Story Lives On with Audience's Help

BusinessWeek has found a way to keep some stories alive: update them with its audience’s help.

In 2005, the magazine did an article called, “Blogs Will Change Your Business.” When editors realized the story was still getting major hits online, they updated the story in 2008 with blue icons to alert readers to new data and called it, “Social Media Will Change Your Business.” But they’re not done: they want to do it again and have posted a video seeking audience participation.

“We have to keep the story going, and we can’t do it alone,” Stephen Baker, who co-wrote the article, says in the video.

Today’s Tip: Dig through your archives and see what needs refreshing. Look for articles that particularly resonated with readers. Think about how technological and economic changes have changed the story and seek reader input. If you’re working on an evolving story, keep it on your to-do list to update down the road.

John A. Byrne, BusinessWeek.com’s editor in chief, talks about its strategy of differentiating itself with high levels of audience engagement in a Q&A on Econsultancy.com. Speaking of the social media article, he says:

“Even though it was published in February of 2008, it remains one of the three or five most-read stories every month. Why? Because Steve and Heather [Green] asked for and got heavy audience collaboration on the story.”

You Don’t Have to Reinvent the Wheel

Stories about shoppers turning to resale and thrift shops to find bargains have popped up across the country in recent weeks. Andrea K. Walker of The Baltimore Sun wrote about increasing sales at such stores in her area and offered sales data from a publicly traded company to support her article. She also made the story more tangible by including consumer voices.

Today’s Tip: Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel; just change the hubcap.

Watch coverage in other markets to find story ideas that will work for your audience. Here’s a great article by tech guru Amy Webb on ways to use social media to track news trends. Add your own spin and fresh reporting to localize the story. For instance, you could expand the bargain-shopping idea to online as well. Are clothing bids up on eBay? Are people trying to sell more items on their own instead of donating them? You could also use social media to find three local bargain hunters to see how they’re saving money.

An Excuse to Twitter at Your Desk

By monitoring Twitter, aviation reporter Julie Johnsson of the Chicago Tribune learned about a YouTube video involving a dispute between United Airlines and Dave Carroll, a passenger who says the airline damaged his guitar. A later tweet also gave her an end to the story – a donation to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz from United in Carroll’s name.

“I learned about the donation Friday night, via a tweet from United. Coincidentally, I first heard about Dave Carroll’s video from aviation contacts on Twitter,” Julie says in an e-mail. “So, monitoring social media is rapidly becoming an essential part of beat coverage for me -- and also a handy excuse if an editor walks by while I’m on Twitter.”

Today’s Tip: Follow what’s being said about companies you cover on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. Information that doesn’t make it into press releases may land on these sites and provide you with a solid scoop.

For a great primer on how to use Twitter and helper programs such as TweetDeck and Twhirl, see "The Mossberg Solution" from July 14 on wsj.com.