Chicago's Windy City Times is still publishing in print, but the entire issue of the publication is also now available online. Readers can now download the paper in its complete form as a PDF file.
“We've been doing it for a few months,” said publisher Tracy Baim. But with significant recent growth, now up to 1,000 downloads per week, Baim said it was time to fully promote the new feature. “It's a good option for those who want to look at the paper at work or on the train on the way home as well as for readers in the suburbs where it's more difficult to get the physical paper.”
In fact, Windy City Times launched the online project late last year, starting to post a PDF document. “We've been tweaking it ever since,” Baim explained. More recently, “We've added more color and links to the advertisers' websites.”
Windy City Times [www.windycitytimes.com] publishes Night Spots, which is also available online. About 300 readers download that publication each week.
Print issues of Windy City Times and Night Spots will continue to be distributed from more than 500 outlets in the Chicago area. The Window City Media Group website [www.windycitymediagroup.com] has more than 20,000 archived articles, dating back 10 years.
Explaining the online feature, Baim said, “Readers didn't just want the text versions online. They actually like the visual assistance, the way a print publication prioritizes stories, the whole visual look of a paper. Most readers view the text version of articles, but want print guidance.”
The changes mean that readers of the publication's online version are able to read not only the articles, but also see the advertisements. Plus, the ads are clickable. Readers can link to advertisers' websites.
“This feature is a huge perk to our advertisers because as consumers read the ads, they are able to click directly to advertisers’ sites to buy tickets, read further information about events or products, or to find out more about their organization,” said marketing director Kathleen Ulm in a statement. The online version is also good for advertisers looking for the “maximum exposure” and is a “valuable service to the LGBT community,” extending the reach of the paper locally and nationally.
Better yet, few cost increases resulted from the online endeavor. “It only adds a few hours of work across three different jobs, with no real costs on the production end,” Baim said.
So far there have been no increases in advertising rates. “If we started to see a bigger jump [of downloads], that might warrant an increase,” Baim said.
One challenge has presented itself. “We're trying to get verified audits to start tracking downloads as part of the verification process,” she explained. “Some auditors are slow to embrace the digital technology. We may have to get a different company to do the online audit.”
In related news, Windy City Times employees all now work remotely from home. The move took effect in the middle of July, prompted in part by the summer’s rising gas prices.
Still, there were other considerations, she explained. “Productivity and morale. … For some people, their creative peak is midnight. For others, it is 6 a.m. This way we get more work out of people at their productive times.”
Staffers see each other in person during a weekly meeting. Meanwhile, Baim said, “People can access servers from home to produce the paper. We proof it from the PDF file, remotely.”
— Chuck Colbert
Courtesy PressPassQ (http://www.presspassq.com/ppq.cfm)
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