If you are one of the thousands of people who attend the South by Southwest Interactive conference each year, you could have the opportunity to hear a little about how things work around here, as well as my perspective on the seemingly endless debate about the future of print and online publishing.
Steve Evatt, one of the technology gurus behind Chron.com, the high-traffic, high-profile Houston newspaper site, will join me to add to the conversation.
I hope to run into many of you at this and other conferences, and I hope you'll take the time to register and vote for our session before voting ends at 11:59pm CDT on Friday, August 27. I'd love to share what I've learned in my years with Linux Journal, as well as highlight the open source tools in my web arsenal.
Linux Journal and The Houston Chronicle both depend on significant web presence to ensure the long-term success of their brands. Learn how we take advantage of web technologies to compliment our print publications. We'll discuss our preferred platforms, such as Drupal and Ruby on Rails, information architecture strategies, and scaling challenges, while also highlighting some of our success stories and pitfalls. Additionally, we’ll offer perspectives on the different challenges of niche publications versus large, general audience publications. With the possibilities available via the web, we must focus on the content delivery and audience engagement solutions that are appropriate to our audiences. We’ll cover hits and misses we’ve experienced, and the technology behind them. We’ll also discuss how to handle the inevitable bouts of phenomenal success, while not crumbling under heavy traffic. The web counterpart to a print publication will inevitably develop a slightly different audience, as well as its own flavor. We will discuss ways in which these can and should diverge, and the areas where they should not. There is much discussion about the future of publishing, and we will give a practical peek behind the scenes at what's working, what's not, and what the future holds.
Questions Answered
How should print publications take advantage of web technologies to enhance or extend their content?What are the preferred platforms, tools, and methodologies used by medium and large publishers in their online products?
Where have Linux Journal and Chron.com succeeded most in engaging their online audiences?
How can a web publisher handle periods of exceptionally high traffic due to a high-profile media event?
How does an online publication develop its own identity while still complementing its print counterpart? should it?
