How 10 newspapers used promotions as editorial content

For newspapers, audience is king. A lot of time is spent on perfecting strategies to increase engagement, expand readership, grow pageviews and boost time spent on-site. Promotions can be the key to achieving these results and complementing your editorial content.

Here are 10 examples of newspapers using promotions to produce results for their editorial team:

U.S. Citizenship Test: Arizona Republic | Phoenix, Ariz.

The Arizona Republic put together a trivia quiz featuring questions from the real U.S. citizenship test to run alongside a video to engage readers around the Fourth of July holiday. The quiz has gone viral – it's been taken over 51,000 times.

Rate the Austin City Council: Austin American-Statesman | Austin, Texas

To correspond with the end of the 2015 Austin city council's term, the Austin American-Statesman created an in-depth 15-question survey asking users about the city council's effectiveness – more than 1,500 people weighed in. The paper then published a special digital section looking back at the city council's 2015 year and featuring the survey results.

Monthly News Coverage Quizzes: Northwest Herald | Crystal Lake, Ill.

The Northwest Herald is running monthly quizzes testing users' knowledge of the news stories from the previous month. Not only does it include an email opt-in for news updates, but the paper also directs people to sign-up for breaking news updates via text messages too.

NAIA Cookie Challenge: Sioux City Journal | Sioux City, Iowa

As a fun way to gear up for the NAIA women's basketball championship games, the Sioux City Journal hosts an annual cookie recipe submission contest. The paper requests a recipe from each of the 32 competing teams, coverage of the contest is published in articles in the paper and on the website, and the winning recipe is published in the paper's food section. While the basketball championship draws a big crowd, this cookie contest is a big deal in its own right – receiving a whopping 181,000 votes.

The Pizza Games: The Times | Ottawa, Ill.

The Times in Ottawa, Ill., knows just how passionate people can be about their favorite pizza places. To capitalize on this excitement, they created "The Pizza Games," a creative voter's choice ballot. Not only did the paper slice up nearly 2,500 votes, but it included an email opt-in to grow its database. The results were printed in a special pizza issue of the paper's food section.

Cutest Pets Contest: The Times News | Lehighton, Penn.

You can't go wrong with a cutest pets photo contest – these always draw in a big audience and The Times News was no exception, with 371 entries and a massive 311,000 votes. The paper took the contest a step further and turned the winning entries into a calendar sold by the paper.

How Well Do You Think You Know Ireland? Irish Independent | Ireland

Ireland conducts its countrywide census every five years. The Irish Independent created a quiz to connect with all of its census coverage and test users' knowledge of information obtained from earlier censuses. This simple trivia quiz has now been taken nearly 19,000 times.

2016 Top Attorneys: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | Little Rock, Ark.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette runs a special section in March featuring attorneys and lawyers. To determine who to include, the paper runs a write-in submission contest seeking nominees and votes.

#MYMIAMI Instagram Photo Contest: Miami Herald | Miami, Fla.

This Instagram hashtag photo sweepstakes has been a big hit with Miami residents. This year, it drew in over 3,500 entries – nearly 1,000 more than the previous year. The paper prints user photos within one of the paper's Sunday special sections.

Chilliwack Chiefs Dream Team: Chilliwack Progress | Chilliwack, BC

The Chilliwack Progress wanted to celebrate the local hockey team's 25th anniversary. This contest had users submit their votes for the best players throughout the 25 years. The paper then published the results in the sports section.

These 10 examples explore a multitude of possibilities to fit just about any section of the paper. Whether you're looking to tie in with a major news headline or wanting something to feature in your lifestyle section, promotions can take your editorial content to the next level.

Matt Coen is the president and co-founder of Second Street, a leading provider of private-label online promotions platforms and partner success services for media companies based in St. Louis, Mo. He can be reached at (314) 880-4902 or matt@secondstreet.com.