It was our goal to send the initial survey to as many of Chicago’s online news providers as we could find, but unfortunately, we missed a few. Marina City Online is one of those sites. It’s a great hyper-local site that covers the 1,400-resident community of Marina City and the River North and North Loop neighborhoods of downtown Chicago. Let us know if we’ve left other sites off so we can be sure to include them in future surveys, updates and reports.

Another challenge that’s become clear after the release of this year’s NEW News is tracking online news traffic to Chicago-area sites. Last year, as the Workshop tried to rank online news sites, we asked online news providers to give us their site traffic numbers. We found out this is easier said than done. Some sites are forthcoming with traffic numbers, and others have reasons for keeping that information private.

Because we were aware of these concerns and because we weren’t ranking online news sites this year, we conducted our own research using compete.com to identify where Chicago readers were getting their online news. You can read more about those findings here. Although this information proved very useful, Newcity let us know that our numbers for their site were too low. In fact, according to their site traffic measures, they have over 40,000 readers a month to newcity.com and chicagoweekly.com. As our researcher pointed out, compete.com often underestimates traffic numbers, especially for smaller sites. Newcity also uses a service called Quantcast to track site visits. Quantcast allows people to use code on their web site to get a more accurate measure, as well as insights about site visitor demographics. Some sites have it, but others don’t, which is why we used Compete despite its limitations.

We don’t know how to solve the site traffic problem yet, but it’s possible we’ll ask for traffic numbers next year if we attempt to rank sites again. Or, maybe a service will emerge that accurately tracks site traffic for smaller blogs and hyperlocal sites, as well as the big outlets like the Chicago Tribune online.

We appreciate everyone’s responses to the NEW News report. The online ecosystem continues to change rapidly, and your feedback helps us keep up!

We need your help! This is your chance to tell journalists what you want to see in the news during the fall election.

The Workshop is holding a news briefing in October for the ethnic news media on critical issues in this fall’s election. We would like your advice on at least two issues that you think should be raised in news coverage this fall. Tell us two issues that effect your organization and your community and we will pass them along to the more than 300 news outlets serving our area’s black and immigrant communities.

Click here to tell us about the issues you think are important.

The Residents’ Journal!

But wait, what did they win?

The Community Media Workshop surveyed online news providers to inform the 2nd annual NEW News report, released earlier this month. We encouraged online outlets across the Chicago area to participate, and in an effort to boost the response rate, we offered a $100 visa gift card.

More than 120 outlets responded to the survey, and we randomly selected one participant to win the $100 prize. Congratulations to Residents’ Journal! And thanks again to all the online news providers who gave us valuable information and insights about the changing media landscape and the challenges facing the new news.

Photo by Carrie Sloan on Flickr.com

It’s not news that the Great Recession has taken its toll on nonprofits and those they serve. The mom on food stamps for the first time, the widow who lost her home to foreclosure, the shuttered community counseling center–these are all important stories that put a face on the economic downturn. But how do nonprofits move beyond these personal stories to spur systemic change?

Our free Brown Bag forum happening next week on Tuesday, Reframing Stories of the Great Recession, looks at how agencies can reshape their communications strategies to move to a narrative that engages policy makers in the midst of city and state budget crunches and ongoing belt tightening in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors.

“Demand outweighs the supply because budgets are being slashed across the board. I think this narrative is tired” says Thom Clark, president, Community Media Workshop. “Nonprofits need a media strategy that goes beyond recounting the human impact of an agency’s financial dilemma. The media is hungry for new angles to tell the ongoing recession story. Nonprofits should be at the center of this news frame.”

The panel discussion with some of Chicago’s top journalists and policy makers includes Laura Washington, Woods Fund; Mark Brown, Chicago Sun-Times; Chip Mitchell, WBEZ; Sarah Karp, Catalyst Chicago; Ralph Martire, Center for Tax and Budget Accountability; Amisha Patel, Grassroots Collaborative; Amy Rynell, Heartland Alliance; and the Workshop’s Thom Clark.

When/where: Tuesday, August 24, 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Columbia College Chicago, 33 East Congress, Room 219

Visit the Workshop’s website or call us at 312-369-6400 to sign up today.

The 2^nd annual NEW News report, produced by Community Media Workshop and funded by the Community News Matters program of  The Chicago Community Trust, surveyed 121 online news outlets about issues ranging from salaried employees to the type of content being produced.

According to the report, most of the online sites surveyed rely heavily on unpaid bloggers and reporters and piggy bank financing. More than 60 percent of sites surveyed had no more than one person working full time on the site. A similar percentage reported that no one receives health insurance from their online news outlet.

Read more about the online news ecosystem in our eco-friendly, online-only report.

