why, though, still
high school with, others we have never met. We “like” may seem unclear.
everything from clever responses by strangers to funny
video clips and tsunami rescues. We can summarise any That lack of clarity, experts say, needs to change.
event, feeling, or request in a 140-word tweet.
“Like any other marketing initiative, the fundamental
TNS Global’s “Digital Life” survey of worldwide Internet priority in entering the social media space is to have a
users in 2010 found consumers spent more time on clear set of objectives,” says Simon Wake, group marketing
social Web sites than on e-mail — 4.6 hours weekly on director of Financial Review Group in Australia.
the former, 4.4 hours on the latter (and 2.7 weekly hours
reading the news). New York-based media agency Questions such as:
Universal McCann’s “Social Media Tracker” found that
61% of worldwide Internet users between the ages of 16  What is the objective of your social media
and 54 have a social media profile compared to 51% in platform?
2009 and 45% in 2008. The same study found that social
media users worldwide keep up with an average of 52  What sort of behavioural change are you going to
friends through social media, up from nearly 39 in 2009. try and elicit?
Social media has infiltrated the world much the way the  What is the most suitable platform to achieve these
Internet, e-mail, mobile phones, and smartphones have. objectives?
“What they’re not doing is recognising the opportunity that’s before them: that social
media represents a human network, individuals who are connected around relationships
and information and interests. That’s what’s so important right now.”
BRIAN SOLIS Author, Principal, Altimeter Group, Founder, Social Media Club

Chapter 1: What Social Media Means to a News Publisher
Some wonder if the Groupon phenomenon should be Time spent on online activities
included in the social media discussion. Sure, it takes a
% of internet users
group to make such group deals work; and they often are
spread through social media. But group deals are % doing Hours per
basically a coupon app. They are not a conversation. They activity week spent
daily on activity
are not information. They are not social media. That being
said, group deals are a good way to build audience. E-mail 76% 4.4
News 55% 2.7
Ward Andrews, the owner of Drawbackwards, a Phoenix, Social 46% 4.6
Arizona-based strategic design, Internet marketing, and Interest 46% 3.9
business consulting agency, sees newspapers that don’t Knowledge 39% 3.1
understand who on staff should be using social media Multimedia 37% 3.7
and how to speak with people on social media. Gaming 27% 2.9
Browsing 24% 2.3
“So Twitter is the best news-breaking medium of all Admin 21% 1.7
time,” Andrews says. “But in certain news organisations, Organize 19% 1.6
they don’t have their reporters on Twitter. They have Shopping 12% 1.8
some director of digital running a Twitter account in
Note: n=48,804
their spare time. What’s happening naturally is the Sources: TNS, “Digital Life,” October 10, 2010
younger generation of reporters, who are already on
Twitter, are now using Twitter to break news or to use it
for research for their article.”
As an example of doing it well, Andrews mentions a during a press conference instead of waiting to release
Phoenix news anchor who asks viewers via Twitter what it in their article.
they would like to hear about on that night’s broadcast.
She comments directly to those tweets during the “As a fan, you just want the coach quotes,” Andrews
broadcast. Sports departments also often are using it as says. “People are going to follow that Twitter non-
it should be used. Some do live tweets from the coach stop.”
Internet users who manage social network profile
% of respondents
33.1%
U.S. 48.3%
58.1%
2008
2009
45.1% 2010
Worldwide 51.4%
61.4%
Note: ages 16-54; daily or every other day Internet access; in the past six months
Sources: UM, “The Socialisation of Brands: Social Media Tracker 2010,” October 1, 2010

Chapter 1: What Social Media Means to a News Publisher
Andrews points to the rule of three on Twitter as far as fair, how every business is approaching social media.
how newsmedia organisations should interact with What newspapers are not doing, however, is worth
customers: noting.
1. One-third of tweets should be giving the “What they’re not doing is recognising the opportunity
newspaper’s insight. that’s before them: that social media represents a
human network, individuals who are connected around
2. One-third should have a conversation with others. relationships and information and interests,” says Brian
Solis, author of Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands
3. One-third should be used for general conversation and Business to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in
(subscription sales, special announcements). the New Web, principal at the Altimeter Group, and
founder of the Social Media Club. “That’s what’s so
Newspapers are thinking of social media as another important right now.” 
broadcast channel to syndicate content, which is, to be

2
The Short Social Media
Revolution at Newspapers
Social media may be the next Internet, with a multitude of news companies still unsure as to how or
why or where they need to be.
And that’s OK, says Meg Pickard, head of digital all news companies should be doing.
engagement at The Guardian in the United Kingdom.
“A lot of these individuals who are very prominent in the
“Anybody who goes into social media, or any new and tech blogging world have had sort of a tech blogging
emergent technology, and says, ‘I know exactly how we face-off against traditional media,” Solis says. “They have
should use this’ is probably lying,” Pickard says with a done so because they have made an incredible killing
laugh. “The whole point of emergent technology or writing incredible content shorter, faster, better, and
things changing is the uses haven’t necessarily been allowing their writers to develop personal brands and
established yet. The change in Twitter in the last five network that content, developing micro-audiences that
years has been remarkable. What’s it going to be like in collectively create a greater audience for the publication
another five? Facebook, when it launched, was really they represent.”
about your friends. In a meeting yesterday, someone said
they friended somebody they didn’t know. That’s the Tech writers at The New York Times and The Wall Street
kind of sentence that if you’d said it to me five years ago, Journal, for example, have created their own personal
I would’ve looked at you like you were crazy.” brands and built community. Yet Solis wonders: why
aren’t all newspapers doing this?
That said, newsmedia companies need to understand
why they need to be engaging with social media even if “What they’re trying to do,” Solis heard from a higher-up
they’re not perfectly clear on how. When they don’t at a major U.S. newspaper, “is figure out how to
know why, it shows, Pickard says. humanize all this. I think what every business, not just
media, is not getting is that we’re in a marketing
A. The marketing transition transition. Online was pretty important. It gave people
access to information in a different place. But in and of
Consider the work of Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would itself, that’s not the same thing as what’s happening. This
Google Do?, director of the Tow-Knight Center for is nothing short of a revolution. The empowerment in
Entrepreneurial Journalism at The City University of New not just consumption, but creation of content. I can
York’s graduate school of journalism, and new media create information. I can be a reporter. I can be a content
columnist for The Guardian. Jarvis’ entrepreneurial editor. That’s the foundation of this revolution.
journalism movement is all about the idea of building
bridges between people and information — something “People aren’t going to look for you anymore. You have

Chapter 2: The Short Social Media Revolution at Newspapers
“Anybody who goes into social media, or any new and emergent technology, and says, ‘I know
exactly how we should use this’ is probably lying.”
MEG PICKARD Head of Digital Engagement, The Guardian
to come to them. The reason it’s a marketing transition is Facebook or Twitter. They get together to discuss what
because it doesn’t negate the other reality — that you they’re doing and how.
still need your dot-com, you still need something in
somebody’s hands, whether that’s print, the iPad, It’s all in fun, but the idea behind it is a good one.
another tablet.” Everybody has skills. Those skills need to be used and
shared throughout the organisation. At one time, that
And transition, as we all know, is difficult for was best done with a dedicated social media team. But
newspapers. This transition is no different, says The that’s no longer the case at news companies that have
Guardian’s Pickard. made social media a part of their DNA.
“Most of the time it ends up being fairly clumsy,” Pickard The Chicago Tribune had a true social media department
says. “It’s more about broadcast than it is about a few years ago. Along the way, even the title of social
engagement. They’re using it as a headline service or as a media manager went away, as Bill Adee, vice president/
way to tell us what you think, share this with your digital at the Chicago Tribune Media Group, felt it should
friends. Look at the language they use to address their be a part of everyone’s job.
audience; even the fact that they think of them as an
audience instead of a community.” Recently, the Tribune put someone in place to focus on
social media and coordinate social media events.
Tameka Kee, lead researcher and analyst for Social Times
Pro, agrees. But she sees newspapers trying. “If somebody has an event, they plan out what the social
media game plan is. They share best practices among all
“It’s so complex,” Kee says. “I also think that the of our departments,” Adee says. “That made sense as we
organisational structures of newspapers don’t lend got so big and everybody’s doing it. It became
themselves to social media well. They’ve just figured out something I felt like we needed to coordinate. Now,
how to do the Internet right, and now this other thing almost every publication has somebody who is expected
comes along.” to focus on social media.”
B. The social media department The Tribune has one person doing a 90-day sprint of
Twitter training, teaching everybody in the building how
The Chicago Tribune has a “Social Media Justice League,” to use it. The goal is to have 1,000 people at the Chicago
based on the American comics that started in the 1960s Tribune using Twitter effectively. As of this writing, they
with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Green are halfway there.
Lantern.
Like so many in the industry, Adee thinks the synergy
Everybody in the Tribune’s tongue-in-check Justice between Twitter and newspapers is obvious. Says Adee:
League has a certain social media superpower: viral “I think people thought it was sort of a nice thing to do,
video, superior training skills, or strong profiles on but now that’s how people get their news.”

