Be the Answer: Using interactive databases to provide answers and generate revenue

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Be the Answer

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Be the Answer:

Using interactive databasesto provide answers and generate revenue

Databases help us grow the best o traditional journalism anddirectory advertising into the best o interactive communityconnection. Traditional newspapers always included databaseso sorts where people ound answers to a host o questions.Readers searched through columns o agate type, looking ormovie times, calendar listings, stock prices, box scores, policereports, lawmakers’ votes, service businesses and more.Through technological innovation, interactive databases canmake your company the answer source or your community ina more ecient, useul, timely way than daily agate lists evercould. These are an essential tool in your transormation rom anewspaper company to a local inormation and connection util-ity, the vision spelled out in API’s report

Newspaper Next 2.0:Making the Leap Beyond “Newspaper Companies.”

Databases are also one o the most resounding successes othe rst wave o Newspaper Next innovation. Databases t allour areas o the N2 Game Plan: They maximize core products,build audience by doing new jobs, and generate revenue in newways; and companies are restructuring to build the capacityto develop databases. Databases help your company amassuseul, interactive community content with lasting value.While news stories lose much o their value ater a day, manydatabases can be useul again and again. Instead o simply“eeding the beast daily,” database work builds lasting valueand searchable content, much o it easily updated ater theinitial development.This report will mention and link to notable work rom morethan 200 examples developed by more than 60 sites repre-senting large and small newspaper groups and independentnewspapers. However, this represents only a small percentageo newspapers; most newspaper sites make scant use, i any,o interactive databases beyond a calendar or a story enhance-ment, and many are not even taking those rst steps.This is a study o how newspapers are using and could use da-tabases to provide answers or their communities. We includerecommendations or how you can do more i you’ve alreadystarted with databases, or how you can get started. Perhapsmost important, we discuss how you can use databases moreeectively to generate new revenue streams.However, i you read this report and consider all the possibilitiessuggested here, you will quickly be overwhelmed. You can’t doall this at once. What you need to do is start thinking about theneeds o your community and the abilities o your organization.In the nal section, we will discuss the important task o settingpriorities and getting to work.

CONTENTS

I. Start by understanding the job you’re doing ...............................................

A. What to call it? ......................................................................................B. Where to put it? .....................................................................................C. Answerbases or mega-jobs ..................................................................D. Build a business, not just content .........................................................

II. Doing mega-jobs for businesses and consumers.......................................

A. Moving into transactions .......................................................................B. Niches ..................................................................................................C. Protecting the verticals ..........................................................................1. Doing jobs or drivers ........................................................................2. Doing jobs or home owners ..............................................................

III. Lots of questions, lots of opportunities .....................................................

A. Answer Center index page .....................................................................B. Politics ..................................................................................................C. Government ..........................................................................................D. Crime ....................................................................................................E. Entertainment, activities .......................................................................F. Eating out..............................................................................................G. Education ..............................................................................................H. Sports ...................................................................................................I. Recreation .............................................................................................J. Newspaper archives ..............................................................................K. Seasonal inormation ............................................................................L. Weddings ..............................................................................................M. Travel ....................................................................................................N. News ....................................................................................................O. The big story .........................................................................................P. Community inormation .........................................................................Q. Answers on a variety o topics ...............................................................R. Relocation .............................................................................................

IV. Operating your answer center ....................................................................

A. How to start, how ar go to ....................................................................B. Programming solutions ..........................................................................C. How do you develop database skills? ....................................................D. Answerbases generate trac ................................................................E. Promotion and widgets build trac .......................................................Build milestone answerbases .............................................................................Conclusion ..........................................................................................................About the author .................................................................................................Sources .............................................................................................................

IntrodUctIon

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Be the Answer:

Using interactive databasesto provide answers and generate revenue

As with the N2 projects in the Casebook o the

Newspaper Next 2.0

report, database projects studied or this report tendto be imperect but good enough. This is consistent with theN2 principle o keeping costs low by starting with good-enoughproducts that get the job done and oer new solutions not avail-able in the market. Then you improve as you gain experienceand receive eedback rom the marketplace.However, one requent break rom the N2 approach is that eventhe databases that were designed eectively to do importantjobs generally didn’t start with jobs-to-be-done research. Moreoten a database started with a reporter’s interest in data thatwould illuminate a particular story or an editor’s hunch that thepublic would nd a database useul. Even one o the most-promising projects described in the Casebook,DeliveringQC,bypassed JTBD research, launching instead rom an executive’sintuitive perception o a job that needed to be done. Similarly,many databases that bypassed that research stage are suc-ceeding because they were designed to do important jobs (ortrivial jobs that matter a lot to some people):Help me gure out how much my property taxes will i

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ncrease.Help me decide whether this politician is telling the truth.

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Help me nd out how good the schools and how bad the

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crime are in a neighborhood where I am considering buyinga home.Help me nd a good barbecue joint.

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Help me nd a contractor I can actually trust.

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Help me nd out how much that dolt who was rude to me at

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the DMV today is being overpaid with my tax dollars.Tell me every possible detail about my avorite quarterback.

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So, while we can learn rom eorts that ocused intuitively onimportant jobs, we should not rely solely on intuition. Start yourdevelopment o databases by doing jobs-to-be-done researchwith potential users o your new oering, as detailed in the ini-tial N2 report,

Newspaper Next: Blueprint or Transormation,

released in 2006

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Even i you are intuitively on the right track,hearing rom potential users will help you design more helpulproducts and prioritize the eatures or content you want to oerrst. Jobs-to-be-done research also may turn your attention innew directions. Many journalists will be inclined to ocus theireorts on public-records databases ollowing the civic orienta-tion o newspaper beats. While you can use those databases todo important jobs, many people’s everyday needs and interestsall more in the consumer realm o lie where newsrooms areless likely to look. Identiy urgent jobs where your communityis rustrated with current solutions and oten you will nd data-bases are a helpul tool in doing those jobs.

A. Wa  all i?

Databases can eel orbidding to users who don’t know whatthey are. It’s kind o like marketing a car by trying to orce theterm internal combustion into the brand name. Thereore, werecommend not presenting your data products to the public as“data.” Users generally don’t think o themselves as looking ordata but as looking or answers or inormation. Dozens o eortsto present answers online are branded with some twist on theword data:DataUniverse,Data Center,Database Central,Data Central,Data Connection,Database Warehouse,Data Bay,Da- tabank,DataSphere,Data Leader,Data-Leader,DataMine,Data Mississippi. At least one other name is built around the worddocuments, shortened todocs. Data and documents are wordsocused on what we use to do the job, not on the job itsel.

I. StArt by UnderStAndIng the job yoU’re doIng

Consider labeling data that you present online not as a place tond data, but a place to nd answers. Build your name arounda job-ocused term: Ourtown Search, Answerbase, AnswerSource, Yourtown-opedia, InoCenter. Several sites are on theright track:Fact Finder,South Dakota Ino,FYI.