New Slide Show Treatment

There is a new design treatment for slideshows.  Users can now navigate through a slideshow without getting the lightbox treatment.

More on this new treatment:

• Visitors may now navigate through slideshows on pages that have multiple posts, such as your “/news” page, a category page or the “River of News” homepage
• If a story with multiple images is featured in the Lead Stories Block, an indicator is automatically included to let visitors know the post includes a slideshow
• Image sizes will be normalized so they can be displayed within a post’s template as visitors click through the slideshow.  Visitors will still have the option to click on any image to see it at full size when they are on a post page.
• For stations using “Look 2” where images are normally justified to the left with text wrapping to the right, slideshow images have been expanded to take advantage of the full width of the post template, and moved above the post text.
• Visual navigation elements indicate how many images are included in the slideshow, and arrows allow users to flip forward and backwards.

Any posts previously entered containing multiple images will automatically display the new slideshow treatment.  There is no change to how images are uploaded or managed to take advantage of this new feature.

Analytics

We’ve completed development work to enable an A/B test that will allow us to compare the effectiveness of the River of News to the Modular Homepage. We will be randomly serving up one of two versions of the homepage to visitors of our test station. We will be looking for differences in things like bounce rate, average number of clicks on news stories, number of stories consumed, and the like depending on which version of the homepage is viewed.

Results of the A/B test will be shared first in a future webinar for stations signed up for the NPR Digital Services Analytics Service.  If you’re not already in this group, you should be!  It’s included as part of your regular Digital Services fee and provides insight into your site’s traffic, trends across Core Publisher sites, and insights from experiments conducted by our analytics team like the A/B test mentioned above.  Contact analytics@ds.npr.org for more information.

Mobile Theme Updates

As we gear up to conduct a limited Alpha test of our new Mobile Theme for a small number of stations, we’ve made some additional updates to the Core Publisher mobile template, including:

• We’re now detecting mobile users by “viewport” (size of a browser window) rather than “user agent” (type of device) as a more accurate way to capture every mobile user regardless of their preferred device.
• If there aren’t any related stories assigned to a post, additional links to “more stories” will automatically surface at the bottom of a post viewed in the mobile theme.  Stories will be pulled into this space in chronological order.
• We’ve added the ability to pull in a mobile ad unit through Doubleclick for Publishers (DFP).
• We removed all the hard-coding left over from the initial test site to enable scaling the theme to additional stations.

We’ve set up test stations on mobile web.  The first, Tri States Public Radio, launched their mobile site Thursday afternoon. To see it, visit http://tristatesradio.com from a mobile device.

No additional work will be scheduled on mobile until we have a chance to gather feedback and data from our test sites.

Save the Date

The next Sprint Review Webinar will be on Wednesday, May 23rd.  We typically send invites with connection information the morning of the review.  Please use this form to let us know if you want to be added to that list: http://info.ds.npr.org//support.html

Embedly

Work has begun to incorporate Embedly functionality within Core Publisher as part of plan to create a new post format we’ve codenamed, “Quick Link.”  When complete, you will be able to feature links to content outside of your site in a way similar to how Facebook can feature an image and description when a URL is shared on a status update.

Stay tuned!  More details coming in future sprints.

Sticky Strip “Ongoing Coverage” Label Now Editable

You may now customize the “Ongoing Coverage” label that appears in front of the links added to your sticky strip.  Now, when you click on “Manage Queues” and enter your “Sticky Strip” queue, you’ll see a text box labeled, “block header” that is editable.  The label is limited to 19 characters.

Alpha Mobile Site

If you attended IMA, you may have seen our prototype of a mobile Core Publisher site created earlier this year.  We are now rolling out an Alpha mobile site with our test station, WBFO.  The focus of our Alpha site is to test the hypothesis that mobile users will want to listen to a station’s live stream on the go, and be more likely to enter the site “sideways,” meaning the first page on your site they visit is more likely to be a post page, perhaps from following links shared with them via email, Twitter, or Facebook.  Thus, mobile development to date has focused on optimizing live streams, posts, and the segmented audio attached to posts for mobile consumption.