You’ve Twittered, Facebooked and blogged about your organization’s story but aren’t receiving the response you desire.

Tim Frick, author of “Return on Engagement” and social media trainer at the Workshop’s upcoming fall session, says many nonprofits have two misconceptions about social media and why they don’t produce the desired audience engagement.

“There’s the misconception that it’s free,” says Frick. “It doesn’t cost any money to get a Twitter account, Facebook account, or a LinkedIn account, but it does take time to create and build the content for those things and present that content in a way that is actually going to engage people.”

Frick says most people tend to dive right into social media tools without thinking how they will use them and how they will engage their audience. According to Frick, many nonprofit communicators take their “old one-way marketing approach,” apply it to their social media strategy and are confused when there’s no response from their audience.

“A lot of times that’s because they’re not trying to engage their users. They’re sending out one-way marketing messages that are all about them and not about what the users might actually want to read,” says Frick.

In September, Frick will cover these common misconceptions and more at the Community Media Workshop training Using Social Media To Build Awareness. This three-hour training is designed to show nonprofits how to optimize social media best practices. Participants explore how to create content strategies, which aligns their digital communications with their website; how to create social media profiles and how to engage their audiences.  Using tactics outlined in his book, Frick shows communicators how to shift their offline communications to an online presence and how to adjust their strategy to work with the organization’s available resources.

Frick says many communicators during his training have their ah-ha moment when they see multiple ways to share their message across digital platforms and track that message’s impact.

No matter what size your organization is, increase your impact with this training and start having the conversations that engage your audience. To register for “Using Social Media to Build Awareness” call 312-369-6400 or click here.

To read more about Tim Frick’s work with nonprofits and digital strategies, click here. Tim Frick is the CEO of Mightybytes, is a full-service creative firm that executes design-drive communication solutions for their clientele. Frick is also the author of Design Techniques for Digital Marketing. Follow him on Twitter at @Mightybytes, on Facebook at Mightybytes and learn more on his website at www.mightbytes.com.

Photo by Andrew Huff, used under Creative Commons

Years ago, through smart reporting and good sleuthing, it came to light that Jon Burge and his men were torturing suspects on the South Side of Chicago to obtain confessions. One of the biggest stories in Chicago’s recent history, the Burge torture scandal and the news stories that exposed it serve as a reminder that investigative journalism is vital to the health of our communities. After all, someone needs to keep those in power honest.

In 1990, Chicago Reader reporter John Conroy wrote the story “House of Screams,” the piece that would introduce torture in Area 2 to Chicago and eventually lead to thousands of local and national stories about the subject. But this one story wasn’t enough. Conroy followed the Burge torture scandal for 20 years, and eventually other reporters and outlets began digging as well.

Tonight, freelance writer John Conroy (also a Studs Terkel award winner for his Burge coverage), and Michael Miner, Chicago Reader editor and columnist, will talk about police torture in Chicago, the wrongful convictions that happened as a result, and the role of journalism in exposing the atrocities. The first of a two-part series airs this evening on WFMT radio.

Part One: Monday, August 2nd — 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. CDT on 98.7WFMT Radio Chicago and via free streaming at wfmt.com

The second part in the series airs next week.

Part Two: Monday, August 9th — 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. CDT on 98.7WFMT Radio Chicago and via free streaming at wfmt.com

After airing, each part will be available indefinitely for free download, streaming, and podcast at WFMT.

I was fortunate enough to handle communications for MacArthur Justice Center for a number of years while Locke Bowman, legal director at the Justice Center, represented some of the Burge torture victims. It was some of the most rewarding work I have had the opportunity to be involved in. So many people like Conroy and Bowman have spent countless hours and days over the years working on the Burge torture scandal. The guilty verdict last month was a long time coming, and the reporters who followed this story for years, unraveling the pieces and bringing us the news, are a reminder of why good journalism is not just necessary, but a critical piece of a healthy society.

If you couldn’t attend our annual Making Media Connections 2010 conference in June, you missed some fantastic workshops and speakers covering everything from social media policy to fundraising to getting your story on TV. But don’t worry–you can still see the conference highlights on CAN TV.

Here are just a few of the dates, times and channels Making Media Connections will air.

Making Media Connections Conference: Deanna Zandt, MMC2010 Keynote, Author and Social Media Technologist
Friday, July 23rd, 8:00 AM, Channel 19
Wednesday, July 28th, 12:00 PM, Channel 21

Making Media Connections Conference: Tony Martinez, MMC2010 Keynote, Former News Director, Telemundo
Friday, July 23rd, 9:00 AM, Channel 19
Wednesday, July 28th, 1:00 PM, Channel 21

You can also check the CAN TV website for future air dates and times. So get cozy, flip on the TV, and learn from the experts about how to tell your story in the digital age.

