


	WAN-IFRA XMA Cross Media Awards 2010





	Company: Novosti Rigionov LLC
	Project name: CITIZEN OF THE YEAR





	General information about the publication

	"Sloboda" – is a multimedia enterprise based on the principles of citizen journalism. One edition has two media platforms: newspaper and WEB 2.0 RodGor.ru. 70% of subjects in each issue is offered by the readers themselves. We don't depend on authorities, political parties, someone's business or other group interests. "Sloboda" is the most popular and most read newspaper in Tula. "Sloboda" tells about the current events in the region of spread, has a positive focus and a wide scope of subjects: cultural life, economy, business, consumption, sports and etc.. The newspaper also helps people to communicate and navigate in our modern world. Circulation - 88.880 Contact us +7 (4872) 35-14-51. Email info@sloboda.tula.ru . Postal address: 300026, prospect Lenina, 116, Tula, Russia.

	Entry description

	Main point of the project: a list of the candidates for the title “The best citizen of the year” was being published for 4 weeks’ period: there are 5 different nominations – in the newspaper and Web. Users and hosts of the portal voted for the best representatives of the city or offer their own candidate. On the 6th week there was a publication of the list of (according to the number of nominations) 5 best inhabitants. Nominations: heroes (accomplished a feat – saved somebody’s life, apprehended a criminal, opened a fitness club for poor teenagers), creators (people who glorified our city by the means of art – actors, musicians, animators etc.), sportsmen (made their native town famous all over the world), professionals (those on whom our future and our health depend on – teachers and doctors), businesspeople (people who not only became successful themselves but also helped others to achieve success). Citizens choose the 5 best representatives among 80 candidates. Prizes for the best – commemorative tokens.

	The basic idea of your cross-media local project

	As a result of the project we took into account: - to improve our positioning as local and positive media (the newspaper that tells about your inhabitants, you and friends, «with our help you will learn that there are lots of good people around you {despite of problems and crisis}»), - to attract new users (you could vote only by Internet), - to give our readers an opportunity to express their opinion («by our media you can gain acceptance», «your opinion is worth something in this country») - to make readers to take an active stand (“next time you may be among the winners and become recognized but for this you should only approve of yourself”).

	Used media channels


	Newspaper		Online

Other:

Virus-marketing

The implementation

The project was started on the 9th of December 2009 and finished on the 13th of January 2010. Then the names of the winners were published. There appeared a section on the portal “Best citizens".
For the first week and a half the project was coming along slowly: the number of people who voted was less than it was expected. But on the last two weeks there was a boom – the favorites were chosen and the struggle for the first place began.

Image(s)

Final.jpg (2391 KB)

Final_WEB.JPG (206 KB)

Start.jpg (203 KB)

Links

www.myslo.ru

Results of the local project implementation

This project helped us to improve our position: our newspaper became more important for people because they told their friends about the newspaper! Also daily traffic on the portal grew.
One of the nominations “Business” helped to establish a solid relationship with the potential advertisers.
We have created a tradition in the city - to choose the best, and thus made the newspaper important and strong.
The project matched ideally with the mission (“heroes around you”, “if you accomplished a feat we will help you to gain recognition”) and had such a great success that starting from 2010 it became monthly held: to involve into the game with the local media “Sloboda” the majority of the citizens, clients (readers and advertisers) and potential clients.