Our Alpha site includes the following features:

• Automatically identifies when someone hits the site using a mobile browser, and re-directs them to the mobile view.
• Lists the latest stories posted to the site
• A footer consisting of links to a feedback form and the full view of the site.
• Links to listen to all live streams
• Tracking code for on-screen events so we can monitor what’s being clicked on by mobile users

Mobile – Next Steps

After launching the WBFO Alpha site later this week, we’ll be working to identify a small group of stations to expand the Alpha test with.  To be a good candidate a station must be on Core Publisher, regularly publish several local stories per day, and host their live streams with NPR Digital Services.  Testing with a small group will help us gather data to confirm our hypotheses around how users will interact with station content from a mobile device, and help us optimize the mobile experience to better support scaling up to support a larger number of stations.

We will gather data with the Alpha test group for 3-4 Sprints, and expand to a larger Pilot group late this Spring.

Fixes

We’ve launched fixes to the following problems:

• When editing a post in which you’ve entered a name in the plain text byline field, the system no longer automatically adds your name as well
• You may now enter a credit and agency to the primary images on People and Topic pages
• Playlist search now returns a greater number of results
• You can now put absolute (e.g., http://www.kplu.org/term/environment), relative (/term/environment), and podcast URLs (itpc://www.michiganradio.org/podcasts/6980/rss.xml) in the Flexi Footer.

Analytics

We’ve added additional tracking to the “Now Playing” block and added additional tracking on the Modular Homepage to the Category Blocks.

What’s Next for Core Publisher?
Currently we’re prioritizing work in the next several sprints to focus on enhancements in these key areas:

• Improving the Image Library functionality within the Media Manager
• Enabling asset placement, including the ability to place photos and other assets, like pull quotes in the body of a post
• Supporting content verticals in Core Publisher to enable sub-sites devoted to niche coverage (similar to Argo blogs)
• Improving and streamlining the administrative interface
• Rolling mobile sites out to all Core Publisher stations

Remember, we conduct sprint review webinars every other Wednesday to go over work completed during the previous two weeks before it is pushed live to the Core Publisher system that evening. Sprint Reviews are a great venue for asking questions and giving feedback directly to our development team.  The next Sprint Review will be on Wednesday, May 9th.  We typically send invites with connection information the morning of the review.  Please use this form to let us know if you want to be added to that list: http://info.ds.npr.org//support.html

NPR Stories – Custom Content Retrieval and Categorization

In response to stations asking for the ability to query the API to pull NPR content by category to provide more flexibility in the selection of content displayed on the homepage, we’ve added a new mechanism for retrieving content from the NPR API.

You can now set up a list of NPR content categories to have any related stories automatically flowing into your site, and map to existing or new categories in your system.

For example, you can now set up a stream to pull down any stories NPR has categorized as “Classical” to automatically flow into your Core Publisher “Music” category.

This new feature is managed through a “TableQueue” in Core Publisher identifying the specific NPR category you want and which content category you want it to appear.

To activate custom content retrieval on your site you will need to contact Station Relations by filling out the form here, http://info.ds.npr.org//support.html, to request the set up and training. We will set up time to talk to you about the new feature and show you how to retrieve the appropriate category IDs.  Be prepared to discuss what type of additional NPR content you would like to be able to feature on your site.

Customizable Footer

In response to the many requests to makes changes to footers, we have enabled an option to manage footers at the station level. You can activate a customizable “TableQueue” that will give you direct control over the links in the first three columns of your footer. The links to events coming in from your Public Events calendar, logos at the very top of your footer, and links across the bottom of your footer will continue to be managed separately.

Your footer TableQueue will need to be populated with your existing links before being fully activated on your site.  Contact Station Relation by filling out the form here, http://info.ds.npr.org//support.html to request set up.  Non-standard customizations such as logos or icons in the first three columns of the footer cannot be accommodated in the new TableQueue.

