Spring 2024 Online Elsewhere Report
By Richard Cameron
Part One: Spring semester summary
Posts by California community college student news publications continue to rise slightly, but a new normal has set in that appears to be much lower than pre-pandemic times.
The Online Elsewhere project began in Spring 2020 before it was known that the Covid pandemic would upset the status quo of in-person classes on college campuses. When student publication courses joined the remote education juggernaut student posts actually increased. But as in-person classes returned numbers dropped and appear to have settled in to a new, lower number of student stories.
Unfortunately, there are no clean pre-pandemic numbers available to measure against; the first semester of data is the one that was disrupted mid-way. But, based on those spring numbers and the following spring (I did not collect data for Fall 2020), stories first saw a slight dip (second half of Spring 2020) and then a significant jump Spring 2021. Fall semester continues to see fewer numbers than spring but shows a distinct year-to-year comparison. It needs to be noted, too, that I measure 22 weeks during a fall semester (Aug. 1 through Dec. 31) and 24 during a spring semester (Jan. 1 through June 15); spring semester includes a week of spring break that fall semesters don’t.)
Semester reports from previous semesters can be found at:
• Spring 2020 - bit.ly/3ZpEgAD
• Spring 2021 - (no report available)
• Fall 2021 - (no report available)
• Spring 2022 - bit.ly/3W3utgP
• Fall 2022 - bit.ly/fall22x
• Spring 2023 - bit.ly/44SgJdx
• Fall 2023 - bit.ly/3U5v2t1 (web) or https://bit.ly/4ePR0It (pdf)
• Spring 2024 – bit.ly/46nhGfU (web) or bit.ly/3SPbdF5 (pdf)
During the just-completed spring semester 53 student publications posted 4,517 stories, about a 2.2 percent increase over Spring 2023 (which was only 80 percent of Spring 2020 and 66.2 percent of Spring 2021). Fall semester numbers, where available, show similar patterns. (See Appendix I for a list of colleges with publications.)
Monterey Peninsula College has a new publication –the Lobo News—which will be added to future studies/reports.
For Spring 2024 70.1 percent of stories were campus based, that is they covered a campus story or had campus sources included. Just under half (46.6 percent) were news stories, 20.6 percent were feature stories, 19.8 sports stories, and 13.0 percent opinion stories.
The 53 publications averaged 84.6 stories but four publications had 200 or more stories and another 13 had 100 or more stories.
What it all means
When the project began it measured stories from student online publications using RSS feeds. Stories were cataloged by localization (campus, community, or neither), and by genre (news, opinion, sports, and feature). Dates and times of posts were also noted so that posting trends using those datapoints could be measured. Since then, website traffic has been measured using an outside source (similarweb.com) and posting patterns were added to the mix. Starting in Fall 2023 a deeper look at source use was added using random samples of campus-based news stories and campus-based sports stories.
The main mission of the project continues to be to catalog numbers and types of stories. But over time, trends indicated strengths and weaknesses of community college publication sites and I’ve developed a list of 20 areas publications can use to measure their overall excellence. That list serves as a main organizing tool for this report. I’ve grouped the list into three overall themes of design, content, and presentation:
1. Improve design
• Clean up and update front pages
• Build depth to your site
• Promote your site and build online audiences
2. Improve content
• Include more campus sports
• Pay attention to gender-balanced sports coverage
• Cover campus governance
• Lead with more campus opinion
• Emphasize opinion in reviews
3. Improve presentation of content
• Post regularly and frequently
• Avoid excessive gaps and excessive post days
• Increase weekly story averages
• Eliminate roundups
• Include text stories with audio/video stories
• Include transcripts with audio/video stories
• Consider more galleries when using three or more photos
• Include text stories with galleries
• Pay attention to story presentation
• Improve quality and quantity of sources
• Tighten podcast structure
• Improve headlines
Terms and Definitions
As with any research project of this size it is important to define terms used to make categorizations. Only minor tweaks from previous semesters were made in these definitions. Stories were categorized by genre/type —news, opinion, sports, or feature—and by localization —campus, community, or general/neither. In addition, dates and times of posts were noted. Where appropriate, posts were also tagged for subject matter. Monthly reports were shared with publication advisers through the JACC mail listserv.
Posts
Any post was considered for inclusion unless it was an obvious duplicate post, was an obvious test post, or in the case of one college a verified fraud. No other distinction was made. A post might include a story, photographs, and multimedia; or it may include just a brief or a photo. One school even posted individual images/PDFs of print edition pages for portfolio reasons. If a post was later updated, it was treated as a duplicate post. If it was later deleted, which occurred more frequently this spring, no adjustment was made, as deletions could be made any time, even months later.
Dates
When posts are made originally, RSS feeds usually date-stamp the posts, even if it occasionally takes a couple of days for it to appear in feeds. If posts were later updated some systems add a second date or time stamp; again, these were treated as duplicates. Some schools routinely posted stories that clearly had been created, or at least started, weeks earlier and retained the creation date on posts; but since posts were monitored daily they were recorded as actually being posted on the dates they showed up in the RSS feed. Posting dates and times are available with most, but not all RSS feeds.
Late Posts
In most WordPress platforms a story contains a dateline that indicates when it was created, regardless of when it was posted. (Likewise, when stories are updated there often is an updated date added to the meta data.) Most stories are posted within a day of creation. But others don’t show up for days (or weeks), indicating that the publication held on to the story for some time. Posts were recorded for the day they showed up in RSS feeds, but it those dates were three or more days after the creation date they were tagged as “late” posts. An occasional late post is normal, but some publications make a practice of it. For perspective, there were 35 “late” posts for Spring 2024, less than 1 percent.
Times
Along with date stamps are time stamps. Times were recorded and categorized in one of four six-hour blocks of time:
· Wee hours (midnight to 5:59 a.m.),
· Morning (6:00 a.m. to 11:59 a.m.),
· Afternoon (noon to 5:59 p.m.), and
· Evening (6:00 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.)
Two publications (Chaffey and Orange Coast) do not support standard RSS and did not include time stamps; while dates for posts could be determined, time-of-day could not. These posts were not included in reporting posting times but were included in other counts.
Story Type/Genre
All stories were categorized as one of four types: News, Opinion, Sports, or Feature.
Sports was the first bias in determining story type. Next was News, then Opinion v. Feature. All sports stories were categorized as Sports, regardless of story format.
Many reporters consider only profiles as features, but not for this study. For instance, a story about a club activity would be considered a news story, but if the story primarily focused on the purpose of an already existing club, it was considered a news feature.
The most subjective decisions were with reviews: Was the overall tone more opinion or merely feature? Lists of favorite movies/music/foods/holiday traditions, while obviously opinions, were counted as features; and, as the only sources for those features were the authors, they were counted as “neither” localization unless they had another direct tie-in to campus or community.
Localization
And finally, stories were categorized by one of three localizations: Campus based, community based, or neither/general.
Campus based was the first bias. If the story happened on campus or at another district campus, it was campus based. Even national stories that contained local sources or details were determined to be campus based. Merely mentioning the school, most often in leads, was not enough to be categorized as campus based. Some statewide stories that clearly affected a local campus, for instance California Community College Chancellor news conferences for student reporters, were also considered campus based.
Community-based was the second bias. Often this was subjective. Communities in immediate proximity of campus were included, but at times a story in a regional metropolis a few miles down the road might be considered community based, depending on relevance to the campus community; other times they were categorized as neither. The question was in determining how far "community" extended.
"Neither" or “general” was the catch-all for remaining stories. Non-campus reviews most commonly were considered as "neither."
Stories about professional, semi-professional and NCAA-level sports also were categorized as “neither,” even if the team was located in the college’s service area, unless it was primarily a community issue story, such as the Oakland A’s considering a move to Las Vegas, or involved the college, such as a college night at the Anaheim Angels. “Community” sports tended to be stories about local high school sports.
Tags
Subject tags were added to some stories to better highlight story content. They were not included on all stories or topics.
There were no pre-determined tags, though some became obvious, such as identifying different sports or which media were reviewed or to identify topical trends. Other tags were created to help identify important story content for well-rounded publications; for example, "campus governance" for stories about various senates, boards, foundations, unions, and administrations (except for when administrators were used simply as sources).
Adjusted Weeks/Averages
While most colleges started their spring semesters in mid-to-late February, not all do, and different programs start actual publication at different times. Some publications posted stories before the school year started while others took several weeks to get started. Likewise, some publications continue after finals have been completed while others wrap up in mid-June. And some schools continue to publish during holiday breaks, others do not. There are a total of 22 possible publishing weeks between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31 (fall semester) and 24 weeks between Jan. 1 and June 15 (spring semester).