Although most people in the newsroom were already on same article from HuffPo versus a cleaner, leaner news
Twitter, the Tribune training shows how those in the site and use the same social tools to drive traffic, which
marketing and advertising department can use it. The traffic would be more valuable to an advertiser?
official Chicago Tribune Twitter posts are done by one of
the newspaper’s Web site producers, while the Colonel “HuffPo definitely has figured out one of the ways to
Tribune account is tweeted by a reporter, with help from harness social and to drive massive amounts of traffic.
others every now and then. But, No. 1, how quality is that traffic? And No. 2, most
news organisations aren’t structured in the way that
The Guardian started out with a “communities team” HuffPo is. HuffPo wouldn’t have sold for US$315 million if
embedded into every department. The company is now it wasn’t valuable, but I think what’s less valuable is the
experimenting with having one community coordinator content and what’s more valuable is the model.”
who acts as a conduit between the community and
editorial. And newspapers should look at the Huffington Post’s
model. There is much to emulate about it. All content,
The New York Times did the same thing, hiring Jennifer Kee says, should be socialised.
Preston to be head of social media, then moving her to a
different role this year, Kee points out. “The easier you make it for people to share your content,
the more you’re going to be able to monetise it,” she
“They realised social needs to be embedded in every says. “I’m not going to read the Des Moines Register, but
department,” Kee says. “Newspapers would do well to if my friend whose mom lives in Des Moines sees that her
have a champion of social in their organisation. mom liked an article on Facebook, and my friend likes it,
Somebody needs to own it and understand the metrics. and I see it, then I click over to that. That’s a page view
But it needs to be filtered holistically as well.” that they wouldn’t have had.”
C. Huffington Post So socialize. But do so in your newspaper’s own voice.

Certainly, your average newspaper can’t get away with
Most everyone mentions the Huffington Post as the pièce sounding like the Huffington Post — and probably
de résistance of newsmedia organisations doing social wouldn’t want to.
media, the epitome of the social media revolution. Sure.
But as Kee points out, the HuffPo, as those in the know call Remember, Kee says, everyone isn’t a HuffPo reader.
it, isn’t a newspaper. It’s a digital news company — and
one that could learn a lot from newspapers, Kee thinks. Gawker, for example, is a New York-based news blog that
focuses on celebrity news. The Web site features a
“It has an atrocious Web design,” she says. “The Huffington caption of the day, inviting readers to write the best
Post monetises its traffic ridiculously and attributes social caption, which will run with the photo.
media to a big part of that. I wonder if there was any way
to drill down into the quality of impressions from HuffPo. “That’s fine and totally tongue-in-cheek,” Kee says. “But if
The content is so aggregated, I wondered if we put the The Atlantic started sending all of its headlines and
“They realised social needs to be embedded in every department. Newspapers

would do well to have a champion of social in their organisation. Somebody needs to own
it and understand the metrics. But it needs to be filtered holistically as well.”
TAMEKA KEE Lead Researcher, Analyst, Social Times Pro

allowing people to write the caption, that wouldn’t work. desk, summing up the stories and posting it to a
If you’re a serious newspaper, you don’t want to do that. YouTube page. That’s social. It’s also learning how to use
Twitter to break news and then drive traffic back to the
“A newspaper needs to find its voice and then figure out Web site or back to your print publication.”
how that voice is social. Maybe that’s just giving two of
your local reporters a blog and having them do social. Marshall Sponder saw the Huffington Post’s data last
Maybe once a week you do a Web case from a reporter’s year. A New York-based specialist in Web analytics and
SEO/SEM, as well as the author of Social Media Analytics:
Effective Tools for Building Interpreting, and Using Metrics,
Sponder works and consults in market research, social
media, networking, and public relations for companies
like IBM, Monster, The New York Times, and US Magazine.
Huffington identifies its top influencers based on the

number of comments and engagement. Sometimes,
they offer them blogs or connect them to each other.
This is the latest move by news organisations using social
media, ranking the level one, level two, or level three
influencers among those commenting, offering them
ways to interact with each other, looking at their social
graph, looking at the algorithms.
“What we’re looking at is the intelligent application of

technology to improve the reader’s experience and
better categorise and figure out who these people are,”
Sponder says. “The Huffington Post, because they’re
only five years old and not The New York Times or
Forbes, can afford to be a little bit more innovative in
ways the older publications, simply because of their
mass and because of their structure, have not yet been
able to be. Those publications may be more stable in
some ways but may not have the wherewithal to make
the shifts that are needed.” 
Huffington Post
Many social media and newspaper experts point to the

Huffington Post as an example of how newsmedia
companies should be doing social media.

3
Applying Engagement and
Conversation to Consumer Types
There currently are two camps of newsmedia companies in the social media arena, according to
Khris Loux of Echo States, the commenting engine for publishers:
Those that are outsourcing their relationship with seconds. Why the L.A. Times? They’d better come
their visitors to the social networks. These up with an experience that drives me back to their
newspapers have set up a Facebook fan page and Web sites. It’s content, but not just content. It’s
are driving traffic to that page. Says Loux: “That’s all because my friends go there, because there are
well and good, but it’s an economic calculation top-rated photos there, cool user-generated
that doesn’t work. The newspaper invests in the content, comments, I can get badges and rewards,
content, they have a reporter, editors, distribution, discounts at local restaurants, because I follow
building — all this stuff to produce a story. If you smart people there. All of those social experiences,
push that content into Facebook, then they control if you outsource every one of those, you’re gone
monetisation of that page. Now you’re doing a and become weak, ineffective, disaggregated. Your
revenue share on your core asset. That’s really nice content is a seed, and the experience is the fruit
for Facebook, because they have not invested in around that.”
the content. The heroine of it is when you do place
your content in there, do you get a referral to your A. Your place or mine?
site? There’s this candy, bit of goodness, this rush if
you will. But it does come with a hangover that Many newspaper executives find it frustrating that their
now you’ve given up registration, the ability to content is being discussed on social media like
engage visitors.” Facebook and Twitter instead of on their own Web sites.
Those who are building the relationship on their “Our business relies on driving a premium audience to
Web site. When the cost of distribution goes to our site so that they understand the extent of value
zero, all that’s left are profits around the experience presented there to drive trial and subscriptions,” Simon
itself. “Why would I go to the L.A. Times to read a Wake says of the Financial Review Group, one of the few
story on Qaddafi. I can get 1,000 stories in 0.025 subscription Web sites in Australia. “We have fully
“If your audience is having a conversation about a topic, and you’re successful at having
your story picked up as part of that conversation, then content is coming back to you.
And if you’re not in the conversation and your competitor is, then you lose that
engagement with the audience.”
MURRAY NEWLANDS Social Media Consultant, Blogger

Chapter 3: Applying Engagement and Conversation to Consumer Types
embraced Twitter from an editorial perspective. It is less The reality is we want to be part of the Flipboards and
resource-intense than other social media but clearly all the aggregators for news, and you just have to get
acts to drive traffic to the Financial Review Web site.” your head around all that. You don’t have to monetise
your audience on your site or your newspaper for it to
Others in the news industry are concerned less with be important. It’s about the brand. Eventually, this all
having conversations on their Web site and more with leads to a stronger business.”
having conversations that are tied back to their brand.
Luke Brynley-Jones, founder of Our Social Times, a
“Our brand is our brand — everywhere,” says Jodi United Kingdom-based media consultancy, agrees.
Brown, marketing and interactive director at Metro
Canada, based in Toronto. “Twitter and Facebook are “You shouldn’t get so hung up about your Web
fantastic places for conversations. I don’t feel like property,” says Brynley-Jones, who co-founded the
dragging them back to our conversation. We use United Kingdom’s first social media consultancy in 2001.
Facebook Connect so you can see conversations on “The key thing is to have a presence on the Web. That no
Facebook about the site that they’re on, making it feel longer applies to just one place.”
like more of a community. I don’t see it as a major threat.
He, like other social media experts, recommends
newspapers have a community manager to conduct
outreach through various types of social media —
blogs, competitor’s blogs, Twitter, and more.
“You have to go where your audience is and where your

audience is having conversation,” says Murray Newlands,
a social media consultant and blogger based in the
United Kingdom. “If your audience is having a
conversation about a topic, and you’re successful at
having your story picked up as part of that conversation,
then content is coming back to you. And if you’re not in
the conversation and your competitor is, then you lose
that engagement with the audience.”
California-based Enterprise Media has spent much of
Facebook Comments
Newsmedia companies are struggling to determine

how much value Facebook discussions about their
content bring to the newspaper — and how to bring
that conversation back to their own Web site.

