When work was fun.
For years, CBSSacramento.com was my baby. I developed the design and content from the early days and grew it and its associated social media platforms by millions of users and followers. Filled with thousands of articles, images, video stories, and more, the website was digital home of CBS’s TV station in Sacramento.
When it was in its infancy, the site was a my playground, a way for me to shape, design and present the content in a way that delighted readers and highlighted the high-quality storytelling of CBS13. These days, however, the site is fully widgetized by CBSNews.com, and decisions on look and feel are largely determined by higher-up editors, with very little opportunity locally to create special sections and features.
My goal with this project was differentiate CBS13.com from the competition, increase viewership, connect viewers with our social media platforms, and find and attract visitors. The challenges were to pack the site with original news content but present it in a way that didn’t overwhelm or intimidate visitors.
My Role: As digital content director, I was responsible for the overall operation of the website. While my producers generated most of the content, I was still a strong individual contributor, generating most of the UX copy and design elements, used the best images, and powerful techniques to portray the news in on this living, breathing site.
In this role, I worked primarily with on-air talent who generated a large portion of the content. I also worked directly with sales teams on contests and other revenue initiatives. I also worked with graphic designers who created graphics — specially requested, and reformatted from on-air — for the site.
My Impact: When I started working at CBS13.com, the site was a static page that didn’t offer much local content.
“Produce up the homepage.” – Former CBS13 news director Steve Charlier
The main direction I was given was to make world-class content and highlight it on CBS13.com’s homepage. We had some of the best-known and respected reporters and anchors in Northern California who were also excellent writers, so our anchors in particular were tasked with blogging. One strategy I used was focusing on the strength of our on-air personalities.
Another strategy I used was creating small but effective news elements like the budget impasse daily total. I also drew visitors in with a poll of the day.