To create a standard method for determining weekly averages an “adjusted week” metric was used. The first week for any publication was measured as the first in which two or more posts were made between Monday and Sunday. Likewise, the last week of the semester for a publication was the one that contained two or more posts. No adjustments were made for holiday periods. If a publication had additional one-off posts outside its adjusted week window the posts were counted toward the total, but the weeks were not adjusted further.
Campus Governance
One of the roles of any publication is to serve as a watchdog for its community, so note was taken of campus governance stories, such as those that cover student, faculty, and classified senates and unions, board of trustees, college foundations, and some administrative actions. They might be news, feature, or opinion (and, in rare cases, sports) stories.
Multimedia
Four types of multimedia stories were tracked:
1. Stories with or consisting of audio,
2. Stories with or consisting of video,
3. Stories with or consisting of photo galleries in a widget, and
4. Stories with or consisting of interactive tools.
Not included were a shrinking number of animated issuu.com or yumpa.com postings. Once common platforms for storing PDF documents, such as copies of print issues, many student publications have moved away after new pricing policies made them difficult to afford. Also tracked were stories with three or more photos that could have, or perhaps should have, been presented in gallery form.
For some publications, using a gallery with three or more photos might mean a smarter presentation, but not always. Also noted where multimedia “stories” of all sorts where ONLY the multimedia portion was included or only a short paragraph was added: gallery only, audio segment only, video only, audio introduced with a single paragraph, video with only a single paragraph, gallery with a single paragraph, etc. The strangest, perhaps, were the collections of three or more photos without any explanation beyond a headline.
Posting Patterns
Separate posting calendars were kept for each publication to show how many posts were made on which days. The reports that followed highlighted excessive gaps —arbitrarily defined as six or more days— and excessive post days —arbitrarily defined as six or more posts on a single day.
A posting percentage was calculated for each publication by multiplying the number of adjusted weeks by seven days and then dividing the actual number of posting days by the result.
posting days /adjusted weeks x 7 days = posting percentage
Here is how daily averages work out:
· One day = 14.3 percent
· Two days = 28.6 percent
· Three days = 42.9 percent
· Four days = 57.1 percent
· Five days = 71.4 percent
· Six days = 85.7 percent
· Seven days = 100 percent
Sources
The use of sources was a separate section of the study. After a selection of random samples of campus-based news stories and campus-based sports stories, posts were measured for use of primary and secondary sources. Clearly defined sources were counted the first time they were used in a story, whether with direct quotations or indirect quotations. No attempt was made to distinguish between quotations from presentations vs. interviews. Stories consisting solely of PDFs or graphics, such as posters, were counted as single document sources; these consisted mostly of PDFs of entire print issues or single pages of print issues.
Traffic
Traffic, as measured by the free version of SimilarWeb.com, included visitors to the website during the measured monthly window. While some data on number of pages visited or time spent on websites was available, those numbers were not included in this study. Results were reported in thousands rather than individual numbers. Results were available for most publications, but not all, and reports were delayed by two months.
Disclaimer
No determination on quality of stories or publications was made, as this was not a goal of the study. Raw numbers included in this report are included for illustrative purposes. Publications should look at the numbers and determine whether they meet staff-determined goals.
Most numbers are expressed in terms of percentage of the whole, though raw numbers are included to indicate how percentages were determined. When raw numbers or ranked are highlighted in this study they are not meant to imply "better" or "worse," but are used solely for comparison’s sake.
It should be noted, too, that when percentage-of-the-whole numbers are used a high rank in one category, by definition, it means a corresponding lower rank in another similar category: again, staffs need to establish their own goals.
Improve Design
While not a core mission of the project, taking a look at the design of student publication websites was inevitable. Three actions publications should consider include:
Clean up and update front pages
Most sites do a good job of keeping front pages up to date, but others have not been redesigned in a long time, they try to include as much as they can on the front page, regardless of how timely the material is. Some web sites still have content that is four or five years old. Clearly, some online stories have a longer shelf life than print stories –you never would include the same, un-updated story on the front page of your print edition month after month— but there is some limit, one that must defined publication by publication.
Late-semester I surveyed California community college student publication sites and found that 62.3 percent of the front pages contained material only from the current semester. Another 20.8 percent contained material only from the current school year. But that left 3.8 percent with material from last school year, 5.7 percent from the 2020-21 school year, and 7.5 percent from older than that.
Generally, it is probably better to have an up-to-date and dynamic front page.
Build depth to your site
A stronger strategy for your website would be somewhat mirror the print model of separating stories by sections and build depth to your site. The front page should represent current stories, regardless of genre, and relegate older stories to inside pages.
Inside sections can further delineate stories by subject matter. The most obvious, which can include, for instance, sports by subject or sports by gender. It would make sense for a spring semester site to feature a full semester’s worth of, say, women’s softball stories and men’s baseball stories.
Eventually, even inside stories must be relegated to morgue status and simply be part of the searchable database. Additional tools to help readers sort and find older stories, such as links to 2023 women’s soccer stories or 2022 men’s wrestling stories, can be developed.
Because of the nature of online widgets used to categorize and list stories, some subsections might end up with really old stories displaying, a sure sign of too many subsections or a lapse in coverage of the topic. Continued assessment and redesign should be institutionalized.
Promote your site and build online audiences
When I post monthly website traffic reports using data from similarweb.com, the most common question I receive from advisers is, “How can we improve traffic numbers on our site?”
First, I’m blown away with the traffic of unique visitors. California community college student publication websites averaged more than one million views a month for the first five months. Even the publication with the lowest number of visitors draws more visitors each month than their print versions possibly can, even with multiple viewers for each copy.
Traffic averaged 21.3k visitors each month, with Cerritos leading with 50.4k visitors and Canyons with a low of 2.1k each month.
The answer to these advisers’ questions is difficult. What works for one publication might not work for another. What worked this semester might not work the next semester.
Building a consistently visited website is a long-term project. It starts with treating your online site as a distinct product and not an afterthought of the print edition. As I’ve said before:
Those publications that have jettisoned their print product MIGHT have an advantage, as it allows them to also jettison print publication mindsets on when and how often to post, when to set deadlines for stories, etc. Those who decide to continue with a print publication, and still have the resources to do so, CAN develop appropriate online strategies, it just might be harder: Digital first MUST outweigh old print first habits. Forget the old concern of “scooping ourselves online,” your online site is a real publication, even if most content is created for inclusion in both platforms. A website should be updated regularly and frequently. There must be a reason for readers to develop a habit of coming back to the website for news.
You must also promote your site. There is an adage in the industry that a business that doesn’t advertise is like the man who winks at a pretty woman in the dark; he knows what he is doing, but no one else does. And while it is easy to adopt the mindset of a print edition as the audience being staff and students on campus, an online site usually also includes an off-campus audience of former staff and students and members of the surrounding community. If you devote a significant portion of your stories to community-based news does that community know that you do? You may have to promote the site off campus as well as on campus. And, of course, topic selection can impact online readership. I remember times when my students would publish an editorial for strong gun control and suddenly show up in Google searches that drew strong and vocal anti-control advocates. If you haven’t yet, install Google Analytics or other analytic tools and pay attention to how your readers find their way to your sites.
Important: Even if you still publish a strong print edition, the way the industry is developing there may be a day when online is the only product you publish. Now is the time to start building solid online strategies. There can be a strong residual audience that builds a habit of visiting your site regularly. But it is unlikely to develop without continual effort; it is not the same as distributing a physical print edition and developing a “pick up” readership. The last thing you want to do is to find yourself without a print publication, for whatever reason, and not have an online audience because you’ve not promoted it over the years.
But promotion of your online site will not be effective if it is treated as a morgue site instead of a vibrant publication in its own right.
Note: One untapped content area that might ramp up site traffic is coverage of key area high school sports. High school sports have a stronger following than most community college programs, but may not have another community publication that follows them in a timely fashion. (I got my first newspaper job because I complained to the local weekly about poor coverage of high school sports.)
Student publications cover variety of content. Even those that focus on campus events for coverage will cover hot national and international topics; a biggie this semester was the Gaza unrest (n. 119, 2.6 percent). Some covered campus protests while others got out into the community or visited nearby university campuses where encampments made news. Still others editorialized the issue from afar.
While campus stories of all kinds accounted for 70.1 percent of content, some publications put more effort into community and general news. Canyons (54.5 percent) and Desert (51.6 percent) devoted more than half their coverage to community stories. Chaffey devoted 67.0 percent to non-campus/non-community news. Overall, one in five (21.8 percent) stories were general-focus stories, many of them movie (n.153, 3.4 percent), music (n.110, 2.4 percent), television (n.67, 1.5 percent), or video game (n. 39, 0.9 percent) reviews. Sports accounted for 19.8 percent, or about one in five stories, but nearly one in 10 (n. 181, 9.8 percent) covered professional and university-level sports, such as the NBA (n. 33), MLB (n. 37), NFL (n. 46), various levels of professional/international soccer (n. 19), NCAA tournaments (n. 18), and the WNBA (n.7).