the past 18 months working on that engagement. increased from about 2,000 per month to well over
Enterprise Media knew that A.H. Belo-owned Press- 25,000 per month.
Enterprise generated buzz on Facebook and that it was
missing out. In the last quarter of 2009, staff reviewed “Social media sites are not typical distribution channels
how their community was using social media to share for newspapers,” says Andrew McFadden, manager,
and react to news. innovation and business development at Enterprise
Media. “They are Web sites that we do not own or
The Press-Enterprise, like most other local newspapers, control and that have changed (and will continue to
plays a central role in what is talked about in its change) their terms of service, restrictions, and features.
community in Riverside, California. Historically, the Even if the sites are driving traffic to your Web site now,
conversations have taken place in person or on the the traffic to a local media company’s Facebook page is
newspaper’s Web site. Unfortunately, the emergence of usually being monetised only by Facebook. This needs
social networks disrupted the feedback mechanism. to change.”
Offline conversations were occurring online on
Facebook instead of PE.com, and articles were being Having the conversation on your Web page is the
shared and spread using Twitter, instead of the best-case scenario. And Facebook recently made it
newspaper’s sharing tools. easier by creating a comments plug-in upgrade that
allows a Facebook-like chat to occur on your page
Starting in December 2009, the newspaper moved from (Facebook profile picture, name and all) while
its original commenting tool to the Echo real-time simultaneously on Facebook. You don’t have to log in to
conversation platform. There were several reasons for a new Web site. Comments are not made anonymously
this move, the most important being the trend showing which cuts down on inappropriate posts.
that Facebook and Twitter were becoming the
community platforms for discussing local stories and “Facebook has said it isn’t trying to steal traffic from
events. News companies benefit from using Facebook as newspapers,” says Tameka Kee of Social Times Pro. “It
a good advertising service for local businesses, but they wants to help media companies. What newspapers need
lose out from a content standpoint if the conversation is to do is work on bringing that conversation back to their
taking place on Facebook instead of on the newspaper’s site, and there are plenty of tools out there that make
Web site. that easy. Of course, Facebook has that data, and that’s
one of the cons. The bigger thing is you want to do as
Echo changes this equation for the newspaper by much as you can to make that interaction happen on
bringing the conversation back to its site. All comments, your site.
tweets, re-tweets, and shares across the Web show up in
real time aggregated in the comment stream on their “That said, conversations on [Facebook], as long as they
own Web site. The best place to see reactions to their have a link, have a value. I would liken that to me
articles is now on the PE.com story page and not on a bringing a copy of The New York Times to someone’s
social network. In a short time, comments on the site house. That person didn’t buy that copy of The New York
“Social media sites are not typical distribution channels for newspapers. They are Web sites that
we do not own or control and that have changed (and will continue to change) their terms of
service, restrictions, and features. Even if the sites are driving traffic to your Web site now, the
traffic to a local media company’s Facebook page is usually being monetised only by Facebook.
This needs to change.”
ANDREW MCFADDEN Manager, Innovation and Business Development, Enterprise Media

Times, but they are reading it. Is there value in that or Something staff at The Guardian has been discussing is
not?” who readers want to follow through social media.
If you can harvest the content from Facebook, Twitter, Asks Pickard: “Do I want to know the stories that my
and LinkedIn and have it all aggregate on your Web site, friends are reading or stories that other people I
the publisher’s site becomes the conical view of the respect in the field are reading? Who knows everything
story. Says Khris Loux of Echo States: “The publisher has there is to know about classical music or nuclear
all of it.” physics? Should I be following them or the people I
went to high school with?”
If you simply want to move the conversation to your Web
site because it’s more profitable and convenient for you, Moderating is another discussion. Facebook and other
that’s not good enough, says The Guardian’s Meg social media sites monitor their own content. You
Pickard. You must add benefit to bring the conversation monitor yours. Should you be monitoring their sites
to your Web site. The Guardian offers the benefit of the about your posts?
author to discussions on its Web site.
“If someone says something inappropriate, is it your
“Feel entirely free to take the conversation anywhere, but space or their space?” Pickard asks. “That is not our space.
this is where the record is,” Pickard says. “If you want to It’s the corner of somebody else’s buy. The table we’ve
engage in debate with the authors, that’s on our Web commandeered, but it belongs to somebody else. It’s like
site. You can talk about it on Twitter. Rather than getting me going to a party and saying, ‘I really don’t think you
upset, we have to say that’s fine. But if we want them to should wear those shoes.’ It’s potentially appropriate at
come to our site, how do we incentivize them? You have my own party, but if people are being inappropriate with
to provide something else. The something else we have each other or about a particular subject, we sort of sit on
is talent, resource, and attention. We reward participation our hands. This is a community space, governed by the
with attention.” community. We think others will call them out.”
B. Engagement Back at The Guardian’s Web site, a team of moderators

controls the conversation, keeping things reigned in yet
Nobody wants thousands of tweets, which is where the not being heavy-handed.
news staff comes in. Consumers don’t want to see every
piece of art in the world, so they go to a museum to see Readers often ask how the Chicago Tribune monitors its
the art that has been curated by the experts. Grouping Web site. Vice president/digital Bill Adee gets more
content in a way that has meaning and can be absorbed complaints about censoring comments than about the
is the newspaper’s job. comments themselves. He feels the best way to monitor
such discussions is by giving people choices. Do they
“There is value in editorial content,” Koux says. “The only want to see comments by their friends? Only see
masses can tweet, but the masses also need rallying comments that rank an article two “thumbs up” or
points and editorial follow-up and due diligence and higher? This isn’t possible on the Tribune’s site now, but
curation. The beauty of social media is that you get so Adee would like to build toward that.
much global reaction. The downside of that is the same
thing — you get so much.” In the bigger picture, publishers need to be building
experiences around their content.
How consumers would like to engage is what news
companies and consumers are still trying to determine. “Their intellectual property needs to be those

The social media players

Facebook: Launched in 2004 as a social media platform for college students, Facebook
now has more than 600 million active users. Members “friend” other members, “fan” pages
of businesses like newspapers, “share” content, and comment on and/or “like” posts from
other people. Today at least, Facebook seems to set the tone for how consumers want to converse with each
other, read, and share news via social media.
Twitter: Launched in 2006, Twitter is now famous for its 140-character posts. Twitter has
more than 200 million active users and generates more than 65 million “tweets” a day.
Members “follow” other members and organizations. Content is easily shared among
followers by “retweeting.” Format is more pushed than interactive among members.
foursquare: A location-based social networking Web site designed for GPS-enabled

mobile devices that rewards users with “badges” for using their account and checking in
on the site to let friends know their physical location. Launched in 2009, foursquare has 7
million registered users and targets metropolitan areas. As of last year, foursquare now interacts with users
about their location and what’s around them, rather than just sharing that information with friends.
Digg: Released to the public in 2004, Digg is a way to share and discuss news items with
other members. Like Twitter, Digg members can follow each other. Its primary niche is
connecting people to content (voted on and shared by those in the Digg community, who hit
the “digg” button, much like Facebookers’ click “like” button) and encouraging them to share it.
Flickr: Hosting more than four billion images, Flickr intertwines image hosting with
social media. Launched in 2004, Flickr allows members to share their photos, talk through
comments and notes, and pick favourites.
Tumblr: Launched in 2007 as a microblogging site, Tumblr touts how easy it is to use.
The home page asks you for your email address, password, URL, and “start posting!”
Tumblr hosts more than 16 million blogs, many of which are photo heavy.
YouTube: Chances are, if someone views or shares a video these days, it’s on YouTube.
Launched in 2005, YouTube allows anyone to view videos and registered members to
upload and share them. The “largest worldwide video-sharing community,” as it says on its
home page, YouTube plays host to more than two billion videos viewed daily. Thirty-five
hours of video are uploaded every minute and more video is uploaded to YouTube in two months than the
three major networks in the United States created in 60 years.
LinkedIn: This social media site with a definite professional twist launched in 2003 and
has 100 million users. Users “connect” with people they know or have some professional or
social connection with, “endorse” people they know and/or have worked with, become
members of interest groups (most based on profession, specific companies, or university alumni), and have
group discussions.