Adding Stories Retrieved from the API to the Local Stories Block

Many stations have requested a way to indicate that a story they retrieved from the NPR API is actually “local” to their station so that it will appear in the Local Stories block on the Modular Homepage rather than the NPR Stories block.

When you retrieve a story from the NPR API, you can go into the edit view and check the “local” box in the new “News Region” section.  This will flag to Core Publisher to surface the story in your “Local News” block instead of the “Latest from NPR” block on the Modular Homepage.

Custom Logos, Titles & Descriptions for Category and Program Podcasts

You may now define custom titles, descriptions and upload a custom image to accompany podcast feeds related to program or category pages. This customization will appear in iTunes.

Program podcasts can be customized in the edit view of the appropriate program page. Category podcasts can be customized in the edit view of the appropriate category via the “Manage Categories” link in your admin toolbar.

Music Live Events Promotion

If you are featuring Music Live Events within your Core Publisher site, we are now capturing a primary image and description when you connect to an event. This allows you to promote and share events in the following places:

• Skyboxes
• Related Content on Posts
• Lead Stories Block
• Feature Content Rotator
• Facebook Sharing

Please note: Not all Music Live Events have a primary image.

If you’re not already using Music Live Events and would like to, you may contact Station Relations to have the feature activated by filling out the form here, http://info.ds.npr.org//support.html.

You can see an example of Music Live Events on KUNC’s Core Publisher site at:  http://kunc.org/live-event/tiny-desk-concerts

Tag Management

We have enhanced tag management within Core Publisher to allow you to merge multiple tags in your site.  For example, if you have some posts tagged under “obama” and other posts tagged under “Obama” you can now merge all those stories into a single tag.

To access the new feature, click on “Manage Tags” in you admin toolbar, then click on the “Merge” tab at the top of your tags list. You can use the search box to filter the list of tags, and check the box to the left of all the tags you wish to merge into one.  Clicking on the tag’s name will provide a list of all the posts tagged with that tag.  After clicking the “merge” button you will be provided with the option to choose the tag you want all the tags to merge into, or add a new term to be used in place of all the tags selected.

TV/Radio Block

We’ve resolved some bugs in the functionality of the TV/Radio Schedule Block for use on the Modular Homepage. It may now be used in the center column or the right rail of your site.

Analytics

We have a few projects in the works related to Core Publisher Analytics:

1. We are now tracking information on traffic within the Core Publisher admin pages to help us understand station editors are using the admin pages. This information will help us make improvements to the admin interface.

2. We’ve added a variable that allows us to identify local content versus stories pulled down from the NPR API when tracking analytics within Core Publisher, and can now access the following information on stories from within Google Analytics:

• Tags – any tags associated with the story
• Author – from the byline
• Org ID – for local stories this will be 0, for API stories it will be the org ID from the API.  This can be used to identify stories from NPR, AP or other stations

Right now this added level of detail is only available in our roll-up account tracking analytics across all Core Publisher sites, and we are working on getting this information into stations’ Google Analytics accounts as well.

Enhanced Feature: TV/Radio Block Available For Joint Licensees

The TV/Radio Schedule block has been white-listed, meaning enabled, for stations using the modular homepage. Stations now have the ability to move it in and out of the bullpen. We will continue to refine the block, and you may now preview it using your Homepage Layout Manager.

More Analytics Testing Underway: What works better for online pledge?

We completed the build out and testing of a framework that will enable us to randomly assign visitors to a few funnel scenarios to execute the test. We are testing whether a landing page that comes after a support button positively or negatively affects the conversion rate of web visitors entering the pledge flow.  We will also be testing the value of updating the images and language on the landing page to reflect the pitches being made on air. Once complete we’ll share our findings with the system.

Future ramifications for Core Publisher:

As part of the prep for the pledge experiment, we have built a pledge page template within Core Publisher that lists all the ways a visitor may give for our test station.  This test will help us explore the possibilities of page templates for station business needs around membership and marketing.