What to cover in a student publication is/should be decided by students, but traditionally there are roles news publications of any kind should include to round out their overall coverage. If campus publications cover their own campus community, for instance, they probably should include campus governance, campus sports, and campus opinion stories. But too many do not.
· Three publications covered no campus sports, or sports stories of any kind;
· Seventeen publications expressed no campus opinion, nine had no opinion stories of any kind; and
· Nine publications had no campus governance stories.
Include More Campus Sports
I remember my first semester as a journalism instructor at Cerritos College. The students produced a broadsheet publication and the sports writers wanted eight pages each week, with seven of them devoted to sports. The only reason they cared about the eighth page was that “the ads had to go somewhere.”
I was not always blessed with that many rabid sports writers. Indeed, many semesters it was hard to find just one. I suspect that there are some publications today suffering from that same problem. But sports remains an integral part of any campus. And covering sports is integral to a well-rounded student publication.
Three of the 53 publications monitored this semester had no sports coverage at all, much less coverage of campus sports. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. The average publication had just eight campus sports stories, or about two per month.
That’s pretty anemic when you consider that most colleges have upwards of a dozen sports teams competing during spring semesters: men’s and women’s basketball, women’s wrestling, men’s baseball and women’s softball, men’s and women’s track and field, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s volleyball and women’s beach volleyball, cheer, golf, etc.
Part of the problem is that publications continue to operate with a print mindset. With print publications being cut back to monthly in many cases, why cover sports? You cannot be timely with coverage that way. That mindset also suggests that only game stories, which admittedly make up most of the fare, are the only sports stories worth covering. I do a lot of judging for press associations across the country and often get assigned sports categories. Entries often consist of “big game” stories, but the ones that tend to stand out are the ones that focus on helping the reader understand the sport or understand the uniqueness of a particular contest.
Online publications, at worst, should be considered weekly publications and content there CAN be timely. Finding more sports writers? That is still a problem for some publications.
Long Beach led the state in campus sports coverage with 70 campus sports (33.3 percent) stories; by contrast, the average for all stories (not just sports) across the state was 84. El Camino was a distant second with 45.
A potential growth area for student sports coverage, especially in the fall semester when football dominates the stage, would be to cover area high school football games, where there is/can be a huge community following. In some cases, high school football games are played on college fields, making coverage convenient. Covering local high school sports is a largely untapped opportunity for community college publications, especially for those hoping to increase publication viewership.
Pay attention to gender-balanced sports coverage
Men’s baseball (n. 192) and women’s softball (n.117) continue to be the most-covered spring sports, followed by men’s basketball (n. 120) and women’s basketball (n. 61). Twenty-six sports (27 if you include esports) were covered by campus publications this spring. In addition, there were 17 sports stories that were not tied to a specific sport (i.e., stories about athletic directors or sports trainers).
Gender balance should be a norm, but 56.9 percent of the 749 gender-specific sports stories centered on men’s sports while only 43.1 percent covered women’s sports. (Note: There were fewer actual stories than this as single stories covering both men’s and women’s teams were counted twice and sports roundup stories could be counted multiple times.) The gender balance was slightly better for the fall semester, when the men’s/women’s percentages were 53.1 percent/46.9 percent.
Cover campus governance
Clearly, some community college publications take this role seriously. Santa Barbara often leads the pack and did so again this spring with 32 campus governance stories. But Laney (n. 27), Pasadena (n. 25), Pierce (n. 22) and El Camino (n. 21) were strong, as well.
The statewide average was just two stories and nine publications had none. Another 10 had just one. Many of those stories showed up in late April/early May to announce elections for student government officers for the next year, meaning there was little or no campus governance coverage until the end of the semester.
Student government was the most covered campus governance group. Thirty-six publications had at least one student government story. There were 104 such stories, accounting for 36.4 percent of all campus governance coverage.
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Administration (21 publications/44 stories) and boards of trustees (20 publications/66 stories) were next.
Lead with more campus opinion
Closely related to the role as a watchdog as a traditional news publication role is the roles of a marketplace of ideas and a leader of opinion. That so many publications include NO opinion stories of any kind baffles the mind. Add to that that many “critical reviews” offer little or no opinion. I’ll deal with this as two issues, the first of which is campus opinion.
And while there may be a lot of opinion expressed in podcasts, unless a transcript was included, most were considered features or sports features; most podcasts/audio stories did not relate to campus, in any case.
That’s not true for all publications, though. Pierce, the reigning monarch of pro-con opinion sets, led the way with 31 campus-related opinion pieces. Long Beach (n. 12), El Camino (n. 10), and Santa Barbara (n. 10) rounded out those with 10 or more. The statewide average was just two.
Non-campus/non-community opinion stories outnumbered campus opinion stories by more than two to one.
Writing campus-related opinion stories presents different challenges for those publications that like to pontificate on all kinds of “cultural” issues, most important of which is that writers need to understand their campus communities. An interesting observation is that those who write more campus opinion stories also tend to be strong in campus governance coverage. Hmmm, the opposite is not necessarily true. Another challenge is that publications are more likely to get blowback from unpopular campus opinions.
Emphasize opinion in reviews
JACC’s critical review contest is one of the most heavily entered categories. Students love to write movie reviews, music reviews, television show reviews, and video game reviews; occasionally, they include book reviews and art reviews. But those students often forget there are two words in the contest name. They understand the review part, but often forget the critical/evaluative part, either that or they bury their opinions so deep in the story they’ve already lost their readers.
This chart includes some squishy numbers, as not all of these stories may have been intended as critical reviews, but the numbers help illustrate the point. Included are non-campus/non-community “reviews.”
Thirty-nine publications (73.6 percent) are represented in the numbers above. Pasadena was the clear leader with 57 stories, followed by Bakersfield (n. 32), Butte (n. 27), East LA (n. 24), Chaffey (n. 23), and Cerritos (n. 20)
The best reviews put a strong, identifiable opinion in the lead of the story and pepper the rest of the review with opinion, as well. Strong critical reviews also demonstrate an understanding of the genre: How does this horror movie compare with classic horror movies? How does this music album compare with others by the artist or other similar artists?
Clearly, there needs to be some review, but writers often overdo or over-emphasize that part, especially plot review. Many so-called critical reviews are really feature stories, or even news stories.
Some student podcasts talk about these topic areas, but without a transcript or accompanying story I categorize them as features. Likewise, editors putting together a list of their favorite movies or songs may include opinions but were classified as features. Other than the occasional play review or art show review (one that evaluated the art/presentation), there are few campus-focused critical reviews.
As a journalism teacher for so many years, I often wondered if I spent so much effort in beginning newswriting courses training students to leave out their own opinions that I was ruining them for later opinion writing.
Improve presentation of content
Not every publication has the resources, especially staff numbers and experience, to post hundreds of stories or even to lead in any of the categories listed above, but many publications can improve their sites by paying attention to presentation of what they CAN produce.
Post regularly and frequently
Perhaps the one thing every publication could do to improve online readership and build a regular online audience is to post regularly and frequently. Some publications are still letting their print publication rule when deadlines are set and when stories are posted. It is clear to see when their print editions have come out because they suddenly have a dozen or more stories after being quiet online for a week or longer; and they usually post Wednesdays. But most publications are improving their posting frequency. Ironically, for most publications, posting frequently will often have the unintended consequence of increasing volume. If reporters know they have a week or two between print publications and that all that matters is that the stories get in on time for the print edition, then they will produce only what they need to fill the finite news hole. But if the publication posts multiple times a week, reporters are likely to produce more stories rather than sit around.
Online Elsewhere looks at posting percentages that are weighted to account for semester publication windows. Publications start and end their semesters at different times. The algorithm looks at the first week (Monday through Sunday) of a semester that each publication posts two or more stories and the last week of the semester each posts two or more stories.
No adjustments are made for holidays and spring breaks. The result determines the length of the publication’s publishing window as “adjusted weeks.” (The rare postings outside of that window are counted, even the extra weeks are not.) There are 24 weeks between Jan. 1 and June 15, the window in which data is collected. The average publication window is 16 weeks, though one publication, Butte, published all 24 weeks. Seven publications posted 20 or more weeks and two posted just one week.
Each publication’s total posting days, the days they actually posted at least one story were divided by the number of adjusted weeks x 7 days. The result was the publication’s posting percentage. The state average was 31.4 percent, which translates to just over two days a week. Ten publications had posting percentages of 50 percent or higher. One more just barely missed out with 49.6) El Camino was the leader with a whopping 70.5 percent, just a smidge under five days a week.