experiences,” Koux says. “Those building and learning will Solis believes news companies are trying to innovate
be strong through this cycle. It’s a fascinating time to be their way around this revolution — putting content on
in the space. We’re providing a suite of tools that allows an iPad, for example. Why would that be, for some
publishers to experiment. That’s our role in it. We’re consumers, preferable to having their human network
sitting in the middle of this, trying to help people jump curate their information for them? He’s not impressed
over the experience gap into this new land. We see some with newspaper Facebook pages, either.
people who are afraid to jump. Some don’t jump far
enough and fall in the gap. And some jump and make it “If you could somehow build a relationship with me
to the other side.” through reporters that I enjoy, that I follow, then we’ve
got something different,” Solis says. “But it’s just a start.”
C. Three types of news consumers
The New York Times is doing this. Columnist Nicholas
As Brian Solis of Altimeter Group breaks it down, news Kristof, one of the newspaper’s most popular columnists,
companies have three types of consumers they are posts his own Facebook posts and Twitter tweets. It
competing for: sounds like him. He asks questions. You know when he’s
landed in Kigali or Tripoli. He asks questions of his
 The traditional consumer: Loves the print followers and sometimes mentions them by name in
newspaper. later posts and responses. It feels like you have a
personal relationship with him.
 The digital customer: Goes to your Web site every
day. That is social media that will reach the connected
consumer.
 The connected customer: Goes to the browser only
seeking Facebook or Twitter and finds information So what if, Solis theorises, NYT.com starts spending more
there if your content makes its way to her feed. time and money in social media, restructuring its Web
site to allow people to comment, to like, to retweet right
Solis himself is a hybrid because he has to keep up with a from the page? Done, done, and done.
lot of current information. Generally, he lets information
come to him, having built hubs that aggregate content “That is as necessary and innovative as it is not a
for him. He does not start his day clicking on Web sites, complete solution,” Solis says. “It helps, right? But the
nor does he download mobile or tablet apps. Why? question is how you get someone there. The online
“Because they’re still monologue.” He is, for the most consumer and the traditional consumer are no problem.
part, the connected consumer. Keep doing what you’re doing to reach them. But how
do you get the social consumer to get there and use
“This revolution is not just content or not just channel or those buttons. The thing is that no one has really great
not just syndication,” Solis says. “The revolution is that answers. But they’re not asking the questions either.”
information has to be hand-delivered like a baton to
individuals. The intermediary between content and a Solis asks the question. His answer is that such a model
consumer is a human being, a reporter. You can see the can be built around scalability not unlike concept
whole cultural shift that has to take place within the marketing. The smart publications, he says, are already
organisation. You first have to say that how we’re doing it looking to search engine optimisation (SEO) to boost
today is not going to work in these channels. And I don’t visibility of content around topics. The same can be done
know that anybody is willing to say that.” for social media. 

4
How 8 Newspapers are
Practically Using Social Media
Before there was a fake cobra tweeting from around New York City after his escape from the
Bronx Zoo, there was the fake Shaquille O’Neal. And he was Ward Andrews. U.S. basketball star
“Shaq” was known for humourous verbal quips — and he didn’t have a Twitter account. So Andrews
started one for him. Eventually, Twitter shut down the account. (Google “Ward Andrews,” “Shaquille
O’Neal,” and “Twitter” to read the full story).
The point of this story? “If you don’t take on your own like 12 producers focused on the 40%, but who do we
identity and speak for yourself, someone else will,” have on the 60%? We had nobody.”
Andrews says. “You need to be there and be the
authoritative voice there.” In early 2007, he created a social media group of four
people.
Here are eight newspapers around the world doing just
that: One of the first things the group did was get the Tribune
on Twitter and Facebook. This was before Facebook had
A. Chicago Tribune (United States) pages for publications, business, and non-profits. So
Tribune created an avatar called Colonel Tribune.
Bill Adee, vice president/digital at Chicago Tribune
Media Group, moved from his position as sports editor “That really clicked,” Adee says. “It was the first time I felt
to the digital department in 2006. He immediately saw like we got in touch with the Web community here in
the power of social media. Chicago.”
“I started to look at just the numbers of how our site The Colonel has 800,000 followers on Twitter, which
worked,” he remembers. “We got 40% of our traffic from noticed what the Tribune was doing and made the
people coming in through the home page, typing in Colonel one of its suggested users back when Twitter
chicagotribune.com or bookmarking it because we’ve used to make such suggestions.
been around for a long time. And I thought, ‘Wait a
minute. Where are the other 60% coming from?’ We had In March 2008, the Tribune started its social media
“If you don’t take on your own identity and speak for yourself, someone else will. You
need to be there and be the authoritative voice there.”
WARD ANDREWS Owner, Drawbackwards

Chapter 4: How 8 Newspapers are Practically Using Social Media
group. Through tweet-ups (gatherings organised by media, Web development, SEO, and training.
notices on Twitter), staff met a lot of local bloggers,
leading to a site of Chicago’s best blogs, www. “There are plenty of great digital consulting agents that
chicagonow.com. do big brands,” Adee says. “What about the local
businesses, the ones that we saw as needing the most
“We always get in a huff when people don’t link back to help? Many of them are already our clients on the print
us and our journalism, but on the flip side, we hardly business. People come into the Tribune building, learn
ever link out to bloggers,” Adee says. “We found the the same kinds of things we teach reporters. It’s been
best blogs in Chicago and reach out to them to show very lucrative for us.”
the traffic. Our blog network has over 300 blogs. We’ve
learned a lot about what bloggers want in a blog and Statistics show 80% of online users in the Chicago area
we’ve carried over a lot of those ideas to our core Web are on Facebook. That’s significant.
site.”
“We have to use it for that,” Adee says. “But I think just
Another part of chicagonow.com is taking the using it for that doesn’t give us anything. We have to
knowledge gained from the bloggers and training local use it correctly.”
businesses to blog. Out of that venture came the
Tribune Company Digital Consulting Group in late 2010. The Tribune uses Facebook to get information from its
audiences and sources as well as learn what’s going on
Local business owners lack broad knowledge about in a reporter’s area of expertise. Facebook is also a
social media. They were happy to have help — and forum for newsmakers — from Charlie Sheen to Hosni
happy to pay for it. The group has four focuses: social Mubarak. For now, the Tribune is keeping up with the
big social media players, which seems fairly stable at
the moment.
Adee has faith that the Tribune and others in the

industry will continue to embrace this new way of
engaging with customers: “I think we’re much more
agile than people give us credit for.”
Chicago Tribune
United States
At left, top: Bob McDonald, Katharina Bockli, Katie

Kohler of the Tribune Company Digital Consulting
Group. One of the first things the Chicago Tribune
Media Group did when entering the social media arena
was get the Tribune on Twitter and Facebook with an
avatar called Colonel Tribune.

B. Financial Review Group (Australia) sites, considering them a marketing channel because of
their ideal business-focused, highly qualified audience.
The Financial Review Group’s professional target group But that doesn’t bring traffic to FRG’s site, and FRG has
seems a perfect fit for social media. Actually, they like no control of any aspect of such a venture, including
the idea of social but in the more traditional sense of advertising appearing alongside its brand or the yields
the word. associated with its brand.
The newspaper’s BRW Fast Club (branded after its BRW “For some, there is a compelling reason to be involved,”
magazine) is a non-virtual community of entrepreneurs Wake says. “For other sites, we see just as many pitfalls
and business owners who regularly meet at actual as opportunities. A principle consideration is that any
meetings. In person. involvement in social media requires proper resourcing.
It’s not a case of set and forget. In fact, quite the
“From day one, the club was profitable,” explains Simon opposite, because social media is all about being
Wake, group marketing manager at Financial Review contemporary and interactive. Any efforts in
Group (FRG). “But importantly the members gained developing a Financial Review peer group within an
most of the benefits, personally and professionally. It is online business network potentially drives traffic away
something that just wouldn’t have worked via a digital from our sites and creates a Financial Review audience
community. Members want to rub shoulders and in a branded environment that we can’t control.”
network in a safe, branded environment they trust.
BRW’s editorial team is already very close to this broad Considering that commitment, staff at FRG has
community of 2,000 up-and-coming business leaders, weighed the production overhead of monitoring and
so the brand was a natural fit. The caliber of members interacting online, as well as editorial investment,
and the community at large attracted the interest of a against other possible content initiatives.
major investment bank with a particular interest in fast
growing businesses as principal sponsor. “The Financial Review’s brand values centre around
trust, as we provide objective financial and business
FRG staff has looked closely at business networking analysis,” Wake says. “Some aspects of social media
could put this at risk. The mitigation of this risk often
involves actions that fly in the face of social media
norms and, therefore, cancel out the benefits. We will
develop new social media platforms moving forward.
Financial Review Group

Australia
For its target audience, Financial Review Group has

taken a more traditional approach to social while it
evaluates how helpful the social media approach
might be.

