Now it's personal

While considering options for the expansion of tv.ku.edu these were the first three options that came to mind:

---KUJH Blooper Factory---

This one is already underway. While I don't fully support our anchors looking bad all over the Internet it is already obvious that it attracts viewers. Our lone blooper on the site is third on the list of Most Viewed Videos. As long as we are able to show people that these bloopers are just outtakes it shouldn't hurt credibility and should give some exposure.

With the KUJH calendar anyone could easily keep track of every day their favorite anchor goes on air.
Photo: Drew Stearns

---KUJH-TV the Calendar---

If the theory of "Hot Blonde reads the News" is a success, "Hot Blonde hangs on your wall while reading the news" is virtually unflappable. A KUJH Calendar would expand our brand while at the same time honoring the people who make it all possible. Plus, I really can't imagine anything more fun than everyone referring to Alex Wiebel as Mr. November.

---Staff picks list---

I'll admit, I stole this one from Blockbuster. I went in and saw the list of staff's favorite movies and thought, "Hey, would could do that!"

It would be relatively easy to do, just have each online producer go on and pick a weekly favorite story. Users could then come onto the site and see each week which online producer picked which story. Ideally users could then figure out who shares their same interests and could come back for their favorite stories each week.

Each of these ideas is centered on the common theme of personalizing our news staff. The bloopers would make anchors more personable to viewers. A calendar, while I don't know how well it would sell outside the newsroom, would introduce the staff to viewers. And a staff picks list would give people a view into our personalities.

As I looked through each idea and thought about feasibility I realized that the solution was easy than any of these. The easiest and most logical way to personalize our staff is to make our blogs, like the one I'm writing right now, more accessible to them.

We've discussed all year the love that Internet viewers have for blogs. We've stressed that the best way to connect with readers is to let readers connect to you and called them the future of news on the Internet. Still, we never have made any attempt to get these blogs out in the open while we continue to think of ways to expand tv.ku.edu.

Why not provide more links and ways for viewers to get to our blogs? News outlets all over the country are looking for ways to incorporate blogs on their sites and we already have 12 weekly writers for the site.

We could easily link to each online producer's blog through their staff profile page, and make them even more accessible by putting a "Staff Blogs" section on the front page below the "Beyond Lawrence" section.

Incorporating our blogs on to tv.ku.edu is the easiest way to increase the amount of viewers to our site. It provides the personalization that is key to all of my earlier ideas and would take very little work to start up. It's time to introduce the KUJH staff to the rest of the world.