As suggested above, Wednesdays are the go-to days for most publications. Nearly three in 10 posts (28.5 percent) are on Wednesdays. Thursdays follow with 17.0 percent of posts. Unsurprisingly, weekends (a combination of Saturday and Sunday) were the least popular days with just 12.1 percent)
Afternoons, between noon and 5:59 p.m., are the most popular times for posts, with more than four in 10 (43.3 percent) posted during that window. Evenings, 6 p.m. through 11:59 p.m., are the second most popular time to post 33.1 percent. The least likely time is during the wee hours of midnight through 5:59 a.m., though Las Positas posted nearly one in five of its stories (19.7) overnight.
Avoid excessive gaps and excessive post days
Key to improving one’s posting percentages is to avoid excessive gaps –defined as six or more days—between posts and excessive-post days –defined as six or more posts in one day. The latter is less important if the former is under control. Those with frequent excessive gaps tend to follow with excessive posts as they shovel stories over from the print edition to the online edition. The combination is not exclusive, as posting percentage leader El Camino had 13 excessive-post days, many at the end of the semester as it was posting everything it had, including stories from its just-printed magazine.
Desert had the most excessive gaps with nine that averaged 8.8 days. East LA (eight gaps averaging 12.9 days), Cosumnes River (seven gaps averaging 6.3 days) and Pierce (seven gaps averaging 6.0 days) followed. Southwestern had the longest gaps with an average of 36.5 days.
Pasadena had the most excessive-post days with 16 (average 14.8 posts), followed by Pierce with 13 excessive post days (average 11.5 posts) and El Camino with13 excessive days (average 9.6 posts). Santa Monica had the highest average of excessive posts: 16.0 with just one excessive-post day).
* Coincidentally, the model C-ID outline for the student media practicum course, promises that students “must include weekly news assignments,” though it recognizes that there are multiple ways to fulfill this promise. And, while Online Elsewhere does not exclude holiday weeks like Spring Break, it would be reasonable to think that the C-ID outline would, just as it might exclude the first week and last week of a semester.
El Camino had the highest per-week average with 17.1 posts per week.
As suggested in the section above, intentionally increasing posting percentages might inadvertently increase weekly averages.
Eliminate roundups
Roundups/news briefs is a technique used in print journalism to combine small stories into one text block for better page design. But they simply do not make sense in an online atmosphere, especially since they are usually topped with generic headlines. They are a disservice to readers, who have no idea what is hidden there. Online, a story is a story. Yet, a quarter of publications (n. 13) used the technique in their online publications a total of 27 times (12 news/15 sports). Publications using it most often include Pierce (n. 10) and Santa Barbara (n. 5).
Think through the reader experience with presentation.
Pay attention to story presentation
In general, pay attention to story presentation. Website story templates make this easy to forget, but not all posts display the way they were intended, especially when they are prepared in other programs, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word, and ported (pasted) into the WordPress post. Common concerns include:
· Is the story being presented in the right font/font size?
· Does it have the correct paragraph spacing? (This is perhaps one of the most common problems.)
· Does the story need subheads, and does the publication have a standard for subhead presentation (spacing, font size/weight) so that there is consistency?
· Is special design called for? Most publications stick with just one template design, but special stories might call for a special template.
· Are polls desired with the story and is there a publication standard for reporting results?
· Are pull quotes desired and does the publication have a standard for presentation?
· Are links to similar stories and outside sources included? Are they functional? When using pro-con articles or reposting stories in multiple languages, consider including linkbacks on both articles/versions; does the publication have a standard for when, how, and where to place linkbacks? Seven publications posted a 36 stories in Spanish (including one in Portuguese) this semester. Long Beach led the effort with 15 stories. Skyline had six, and Pierce and Contra Costa followed with five each. All pro-con sets, or at least those identified as such, were posted by Pierce.
· Are photos/galleries/other media effectively displayed with text? (See discussions above.)
· Does the story have a headline? (You’d be surprised how often stories don’t.)
The bottom line: Does the story display the way intended? Don’t assume it does. Spend a minute or two after posting each story to at least look at it to see if it is displaying effectively. I find a few each week that clearly don’t. It is as if students don’t even look at their own work.
Include text stories with audio/video stories
Include transcripts with audio/video stories
Include text stories with galleries
All three of these efforts are related. One of the advantages of online over print is the opportunity to include multimedia with stories. Unfortunately, some have developed a habit of multimedia in place of stories. Audio, video, and visuals are an important storytelling technique, but presentation of multimedia is as important as the audio/video/gallery/other itself. Simply placing the multimedia item on a page without adequate explanation is a disservice to readers and does not take their readership/viewership habits into account.
 Audio with no story or paragraph |  Video with story |
 Gallery with paragraph only |
Which of the above is the most enticing for a reader? These represent three common presentations of multimedia found in California community college publications:
· Audio/video/gallery with just a headline, no explanatory text,
· Audio/video/gallery with an explanatory paragraph, and
· Audio/video/gallery with complete story (and/or transcript).
The more information you present with the multimedia the better chance you have of engaging the reader. Those who use the first two options may wish to reconsider how they present multimedia.
Forty-one publications used multimedia at least once, just a dozen had none. There were 585 such stories, or in about 12.9 percent of the time. (There were a few cases where a story was counted more than once if it used multiple multimedia formats, such as a story with both audio and video.)
Photo galleries were the most common multimedia format. There were 285 stories with galleries. But take note of the section below that talks about times when galleries might have been used for better presentation but were not. The next most common format was video, which showed up in 162 stories. Audio showed up in 117 stories. And interactive multimedia –excluding issuu/yumpa postings—were used 21 times, mostly in the form of interactive maps by El Camino (n. 15).
Santa Rosa used multimedia the most with 58 stories. San Diego City (n. 54), Santa Monica (n. 50), and Cerritos (n. 49) followed.
· Santa Monica was the most prolific user of photo galleries with 52, followed by Cerritos (n. 37).
· El Camino used video 37 times and San Diego City 25. It should be noted that many of San Diego’s multimedia stories included video and audio AND a full story.
· Santa Rosa led in use of audio with 27 stories, followed by San Diego City with 16.
But HOW multimedia elements were presented is important, too. Ninety-two times the multimedia by 24 publications was presented with just a headline, giving the reader little to understand what the multimedia included. El Camino (n. 29) was the publication most likely to do this. Video (n. 46) was the multimedia format most likely to be presented with just a headline.
The most common presentation of multimedia occurred with a headline and an explanatory paragraph that may or may not have given the readers content clues. This occurred 100 times. Twenty-three publications used this presentation, Santa Rosa used it 28 times and Fullerton 12 times.
A more effective presentation is to present the multimedia element along with a complete story. A transcript in place of a story also gives the reader another opportunity to engage with the story.
Thirty-one publications presented 391 stories with multimedia. Leader of the pack was Santa Monica (n. 54) with its multitude of story/gallery combinations. San Diego City (n. 39), Cerritos (n. 37), DeAnza (n. 37) and Santa Rosa (n. 34) followed. Story/gallery combinations were most common.
Just four publications – Cerritos, Mt. San Antonio, Mt. San Jacinto, and San Diego City—included transcripts with audio or video, despite the relative ease in creating transcripts using such tools as otter.ai. But they did it 38 times this semester.
Consider more galleries when using three or more photos
Galleries are an effective presentation for photos online. They allow for a cleaner layout and allow you to present photos all essentially the same size. While that might not be preferred in print presentation, it works well for online where viewing space is limited to a screen at a time. Some of the presentations, I am sorry to say, were outright ugly because photos were run too small using the principles of print design. (Of course, remember to include cutlines with each photo.)
Galleries MAY be effective most times a publication uses three or more photos, but not always. This semester I also tracked the number of times used three or more photos outside of a gallery. It occurred 706 times, or in about 15.9 percent of all stories.
Publications that may want to consider using gallery widgets for photo presentation when using three or more photos include El Camino (n. 88), Pierce (n. 68), Long Beach (n. 61), DeAnza (n. 33), Santa Rosa (n. 33), Santa Ana (n. 31), Moorpark (n. 28), Moorpark (n. 28), Mt. San Jacinto (n. 27), Orange Coast (n. 25), Santa Barbara (n. 21), and Sacramento (n. 18).
There are a variety of gallery widget formats for WordPress-based websites. A Google search will yield lists of possible options.
Improve quality and quantity of sources
The ability to synthesize information from other sources is an important skill for journalists, but a paramount skill is the ability to actually talk to sources and make sense of what they say. I took a look at the use of sources in campus news stories and campus sports stories. There were 1,831 campus news stories and 703 campus sports stories. I started with random samples from each group. The aim was to use about 200 campus news stories and 100 campus sports stories.
Method
I wanted to include all student publications, so the actual numbers were slightly more: I ended up with 201 news stories and 106 sports stories. After determining what percentage of overall news and sports stories each publication produced, I identified one to 14 news slots (El Camino) for each publication and one to 10 sports slots (Long Beach). Actual stories were selected using a random number generator to avoid selection bias.
