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The Times community engagement, London (Times Newspapers Ltd, United Kingdom). |
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Project name |
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The Times: reader engagement strategy
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General Publication Info |
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The Times: in print, online, on mobile and on tablets.
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Implementation |
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For The Times, reader engagement is not just a ‘nice-to-have’, it is a business imperative. That is because our customers pay to read our journalism no matter where it appears: in print, on the web, on mobile and on tablets.
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Project results |
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This relentless focus on the experiences of the reader is deployed using a range of tools and manifests itself across all editorial sections (see examples below). This results in burgeoning communities around permanent content areas, such as Fashion, as well as news-related subjects.
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Additional comments |
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FASHION
With over 950,000 followers, @TimesFashion – the official Twitter account of The Times’ fashion desk – has one of the largest reaches of any newspaper Twitter account in the world. Our posts cover everything from behind the scenes smart phone pictures at photoshoots, to interesting or funny tid bits from our everyday work in the office. A picture from the front row of the Chanel catwalk show while it’s happening in Paris is so much more personal than the picture gallery that appears online the next day.
Recently We introduced #tq (Tuesday question), a chance for our followers to speak directly with us. Each week we discuss a different topic, and ask followers either if they need our expert advice, or what their own opinions are on a subject. This is very important in demonstrating that we aren’t just a corporate branch of The Times, or a box being ticked, but a team with opinions, fashion knowledge and a sense of humour.
OPINION
Thetimes.co.uk showcases the work of The Times’s multi-award-winning columnists as well as leading articles and cartoons. But more than that, it brings new meaning to the notion of comment. That’s because, unlike the opinion sections of other websites, the debate doesn’t finish when the article goes online; The Times’s multi-award-winning columnists and leader writers are often found in the comments debating with readers. Take for example, Huge Rifkind refuting the idea by one subscriber that incest and polygamy are logical extensions of homosexuality http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/hugorifkind/article3345433.ece. And Philip Collins and Matthew Parris debating about the whether the word interventionism was prohibitive when used in relation to Syria http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/matthewparris/article3331339.ece, which led a reader to comment:
"Can I say that having two journalists debate like this in comments in pure gold. In fact it is replies from writers that makes this my favourite newspaper website. Too often editors are keen to be too safe and bland with what is said in regards internet comments."
And these are not isolated examples: others writing to comment below articles include Camilla Cavendish, Daniel Finkelstein and David Aaronovitch - readers don’t just passively read the our Opinion pages on the web, they are actively part of The Times debating with, challenging and quizzing our writers.
ARTS
The Times Book Wall: www.thetimes.co.uk/bookwall
The Times Book Wall provides a meeting place for readers who share a love of ideas and a literary sensibility. It is a place to review books and engage in in stimulating debate with those who share interests and increase the enjoyment readers get out of their Times subscription.
The reviews are often very substantial - far longer than most normal comments on the website. The Book Wall attracts first time commenters as well as a core of regular, returning visitors; this has been helped by the participation of Erica Wagner, the literary editor, and other Times writers who have replied to reviews. We also encourage readers with recognition of their reviews, choosing the best recommendations to highlight in a “Top 5 reader must-read” list at the top of the article. We are soon to hit 100 reviews, and are currently planning to an extra community-boosting event to mark it.
CROWD-SOURCING CYCLING STORIES
Publishing reader stories
The Times Cycling Campaign is one of our greatest community engagement success stories. We have not only established a solid presence within the cycling community by communicating with organisations and bloggers via social media but our #cyclesafe hashtag continues to have an influential presence in the Twitter-sphere.
Our campaign has given voice to the cyclists in London, brought their issues to a parliamentary level and has even ensured that £15m be allocated to improve the junctions our readers highlighted on our user-generated content map.
We have also utilised user-generated content by publishing the best of our readers’ stories in print and more importantly, the entire list in full online.
EXTENDING OUR REACH VIA SOUNDCLOUD
Audio
We provide intelligent spoken audio tracks on our SoundCloud account. This allows our 24,000+ followers and those in the SoundCloud community interested, to hear dispatches and commentary from our reporters when news breaks. In this way we enhance our journalism in creative ways that allow readers listen and comment, so to engage more deeply with our writers
,/ our website and our social platforms.
We also have ‘sets’ for interested parties to listen to a collection of our reports, such as the Olympic Torch Relay, Syria and the US Elections
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LINKS |
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twitter.com/timesfashion
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/h ...
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/h ...
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/m ...
www.thetimes.co.uk/bookwall
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/c ...
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/a ...
https://soundcloud.com/thetimes
https://soundcloud.com/thetimes/sets
http://soundcloud.com/thetimes/sets/olympic-torch- ...
http://soundcloud.com/thetimes/sets/syria-1
http://soundcloud.com/thetimes/sets/us-election-1
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General contact and feedback address:
Ms. Raquel Meikle
Programme Manager Events
WAN-IFRA
Darmstadt, Germany
Phone: +49-6151-733.927
E-Mail: raquel.meikle@wan-ifra.org
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