OhmyNews International

Learning how to run a profitable, local, news website is an enigma to many, even those who have been in the news business for years.

Individuals struggling with this concept might learn a thing or two from a recent article in Editor & Publisher written by Hal DeKeyser, a reporter, photographer, opinion editor, columnist and publisher in the Phoenix area for 25 years.

In his article, DeKeyser suggests that this new era in news “offers the chance to run your own news operation without the big iron and distribution expense.” But DeKeyser also notes this new era also comes with numerous barriers and headaches.

He should know. He’s made several attempts at starting local news websites, including his current project, DigitalPeoriaAZ.com.

In the E & P article, he outlines nine lessons he has learned along the way. Here are just four of those hard-learned lessons, as written by DeKeyser:

1. “Start slow. Our current beta site, DigitalPeoriaAZ.com, presents the full array of local information – schools, government, business, calendars – but not a lot of original reporting yet. It’s important to get the site up, running, noticed by the search engines, and begin creating local partnerships first.
2. “Create partnerships. With all the sites out there, plus good and halfhearted stabs at it by the newspapers still publishing, local entities won’t think they need you. Be valuable to organizations, businesses, schools, clubs, governments, and chambers. A media partner would be killer. Woodlands Online has a new partnership with CBS affiliate KHOU-TV, which plays on both of their strengths: being intensely local and regional.

3. “Tell the world, through social media, links, and e-mail blasts to opt-in registrants, getting your customers and partners to promote the site and its content, repurposing messages through as many pipelines as possible.

4. “Pick your niche and live it. For us, it’s local. Another site in the Phoenix area concentrates only on non-school youth sports. Some are business or areas of business, like real estate, or even more narrow niches, such as Hispanic women in business.”

Susan Cormier is the head coach in charge of training at the National Association of Citizen Journalists (http://nacj.us/) and co-author of the “Handbook for Citizen Journalists” (http://www.citizenjournalistnow.com/).

A recent interview with the author of “On Writing Well” brought up some good writing points that are worth repeating.

Author William Zinsser highlighted five tips in his interview with Mallary Jean Tenore of Poynter.org. Two of the five really resonated with me. They were to take your readers on a journey and to have confidence in yourself as a writer.

“All writing to me is a journey. It’s saying to the reader, ‘Come along with me; I’ll take you on a voyage’,” Zinsser was quoted as saying in Tenore’s article.

Zinsser also said that too often people become so preoccupied with writing well that they clutter their stories with unnecessary words that lead readers astray. Good writers make every word count, and they avoid abstractions, he told Tenore.

“Nobody wants abstractions,” Zinsser said. “They want specific details that help them discover something new.”

I totally agree. Unnecessary words tend to take away from the point of an article. I think readers want to know what any story is about in a short and to-the-point manner. Take out the cutesy, fluff words and write it straight.

The second tip that I loved was to “have confidence in yourself as a writer.”

Confidences comes with trusting your instincts as a writer and learning to advocate for the stories you want to write, Zinsser said in the interview.

The word instincts took me back to the days when I was a young editor and reporter for Cox Newspapers in Arizona. My boss during some of those years, Hal DeKeyser, used to always tell me to trust my instincts.

It was advice that he often had to repeat. But in the end, it stuck with me and has served me well to this day.

By the way, the other three writing tips were to:

• Think of writing as a process, not a product;
• Write for yourself, not others; and
• Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Susan Cormier is the head coach in charge of training at the National Association of Citizen Journalists (http://nacj.us/) and co-author of the “Handbook for Citizen Journalists” (http://www.citizenjournalistnow.com/).