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The Herald News front with a full-page alternative-format story on the state of the city of Fall River, Mass., is the GateHouse front page of the month for February. What's really nice about this package? The stories are based on reader-generated content. Fantastic idea. Superb execution.
Jon Root, managing editor for The Herald News and its sister paper, The Taunton Daily Gazette, just up the road, sent along the two inside pages where stories, jumps and readers' poll data was presented. Readers responded a number of questions, including "Is the city's business climate in better shape, the same or in worse shape than a year ago?" Responses were tallied and presented in graphs and bar charts, as well as the pie charts on the cover.
Planning for this package began about 10 days in advance, Root said. "That day’s page was part of a weeklong series of pages and stories to not only cover the mayor’s State of the City address," Root said, "but conduct our own State of the City, ASF-style."
This spreadsheet (in the photo gallery) was used in that process. Looking at the spreadsheet, I really like how they start with the story idea, then decide the best format with which to tell that story. In other words, this is document isn't a list of stories for the package, it's a way to communicate with everyone involved. This is a great example on how to plan in-depth packages.
Root answered a few questions about how the information came together.
What was involved in the planning of this package and how long did it take?
The mayor of Fall River was planning his annual State of the City address. We wanted to take the opportunity to conduct our own State of the City assessment. We knew his version was going to be wine and roses and mostly an early campaign speech; we wanted to not only shed light on what the actual State of the City might be, but also give the city’s residents a voice in the process. What were their opinions?
So we settled on a series of modified ASFs to get the job done, on the front page and on inside pages, days before the actual address. We divided the city into four sectors, and combined the Budget Breakdown and Quote Collection ASFs into a “State of the City” ASF. We also conducted several online polls to measure residents’ satisfaction (or lack thereof) with the State of the City, then parlayed those results into yet more ASFs – Poll Results. We also ran a main preview story and a couple sidebars.
The Herald News front with a full-page alternative-format story on the state of the city of Fall River, Mass., is the GateHouse front page of the month for February. What's really nice about this package? The stories are based on reader-generated content. Fantastic idea. Superb execution.
Jon Root, managing editor for The Herald News and its sister paper, The Taunton Daily Gazette, just up the road, sent along the two inside pages where stories, jumps and readers' poll data was presented. Readers responded a number of questions, including "Is the city's business climate in better shape, the same or in worse shape than a year ago?" Responses were tallied and presented in graphs and bar charts, as well as the pie charts on the cover.
Planning for this package began about 10 days in advance, Root said. "That day’s page was part of a weeklong series of pages and stories to not only cover the mayor’s State of the City address," Root said, "but conduct our own State of the City, ASF-style."
This spreadsheet (in the photo gallery) was used in that process. Looking at the spreadsheet, I really like how they start with the story idea, then decide the best format with which to tell that story. In other words, this is document isn't a list of stories for the package, it's a way to communicate with everyone involved. This is a great example on how to plan in-depth packages.
Root answered a few questions about how the information came together.
What was involved in the planning of this package and how long did it take?
The mayor of Fall River was planning his annual State of the City address. We wanted to take the opportunity to conduct our own State of the City assessment. We knew his version was going to be wine and roses and mostly an early campaign speech; we wanted to not only shed light on what the actual State of the City might be, but also give the city’s residents a voice in the process. What were their opinions?
So we settled on a series of modified ASFs to get the job done, on the front page and on inside pages, days before the actual address. We divided the city into four sectors, and combined the Budget Breakdown and Quote Collection ASFs into a “State of the City” ASF. We also conducted several online polls to measure residents’ satisfaction (or lack thereof) with the State of the City, then parlayed those results into yet more ASFs – Poll Results. We also ran a main preview story and a couple sidebars.
Planning for this package was a little more intense than usual package planning. Coverage ran over four pages, including two covers. Three reporters contributed, one page designer oversaw most of the layouts, and two other editors helped plan, edit or finish the layouts. Some of the reporters were new to ASF info gathering. Having ASF templates helped guide the way.
A reporter and three editors began planning for this package about 10 days out in a one-hour meeting, to discuss what we wanted to accomplish and how we wanted to use ASFs to help accomplish it. Then each day thereafter, one-on-one update meetings were held between reporters and editors.
How closely did the reporting assignments follow the original plan?
Pretty close. Some adaptations were made with some of the ASFs. Reporters were gathering a lot of information that they wanted to present in the ASFs. The “Did You Know?” mini-ASF turned out to be a great vehicle for presenting a lot of facts in a confined area.
How did the elements come together on the front page?
Pretty easily. We decided in that original meeting that the 4 State of the City ASFs combined would serve as “main art” on the cover. On first draft, they all took up more space than I thought they would, so there was some whittling and tightening involved. But when does an editor NOT perform those tasks, right? We arranged the factoids differently within each ASF, for variety. And then we topped the package with the lead story and the first of many reader poll result graphics, teasing to many more on the inside.
I was worried that the lack of a traditional centerpiece (main photo) would make the page too busy and too text-oriented. But the feedback we got on it was mostly positive – lots of information condensed into a quick read in a nice package. And it stood out and caught people’s attention. State-of-the-City-at-a-Glance.
What would you do differently next time when planning an ASF centerpiece?
This one went relatively smoothly, I think, thanks to all the advance time and preparation that went into it. But I think that next time, I might wait to see what information and data is gathered by reporters or polls before settling on an ASF. I think they work best when you can choose one that’s best suited for the information, instead of forcing the information to adhere to a predetermined ASF.
What advice would you give other GateHouse papers that would like to try this approach?
Get reporters involved early in the ASF planning process. Distribute copies of sample ASFs to everyone in the newsroom. And don’t be afraid to Frankenstein some ASFs for unique purposes.
Great stuff! If you have a story presented in an alternative format that you'd like to share, send it to jgreco@gatehousemedia.com.
