Posted Dec. 14, 2007

Here are nine ideas to engage busy readers over the holidays. Several are adapted from this year's edition of APME's "Great Ideas" book, which includes hundreds of ideas from newsrooms across the country.

Wichita Falls (Texas) Times Record News
Deanna Watson, managing editor for content, watsond@timesrecordnews.com

"Special projects reporter Lara K. Richards has a knack for digging up quirky, off-the-beaten-path stories, looking at what others might miss and turning a fun feature into what becomes the obvious after the story appears.

"Much is the case with her story, 'Being Benjamin in Benjamin: Everyone knows your name when it's the same as the town.' Driving through the small country town of 250 on her way to another story, she pondered, 'I wonder if there are any Benjamins living in Benjamin?'

"She found two. Benjamin Vanderpol, 8, said he has no trouble remembering where he's from, even though he does get tired of the teasing.

"The other Benjamin, longtime coach and superintendent Benjamin 'Ben' Grill, also lives, ironically, on Benjamin Street.

"Our readers enjoy features such as this, fun and carefree, not trying in the least to solve the world's ills. The story was a wonderful break from the hard news of the day."

Do you have a nearby community with a human name?

Dothan (Ala.) Eagle
Ken Tuck, managing editor, ktuck@dothaneagle.com

At some point we've all seen or heard of an unusual job and thought, "I wonder what kind of person does that?"

"Odd Jobs" provides an answer to that question, taking a look at the weird ways some folks make a buck.

So far, the Eagle has featured a pet butler, a massage therapist/hair removal specialist, a banner-towing pilot, a chimney sweep and a hibachi cook. The features mix humor and fact, giving viewers a chance to be entertained and informed.

Odd Jobs is a good evergreen project because there's no lack of subject matter to cover, says reporter Jim Cook. "Co-workers and viewers will flood you with ideas for the next project. Also, people being featured in 'Odd Jobs' are very enthusiastic about cooperating because it means they get their face in the paper and on the Web, giving them the chance to broaden their customer base."

"Odd Jobs" is an easy project to produce for newsrooms with a fledgling online operation. The camera work is fairly uncomplicated, and the segments are easy to storyboard and edit. There is little or no time element for the features, making it easy for overburdened staffs to juggle their schedules around producing them.

"In addition to the unusual occupations spotlighted in the features, 'Odd Jobs' also sheds a little light on the strangest occupation of all – journalism," Cook says. "After all, a guy who makes a living pumping Port-A-Pottys is pretty weird, but isn't it weirder that there's another guy that's getting paid to take notes about it?"

Click here to view example (.pdf)

Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News
Julie Wright, managing editor, jwright@adn.com

"This feature has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams," Wright writes. "Alaskans love their vanity plates. "One in every 17 cars has one."

"We began by running a Sunday local-cover centerpiece in which we showed 'mug shots' of a dozen fun vanity plates, decoded the harder ones, and explained why the drivers chose them. Then we invited readers to post their own vanity plates online.

"After two months online, more than 100 plates have been posted, and the feature continues to draw more than 4,000 page views most days."

Click here and here to view examples (.pdf)

Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, Florida's East Coast
Dennis Durkee, managing editor,dennis.durkee@scripps.com

"Photographer Julio Cortez helped us connect in a new way with the large Mexican community in Fellsmere, a rural farming town near Vero Beach," Durkee writes.

"On regular assignments as well as his personal time, he developed contacts within the community and learned about several of their major celebrations. He spent entire days with them on Virgin of Guadalupe Day and Las Posadas, a religious observance during the nine days before Christmas. He took photos and interviewed participants, developing multimedia packages that helped to capture the mood and personality of the community and its celebrations. For Los Posadas, he produced his audio show in English as well as Spanish. In print, both became A1 centerpieces."

Click here to view example (.pdf)

Arizona Republic, Phoenix
Ward Bushee, editor and vice president of news, ward.bushee@arizonarepublic.com

This weekly quiz asks readers to match three celebrities/personalities with pictures of the cars and trucks they drive. The Republic gives the answers on the next page.

