How the ACBJ papers are showcasing personal brand journalism

James Breiner writes for MediaShift about how the redesign of American City Business Journals newspapers is leading the weekly business newspapers to develop the brands of their reporters.

Breiner writes, “The Portland Business Journal’s coverage of Nike’s headquarters expansion offers an example of how the new strategy is supposed to work, Garcia says on his blog.

“Rumors were circulating last August that Nike was being wooed to leave Oregon, which would have had negative economic impact on the state. The reporter covering Nike decided to look into the company’s real estate holdings. Over several days of web reports, he revealed that Nike’s recent purchases indicated it likely planned to stay in Oregon.

“The reporter, Matthew Kish, also described his reporting process — ‘how I got the story’ — in a transparent way that was traditionally avoided in print but is part of the web’s interactive relationship with the audience.

“For Portland’s print edition, the web reports were combined with maps and aerial photos in a multi-page package titled ‘Swooshville’ (playing on Nike’s Swoosh logo) ‘in the ultimate lean-back experience with a centerpiece story telling readers about the campus expansion, why it matters to Oregon and what could be next for Nike.’

“ACBJ’s chief content officer, Emory Thomas, calls this ‘spinning the news forward’ from the web into the print edition. Despite being bombarded with information on the web, readers actually want more information, in more places, more often about topics they really care about, Thomas said.”

Read more here.