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Rockford Register Star has a nifty tradition called Editorial Stew that takes some good news stories a cooks up a positive editorial.
WHAT THEY DID: Rockford takes three good-news stories (a regatta on the Rock River from the weekend, a community gardening program for the needy, and a belated celebration for the Super Bowl Bears) and writes an editorial praising all three. Online, the package contains links to related video, gallery and stories. A short explainer -- set up as a sidebar -- helps readers understand the concept of the Editorial Stew.
TAKEAWAY: Be sure to trumpet good news in your town. As Rockford puts it, many days you'll have meatier fare for your editorials. We use our opinion page to advocate for our communities. But sometimes our editorials can point out the good in our communities. In this case, Rockford was able to package content for a popular event that drew thousands to the river. Usually, lighter editorial content doesn't draw a lot of traffic on the web, but this type of packaging, bringing together elements such as a photo gallery and video, along with prominent placement, make sense.
If you have a Best of the Day idea, please send it to Jean Hodges or Sarah Corbitt.
Jean Hodges served as a reporter and editor for more than 20 years and led groundbreaking projects that won national acclaim before coming to GateHouse to launch the company's news service. She worked most recently at the Chicago Sun-Times' Daily Southtown, covering the south side and south suburbs of Chicago. Before that she worked at the Killen (Texas) Daily Herald, the Clovis (N.M.) News Journal and the Ely Standard in Cambridgeshire, England. She now works with GateHouse news organizations on content strategies, Web initiatives, plus she leads training programs such as webinars and LEDE, GateHouse's leadership program.
