Virginia Press Women

Are You Ready for Prigital?

We’re working in a prigital age. Did you know that?

Although I was familiar with the concept, I had not heard the word until last weekend’s Virginia Press Women conference. Danny Finnegan, editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, spoke about how communications – newspapers in particular – are prigital because they are half print and half digital. It’s all about incorporating digital services into the content offerings to increase the ROI.

At my job we’re hard at work on the annual report, which is definitely prigital. We’ll print a few hundred copies, but otherwise a supporter can check out the interactive annual report on our website. Or they can download the app. Yep, an app for our annual report.

It’s all about information sharing and providing the content in the format that users want to receive it. Plus, with the interactive devices a supporter can make a donation at that moment from whatever device they are using to read the report.

When working in the prigital space, it’s critical to maximize key words and phrases to drive search. This is known as search engine optimization or SEO. It’s one of the reasons you don’t see as many creative headlines because now the headline must include key words.

Website design plays a role, too. If the content is refreshed often, Google will crawl the site more, which could lead to more visitors, who not only read the content, but also download offers and view ads.

While content remains king as it drives users to a site or app, it must do so with the intention of increasing ROI.

Welcome to a new age!

A Perfect Storm

Lucinda Roy, author of No Right to Remain Silent: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech, believes that education is heading to a perfect storm. Although she said she was warned not to write the book, she did so because “I believe we have to speak openly if we are to prevent these tragedies.”

Roy shared her comments during Virginia Press Women’s fall conference when she was honored as its Newsmaker of the Year.

Roy lists 10 reasons why education is heading to a perfect storm —

1) Shortage of teachers

2) Lack of mental treament facilities for students

3) Accessibility to gun and bomb making information on the Internet

4) Mental illness and suicidal tendencies in students

5) Non-teacherly focus of presidents, deans, who have not taught

6) Pop culture exposure to excessive violence

7) Growing divide that separates youth culture and adult culture

8) Prevalence of bullying in K-12

9) Rise in alcohol, drug abuse

10) Open campuses with littel security

She wrote the book because “We have to speak out,” she said. “We can’t let it happen again.”

VPW’s Newsmaker: Lucinda Roy

Virginia Press Women honored Lucinda Roy as its Newsmaker of the Year during its fall conference. Roy, author of No Right to Remain Silent: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech and herself an alumni distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, said she liked to think of herself as “a cross between Mary Poppins and Tina Turner.”

She moved into creative non-fiction because of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, which she said was not an anomaly. “There are many other disturbed people like him,” Roy said.

Writing the book was difficult. She spoke out before the tragedy and in the aftermath. The result is that some people are angry at her and won’t talk to her. “We have to speak out,” Roy said matter of factly when she accepted the award. “We can’t let it happen again.”

She shared how she contacted everyone from police to counselors to the office of student affairs. “I was worried that the information would remain in a pocket so I contacted everyone,” she said. She believes they tried their best but that they were constrained by policy – that of student privacy.

Roy wrote the book because she believes the tragedy at Virginia Tech could happen again.

Next time: Roy believes education is heading to a perfect storm. Why?