So, Where Are You, Already?

For all you newspapers out there with online versions (that's pretty much all of them these days, right?), here's a tip you may not have considered:

Tell people your city, state and country. Put it right up there in your masthead, the one that appears on the top of every page of your site.

Why? Because it's not just your local audience reading your stories any more. A lot of people all over the world find their way to your little ol' newspaper's site, via news aggregation sites, alerts or searches on keywords in your stories. They may be curious as to where these stories took place, and it's not always evident from the content.

Simply "The Times" or even something like "The Valley Times" doesn't give readers any more clues to your whereabouts. What valley? Where? Sure, the locals know all your nicknames for the area, but somebody in Timbuktu won't. Even including the name of your city only narrows it down a little, as very few cities have unique names that aren't shared by at least one other burg somewhere in the world.

So do your readers, and your town, a favor, and tell people where you are. Your local Chamber of Commerce will thank you for it!