But it will always be with considered thought and C. Folha de S.Paulo (Brazil)
certainly what we develop will be worthwhile and
resourced optimally. Folha de S.Paulo currently has one of the highest
number of Facebook fans in the world among
“We’ve never felt that we have to be there [on social newspapers with 206,000. The newspaper has two
media]. Rather we’ve looked at what we’d forego to be goals with its social media strategy:
there and, so far, some alternatives have delivered a
better business case.”  Grow its presence on social media networks.
The Fast Club works, Wake says, because it’s based on  Increase traffic referrals generated toward its Web
BRW’s brand equity and it’s tailored to a niche audience. site, Folha.com.
“By their very nature, entrepreneurs are hungry for “We’ve obtained a good balance between information
ideas. They want to learn from the experience of others (hard news and features), humour, and subjects that
and, importantly, they want to do deals. A face-to-face can generate discussions,” according to Marcos Strecker,
environment is far more conducive to achieving this.” the newspaper’s social media editor.
Social network referrers now represent 4% of the

newspaper’s Web traffic, up from 2% less than a year
ago. Strecker has heard it can increase 10% to 15%.
Through Facebook alone, the site gets more than one
million post views daily.
Last October, Folha de S.Paulo launched a Facebook

application, the first of its kind in Brazil, which soon will
have banner advertising. The newspaper also plans to
use Facebook social plug-ins, as The New York Times
does currently, to allow advertising.
“Brazil is advanced in social media with one of the

biggest rates among Web users in the world,” Strecker
says. “You want to be present in every social media
Folha de S.Paulo
Brazil
Consumers in Brazil have one of the highest social

media usage rates in the world, one reason Folha de
S.Paulo is embracing the new opportunities.

network, but Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are couple of years, it’s really nothing new to The Guardian.
strategic nowadays.” The newspaper’s Notes and Queries section started
decades ago, tossing out questions and printing reader
Strecker’s strategy is to post up to 12 daily features on responses. Since the debut of The Guardian’s Web site
Facebook, 30-40 Twitter posts daily for hard news, and 13 years ago, that social engagement has gone digital,
regular videos posted on YouTube. starting with blogs in 2002 and adding comments to its
Web site in 2004. In 2006, the newspaper launched
Are they bringing in new revenue? Yes, but that’s not CommentIsFree, which engages its audience in
the point, according to Strecker. At least not now. conversation about opinion and commentary pieces.
“We’ve had some campaigns on Twitter, which were “Since then, we’ve basically been building and building
clearly identified as advertising so they would not be and building on the kinds of things we have,” Pickard
mixed with editorial content,” he explains. “We usually says. “But we’ve always thought it was important to
advertise products of Folha Group like books and have a dialogue with readers. We haven’t just suddenly
promotions, and we will very soon have banners in our got the memo that we’ve got to do something with
Facebook application (not on the fan page). But I think Twitter. But social media tools have allowed us to
revenue is not our main interest right now with social extend the kind of things we’ve been doing and
media. As in the beginning of the Internet, it’s more thinking about and relationships we’ve been building
important to understand this new media, develop the for over a decade now.”
right ‘language,’ and have a strong presence in the
networks.” In 2007, Pickard’s department started hosting social
media training “conversations” at The Guardian, using
In Brazil, 86% percent of Internet users spend their pastries to get staff to show up. Back then, staff
Internet time doing search/navigation, 85% use it for members could see how social media applied to their
social media, 75% for e-mail, and 59% for news/ personal lives but not their professional lives. But all
information. By 2014, the number of global users of the that has changed, with Guardian journalists and others
Internet using mobile platforms will outnumber the now understanding the engagement process.
desktop users, ComScore reports.
Staff started using Flickr a few years ago. On the day
“Social media is especially important for mobile,” Barack Obama was elected president of the United
Strecker says. “It’s logical to have a strong presence in States, The Guardian launched a Flickr group called
social media networks when we think tablets and “Message for Obama.” The group featured pictures of
smartphones will somehow shape the Internet of the people holding up signs with messages for the new
future. Social media networks grow faster than other American president. Three weeks later, The Guardian
Internet services. Users are spending more time on turned it into a book. The Guardian Camera Club is a
social media networks. It’s clear that being present in more long-term use of Flickr, with photo editors giving
social media networks is important. I think social media readers regular photo challenges.
will help with Internet advertising, apps subscriptions,
and Internet subscriptions. It will make the news “Readers submit their portfolios and our picture editors,
industry more effective and relevant.” who are very high in their field, will do a critique of
their amateur portfolio,” Pickard explains. “That’s never
D. The Guardian (United Kingdom) going to make it into print, and we won’t write books
about it. It’s more about we love photography; if you
While social media may be the buzzword of the last love photography, how can we engage in this love of

photography? Social media tools are helping us to which Pickard and other social media experts feel is the
extend those kinds of interests and relationships that most newspaper-like use of social media. Facebook was
we already have.” a little trickier in the beginning.
The main social media use at The Guardian is Twitter, “Our main social media strategy, when we started using
those exact words, ‘social media,’ was really about
making it easy for us to be found and making it
relevant in places where people already were,” Pickard
says. “Facebook was growing in popularity, reach, and
influence. We clearly needed to be there. We had the
feeling that what we did there was less relevant and
would become relevant over time to us and our users.”
When The Guardian started its Facebook page in 2009,

it didn’t tell anyone. Wanting to look at organic activity,
staff looked to see how the site was found and by
whom.
“There needs to be a good reason for somebody to

form a relationship with an organisation,” she says. “It
can’t just be because they’ve heard of us. We realised
that before we knew exactly what the use for Facebook
was, we wanted to know who our audience was. An
audience of people who find us was better for testing
rather than an audience who we’d funneled to our
location. So we wanted to start with the early adapters
or the people clever enough to be able to find us.”
The grassroots strategy worked. Those early adapters

told The Guardian what they wanted posted as well as
what they liked and didn’t like. It wasn’t until 2010 that
The Guardian
United Kingdom
The Guardian is known worldwide as a leader in the

social media movement. But being interactive with
readers is nothing new here, which may be why its
efforts feel so natural in the social media realm.

the newspaper really promoted its Facebook page. The ways. But it all comes down to reach and engagement.
Guardian also added a feature that shows how many It’s not about the conversation. It’s about the
times an article has been shared via Facebook or relationship; listening in and contributing to
Twitter, which makes people want to share more, communities of interest and communities of relevance.”
Pickard says. In addition to the main Guardian
Facebook page, there are pages for sections within the E. Mediahouse Limburg (Belgium)
newspaper: environment, technology, media, and
sports. Generally, Pickard feels Facebook works better Mediahouse Limburg launched madeinlimburg.be in
for brands than it does for individual news stories. September 2010. The idea was for the Web site to
become “the Facebook of local entrepreneurs,” hence
Pickard, who has a background in social anthropology the focus on the individual, his or her challenges,
and worked with AOL for more than eight years, joined successes, and occasionally his or her failures, explains
The Guardian in 2007. A self-described early adopter, Koen Van Parijs, who is on staff in the general
Pickard has been blogging since 2000 and using Flickr management department at Mediahouse Limburg and
since 2004. She and The Guardian are constantly assistant to the CEO at Concentra, Mediahouse
experimenting with different technologies, talking to Limburg’s parent company based in Hasslet, Belgium.
the founders of new social media opportunities and
looking for ways in which they are relevant. Within five months, the Web site surpassed most of the
company’s original objectives, now reaching 50% of its
“It’s like active watching and waiting,” she says. “We’re target market, attracting significant new revenues from
experimenting, tinkering, constantly trying to find new a book in review that was tied to the Web site, and
organising a well-attended event (51 businesses
opening their doors to the public on “Made in Limburg
Day”). Staff ran institutional and B2B campaigns on the
Web site with advertisers presenting themselves; staff
started field-selling ads in April.
“What we like most about madeinlimburg.be is that we

have been able to deliver a unique experience to readers
and advertisers at a very low cost since we leverage
existing platforms whenever possible (e.g. CRM) and
Mediahouse Limburg
Belgium
MadeInLimburg.be was created to be the “Facebook of

local entrepreneurs” and is an ever-evolving, popular
platform.

make extensive use of available open-source The Web site gets 30,000 to 35,000 unique visitors each
technologies for both our Web site and our crawling month. Staff has launched a daily newsletter that is
technology when new development is necessary,” Van e-mailed to a target audience at 6:00 a.m. every
Parijs says. morning, which is sending more people to the Web site.
The newsletter is averaging six new sign-ups each day.
Van Parijs attributes the initiative’s success to the The Web site was designed as an umbrella platform for
simple fact that people like to read about people. The the book and events Mediahouse Limburg had in mind.
majority of the news on the Web site is people- And it is with the former that the new revenue is
oriented, while issues like economics are left to the coming in. While advertisers have asked for more
traditional newspaper. advertorial presence on the Web site, so far the
company has refused.
Madeinlimburg.be has about 500 exclusive stories
online at any given time and has about the same Facebook, Van Parijs says, is a platform that’s hard to
number of comments from readers. Traffic is about 30% beat for sharing content. But on madeinlimburg.be,
above target. Each day, the site gets three to four times readers really like to see their name. News companies
as much traffic as the Web site of the largest service should provide users with more options to interact with
organisation for entrepreneurs nationally. stories, to see what other readers have done with
stories, to see the journalist behind the story, to see
To comment, readers must log in. Most comments: how the story became the story.
 Are about a promotion or deal. “These are all things that we can bring to our platforms,
be it powered with a Facebook log-in — because
 Are on the photo galleries (“I saw you” or “Have you competing with Facebook or the next thing isn’t an
seen me?”) option anymore — or otherwise,” Van Parijs says. “If
people are discussing your information on Facebook,
 Are about issues related to every entrepreneur (like then the value is created on Facebook. The only way
costs or regulation). discussion will happen on your site is if you’re
interesting enough, if you are open to people, if you
“It wasn’t really conceptualised as a social networking make it easy for people.”
site, but it will turn into a social networking site,” Van
Parijs says. “When people want to do that, you will have Traffic from Facebook becomes more valuable each
to follow. Our vision was to write about people, but day, he says. Facebook is a key starting point, but it is
when you write about people, people start doing things.” only that.
At some point, madeinlimburg.be will have a button “Social media is not just about mechanics like profile
similar to the Facebook like button, but it will say pages, buttons, status updates,” Van Parijs says. “It’s
“Proficiat,” (“Congratulations”). The thought is that this about personal communication, conversation. If you
will cause interaction to increase when people can hit a want to be social, you have to be social in bringing
button of congratulations in addition to (or instead of ) people in front and be open for conversation. Having a
commenting. more powerful platform — like Facebook, and we are
working on that — would certainly lower the threshold
Madeinlimburg.be also has a Facebook page, with for participating. But in the end, it is about people and
1,100 people as fans among a target group of 20,000. about conversations.”