Analytics Update: Subdomain and Crossdomain Tracking

We have updated our cross-domain and subdomain Google Analytics so that you will be able to see a visitor moving from one of your subdomains (or domains) to another as a single visitor rather than one visitor to one domain and another visitor to another domain. If you have several subdomains within your site (for example, www.wxyz.org AND news.wxyz.org), you may see a slight change in your numbers.

As a result you may see your total number of site visitors go down slightly, and the new number should be a more accurate representation of unique visitors to your site.  If you fall into this category, you could see your bounce rate drop as a visitor moving from one subdomain to another will be recognized as staying on your site. You will also have better visibility into how users are moving through your web presence as a whole.

Media Manager: Improved Search Capabilities

The Media Manager now has search and browse capabilities to allow you to search the attributes (title, caption, credit,etc.) of the images you have previously uploaded to Core Publisher.  Please contact Station Relations by filling out the form here, http://info.ds.npr.org//support.html, to have this feature activated.

The Media Manager is still an evolving product with lots more features coming soon.

Bug Fixes

During the last sprint we uncovered 11 bugs and squashed 8 of them.  The following issues are now resolved:

• Podcasts are no longer breaking due to bogus characters appearing in titles.
• Story bylines are now being ingested properly into the API.
•  The “Block From List” link on the Most Active Stories block now works.
• HTML Entities (strange code like, “&”) are no longer appearing in the Announcement Block on the Modular Homepage.
• Images are no longer being incorrectly cropped in the Announcement Block on the Modular Homepage.
• We’ve removed the term, “TV” or “Radio” from program pages.

Now Available: Ability to Featuring Multiple Programs in Program Promo Block

We’ve heard from stations that one program promotion on the homepage can be too limiting to station content priorities, so we’ve added the ability for you to build a list (or “TableQueue”) of programs to feature in the Program Promo Block. For stations using the modular homepage, there is a new Program Promo block that can feature multiple programs.

Additional Details:

• The new block can only be used within the Modular Homepage. Note that all users will see a “Program Promo” option in their “Manage Queues” list.
• There is no limit on the number of programs you can add in the queue. We recommend no more than 2-3.
• Users will be able to click to additional programs being featured within the block, the module will not automatically rotate programs.
• The block’s key functionality remains the same:  When entering a new program in the block, the title will auto-fill based on the programs set up in your Core Publisher site.
• The image and description from your program page will fill in as the default, and you may choose to provide a different image or description for use within the block.You can also choose to or not to feature the latest headlines from that program.
• The program listed at the top of your Program Promo TableQueue will be the program featured when your homepage loads.

If you’re already using the previous program promo block on your homepage, please replace your promo block with this new version. You will need to remove it using the Homepage Layout Manager, and place the new “TableQueue: Program Promo” block and publish the layout. We ask that you please make this change within the next two weeks.

Now Available: Radio & TV Schedules Block

We’ve heard from many joint-licensees the need to present TV Schedule information on the homepage on an equal footing to Radio Schedules.  We created a new “Now Playing” block available for the Modular Homepage featuring both TV and Radio schedules. The schedule information for both TV and Radio is pulled from the PBS API and your Composer account. If you are currently on Companion for your homepage and would like to update to Modular Homepage, please contact your Station Relations representative.

Additional details:

• The new block needs to be activated by Station Relations, and can only be used with the Modular Homepage.  Contact your Station Relations Manager to have it turned on.
• The block has been designed for the center column.

Now Available: Station Stream File Hosting

An improvement was made to the way our system is linking to the live streams for stations using a streaming host other than NPR Digital Services.  We now have a method to host the streaming playlist file (typically an .m3u or .pls file) that tells a user’s media player where to locate your live stream and any pre-roll files, which will help streamline the site configuration process when moving onto Core Publisher. There is no changes or impact to stations that host live streaming with NPR Digital Services.

System Update: Error Logging Updates

Updates were made to the way Core Publisher logs errors to reduce the load on our database, and make it easier for our developers to debug problems.