Next, I counted the first time a source was used in each story, regardless of whether it was from a live interview or quoting from a presentation or document. Each source was counted only once, except for the rare case when it appeared that a source was being quoted from a document AND from a presentation/interview. Further, I categorized the sources. With news stories I determined whether the source was a campus employee or elected board of trustees member, a student, a document source, or other (such as a community member or other; if the identity of a source was unclear –i.e., name without clear identification—it was counted as “other.” With sports stories I used a similar delineation: coach or campus employee, campus athlete, document, or other (opposing coaches and players or audience members).
Results (news)
Employee sources in news stories accounted for 40.4 percent of all sources used and averaged 1.8 sources per story with such a source. Employee sources appeared in 57.7 percent of all stories.
Student sources accounted for 28.0 of all sources (1.8 per story) and were used in 39.3 percent of all stories.
Next most common were “other” sources, which appeared in 28.9 percent of stories (1.6 per story). They accounted for 14.0 percent of all sources.
And documents –emails, written documents, web pages, issuu/yumpa PDFs – were used as sources in 23.4 percent of all stories and averaged 1.5 per story when they were present.
Twenty-six stories (12.9 percent) had zero sources.
Overall, 2.9 sources were used if a story used any at all. This is slightly higher than a similar study from last fall semester.
Results (sports)
Student athletes were the most common sources in sports stories. They accounted for 52.3 percent of sources when sources were used; 14.4 percent of stories used no sources at all. When athlete sources were used, they were used 1.5 times per story.
Predictably, coach/other employee sources were next most common. They accounted for 43.7 percent of all sources and showed up in 63.2 percent of all stories 1.1 times.
“Other” sources were accounted from 3.4 percent of all sources and appeared 1.1 times in just 4.7 percent of all stories.
Document sources were the least used and accounted for 0.6 percent of sources.
Overall, 2.2 sources were used in stories that had sources. Last fall the average was 1.7 sources per story.
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Lists of stories selected for each college can be found in Appendix II and Appendix III.
Tighten podcast structure
Most podcasts, either audio or video, appear to be stream of consciousness on a general topic. There is merit in such efforts, as it forces student reporters to practice articulation; many probably have never heard themselves talk before. But we are far enough into the multimedia movement these days, despite the fact that 34 publications had no audio and 19 had no video, that it is time to take the next step with journalistic podcasts.
Scripting podcasts may be extreme, but it is time for podcasts to tighten up with topics. When one is done listening/watching, can the reader/listener/viewer identify key points? The speech model of “tell them what you are going to say, say it, and then tell them what you said” should at least be part of the planning process.
Adopting policies of including full stories and/or edited transcripts will give reporters the full educational experience. Creating transcript drafts is fast and relatively easy with online tools like otter.ai.
Moving closer to a scripted, or at least an outlined discussion, will help reporters focus thoughts and improve their speaking abilities. The Podcast Work Flows website outlines some pros and cons of scripted podcasts:
Pros of Scripting
· You will control the entire story you’re telling, and will be less susceptible to ad-libbing or saying something you don’t want, or don’t mean, to say.
· There’s a lot more planning, so your recording should require less editing (or at least, it will go more smoothly).
· You will make all the points you want to make, in the order you want to make them.
Cons of Scripting
· It’s more likely you’ll sound like you’re reading, which can feel unnatural (or at least, it takes a lot more work to sound natural).
· If you want to read the script verbatim, there will be more “takes” to get it right.
· It takes more time to do the episode – write the script, record it verbatim, then edit, publish, etc.
· If you ad-lib, you’ll need to remember your spot, and depending on how true to audio you want the script, go back and modify it (or have the episode transcribed anyway).
And, to follow up on themes elsewhere in this report:
· Give your readers information with your posts. Pay attention to presentation. Not all readers will listen/watch, especially if they are ill- or under-informed on content. Consider including a transcript option, if not a full story, with the multimedia piece. At minimum include a well-crafted informative paragraph. Look to the successful model of NPR.
· Consider more campus- or community-themed topics to sharpen your reporters’ storytelling skills. Only 38 of the 117 audio stories in student publications this semester (about one-third) --admittedly not all are “podcasts”-- focused on campus issues/stories. San Diego City, with its broadcast program integrated with the journalism program, led the effort with 12 such stories. Diablo Valley had six.
Improve headlines
Do journalism programs even teach headline writing any more? It seems like today a headline is just a sentence as a headline. “Counting” headlines, where each character has a different value, is extreme and, because of browser differences, will not display the same on different computers; making headlines exactly fit is probably futile. But the ABCs of headline writing still matter: Accuracy, Brevity, and Clarity.
Grossmont is getting better, but still is heavy on “label” headlines like “Under the roof,” “The waiting game,” “Help,”, “Explore,” or “Blocked Paths.” Other publications occasionally write 15-word or longer headlines.
I’d suggest establishing some policies on headline writing, perhaps with a minimum of five words and a maximum of, say, eight. Word length is less important than when writing headlines for print. My first journalism teacher taught me to ALWAYS include a verb (preferably and active one), even if implied. Remember, something like 80 percent of readers will not get past the headline, so it HAS to tell the story. But it needs to be done succinctly. Crossword puzzles and other word games are good training exercises for headline writing.
Part 2: Publication-by-publication reports
The author is under no illusion that everyone will want to read reports for all 54 publications that are monitored each semester, but some may find that reading other publication reports helpful as not all operate under the same conditions. For instance, some publish in the morning, others in the afternoon, and still others in the evening. Some publish multiple times each week while others publish online less than weekly. Some focus exclusively on campus-focused stories while others venture out to their local communities or well beyond; some barely cover campus stories.
Publications might want to look at peer publications, or ones that they would like to be peers.
Reports show current semester numbers and percentages, previous semester data, rankings compared to others in the state, and posting patterns.
The American River Current had 57 stories over 15 weeks (3.8 average) this spring, below state average and a decrease from previous semesters. At the same time, it increased non-community/non-campus stories to 21.1 percent, its highest since this study began.
Its strong point was with opinion stories. It is second in percentage of campus opinion stories, third in overall percentage of opinion stories, and fifth in actual numbers of campus opinion stories.
Its 47.4k monthly site visitors was second highest in the state.
Thursdays are its busiest day for posting stories with 28.1 percent posted that day. The vast majority of stories are posted in the evenings after 6 p.m.
It could use more campus sports (n. 5) and campus governance (n. 2). Its five multimedia stories accounted for 8.8 percent of its stories; the state average is 13.0 percent.
The Bakersfield Renegade Rip’s 143 stories over 16 weeks were ninth most and its healthy 8.9 stories per week was tied for eighth highest average. The total number represented a significant increase from most previous semesters, second only to Spring 2021, when numbers across the state were crazily high.
It had lots of movie related stories (n.16), music stories (n. 11), and TV stories (n. 8).
Its 21.7 percent opinion stories ranked eighth in the state.
It’s 38.5k monthly visitors were sixth most.
The Butte Roadrunner had 144 stories (eighth) over 24 weeks (most possible weeks) for a 6.0 per week average; it was one of a small handful of publications to continue publishing past June 15.
Two-thirds of its posts (66.0 percent, second highest) were non-campus/non-community stories. It especially seemed to like European sports stories, especially soccer; it was 10th highest in overall sports (31.9 percent), but forty-sixth (4.9 percent) in campus sports.
It tied for fifth most actual posting days with 82, giving it a posting percentage of just under half (48.8 percent) of possible days.
Still a relatively new website in the state, its 7.5k monthly visitors ranks 45th of the 53 online publications. A shift to more local stories could help the publication build a larger audience.
The Cabrillo Voice had 32 stories over 11 weeks, a significant increase from all previous semesters. All stories (100 percent) were campus related.
Most stories are posted on Tuesdays (43.8 percent) in the afternoon (83.9 percent). Its 37.5 percent of sports stories was second most overall and second most devoted to campus sports.
A healthy 9.4 percent of its stories were campus opinion stories (fourth highest), and it had five campus governance stories (16th).
It average 10.0k visitors each month.
The College of the Canyons News, the video story king, saw a significant drop in stories this semester with just 11, compared to 62 last semester and 78 last spring, just three of them with video. It posted stories over just four weeks this semester.
Nearly two-thirds (72.7 percent) were news stories (fourth highest).
Fewer than half (45.5 percent) were campus related, but its 54.6 percent community-focused stories was the highest percentage in the state; this is typical for the publication. Nearly two-thirds (72.7 percent) of stories were posted on weekend afternoons (90.9 percent), though it had just four posting days. Its 14.3 percent posting percentage was tied for 47th in the state.
The site garnered just 2.1k visitors each month (50th).
The Cerritos Talon Marks had 209 stories (fourth most) over 19 weeks. Its 11.0 stories per week average ranked fifth most.
Its 49 multimedia stories, mostly photo galleries, were the fourth most of any publication. Its 34 campus sports stories were fifth most, and its nine campus opinions were fifth most. It had just three campus governance stories, a small percentage of its overall total.
