Digital Publication Guidelines for the Goldsboro News-Argus

Assignment 1: You have been appointed the public editor or ombudsman for a news organization online. It’s your job to draft a policy covering changes to articles published online, including corrections and clarifications. How will these be handled? What will be communicated to site visitors? 

Note: For the purpose of this assignment, I am acting as public editor of The Goldsboro News-Argus online.

The Goldsboro News-Argus Corrections Policy

The News-Argus is primarily focused on providing our readers with accurate and fair reports of news and information. While we work hard to get it right the first time, we realize that errors, inaccuracies and omissions will occur from time to time.

• The News-Argus corrects all errors of substance and clarifies information in news stories that was misleading or unbalanced. In our printed edition, corrections or clarifications typically appear on the front page of the section in which the error appeared. They will always appear in the online version of the content. 
• Misreported facts, misspellings, omissions and any other clarifications or errors will be included within the article. The context of the correction will be provided along with the correction. 
• Errors reported within headlines, captions, photo text and other supportive details will be corrected promptly and with a parenthetical account of the original text. 
• In addition to the corrections made directly to articles, headlines, captions, etc., a full list of all corrections and clarifications with original and revised dates can be found under Corrections tab in the global navigation of www.news-argus.com. This page makes it easy for readers to find revised information. Corrections will be archived here for 30 days. 
• If you believe a correction or clarification is needed for an item published by the Goldsboro New-Argus, please email the public editor at corrections@newsargus.com. 

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Assignment 2: As an adjunct to No. 1, draft a policy covering how crowdsourced content should be attributed.

Community Guidelines for newsargus.com

The News-Argus relies heavily upon the general public’s contribution and participation in gathering and dissemination of emerging local news stories. We encourage you to submit stories, topics, breaking news information and other suggestions to us through the tab titled Reader Reports located on our Home page. We ask the following guidelines be followed when submitting information to News-Argus’ Reader Reports site:

• Those submitting photos, videos, news and other information to www.newsargus.com are required to provide their name, phone number and email address when making these contributions. Contributors will receive a byline on their reports, but in order to protect their privacy we will not list email addresses or phone numbers. 
• News-Argus staff will research and fact-check names and other essential information accompanying submitted stories and any errors, clarifications or omissions will be corrected and noted as updates. 
• Reader reports that we publish will include a comment section to facilitate feedback and interaction with our readers. Our staff will monitor this content and we reserve the right to edit or remove content, as deemed necessary. 
• Reader journalists agree not to upload or post any content that violates or infringes in any way upon the rights of others, including any statements which may defame, harass, stalk or threaten others. 
• Stories, articles and information contributed and published by reader journalists should be cited appropriately when being referenced or disseminated by visitors of the news site. The reader journalist’s name should be cited as the author and a link to the original story on www.newsargus.com should be included with the reference. 

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Assignment 3: You did such a great job as public editor, your news organization has named you chief digital officer. It’s now up to you to hire a vice president of social media. Write the job description.

VP, Social Media Job Description

The Goldsboro News-Argus seeks a Vice President of Social Media to lead our digital team and strategy. Reporting to the Publisher of the News-Argus, the VP of Social Media will be responsible for:

• Responsible for overseeing all aspects of social media services. 
• Oversee development of strategic online strategies, social media analytics/insights, campaign plans and reporting to meet business objectives, achieve desired KPIs and executed within budget and desired timeline. 
• Experience in managing projects, in-house team and 3rd party/vendors in developing sites, apps and content relevant for social media and websites. 
• Manage, mentor and develop social media team and other digital staff. 
• Oversee the maintenance of internal database, documentation, reporting, templates and presentations. 
• Track competitive intelligence, deliver competitive analysis and identify trends.
• Maintain team knowledge of key social media, relevant tools, best practices and emerging trends, including: 
• Online PR/Blogger activations and campaigns 
• Key Platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest etc.) 
• Social Media Management tools (Vitrue, Buddy Media, etc.) 
• Social media monitoring, analytics and measurement tools (Visible Technologies, Radian6, Sysomos etc.) 

The ideal candidate will have the following skills and experience: 

• 10 years of total work experience with a majority of such experience at an integrated marketing, PR, digital or social media agency with proven track record of leading clients
• Prior experience in traditional advertising is also helpful. 
• 5-7 years of experience managing or executing brand strategies and campaigns in social media 
• Excellent written and oral communications skills 
• Dynamic, strategic and culturally aware with the vision to lead the News-Argus into the future of journalism