Go mobile, and 4 other digital lessons from Editor of the Year Paul Pronovost

Reprinted from GateHouse Newsroom

There is no formula for digital success in journalism. Even the most well-prepared and researched digital champions have to accept that when it comes to digital, each individual media outlet's experience is unique. Success in the digital era comes from a willingness to try new things – and more importantly, the wisdom to learn lessons from both successes and failures.

This wisdom is something our Best of GateHouse judges looked for in the 2015 Editor of the Year, so it's no surprise that Editor of the Year Paul Pronovost of the Cape Cod Times has some great insights into his Top 5 digital lessons learned in 2015:

1.  Go mobile. Statistics support what our swiping little fingers already know: Mobile is the place to be. Our readers are there and that means we need to be there, too. Or put in a folksy Cape Cod way: The key to catching a fish is fishing where the fish are. And that means creating content that plays well on mobile. It takes a bit of effort, but the payoff is huge.

2.  Engagement moves the needle. We felt pretty happy with the growing size of our social media audience, but found a little tweak to the tone drew even more people to us. Not only that, but comments and shares are definitely on the rise. Social media engagement gives you a big return.

3.  Don't be afraid to experiment. With some platforms, you can draw a clear line between you and your reader. But with others, like Snapchat, Periscope and Instagram, the path is not so direct. But it's still important to try new things and find a voice with these emerging technologies. Even if the payoff isn't as immediate, it's a layer of storytelling that will be increasingly important.

4.  Enterprise reporting works. It's interesting that Poynter recently had a study showing that online readers like long-form stories after all. Seems like that is a vote for high-quality journalism, which is great news for us. The next level to that is, using digital tools to add layers to help tell the story, from interactive timelines and maps to video interviews and slideshows.

5.  Get everyone on the bus. To make a digital transformation in a newsroom, you need buy-in from pretty much everybody. And you start with evangelists who can show people why digital journalism is important and how to do it. From there, you build expectations, offer training, and establish ways to measure success. The rest begins to snowball – seeing the audience grow (over an hour, over a day, over a year) is very motivating.

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