Branding Portfolio: The Navigator Newspaper
Who are we?
• We are Vancouver Island University’s independent, student-run newspaper • A team of 16 + staff including: editorial, graphic, online, and business • Our main audience is the VIU and Nanaimo community • Our voice is casual and quippy, relatable to students, fun but professional • Our stories are locally-focused • If we do national or international stories, we do it in a way that links back to us and our community
Who are we not? • We are not a tabloid • We do not publish outrageous, offensive, or exaggerate headlines or stories solely for shock value • If we publish something controversial we make sure it is well researched, well balanced, and tasteful
Who do we want to be?
We want to be an engaging online publication as well as a biweekly print paper
Why?
Because we are only a cut-and-paste blog online, with an inactive Facebook page, and no other social media
Let’s bring The Navigator into the 21st, web-centric century and improve our website and social media for engagement, professionalism, and online advertising How do we do this? We introduce new positions, and redefine existing positions, to create an Online team
Web Editor • Redefine the duties of the web editor to use our website more effectively • Ensure photos are ran near the top of articles, in colour, and played largely • Include hyperlinks to relevant sites within the text • Include relevant new media within an article, such as videos and tweets
Social Media Manager • Ensures Facebook and Twitter are constantly being updated and monitored • Finds related work and media from other presses to retweet and connect with • Works with web editor to make sure related new media is being included with the articles (links, related videos) • Plays avid role in connecting The Navigator with student paper resources, such as Canadian University Press (CUP), Canadian Writer’s Association (CWA), VIU Communications Dept., VIU Department Heads, VIU clubs
Multimedia Producer • Uses strong video shooting and editing skills to produce fresh, new media for the web, including audio interviews, video street surveys, and entertaining short videos • Works with the section editors to provide video coverage for their stories
Online Reporter
• Responsible for making sure content is frequently going up online so we can have timely, relevant content going up as it happens • Reports, edits, and uploads stories from Nanaimo’s community and VIU campus as they break • Stories will be short and succinct and can cover any subject (news, sports, arts, and features) • Has basic editing and Wordpress skills to copy edit and upload their own stories
To keep the online team running smoothly, we would meet the Wednesday after every issue came out
Other engagement strategies: Contests, giveaways, getting our audiences involved
What did we get in return? • A rebranded newspaper • We built something from the ground up • We found our unique voice • We paved the way to start some online advertising
We built a social meida following... Social media stats from September through March: Facebook Where We Started (September 2015): 325 Followers Where We Finished (March 2015): 605 Followers Growth: +280 Followers Average Reach: 900 people per month Twitter Where We Started (September 2015): 202 Followers Where We Finished (March 2015): 302 Followers Growth: +100 Followers Wordpress Visits This Year: 252, 932 Visitors This Year: 60, 704 Average Visits Per Month: 31616 Average Visitors Per Month: 7588 Multimedia Producer Videos this year: 15 (roughly a video per issue) Views range: 44 views - 965 views
We used the tools around us to connect with our audience, which gave them the opportunity to engage with us as well as voice opinions, gratitude, and concerns...