Minor Updates and Bug Fixes

• An extra space appearing at the top of the homepage between the page navigation and main content has been removed
• The Modular Homepage preview window now contains scroll bars in Firefox
• We’ve resolved the ad blocks appearing in the wrong order when viewed in the Modular Homepage Layout Manager
• Permission have been added to the install profile of the live events module.
• Posts will now update automatically when edits have been made to the original story from the NPR API

Analytics Testing Underway: What works better for online pledge?

DS worked with Michigan Radio last fall to conduct some tests on how the placement and size of pledge messaging converts traffic to a station’s pledge page. We are advancing this test to look at visitor navigation paths. We’ve done some work to enable a new test that focuses on how the visitor’s navigation path to a pledge form affects the conversion rate.

We have completed the testing framework that enables us to randomly assign visitors one of multiple funnel scenarios to get to a pledge page.  For example, we can assign some visitors to have the primary pledge link go directly to a giving form and others to a landing page that outlines various methods of giving. Stay tuned!.  We’ve identified a station to run a conversion test with over the Spring pledge drive, and will be sharing results when complete.

A summary of the the Michigan Radio Pledge Test is archived on nprstations.org as part of the Introduction to the NPR DS Analytics Service Webinar:

https://www.nprstations.org/nprstationsorg/digitalini/publicinte/analytics.cfm

NPR Live Blog Election Block

A new block for your homepage featuring headlines from NPR Two-Way blogger, Mark Memmott, as he live blogs election nights for NPR.  The first opportunity to use this block will come next Tuesday (March 6th) as Mark live-blogs coverage of the Super-Tuesday primaries in 10 states.

Everyone has access to this new block via a short-cut in your admin toolbar where you can manually turn it on and off.

Key things to keep in mind:

The content is only updated while Mark Memmott is live blogging between approximately 6:00pm and 12:00am on key election nights.  We suggest turning the block on at the end of the business day on election days and then turning it off at the start of business the next morning by clicking on the “NPR Elections Blog” link in your admin toolbar and selecting “on” or “off.”

Media Manager

You can now re-use images uploaded to your site through our new media manager.  When adding an image, click “Select Media” to select from an image already in the system.  You can also click on “Add another item” to upload a new image.

For the next two weeks the caption you enter will stay with the image wherever you use it.  During the next sprint we’ll update the functionality so you can have different captions in different places. Credit and agency information will always stay the same.

This is just the beginning for our new Media Manager, there are many, many related features coming soon!

RSS on Program Pages

There is now a way to pull headlines into program pages for programs that do not have content flowing in from the NPR API. For non-NPR programs, you may add the URL for an RSS feed to populate headlines onto a related Core Publisher program page.  Unlike posts coming from the API, these headlines will link off your site to the original content provider, and allow you to have additional program content options.

Please contact your Station Relations Manager or email cphelp@ds.npr.org if you want to activate this feature.

Plain Text Bylines

We’ve been hearing many requests for the ability to add bylines for authors that do not have people pages set up in Core Publisher.  There is now a second byline field that allows you to enter text to attribute content to an author instead of connecting to an existing people page.

That’s all for now! “See” you again in two weeks.

Erin

What a week for us here at Digital Services. We launched our 50th station and our first site using our new Layout Engine tool.

Consider WKAR the cherry on top of our Core Publisher sundae, as they are our newest Core Publisher station site!

WKAR provides news and music for the Michigan area. You can visit them at Michigan State University, or at http://wkar.org.

WSIU is our newest Core Publisher station. This is a pretty special site launch, because WSIU is the first station to go live using our new Layout Engine. You’ll notice that we’ve added some new blocks and tools to the homepage to help stations serve their listeners and web visitors better.

You can see WSIU’s treatment of the Layout Engine at http://news.wsiu.org. We’d love to hear your feedback!

This is a big week for us, because we are celebrating the launch of our fiftieth site. WESM is our Golden station!

WESM is based on the campus of University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. Providing “Jazz, blues and so much more”, they can be found at http://wesm913.org.

Core Publisher – the family that grows and learns together, is awesome together!

WWNO, based at the University of New Orleans, recently launched their new Core Publisher site at http://wwno.org.

Welcome to the Core Publisher family, WWNO!