It had the second most actual posting days (n. 86) and its 64.7 percent posting percentage was second highest. Its 50.4k monthly visitors were most in the state
Wednesdays were its busiest posting days (37.3 percent) and it balanced its time-of-day postings among mornings (33.0 percent), afternoons (33.9 percent), and evenings (32.1 percent).
The Chabot Spectator had just six stories this spring, well below its normal output. With just three actual posting days for the semester it qualified for only one “adjusted” week.
Four of the six stories (66.7 percent) were campus news stories, technically third highest percentage in the state. Five of six were news stories –it had no opinion or sports stories.
Its 8.2k visitors each month ranked 44th.
The Chaffey Breeze had 91 stories over 16 weeks for the semester, a 33.3 percent increase from its previous semester high. Two-thirds (67.0 percent) of its stories are non-campus/non-community stories, which ranks it first in that category. Its 5.7 stories each week is above state average.
One third of its stories are sports stories, mostly covering professional sports (MLB, NFL, NBA, racing), seventh most in the state. It also devoted 12 stories (about 12.5 percent) to features and opinions about video games and another 11 to music. It had zero campus governance stories and zero campus opinion stories.
Most stories are posted on Mondays (25.3 percent) and weekends (19.8 percent). The site does not support standard RSS and it is not possible to track time of day for posts. Its 23.0k visitors each month is just above the state average.
The Citrus Clarion had 67 stories over 16 weeks, one in five (20.9 percent) of which covered campus governance, seventh most in the state. It was ninth in percentage devoted to campus news (58.2 percent) and 11th in numbers of multimedia stories (n. 15), perhaps the most interesting being a self-running graphic showing where Citrus students transfer to.
Two-thirds of stories are posted on Wednesdays (38.8 percent) and Mondays (28.4 percent) and three-fourths are posted in the afternoons (46.7 percent) and mornings (35.0 percent).
The site draws an average of 17.8k visitors per month.
The Contra Costa Advocate 43 stories over 15 weeks, a significant increase over previous semesters. Its 15 multimedia stories, mostly galleries, were 11th most in the state.
A third of stories (32.6 percent) were posted on Thursday, followed closely by Friday postings (27.9 percent). The vast majority (58.1 percent) are posted in the afternoons.
It had no campus opinion stories, just one campus governance story, and four campus sports stories.
The site draws 21.2k visitors each month.
The Cosumnes River Connection had 72 stories over 17 weeks, down slightly from most previous semesters. Its 4.2 stories per week were right at about state average. Most of its ranks were near the middle or in the bottom third across the state.
Almost half (77.2 percent) of stories are posted on Wednesdays and just over half (50.9 percent) are posted in the evenings.
The site draws a healthy 24.9k visitors each month.
The Cuesta Cuestonian had 24 stories over just seven weeks, which shows growth for the publication over previous semesters. The publication frequently covers community-based stories and its 37.5 percent community-based coverage ranked third highest in the state.
Stories are typically posted on Tuesday (41.7 percent) afternoons (79.2 percent).
There were no campus opinion stories, indeed it had only one opinion story for the semester. There were no campus governance stories or multimedia stories, though it had several opportunities to run photo galleries.
The site draws 14.3k visitors each month.
The Cypress Chronicle had 73 stories over 15 weeks, consistent with last fall, but well ahead of previous spring semesters. Its 4.9 weekly story average was above the state average, but was near the middle of the pack.
Most stories were posted in the afternoon (52.1 percent), but were spread among Wednesdays (27.4 percent), Thursdays (23.3 percent), and Mondays (20.5 percent).
Campus-based stories dominated (86.3 percent, 12th), and it was strong campus opinion as it ranked 11th both in raw numbers and percentage. It had no campus governance stories.
It was not possible to measure its website traffic.
The DeAnza LaVoz is a high-producing publication and had 162 stories over 23 of the possible 24 weeks, good enough to rank sixth most.
It was strong on campus opinion stories and ranked fifth in the state. It also ranked sixth in campus governance stories with 15, focusing on administration and shared governance committees. Its 38 multimedia stories, half of which were photo galleries, also ranked sixth.
With its long publication window, it posted more days (n. 97) than any other publication. Its 60.2 percent posting pattern was fourth.
And its 41.7k monthly visitor average was fifth best.
The College of the Desert Chaparral posted 31 stories over 12 weeks, which represents a continuing slowdown from previous years when it published two to three times more than that.
It covers a lot of community-based stories and its 52.6 percent focus on them was second highest in the state.
Four out of five stories are published on Wednesday (83.9 percent) afternoons (80.6 percent). It clearly follows a print-mindset with posts, publishing one day a week after an excessive gap; it had nine such gaps, which averaged 11 days.
There were no opinion stories.
The stie draws 10.0k visitors each month.
The Diablo Valley Inquirer had 84 stories over 15 weeks, which showed a significant increase from previous semesters and rose it a near match with the state average of 84.6.
While 60.7 percent of its stories were campus focused, its 14.3 percent devoted to community coverage ranked ninth in the state.
Nearly a third of its stories (31.0 percent) were posted on Wednesdays, and nearly half (47.6 percent) are posted in the afternoon. Its posting pattern was a healthy 42.9 percent and its 5.6 stories per week were above sate average.
The site’s 27.8k monthly visitor average ranked in the top third in the state.
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The East LA Campus News had 95 stories over 19 weeks, which marked a significant decrease from previous semesters.
More than a quarter (27.4 percent, fourth highest) of its stories were opinion stories, but most were movie and television reviews.
The publication clearly follows a print-first, online-last approach as it had one of the lowest posting percentages in the state, often following an excessive gap (n. 8) of 12.9 days. Nearly 6 in 10 of stories were posted mid-week on Wednesdays (28.4 percent) and Thursdays (23.2 percent). More than half (50.5 percent) are posted in the evening.
The site draws 18.9k visitors each month.
The El Camino Union blew all other publications away with 274 posts over 16 weeks, using a late surge of multimedia posts and stories from its magazine to pull ahead. Its 17.1 stories per week also ranked first in the state, about three more stories per week than its closest peer.
While the publication boasts campus coverage with a whopping 85 percent, it opened up with more community coverage –thanks largely to its late interactive map feature stories—and general coverage over previous semesters. The increase in interactive-map features helped boost its multimedia story numbers to 46, fifth most.
It had 45 campus sports stories (second most) and 21 campus governance stories –which focused on student government (n. 7) and its board of trustees (n. 5)—ranked fifth. It tied for third in its number of campus opinion stories (n. 10).
The publication posts frequently each week and its 70.5 percent posting percentage was highest in the state.
Its 42.2k monthly visitor average is fourth highest in the state.
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the Foothill Script, self-declared as dead at the end of the fall semester, bounced back, at least online, for the spring semester and published 45 stories over 15 weeks, by far its strongest semester since entering the study.
It devoted more than a third of its stories (37.8 percent) to non-campus/non-community, seventh highest in the state. And with three campus opinion stories, 6.7 percent of its total, it ranked ninth.
Nearly half of its stories (46.7 percent) were posted on Mondays, mostly in the afternoon (53.3 percent).
The site drew just 6.4k visitors each month.
The Fresno RamPage published 63 stories over 16 weeks, a significant increase from most previous semesters.
It had no campus opinion stories and just one opinion story overall. It had just one multimedia story and just one campus governance story.
More than half of its stories were posted on Wednesdays (52.4 percent) and was one of the few publications that most preferred to post mornings between 6 a.m. and 11:59 a.m. (46.0 percent).
The site drew 31.9k visitors each month, ninth most in the state.
The Fullerton Hornet published 125 stories over 23 weeks, down slightly from fall semester, but well ahead of most other semesters (it had double that during the remote Spring 2021). It tied for 13th most for the semester.
Nearly a third of its content (31.3 percent) was devoted to campus sports (seventh highest) and its 37 campus sports stories were third most in the state. Its 34 multimedia stories, mostly photo galleries (n. 22) were seventh most.
It publishes frequently and had the second most actual publishing days for the semester. Its 58.6 percent posting percentage was seventh highest. As such, it posted fairly evenly throughout the week with weekends leading (28.0 percent). Four in 10 stories (432 percent) were posted in the afternoon.
The site drew 12.6k visitors each month.
The Glendale el Vaquero published 24 stories over 11 weeks, down slightly from previous spring semesters. Nine in 10 stories (91.7 percent) were campus focused, eighth highest in the state, but lower than previous semesters. Two-thirds (66.7 percent) were news stories, again eighth highest. Since most were campus related (62.5 percent) it rated fifth highest in the campus news category.
Tuesdays were its most popular day to publish (37.5 percent). Nearly nine in 10 stories (87.5 percent) were published in the afternoon.
It had just one campus opinion story, its only opinion story, no multimedia and no campus governance stories.
