Top 10 Reasons to Start a Ning for your Newspaper

The Whit just started it’s own Ning which we will be perfecting and inviting writers to join over winter break. We first came heard of this idea from Daniel Bachhuber of CoPress and it’s something we’re really looking forward to using in the upcoming semester!

1. It’s cooler than a wiki. Let’s face it. Despite it’s cool sounding name, Wiki’s aren’t fun. They get the job done, yes, but they aren’t good at lifting the veil up on who you are and what you actually do. Telling new staffers to go to a wiki to learn about your college newspaper and all that it does is not going to get them enthusiastic about helping you out. Telling a new staffer to go to your snazzy ning, where they can personalize their own page, makes them feel like they are already a member and gets them excited about joining the paper.

2. It’s a great addition to your newspaper’s job application. No one can join The Whit’s Ning without being invited. In addition, you set up particular questions that you want every prospective staff member to answer. In order to join The Whit’s Ning, prospective staff members have to fill out information on their writing experience, multimedia experience, potential conflict of interests on campus, etc. It all appears on their profile page so if an editor is about to assign someone an article on the juggling club (yes, Rowan has one) and notices that the particular reporter has listed on their page that they are a member of the club, they can quickly assign the story to someone else.

3. It’s a great way to keep in touch with alumni. Let’s face it, when someone graduates who was a member of your college newspaper you still keep in touch. We all have facebook, e-mail, instant messaging, but how does that person stay knowledgeable about what is happening with the place they just devoted the past four years of their life to? A ning is the perfect solution. The Whit even started an alumni group for current members to meet, mingle and network with former editors.

4. It’s a great place to generate story ideas. At Whit meetings we do this thing where go around the room and each person has to come up with a story idea. A lot of times we come up with really engaging and interesting ideas that come across fabulously in print, but with some people it’s like pulling teeth. With the ning, shyer staff members have a platform to share and engage in conversations they might not feel comfortable doing in person.

5. It makes your college newspaper much less cliquey. Some college newspapers can appear rather like a rather inclusive group to the college community. With a ning, you’re opening a lot of things up. Ever wonder what qualifies the Editor in Chief? Her past experiences are listed on her profile page specifically for staffers to see. Suddenly, editors and other members are not just a face you see at the meeting, but rather personalities with a more journalistic context that you can’t get from facebook or other social networking sites.

6. You can easily control membership. When a staff member shows enough interest in your college newspaper, invite them to your Ning. Don’t invite everyone and their mother, just the people you think can (and will!) add to the discussions. And if someone gets fired? You can easily block people from reentering the ning.

7. It makes it much easier to stay informed. Nings have an area of their Web site where you can sign up for emails to be notified every time something happens on the ning. New member? I want to know! New story idea? Yes, please! No longer, are there listservs and unseeable emails. Everything is much more open.

8. This can only help to benefit relationships between editors and new staff. Ever know someone but not well enough to add them on facebook without looking creepy? The Ning takes that step away, as it keeps everything professional yet still informal enough to have fun.

9. You have more freedom with a Ning than a Wiki. The ability to add HTML, RSS feeds, videos, photos, or any third-party widgets is a capability a lot of wikis don’t have. These capabilities allow you to share news and information with staff members that you normally wouldn’t be able to share.

10. The chat feature can allow for easy discussions. The Whit plans on using the chat feature on our Ning to invite back some old Whit editors to lead group discussion about job-hunting, grad schools, etc. The feature makes it easier for us all to communicate as a group in our own space without using a third-party tool to communicate.