F. Metro (Canada) move around the city, delivered when an opt-in reader
is near the advertising business. Metro can also deliver
In 2010, Metro was the first newspaper in the world to banner ads that are geography specific, a huge hit with
be on foursquare, a location-based social networking car dealers.
service that has a gaming aspect to it and uses GPS
tracking — a perfect fit for Metro’s urban, on-the-go “What we’re working on is layering news and
readers. information as you move around your city,” Brown says.
“We’re adding contextual information about each of
“Location-based is really key to Metro,” says Jodi Brown, our nine cities to get you the news closest to you.”
marketing and interactive director at Metro Canada,
based in Toronto. “Now we have a relationship with Brown is a fan of Twitter as the best way to share news,
about 35,000 followers. What’s in it for our readers as tidbits, and links with readers, and Metro Canada has
they move around the city is that Metro gives them tips about 30,000 followers. Among the news and headlines
about what they could or should be doing or eating.” tweeted, Metro also tosses in some marketing and
takes questions from followers.
Metro Canada also has an iPhone news app with a
section called m-flyers (mobile flyers). Like the paper At Metro Canada, managing editors are key to social
flyers retailers created, m-flyers are in your hand as you media, watching what the reporters do all day and
managing the flow of tweets and posts going out so as
not to flood readers’ feeds.
“It really tends to be a pretty engaged audience,” Brown

says. “Twitter is great because if readers have any
questions — they may wonder why you took an angle
on something, for example — it’s such an immediate
way to get feedback.”
Metro Canada has had a Facebook page since late 2009

but really didn’t start putting much effort into it until
the past six to eight months, feeling that Twitter and
foursquare were better social media venues. Facebook
is now Metro Canada’s No. 2 referrer behind Google.
Metro
Canada
Metro uses the fact that its audience is urban and in

movement for its social media strategy, which centered
on foursquare early on.

Metro is about to launch “Be Seen in Scene,” a Facebook you’re ready for. When your browser knows how many
fan page readers can fan for a chance to have their articles you’ve read about Libya, that you’re pretty
photograph in the “Scene” section of the newspaper well-versed in the background, then it can recommend
— an effort to build its number of Facebook fans. The articles based on your level of knowledge.”
campaign for the page will be promoted in the
newspaper. Metro definitely is along for the social media ride,
Brown says: “It’s just part of our fabric.”
“It’s always a 360,” Brown says. “You can drive more
traffic through Web sites and brand, but you want to G. The Press-Enterprise (United States)
get something back from our core platform.”
Enterprise Media — publisher of The Press-Enterprise
Metro’s youth — the free daily is 10 years old in Canada newspaper in Riverside, California — has seen
— is an advantage as it plays with social media. The phenomenal Facebook growth and usage by small
New York Times does a nice job with social media, but it businesses since 2009. Working with champions across
still feels fairly traditional, Brown says. the sales department, The Press-Enterprise created a set
of social media services that small businesses would be
“It’s hard to change completely the way you do things,” able to easily use. The goal was to generate incremental
she says about more established newspapers. “I think revenue from existing advertisers and help the
there’s a big shift that’s going to happen. Also, the newspaper reach more deeply into the small business
nature of technology and what your browser is able to marketplace.
remember will change. Content providers should be
able to leverage that somehow to deliver to you what To reach that goal, the newspaper:
 Surveyed the local marketplace: To better

understand the social media usage of the group of
advertisers most likely to benefit from social
media, local newsmedia companies should
conduct an annual online presence analysis of
advertisers from the past six months, recommends
Andrew McFadden, manager, innovation and
business development at Enterprise Media. “Our
local analysis showed that many businesses were
The Press-Enterprise
United States
Enterprise Media has monetised social media by

becoming the local expert in it.

struggling to keep up their Web sites and could use had some notable successes in helping local
social media to improve their presence online,” he companies launch social media campaigns and
says. increase engagement. Prior to engaging the
newspaper’s services, a local museum had shown
 Did an internal audit of social media competency: some success in increasing engagement by using a
The Press-Enterprise also conducted an internal personal profile instead of a business page. Since
audit to learn how its sales people use social media August 2010, the museum’s fans increased from
and identify training needs. “We learned that most 500 to more than 3,000, leading to increased
people use social media in their personal lives but engagement and comments. The Press-Enterprise
not as a business tool, so we developed training team was also able to apply social media
materials and sales programmes to teach them marketing techniques to increase exposure for a
how to use social media to improve revenue and local termite inspection company with no social
how to sell it,” McFadden says. “Beginning with a media presence to create hundreds of Facebook
simple concept, the social media platform needed fans and more than 700 Twitter followers in just a
to solve the problem of ‘I know I need to be on few short months.
Facebook, but I don’t know how to do it.’”
“We have created a dedicated team of social media
 Shared out social media expertise: Success experts that support all of our clients and provide
depends on having the right people employing insights for our content teams,” McFadden says. “While
best practices and the right leadership to support our launch and growth processes are extensive, the key
innovation, McFadden says. The newspaper has is to understand how the client builds business
relationships offline and translate that into interesting
content and engagement activities online. As the local
newsmedia company, there is an opportunity to
enhance our business-to-business brand by being the
trusted expert in social media and social media
marketing. Unlike any other advertising service, social
media is about creating interesting headlines and
relevant content that attracts attention and readers.
Who knows how to do that better than the local
newsmedia company?”
SOL
Portugal
SOL gives its readers the option of liking its content

through Facebook or retweeting it through Twitter, as
well as the ability to connect to Facebook through SOL’s
own Web site.

H. SOL (Portugal) content through Facebook or to re-tweet it, as well as

giving readers the option to connect to Facebook
SOL first launched its Web site when the newspaper through SOL’s Web site, adding a widget on its pages to
was born in September 2006. Unchanged by enable readers to see which friends also like SOL. Lastly,
September 2010, it needed a facelift. readers can also share news through Facebook without
needing to be registered on SOL’s Web site.
“We were already on Facebook and Twitter, but the old
Web site didn’t have the option to share the content we SOL’s Facebook friends have multiplied and continue to
published in those social networks,” explains Teresa grow, passing 57,000 in February 2011 to become the
Oliveira, SOL’s online editor. “With the new Web site, network’s second largest community amongst daily
coinciding with the explosion of Facebook’s popularity and weekly newspapers in Portugal. A few thousand
in Portugal, readers can share our news through the news stories are currently shared per week, a great
most important social networks.” many of them through Facebook, and much of the
newspaper’s content is “liked” or re-tweeted. 
Additionally, SOL gave readers the option to “like” its

5
Structuring Social Media as
Revenue or Brand Opportunity
Is social media about revenue, brand, or both?
“Social media is one of the stronger brand-building value in saying you work for Nike.
tools that we can have to create trust and conversation,”
says Jodi Brown of Metro Canada. “There are lots of “At the end of the day, I’m going to want to follow the
other ways to hit your bottom line. It takes time to do it Twitter feeds of people and brands that give me the best
well, but it hasn’t cost us a penny in terms of dollars information and contribute back to my community
spent. We’re not paying separate teams to do this. instead of the ones that don’t. But that’s a new concept,
We’ve incorporated it into the heart of our business.” and it’s a younger generation that values that. It’s very
hard to explain to an aging editor/publisher that for
Drawbackwards’ Ward Andrews understands the them, there may be no monetary value in the short-term.”
mentality of the bottom line. But news companies must
understand the difference between monetary capital But the money will come, experts say.
and social capital. The latter, he says, carries more
weight in this new, social media world. Consider a company like Visual Revenue. The New York
-based company “provides editors with actionable,
“If you have truly built a community with your Twitter real-time recommendations on what content to place
account, with real people talking to real people, you’re in what position right now and for how long, using
going to be able to deliver a quality product that is predictive analytics that allow media organisations to
exponentially higher than the other guy,” Andrews says. proactively manage the cost of exposing a piece of
“It’s not going to translate in quarter one on the bottom content on a front page, whilst maximising the return
line, but we’re looking at a younger generation that’s they expect from promoting it,” the company’s Web site
more interested in my company because of our social touts.
capital than our monetary capital. The value to my
employees who work for me is much higher because The company launched in early 2011. Its analytics tell
they work for a company that works for a brand man. editors what people are most interested in at the
We’ve seen this in business for years. There’s so much moment, by the minute or by the hour, giving them the
“Social media is one of the stronger brand-building tools that we can have to create trust
and conversation. There are lots of other ways to hit your bottom line. It takes time to do
it well, but it hasn’t cost us a penny in terms of dollars spent. We’re not paying separate
teams to do this. We’ve incorporated it into the heart of our business.”
JODI BROWN Marketing and Interactive Director, Metro Canada