It was not possible to track site visitors through similarweb.com.
The Grossmont Summit published 52 stories over 15 weeks, significantly more than any other semester in the study except spring 2022.
About one in 11 stories (9.0 percent) were campus opinion stories, fifth highest percentage in the state.
The site is unique in its use of label-style headlines.
Postings are spread throughout the week with weekends seeing a quarter of posts (25.0 percent. More than half of posts (53.8 percent) are made in the evening.
The site drew 10.4k visitors each month.
LA City Collegian
Los Angeles City College does not have an online edition.
The LA Valley Star posted 55 stories over 17 weeks, showing a continuing downward trend from previous years when it had double than that or more.
It ranked near the middle of the pack on most categories except multimedia, where it had none.
Most posts on made on Monday (60.0 percent) afternoons (56.4 percent) and the publication had five excessive gaps between posts that averaged 12.3 days.
The site drew 12.3k visitors each month.
The Laney Citizen published 51 stories over 19 weeks, a significant increase from previous semesters. The publication, which serves as a strong watchdog over the college’s board of trustees, almost to exclusion of everything else, opened up this semester and included more stories about other colleges in the district.
More than nine in 10 stories (94.1 percent, sixth highest) focused on campus stories. There were no campus opinion stories (or ANY opinion stories) or campus sports stories, but its 27 campus governance stories, more than half its total, were the second most in the state.
Mondays and Wednesdays (25.5 percent each) are the most frequent posting days and most posts are split between afternoon (49.0 percent) and evenings (39.2 percent).
The site draws 14.2k visitors each month.
The Las Positas Express had 71 stories over 16 weeks, a huge increase from the fall semester, but down a bit from last spring.
The publication is strong in sports coverage and its 36.6 percent devoted to sports is the fourth highest average. Its 25 campus sports stories are ninth most and its 35.2 percent devoted to campus sports is third highest.
There were no campus governance stories.
Almost half (45.1 percent) of stories were posted on weekends and were split between afternoons (35.2 percent) and evenings (33.8 percent).
The site drew an average of 15.3k visitors each month.
The Long Beach Viking is one of the most productive publications in the state and published 210 stories (second most) over 18 weeks. Its 11.7 average stories per week was fourth highest.
The biggest focus is on campus news with 94.8 percent (fifth highest) doing so. It is strong in sports coverage; its 70 campus sports stories were the most of any publication in the state and its 33.3 percent devotion to campus sports was the fourth highest percentage.
The publication also ranks second in the most campus opinion stories (n. 21) and its 10.0 percent devoted to campus opinion is third highest.
It posts frequently and its 53.2 percent posting percentage is 10th highest. Weekends are the most frequent posting days (31.9 percent) and more than half are published in the afternoon (55.7 percent).
The site draws 17.5k visitors each month.
The Los Medanos Experience published 107 stories over 17 weeks for a healthy 6.3 per week average. The total shows a significant decrease from the previous two semesters while still outperforming the 2021 spring semester and the 2021-22 school year.
The publication was high on opinion –its 29.0 percent was second highest in the state— but campus opinion was usually not present.
Tuesdays and weekends (25.2 percent each) were the most popular posting days and three-quarters (76.5 percent) of stories were posted in the afternoon.
The site’s 35.2k visitors each month were the seventh most in the state.
The Moorpark Reporter posted 69 stories over 16 weeks, its most prolific semester since the spring 2021 remote semester.
The publication’s strongest performance was with sports coverage, which featured both campus and professional sports. More than a third of all stories (34.8 percent) were sports stories; campus sports coverage accounted for 29.0 percent, eighth highest percentage in the state. It had only one campus governance story and no multimedia.
Nearly 9 in 10 (87.0 percent) of all stories were campus focused, 11th highest percentage in the state.
Story publication was spread throughout the week, with Thursdays being the most prominent; 23.2 percent were posted on Thursday. Slightly more posts were made in the afternoon (46.4 percent) than morning (42.0 percent).
The site drew 20.8k visitors each month.
The Moreno Valley Herald is a half-semester program and it published 16 stories over seven weeks, down just a hair from each of the previous three semesters, but essentially equivalent.
All of its stories were campus related. Four in 5 (81.3 percent) were campus news stories, the highest percentage in the state. There were no sports stories and no opinion stories.
Half of its stories (50.0 percent) were posted on Friday and three-fourths of stories (75.0 percent) are posted in the afternoon.
The site average 2.9k visitors in the state, one of the lowest draws.
If it is 8 a.m., it is time for Mt. San Antonio’s SacMedia to publish a story, and it does most days of the week. Its 59.3 percent posting pattern, about 4.5 days a week, was sixth highest. Nine in 10 stories (96.1 percent) are posted between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Weekday posts are spread evenly.
The publication posted 141 stories (12th highest) over 14 weeks for an 11th-ranked 7.1 stories average each week. The 141 stories were more than the fall semester, but down significantly from Spring 2023.
It ranked seventh in the use of campus sports stories (n. 28), eighth in use of multimedia (n. 32), and tied for 14th in campus governance stories (n. 6).
The site drew 31.3k visitors each month, tied for 11th most.
The Mt. San Jacinto Student News published 99 stories over 17 weeks, almost double its output from the fall semester and significantly higher than previous semesters. Its story selection was fairly evenly split between campus stories (42.4 percent) and non-campus/non-community stories (44.4 percent, fourth highest percentage).
Four out of five stories (82.8 percent) are posted in the mornings. Tuesdays (23.5 percent) and Wednesdays (26.3 percent) are the busiest posting days. The publication posts frequently, just under half (49.6 percent) the possible days.
The site drew 15.5k visitors each month.
The Orange Coast Report bounced back, at least partially, from a weak fall semester to post 119 stories over 10 weeks, but it was still far below other previous semesters. Its weekly average was a strong 11.9 stories third best in the state.
Previously a strong campus sports publication, it published only 14 such stories this semester, dropping it to the bottom third in the state in sports coverage. It was strong in percentage devoted to campus news, though, and its 58.8 percent tied for seventh most.
Wednesdays were the preferred posting day (27.7 percent). The site does not support standard RSS and it as not possible to track time-of-day posts. But the publication posted frequently, posting 60.0 percent of possible days, which ranked fifth highest.
It had just one campus governance story for the semester.
The site drew 25.5k visitors each month.
The Palomar Telescope published 105 stories over 13 weeks, which represents a significant increase over previous semesters. Its 8.1 stories per week average was 10th best.
It ranked seventh in campus opinion stories (7.6 percent) and tied for ninth with its nine campus opinion stories.
Wednesdays (28.6 percent) and Mondays (27.6 percent) were its preferred posting days and 57.1 percent of stories were posted in the afternoon. It posted frequently and its 63.3 percent posting pattern was third best.
The publication site is buried in the college’s overall domain, and as such, it was not possible to track visitor traffic with the similarweb.com third-party tool, but the site is expected to migrate to School Newspapers Online platform over the summer.
With 269 stories over 18 weeks, the Pasadena Courier was one of the most prolific producers of stories this spring. Only one other publication posted more. And its 14.9 stories per week average was also second most. The output was the most it has recorded since this study began.
But the site also led the state in excessive-post days; it had 16 such days and averaged 14.8 stories when it did. It had only three excessive gaps and they averaged just six days.
More than a third of its stories were non-campus/non-community stories, possibly due to its 38 movie feature/opinion stories. While the site ranked fifth in percentage (26.8 percent) devoted to opinion, there were no campus opinion stories; it had four community-based opinion stories.
It did have 25 campus governance stories (third most) and 35 campus sports stories (fourth most).
The site drew 10.6k visitors each month.
The Pierce Roundup published 183 stories (fifth most) over 17 weeks and had a strong 10.8 stories per week average.
The site ranks highly in a number of categories:
· With 93.4 of its stories focused on campus, it ranked seventh.
· With 23.5 percent devoted to opinion, it ranked seventh
· With 16.9 percent devoted to campus opinion it ranked first; it also ranked first in raw numbers of campus opinion stories (n. 31)
· Its 22 campus governance stories, mostly covering its board of trustees (n. 13), ranked fourth most.
But it was also one of the leaders in excessive-post days with 13, averaging 11.5 per day, suggesting that it still puts print first over the online site; it had seven excessive gaps, which averaged the minimum 6.0 days. Wednesdays, by far, were the most preferred posting days (83.1 percent). And three in five stories (59.0 percent) were posted in the morning, probably as the print edition was being distributed on campus.
The site drew 26.3k visitors each month.
The Rio Hondo el Paisano had just eight stories over six weeks, a huge drop in output from previous semesters. Its publishing window was also much smaller than previous semesters.
It returned to covering non-campus/non-community rates (50.0 percent) after a most campus-focused fall semester when general coverage dropped to just 23.4 percent. The 50.0 percent mark was third highest this semester.
