New Media Notes

New years’ resolutions. We all make them. I’ve made my fair share of them and I’m pretty sure my success rate is in the single digits percentage-wise. But that is not going to stop me this year. This year I’ve got 3 sets of resolutions - family, personal, work. My family resolutions mean the most to me and are the most personal (yeah even more personal than my “personal” resolutions) so I’ll keep those private. But I’ll share the others.

Personal resolutions for 2009

• Work out and lose 10 lbs. In actuality, I should lose about 15-20 lbs but 2009 isn’t about torturing myself.
• Blog/Podcast at least 3 times per week. That includes this blog and a couple others I’ve floating around.
• Complete one creative project per month. That would include: screenprinting, music, video and writing.
• Read 2 books per month. At the very least, read one per month. We’ve got a bookcase full of Maria’s books that I should dive into.
• Join at least one adult sports league. I’m looking at you basketball. 

Work resolutions for 2009

• Grow our Walla Walla social network to 1,000 members by the end of the year. We are currently at 35. So ….
• From the social network spin off a Walla Walla Wiki page.
• Drive more traffic (a lot more) to our online sports content. It drives me mad how little traffic it currently generates. That means expanding our coverage to include “live” score updates from games.
• Help move the newsroom to more mobile reporting. That means laptops, text messaging, Twittering, live video. Which means using services such as Twitter, Seesmic, CoveritLive, Flickr, Ustream, Twitpic and others.
• Increase traffic to ubvideo.tv by 25-30% by year end. More quality, engaging, informative, and yes, entertaining videos with better promotion.

So there they are. There they are indeed. The difference this year with my resolutions is that I am broadcasting it to the world. In the past I could eventually “lose” my list and therefore not feel obliged to complete any of them.

One of my upcoming projects to creat a network of niche podcasts that will primarily be produced and “star” community members. You know, the experts in their respective fields of interest. It’s not about producing content that you “think” the community wants. It’s about engaging the community.

There are plenty of wine enthusiasts in our community since it is located in a wine producing valley. Many of these people have wine blogs, some own online wine shops, some make the wine and many drink and love to talk about it. Why not find a few that would be comfortable in front of the camera and let them go at it. Let them bring their passion and their personality and share their knowledge about wine. We’ve got the resources as far as video equipment and we have the distribution channels (for all practical purposes our paper is the main media outlet in our town.)

How about a local high school sports podcast? Well let’s find a couple of outgoing “armchair quarterbacks,” put a mic in front of them and let them dissect the latest football or basketball game. Create a community around the podcast. Let people send questions or comment about the sports scene and then address these concerns on the show.

I’ve contacted several local bloggers to gauge their interest in such a venture and I have been very pleased to hear their positive responses. Over the next few months we will be rolling out new online products including a “wine and dine” site and I am hoping that these community led podcasts will be an integral piece of our new online offerings. What do you think? Could it work in your town?