Thanks to Lisa Fernandez of the San Jose Mercury News for sending along this example of an update and a tweet by editor Mike Frankel giving an extra boost to a story (lightly edited from Lisa’s email):
We’re all trying here at BANG (the Bay Area News Group) to figure out how to extend the life of a story. And then, voila. Something happened by happenstance today, that made a story dropping in clicks turn into the No. 1 “most read” story today.
On Monday, we wrote about a PayPal executive who was killed after he was struck by a train. Turns out he was suffering from bipolar II, and we had gotten a statement from his family. Colleague Mike Rosenberg wrote the first version, which ran online Monday evening and in the paper on Tuesday.
Then Tuesday, another colleague, Julia Prodis Sulek, got hold of a company wide email that the CEO had sent, referring to his employee’s death. Our first inclination was to say: “Eh, we already ran the story. That info came too late.”
But it was a really good email, full of the man’s career history, touching quotes, personal things about his mental illness. Not your typical company email. It seemed too good to not include. But what to do? The paper was already out. The email, while good, didn’t have much “news” in it. Still, it had information people in our community, would want to read.
So here’s what we did: We took Mike Rosenberg’s original story, and I just added in the new CEO stuff. We reposted under the same “slug.” Then, we tweeted it out from the Mercury News account (making sure to drop in the @ signs to namedrop):
Steadily, the story climbed back up to the No. 1 Most Viewed Spot after dropping from the day before.
(I just checked. It’s still there.)
More stories about Digital First journalists at work (keep ’em coming, colleagues):
Troy Record’s breaking news coverage drives Facebook discussion
An engaged reporter: no longer ‘just a fly on the wall’
Pottstown Mercury engages bloggers in community food drive
Facebook engagement tips: Use breaking news photos and calls to action
Jeff Edelstein uses Klout to reach people interested in his content
Valentine’s Day: a perfect opportunity for community engagement
Community internships: Oakland Press helps bloggers develop skills
Google+ Hangout helps with video interviews
Banjo app helped Andy Stettler find local tweets
Lisa Fernandez shares a crowdsourcing (or fetching) lesson
Buffy Andrews’ tips for daily beat checks using HootSuite
Larry Altman’s account of live-tweeting a breaking news story
Examples of live-tweeting government meetings
A first try at live-tweeting from the courtroom
Romeo and Juliet on Facebook: great fun and community engagement
San Pedro landslide shows power of social media
Reach out through Facebook to gather information on tragic stories
Engagement opportunities: weather, elections, sports, school fun
Denver Post social media use delivers on mountain lion vs. kitty story
Opening our Journal Register newsrooms to the community
Include staff members’ usernames in tweets promoting your content
Crowdsourcing Hurricane Irene recovery map in Connecticut
JRC journalists use social media to cover earthquake and hurricane
Trentonian uses Google+ and other tools to cover apartment shooting
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