This story first appeared on RJI’s Futures Lab. Reporting by Katy Mersmann and Berkeley Lovelace.
This week we find out how two organizations engage digital audiences via week-long special coverage; and we explore some ways to generate revenue on mobile.
PART 1: Theme weeks at BuzzFeed and Motherboard
Online news outlets are embracing the concept of “theme weeks,” focusing large amounts of their regular coverage onto single topics. We find out how BuzzFeed and Motherboard (operated by Vice Media) engaged their audiences by coordinating text, video, social media and visual content around specific theme.
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Examples:
- BuzzFeed’s Mental Health Week coverage was assembled on a single web page in addition to having been featured across the site and via social media channels. An Editor in Chief Ben Smith explains, the coverage included “more than 100 posts across five languages, as well as 30 videos.”
- Motherboard’s overall focus on science and technology has prompted theme weeks on topics like theoceans and sleep.
PART 2: Mobile revenue
Although no one seems to have solved the challenge completely, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of research at the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford, walks us through some of the approaches news organizations have taken to make money from their mobile efforts.
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Reuben Stern is the deputy director of the Futures Lab at the Reynolds Journalism Institute and host and co-producer of the weekly Futures Lab video update.
The Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Futures Lab video update features a roundup of fresh ideas, techniques and developments to help spark innovation and change in newsrooms across all media platforms. Visit the RJI website for the full archive of Futures Lab videos, or download the receive email notification of each new episode.