Photo by Keith Ellison on www.flickr.com

Last Friday, a Google search of  “LeBron James Media” produced 108,000,000 links and 1160 related articles. On Yahoo.com there were 10,857 stories posted.

If, during the past two weeks, you lived in the forest with no phone, internet, television or interaction with other human beings, you might have missed the story. Here’s what happened: James dominated the 24-hour news-cycle with his impending free agent decision. When it was all said and done (after a well-publicized hour-long special on ESPN), James’ career decision had been given the attention of a world-changing event rather than the simple business process it began as.

What are the lessons behind the LeBron James PR show?

Steve Buckley, at the Boston Herald, drew on lessons from Vince McMahon of WWE fame, to help explain James’ media mastery.

McMahon, an impresario who turned a regional dog-and-pony pro wrestling circuit into what today is known as World Wrestling Entertainment, has known for years that it’s easy to bypass the meddling media middle men and bring your product/message directly to the public. All you need to do is set up your own network, and then use it as a stage on which to play out all your story lines, plot twists, interviews and “breaking news.”

While nonprofits can’t set up their own media outlets, they can deliver their stories and issues to the public directly through available technology. By using social media applications, nonprofits cut out the “middle man,” taking the heart of an issue to a local (or worldwide) audience.  Rather than waiting for a press conference to be covered, nonprofits, like James, can take control and tell their own stories by tying them to a timely news peg.  Write your press releases with flair. Know your story, conflicts involved, and be transparent. Know who your sources are and be prepared to rise to the occasion when pitching reporters or when they come looking for you.

It’s true that James owns a PR company that’s focused on creating an iconic image of James, and it’s also true that most nonprofits will never have the star power of a famous pro basketball player to entice the media. But, nonprofits can tell their own stories and be clever and creative about using the range of tools now available to talk directly to their audiences.

Lesson: First, control the issue. Don’t allow the issue to control you.

James’ media strategy did have its critics. Phil Rosenthal at the Chicago Tribune wrote the outcome would have been better if James’ communications team had seized control from the start.

If James and company had been on top of this, his Web site would have tracked his whole courtship process. He could have kept an ad-supported video diary, including behind-the-scenes video of meetings with franchises.

Of more importance from a business standpoint, fans would have been invited to register to vote for their team and receive updates through e-mail and Twitter, creating a valuable marketing database.

Just one problem: James has owned the domain LeBronJames.com since 2002 but hasn’t done much with it until recently. Until Tuesday, James also had not used Twitter to address the public directly. So much for a New Media offensive.

Do any of these missteps sound familiar? Has your organization attempted to use social media tools in the past, only to fail to put the necessary time into the endeavor because of busy schedules? Perhaps constant Twitter, Facebook, and blog updates are just too much to juggle when you’re already swamped trying to provide services to a community or support to your colleagues.

But don’t underestimate the importance of tending these tools. Posting regular online updates about your organization’s journey, creating a digital archive of past articles on your website, or asking clients for input could give you a powerful platform to engage your audience and keep them coming back.  In other words, use your work to create brand recognition.

Lesson: When given an opportunity to connect, don’t hesitate.

LeBron’s decision to wait to give his answer until his ESPN event was also seen as a big public relations failure by some.  Michael Flood McNulty of OpposingView.com wrote:

LeBron James created a publicity circus unlike any other Thursday night — this was his choosing, not the media’s so don’t blame the messenger — and he humiliated his hometown fans in the most public way possible…

LeBron James alienated a lot of people tonight. Actually, alienated is the wrong word. He stunned and hurt a lot of people tonight.

What’s one of the first rules of communications? Who’s your audience and how can you reach them? Whether you’re trying to educate a specific group about an issue you’re working on or you’re trying to get people to take action, how you say it and when you say it and the channel you use to convey it are so important.

Lesson: Don’t forget your audience. Be thoughtful of what they need to hear your message.

I’m excited about the first training in the series–Social Media to Build Awareness. It’s an advanced social media training for people who know the basics but are ready to use these tools like Twitter and Facebook more strategically to drive traffic and engage audiences. I think this is important for anyone trying to use social media in an effective, efficient way.

I also recommend checking out the Workshop’s  one-day Media Boot Camp. We purposefully scheduled this training for Saturday, October 16, because we know weekdays can be hard sometimes for busy executive directors, board members and volunteers. That said, anyone is welcome to sign up for Media Boot Camp with Thom Clark, the Workshop’s president. (FYI-He just did this training at our Making Media Connections 2010 conference, and people loved it.)

We’re also offering a few free brown bag lunches, including one on July 22 on how to build successful campaigns. Just bring your lunch and enjoy.

Take a look and sign up! We’d love to see you this fall.