Chapter 5: Structuring Social Media as Revenue or Brand Opportunity
“A newspaper has a lot of content, and most of it is archived content within the first day
and a half. The most money is happening then. This is the time when people want to read
the story. The metrics help calculate how much money that newspaper makes if they can
keep people there reading it longer [using an advertising calculator].”
MARSHALL SPONDER Author and Specialist, Web Analytics, SEO/SEM
knowledge they need to make decisions about moving already is going on. News companies could:
content around.
 Sell custom content like in-depth articles or special
Author Marshall Sponder feels such data is key to photo spreads.
newspapers trying to engage readers and bring in
revenue.  “Rent” an in-depth Q&A in the same way that Warner
Bros. is renting movies on Facebook. Why couldn’t a
“This addresses the problem of figuring out on the newspaper sell a 15-minute video interview in
front pages of section pages if you have the right five-minute snippets for US$0.99 cents each?
content up there long enough,” Sponder says. “A
newspaper has a lot of content, and most of it is “If it’s valuable enough, then somebody’s going to buy
archived content within the first day and a half. The it,” Kee says. “It’s not going to be core revenue, but it
most money is happening then. This is the time when might end up being a content play, another option for
people want to read the story. The metrics help them to sell their content.”
calculate how much money that newspaper makes if
they can keep people there reading it longer [using an Means of distribution and means of consumption have
advertising calculator].” changed, says the Guardian’s Meg Pickard. Digital
media allows consumers to customise, time shift, use
Tameka Kee of Social Times Pro sees several possible completely different formats. News organisations must
ways newspapers could bring in new revenue from stop thinking like they are talking to consumers in one
sites like Facebook, where all sorts of social commerce way at one time.
“Each content must be relevant in its own way,” Pickard

says. “Rather than mass, think about how we can
stimulate and serve and monetise many niches. Niche
Social media engagement
This graphic from VisualRevenue.com gives a visual

glimpse of the key words readers of The New York Times
liked via Facebook.

Chapter 5: Structuring Social Media as Revenue or Brand Opportunity
plus niche plus niche equals mass. Rather than finding Adee has a budget and a P&L.
one thing for one million people, we find 10 things for
100,000 people. Just because this has always been So, social media is about revenue and brand.
about trying to find one thing that works for
everybody, what does that look like in the changed It is about the revenue: “Every incremental bit of
world, a world in which mass doesn’t work? revenue counts,” social media consultant Murray
Newlands says. “Some newspapers have a very large
“That’s where we’re looking at this. A series of engaged presence on Facebook, Twitter. There are advertising
niches that are loyal, have relevance, have details. Does opportunities within both. That’s where their
that beat the anonymous mass, fleeting and fickle advertisers want to be. If they don’t, they’re missing out
drive-by audience? That’s the sort of quandary that on not just revenue but also an opportunity to engage
everybody is really coping with at the moment. How do on behalf of advertisers. They should be looking at
you think about the changing shape of the audience where do advertisers want to engage with their
and the changing shape of attention?” audience? Because really, part of what a newspaper is,
is a conduit for engagement with the audience.”
The Guardian doesn’t feel like it needs to make money
directly off its social media activities, Pickard says. A It is about the brand: “I consider social media a big
sustainable business, yes, but the two are intricately engagement and brand initiative,” says Jodi Brown of
tied together. Metro Canada. “Strengthening your brand through
social media doesn’t have a direct monetised impact,
One of the keys to extending revenue is through but it does impact your brand as a whole. The more
increasing and enhancing reach and engagement, she engagements you have, the more our engaged readers
says. love us on the way to work. We are able to launch more
new products that can be monetised if we have an
“Engagement will point to different usage of our sites,” engaged audience who loves us on all platforms.
Pickard says. “Being able to say, ‘Look, it’s not just 40
million who have come to a site once, but we’ve It is about both: “It’s about building a legacy, leaving a
actually got people who are loyal, come back legacy in the long-term growth,” Andrews says. “If you’re
frequently, this is how many times a day they use it.’ It’s on there early, you have the opportunity to gain market
being able to say our relationship is not just for fun share as markets emerge. That may be the value. The
because we’re able to do something more with them, guys who were online early, they’re the ones who have
and they become a more valuable audience.” a mature digital department who are actually making
money on it. If 10,000 hours of work goes into being
Adee agrees, adding, however, that there is money to proficient in something, you’d better start your 10,000-
be made in social media. And The Tribune is making it. hour clock now.” 

6
Social Media Optimisation
(SMO) for Publishers
Now that you’re figuring out SEO, let’s start working on social media optimisation (SMO), which is
all about human connections. And reporters aren’t so sure they like that.
The solution to that? Empower a new generation of what about your content. Facebook has privacy
reporters who are connected and spend part of their standards, making such tools less helpful. But say you
day writing and part of their day connecting. That have data coming in on readers who are interested in
connection is a commodity, and newspapers need to tropical fish. You can put that into specific search tools,
realise that. allowing you to give out niche news on the topic.
“It’s content marketing and it’s social networking, but Engagement play: A key strategy for future revenue
it’s also audience building,” author Brian Solis says. models must include increased customer engagement.
“Newspapers are competing for attention. They have News companies might consider a team to do this. “You
yet to really acknowledge that. What we’re looking at is need to have somebody there responding to the
a whole new infrastructure, a new type of connected discussions [articles] spark, on Web sites, the mobile
reporter down to the HR level. They have to be versions of Web sites, or on the actual platforms where
rewarded for this audience. The era of the traditional a lot of the discussions will be taking place,” Brynley-
journalist is over.” Jones says. “The reason for it is not just to spark off
conversations and chat about it. Just by being involved
Of course, social media doesn’t fall entirely into the lap in the conversation, you are connecting yourself better
of the reporter. Social media should, in Solis’ opinion, with the customer. Through that, when you do come to
be a new role of the managing editor or a new breed of want that customer to do something for you, buy
editors all together. something, join something, share something, then
they’re more likely to do it.”
Luke Brynley-Jones of Our Social Times recommends:
The big plus for newspapers in this is that they already
Listening: You can buy services to search out — in have an engaged audience. Brynley-Jones says they just
specific terms and phrases — what people are saying need to leverage that audience and engage with them,
“Just by being involved in the conversation, you are connecting yourself better with the
customer. Through that, when you do come to want that customer to do something for
you, buy something, join something, share something, then they’re more likely to do it.”
LUKE BRYNLEY-JONES Founder, Our Social Times

Chapter 6: Social Media Optimisation (SMO) for Publishers
perhaps taking one of these discussions about a Sponder’s most recent focus is social media metrics:
specific news story and holding a live event or “You could track everything if you want to take the
discussion. “Then it becomes either an event or a report trouble,” he says.
or a news story that they can then monetise,” he says.
Barnes & Noble has the ability to know Sponder is at
Tapping into the real time news currency: Social their store and tweet him while he’s there. The reality
media dashboards (like MarketMeSuite) are a way to right now is that technology allows more information
balance consumer need for immediate news without — or intrusion, depending on how you look at it —
overloading Twitter feeds and, thus, a newspaper’s Web than customers may want.
site. “There’s a big land to curate what you get from
Twitter,” Brynley-Jones says. “Basically, there are Technology aside, newspapers’ content puts them in
downloadable apps to set up different columns for the perfect position to partner well with social media,
different topics. There’s a column for all your social Sponder says. While there are worries about where that
media monitoring. You can set it up so if somebody content appears and where people are using it, social
mentions a specific word of phrase within a specific media loves — and needs —content. Sponder
distance, say 50 miles of London, you can automatically mentions the Huffington Post as a “perfect example” of
send them a message.” how media use social media.
Such technology allows newspapers such geomapping “The whole social media ecosystem functions on
relationships, especially important with the rise of having something to talk about or share,” he says.
consumers using smartphones for their social media
consumption. Useful information for newspapers to Sponder recently saw a New York magazine that
have? Yes, but most aren’t very savvy about it. sponsored a video film workshop, offering a weekend
class for US$1,000 — much less than the US$30,000 or
From what Brynley-Jones has seen from the US$40,000 one might pay to shoot and produce video
publications he’s spoken to in the United Kingdom, through a private company or school. That magazine
newspapers still have traditional teams set up, tracking will now curate and feature that content, almost like a
the demographics and metrics of their distribution. guild, Sponder says.
“Because of their strong background in statistics and “Not like the old guilds but in a sense that one thing
analytics, sometimes they haven’t had the will to shift the publishing outlets have is an audience,” he says.
into social media,” he says. “That’s going to have to “That offers some unique possibilities that a lot of
change. They’re rightly, to an extent, focused on the others cannot offer.”
bottom line. I used to walk into offices and say, ‘You need
to be listening and engaged,’ and they would look at me When Sponder looks at the major players among U.S.
like ‘where’s the money? Who’s going to pay for all this?’ newspapers, he sees that they’ve given up trying to
monetise their online content; they are trying not to
“The answer, though, is the same as it is for any lose any more subscriptions and trying to give their
business. Which is there’s a curve with social media, an print newspaper subscribers more platform options to
investment of time and effort. You start with a really see their content. And social media clearly is one of
high investment of time and very little return. Then, those options.
gradually, the amount of time you have to put in drops
and the engagement you’re getting goes back up. It’s “Even at The [New York] Times, you can see how so
the scale of engagement.” many people comment on Facebook,” he says. “There’s

