Learning from the Beeb

ECONOMIST -- If Irish newspapers want to write their online ventures into profitability, they could take a lesson from the BBC and mediate it with techniques that guarantee them a loyal audience of repeat visitors.

The Economist explains how BBC Online makes the news compelling.

For this year's Chelsea Flower Show, for instance, the BBC's gardening microsite made it possible to zoom around each competing garden, watch an interview with the designer and click on "leaf hotspots" about individual plants. For this year's election, the news website offered a wealth of easy-to-use statistical detail on constituencies, voting patterns and polls. This week the BBC announced free downloads of several Beethoven symphonies performed by one of its five in-house orchestras.

Some ideas for Irish newspapers:

1. Create microsites for thematic content (Technology, Business, Education) that include RSS.
2. Package some of the news in multimedia screens that showcase photographs taken at headline events.
3. Make feedback easy for readers.
4. Pull selected advertisements into the gutters of some content.
5. Let readers download MP3s of Irish bands.
6. Don't charge for access.

Some of these things aren't new ideas. All of them should increase readership and reach. The BBC is proving that now.

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The Economist -- "Old news and a new contender"

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