With such small numbers it ranked high in both opinion and sports stories, though none covered the campus.
The site drew 14.8k visitors each month.
The Riverside Viewpoints saw a 50 percent drop in the fall semester from previous semester and another 50 percent drop from that this spring. It published 49 stories over 14 weeks.
Its 32.7 percent campus sports coverage was sixth highest in the state.
A third of posts (32.7 percent) were made on Wednesdays and nearly half (46.9 percent) were in the evenings. There were no multimedia stories and just one campus opinion story.
The site drew 22.1k visitors each month.
The 102-year-old Sacramento Express published 53 stories over 20 weeks, down from the fall semester, but equivalent to previous spring semesters.
More than two-thirds (69.8 percent) were news stories, sixth highest. With 66.0 percent being campus news stories, it ranked fourth highest.
Mondays (26.4 percent) and Fridays (22.6 percent) were the busiest publication days and just over half (50.9 percent) were made in the morning.
The site drew 18.1k visitors each month.
The Saddleback Lariat published 49 stories over 13 weeks, up from last fall, but fewer than previous spring semesters.
After focusing almost exclusively on campus stories in the fall it reverted to its practice of a third of stories (34.7 percent) being non-campus/non-community. It ranked eighth highest in general stories.
Mondays are the busiest post days (34.7 percent), but just over one in five are posted on Tuesdays and another one in five on Wednesdays (20.4 percent each). Posts are most likely in the afternoon (37.0 percent) and evening (32.6 percent).
The site drew 200k visitors each month.
The San Diego City Times published 101 stories over 19 weeks, equivalent to the last few semesters, which in themselves showed growth.
The publication tied for second in the use of multimedia (n. 54), with a strong mix of audio (n. 16), video (n. 25), and photo galleries (n. 13). It was one of the few publications that offered readers a transcript option with video and audio (often the same story). Its 28 campus sports stories tied for seventh most and its 13 campus governance stories were eighth most.
Posts were frequent and its 55.6 percent posting pattern was ninth best. Posts were evenly spread among Wednesday (22.8 percent), Thursday (20.8 percent), and Friday (20.8 percent). Likewise, posts were spread throughout the afternoon (46.5 percent) and evening (40.6 percent).
The site’s 31.3k visitors each month tied for 11th most.
The San Diego Mesa Press published 37 stories over 14 weeks, a significant decrease from previous semesters.
Most of its ranks were in the middle of the pack.
A third of posts (32.4 percent) were on Thursday and nearly half (40.5 percent) were made in the afternoon.
Despite its reduced numbers, the site drew 32.6k visitors, 10th best.
The San Francisco Guardsman published 43 stories over 23 weeks, a significant drop from fall semester and a slight dip for spring semester numbers. Its 1.9 stories per week were among the lowest in the state.
Nearly one in five stories (18.6 percent) were community focused, which was the sixth highest percentage. And two-thirds of all stories (67.4 percent) were news stories, which was seventh highest.
Thursdays were the busiest posting days (39.5 percent) and more than four out of five stories (86.0 percent) were made in the afternoon. The publication had six excessive gaps, averaging 11.8 days.
The site drew 23.2k visitors each month.
The San Joaquin Delta Collegian published 142 stories over 16 weeks, a significant increase from previous semesters. Its healthy 8.9 story-per-week ties for eighth most.
It was 11th in campus news percentage (55.6 percent), 13th in use in multimedia (n. 14), and 13th in campus governance coverage (n. 14).
A third of stories (33.8 percent) were posted on Thursdays and almost half (47.2 percent) were posted in the morning –most of the rest (408 percent) were in the afternoon.
It drew 9.5k visitors each month.
The San Jose City Times was “back from the grave” after being dormant for the fall semester. It published 17 stories over 10 weeks, which was significantly down from previous semesters while being healthy for a resurrected publication.
All 17 stories were campus related; its 100 percent campus ranking obviously tied for first. Its 58.8 percent campus news stories ranked seventh highest.
Three-fourths of its stories were posted on Mondays and two-thirds (64.7 percent) were in the afternoon —all others were in the morning. Its 8.6 percent posting percentage was one of the lowest in the state.
The site drew 14.6k visitors each month.
The Santa Ana el Don published 78 stories over 19 weeks, equivalent to recent semesters. Its 19.2 percent devoted to community coverage was fifth highest in the state.
Its 20 campus sports stories were 12th most and with just three campus opinions tied for 12th.
Well over a third (37.2 percent) of stories were published on Wednesdays and nearly two thirds (65.4 percent) in the afternoon. It had six excessive gaps averaging 9.3 days.
The site drew a respectable 27.2k visitors (16th) each month.
Think Santa Barbara Channels and eventually you’ll be thinking about campus governance coverage. Thirty-two of the Channels’ 147 stories, or about one in five (21.8 percent) cover a variety of shared governance groups on campus, but especially student government. It ranked first in campus governance coverage.
The 147 stories over 16 weeks were the seventh most and the publication’s 9.2 stories per week were also seventh most. The output represented a healthy increase from most previous semesters.
Fridays (36.1 percent) and Mondays (32.0 percent) were the busiest posting days and nine in 10 (91.2 percent) were posted in the afternoon.
It was strong on campus opinion and its 10 campus opinion stories tied for third most. It was ninth in use of multimedia (n. 19), mostly using photo galleries.
Its 46.0k visitors each month are the third most in the state.
The Santa Monica Corsair published 97 stories over 15 weeks, a significant drop from the fall semester, but only slightly fewer than previous spring semesters.
Seven in 10 stories were news stories (70.1 percent, fifth). Its devotion to news stories was almost double from the fall, when sports stories dominated. And its heavy use of photo galleries earned it a tie for second in multimedia use; all but two of its 56 multimedia offerings were photo galleries.
Corsair students often go out into the community for stories and its 23.7 percent community focus was fourth highest. This semester it spent a lot of time covering nearby university protests of the Gaza situation.
Tuesdays (22.7 percent) and weekends (20.6 percent) are the key posting days and two out of five (40.6 percent) are published in the afternoon.
The site draws 31.1k visitors each month.
The Santa Rosa Oak Leaf published 142 stories over 21 weeks, almost double its output from the fall semester and a significant increase from most previous semesters. Its 142 stories tied for 10th most and its 6.8 stories per week were 13th most.
It led all other publications (n. 58) in use of multimedia, using a healthy mix of galleries and audio stories. It ranked sixth in numbers of campus sports stories (n. 30) and tied for 11th in campus governance stories (n. 8).
It posts frequently and its 55.8 percent posting pattern was eighth highest. Tuesdays and weekends are the most frequent posting days (20.4 percent each) and four in 10 stories (42.3 percent) are posted in the evenings.
The site drew a respectable 29.3k visitors each month.
The College of Sequoias Campus continued its climb back from being shut down last spring and published 56 stories over 19 weeks. The 19 weeks is significant because the publication’s earlier self, before reboot, typically published only 15 weeks. The 56 stories were more than double fall’s output, but still significantly fewer than the publication’s glory days.
It focuses mostly on campus stories and its 98.2 percent (it had one community-focused story) was fourth highest and the highest of colleges with 50 or more stories. Many of its stories were sports stories and its 39.3 percent sports stories, all campus related, was the highest percentage, both for overall sports coverage and for campus sports coverage.
More than half of stories (53.6 percent) are posted on Wednesdays and nearly three in four in the afternoon (73.2 percent).
The site drew 9.6k visitors each month.
The Sierra Roundhouse typically publishes only at the end of each semester and this semester had just six stories in one week of publishing. (At least five more were posted after June 15 and into July.)
Four of the six stories (66.7 percent) were posted over a weekend and three of the six were posted in the afternoon.
The site drew 7.2k visitors.
The Skyline View published 46 stories over 15 weeks, nearly double from the fall semester, but only half as many as Spring 2023.
Nearly four in 10 (39.1 percent) were non-campus/non-community stories, fifth highest in the state. It ranked sixth in overall opinion stories with 23.9 percent devoted to opinion.
Four in 10 (41.3 percent) of stories are published over the weekend and nearly two-thirds (63.0 percent) were posted in the afternoon.
The small, but mighty, publication drew 33.0 visitors each month, eighth most in the state.
The Southwestern Sun made its return to online this semester after a two-year online hiatus and published 37 stories over 16 weeks, but is clearly still a print-first, online-afterward publication. It had just four publishing days interspersed with four excessive gaps of a whopping 35.6 days average between posts.
Posts were made in bunches on those four days. Just over half (51.4 percent) were on Thursdays, presumably right after a print edition was released and all of them in the morning.
The publication’s 8.1 percent campus opinion stories ranked sixth highest and its 27.0 percent campus sports ranked 10th. It had no multimedia stories.
The site, which changed URLs in coming back online and must seek out a new audience, drew just 3.1k visitors.
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