The paper has featured politicians, police chiefs, race-car drivers, sports figures and media personalities. There's a short quotation with each celeb's photo describing why he or she drives that particular vehicle. Each car or truck is accompanied by information about that make and model.

One week, for example, a concert promoter described the car he bought as a present after cancer treatment. "It's a real guy car, and guys like flip out when they see it. It's a really fun car to drive."

The owner of a movie-theater chain says he fell in love with his car "while running a projector for the 1969 release of 'The Italian Job.' It's just so much fun to drive."

On the next page, readers learned that promoter Danny Zelisko owns a 1965 Pontiac GTO convertible and theater owner Dan Harkins tools around in a 2006 Mini Cooper S convertible.

Click here to view example (.pdf)

Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader
Tom Eblen, managing editor, teblen@herald-leader.com

"It's easy to get reader response when you tap into a subject they're passionate about," writes Eblen. "That's what books editor Cheryl Truman did when she asked readers to send lists of their 10 favorite books. She got the idea from a book compiled by J. Peder Zane, book editor of the Raleigh News & Observer: 'The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books.'

"The responses came by the hundreds. Most were their personal Top 10 lists. Some were reader comments about Truman's list or comments about a single book. The newspaper has managed to turn this project into several features section cover stories and book page entries. One final effort will be to get our features writers to list their Top 10 favorites."

Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.
Bob Heisse, executive editor, bheisse@centredaily.com

Here's an idea that could be kicked off over the holidays.

"Each winter we challenge readers to write the 'Centre County story,' " writes Heisse. "We offer a start on a Sunday and then let them go, asking for the first chapter in nine days.

"A panel of staffers judges the entries quickly and we pick a winner. We run the winning story and a short item and photo about the winner on Sunday, and then we ask for the next chapter.

"The first two stories ran for eight chapters, and this year's ran for six. At the end we publish the full story on a Sunday and credit all the authors.

"This is amazing every year. Readers respond with great writing, and often the winners are aspiring writers who've rarely been published. We might average six to 10 submissions each time, and the story really flows together even though different people write it."

Wichita (Kan.) Eagle Theresa Johnson, managing editor, tjohnson@wichitaeagle.com

"We send a full-page Christmas card to readers each year on Page One of our Dec. 25 edition," writes Johnson. "The page features a beautiful holiday photo by a staff photographer. Readers appreciate this holiday cheer on a morning when they are less likely to read news on a traditional front page."

Kitsap Sun, Bremerton, Wash.
Jeff Brody, managing editor, jbrody@kitsapsun.com

In another approach to mining names for stories, the Sun published a series on how local towns, streets and other landmarks got their names.

The project started with a blog that asked readers to submit questions and anecdotes about names. The six-day series included beautiful maps, lots of historical photos and a few current ones. On New Year's Day the paper ran a quirky 30-question quiz based on the series.

"This is the most recent in a series of special news/feature packages that we have done over the years to help fill in during that Dec. 30-31 period when so little happens on the news side," writes Brody. "I think this one was one of our most popular and successful because we really tried to engage readers in advance through use of our Web site. A lot of what we did in terms of creating the content was driven by reader questions about local place names."

Find the link to the package in the blogs part of Kitsap's Web site:
blogs.scripps.com/kitsap/names

Seattle Times
Carole Carmichael, AME features, ccarmichael@seattletimes.com

A consumer piece about the ins and outs of returning presents is timely right after Christmas.

In a package headlined "So you want to return that climbing suit you bought 30 years ago," the Seattle Times found a Seattle store that honored a very belated request for a full refund. A man who dreamed of climbing Denali in Alaska bought a puffy red suit, which sat in his closet until he returned it to REI in 2003, the Times reported. Overall, though, the paper found that many stores are tightening their return policies to crack down on fraud.

The package detailed the policies of several stores and offered general tips, such as keeping tags on the merchandise and asking the store to look up your credit card purchase in the event you've lost the receipt.