The New York Times - Doug Hardy, an associate editor and Internet supervisor for The Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn., wanted to increase page views on its Web site.
Mr. Hardy had heard about SeeClickFix.com, a local advocacy Web site that lets users write about issues to encourage communication between residents and local government. SeeClickFix users post a complaint about problems that occur within a set of boundaries on a Google Map, like graffiti at a bus stop or potholes on a busy street, and the site communicates the problem to the appropriate government agency and marks the problem on the map.
Users can comment on the issue or label it resolved. Government agencies can post on the site to respond to residents, and journalists can use the site to communicate with readers and see which issues are most pressing to people.
Ben Berkowitz, the chief executive of SeeClickFix, said the tool went beyond government: “Anyone can be held accountable: a business, nonprofit, even a private citizen.”
The Journal Inquirer, which covers the area around Manchester, invested in its Web site, and then paid circulation plummeted. So the editors put online content behind a pay wall.
There seemed to be a trade-off. Once visitors could no longer read articles without paying, circulation stabilized — but page views dropped by about 30 percent. It fell to Mr. Hardy, the associate editor, to attract more visitors.
“We needed new strategies,” Mr. Hardy said. “We needed new ways to draw traffic to our site and to improve our product and make it more compelling.”
He thought SeeClickFix could help. Mr. Hardy drew a SeeClickFix map of the paper’s coverage area last spring and posted some sample issues, but the map did not receive responses until an article about the site ran in The Hartford Courant. After the article, Mr. Hardy noticed new issues on his map and added a SeeClickFix widget to the Journal Inquirer site last August, where it drew many comments.
The basic service is free, but Mr. Hardy spends $38 a month for SeeClickFix Pro, which features The Journal Inquirer’s logo on issues the paper selects and allows access to an advanced management dashboard.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/business/media/04click.html
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