Chapter 6: Social Media Optimisation (SMO) for Publishers
the possibility now to cull responses that really didn’t Gathering the analytics of social media is getting easier.
exist until about five years ago. The question is, again, The real hurdle is what to do with it, Sponder says. That’s
what to do with it, how to monetise it. The information where newspapers need to invest.
itself is free, but the intelligence and knowledge that
come out of it isn’t.” “It’s how you layer it, what you do with it, how you relate
it to business metrics, and business goals, which is really
Complex Magazine in the United States used a metrics what people are willing and needing to pay for,” he says.
system that was able to determine, based on different “Those are hard things to do, and that’s why they cost
parts of the magazine and its network, who its money. Maybe using Twitter gives you relatively good
audience is and what content they may want to see results or Cloud gives you some interesting results, but
shared, Sponder explains. The system suggests to social they are not reliable. Increasingly what money is spent
media managers which of the magazine’s posts and on is reliability, the validity of the data.”
articles are more sharable. That content is, thus, shared
more. This curation of content intelligence using a What data do newspapers have that someone might
social graph produced a 25% increase in site traffic and spend US$10,000, US$15,000, or US$25,000 on? “My
a 30% increase in the number of fans of the magazine feeling is the data itself is a commodity,” Sponder says.
at the end of 2010. “It has been for the last two years. More than the
intelligence behind it, the data’s the gem.” 

7
Social Media’s Next Steps
at News Organisations
While news organisations admittedly are still finding their way with social media, planning ahead
is tricky. That’s true whether they simply have a Facebook page, have enriched Facebook-like
interaction on their Web site, or are restructuring their different departments to embed social
media.
Even the most innovative newspapers like The Guardian stream for newspapers. And because newspapers had a
and Metro are watching — “actively watching,” as traditional way of looking at things, they’re bad with
Pickard puts it — to see where social media will go keeping up with the monetisation methods that some
next. social media publications have had. Most of them have
been slow to react. I see it, in a way, as similar to Detroit
This is a movement led by three drivers: and the car industry as far as the type of structural
industrial change.”
1. Technology.
While many believe it’s fine to sit back and watch while
2. Obvious long-term leaders like Facebook and the big players in the industry determine the best way
Twitter. to monetise and engage with readers with on the
tablet platform, that isn’t the case with social media.
3. Consumer whims and newly developing habits. Everyone interviewed for this report believes
newspapers will find their way into it — whether you
It is like the iPad/tablet question in many of those ways go all-in like Metro or make an informed decision based
(replace “Facebook” and “Twitter” with “Apple”) but on your audience to go a more traditional route like
unlike it in the way that social media is an issue of Financial Review Group.
relationships, not a specific platform or device.
As Brian Solis once said, “Monologue has given way to
How flexible and pliable newspapers are in this space dialogue.” But newspapers are all about monologue. All
— to consumer needs as well as their own — will about the masses. Neither of which will work with social
dictate how well they fill and engage with it. media. Newspapers simply must get out of this century-
old mindset. And that starts at the top, Solis says.
“Social media is creating lots of additional content, and
I suppose that competes with attention with traditional “Leadership at any organisation is not something that
newspapers,” Newlands says. “People get their news you have just because you work your way up,” Solis
from a variety of sources, and those other news sources says. “It’s something you have to continue to earn. If
compete for the ad dollar, driving down the revenue you’re not steering your organisation in a direction that

Chapter 7: Social Media’s Next Steps at News Organisations
is embracing emerging opportunities, then you don’t organisation who can convince them there’s an iceberg
belong in that position. The sooner leaders realise that ahead, the better. The difference is that everybody’s
it’s their responsibility or have people within their telling you that it’s there.” 

8
Conclusion
Struggle though they will, the future of news media and social media are intertwined. Technology
simply makes richer the connection between the two.
Perhaps none of this should be a surprise.  Revenue is not the only consideration.
“There is no such thing as ‘social media,’” Mediahouse  Facebook and Twitter improve the newspaper
Limburg’s Koen Van Parijs says. “Media have always been brand by getting its content in front of an
‘social.’ Media provide information, entertain people, otherwise unreachable audience that wants to
and, more importantly, help people integrate socially engage.
— giving them something to talk about, establishing
relationships with other people by helping them,  There is no tangible benefit to these social
sharing things. Media help build and confirm their experiences taking place off the newspaper’s Web
values. site.
“Ten years ago, we talked about the personalised  Newspapers inherently have the content necessary
newspaper. We always thought personalising meant to engage with their readers via social media.
that we, as news publications, would control it, that we
would aggregate the information. Look, we’re in 2011 “Consider the social mean content like grains of sand
and people are aggregating for themselves. Your profile — there’s a lot of it and it’s inexpensive,” Echo States
page or your wall on Facebook is a kind of newspaper. It CEO Khris Koux says. “What the publisher needs to do is
doesn’t really look like a newspaper, but there’s a lot of blow glass. How do I make a vase or a wine glass or a
news that’s relevant for you, and you can customise it bottle out of this sand, which is so plentiful and cheap?
yourself. It’s the most personal newspaper you can That’s what I keep going back to — the experience.
imagine.” What experience do you craft with 1,000 tweets and 500
photos so it becomes beautiful and part of the story and
The lessons from this social revolution are numerous doesn’t drown the story out?”
and fluid:
That, among other questions, is still being navigated —
 Money can be made through social media. whether news companies “like” it or not. 
“Ten years ago, we talked about the personalised newspaper. We always thought
personalising meant that we, as news publications, would control it, that we would
aggregate the information. Look, we’re in 2011 and people are aggregating for
themselves. Your profile page or your wall on Facebook is a kind of newspaper.”
KOEN VAN PARIJS Mediahouse

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April 2011

Newspapers and Social Media:

Table of Contents 03 Introduction 30 Chapter 5:

Cover art includes: The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, SOL

INMA Inc. © Copyright 2011

KHRIS LOUX CEO, Echo States

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 3

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 4

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 5

Internet users who manage social network profile

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 6

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 7

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 8

MEG PICKARD Head of Digital Engagement, The Guardian

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 9

C. Huffington Post So socialize. But do so in your newspaper’s own voice.

“They realised social needs to be embedded in every department. Newspapers

TAMEKA KEE Lead Researcher, Analyst, Social Times Pro

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 10

Huffington identifies its top influencers based on the

“What we’re looking at is the intelligent application of

Many social media and newspaper experts point to the

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 11

MURRAY NEWLANDS Social Media Consultant, Blogger

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 12

“You have to go where your audience is and where your

California-based Enterprise Media has spent much of

Newsmedia companies are struggling to determine

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 13

ANDREW MCFADDEN Manager, Innovation and Business Development, Enterprise Media

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 14

B. Engagement Back at The Guardian’s Web site, a team of moderators

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 15

The social media players

foursquare: A location-based social networking Web site designed for GPS-enabled

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 16

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 17

WARD ANDREWS Owner, Drawbackwards

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 18

Adee has faith that the Tribune and others in the

At left, top: Bob McDonald, Katharina Bockli, Katie

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 19

Financial Review Group

For its target audience, Financial Review Group has

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 20

Social network referrers now represent 4% of the

Last October, Folha de S.Paulo launched a Facebook

“Brazil is advanced in social media with one of the

Consumers in Brazil have one of the highest social

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 21

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 22

When The Guardian started its Facebook page in 2009,

“There needs to be a good reason for somebody to

The grassroots strategy worked. Those early adapters

The Guardian is known worldwide as a leader in the

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 23

“What we like most about madeinlimburg.be is that we

MadeInLimburg.be was created to be the “Facebook of

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 24

Newspapers and Social Media: From Monologue to Dialogue INMA ❙ 25

“It really tends to be a pretty engaged audience,” Brown

Metro Canada has had a Facebook page since late 2009

Metro uses the fact that its audience is urban and in