News and blog — GroundSource

Mapping the Gig Economy with Texting

How the Poughkeepsie Journal used texting to understand the changing gig economy in the Hudson Valley.

Detroit News Station Uses Texting to Build Loyalty

Using text messages to find out what brings Detroiter’s together.

Case Studies, Place-based, Community, TVAndrew HaegApril 11, 2019

Seattle Times + GroundSource = 6 Million Views

How the Seattle Times used text messaging as part of a multi-platform strategy to increase subscribers.

Community, Case Studies, Guides, Newspaper, Place-basedAndrew HaegMarch 20, 2019

15 Ways to Use GroundSource Texting

Just because newsrooms go to GroundSource to help them engage their most valued communities doesn’t mean we know everything about engagement. In fact, it’s often our customers and peers leading us – not the other way around.

This list of 15 ways to use GroundSource (and counting) is made up of project templates we’ve seen pioneered by our customers and partners.

Case Studies, Guides, Collaboration, Digital, Newspaper, Place-based, Podcast, Public radio, TVSimon GalperinMarch 5, 2019Blog

A three-week politics textletter to inform voters, from Lenfest Local Lab

Newspaper, Place-based, Case Studies, CommunitySimon GalperinFebruary 14, 2019

How Chalkbeat connected with people it didn’t know to listen to the unheard narrative

Partnering with Outlier Media and Bridge Magazine, Chalkbeat used GroundSource to reach beyond their networks and ask 32,000 Detroit residents to help them investigate school choice. 1,000 residents responded and 100 were surveyed. The collaboration’s reporting led to gubernatorial candidates pledging to take a closer look at the challenges facing school-age children in Detroit.

Digital, Collaboration, Place-based, Case StudiesSimon GalperinFebruary 13, 2019Blog

Boosting voter turnout one text at a time

Public radio station KPCC decided to tackle the problem of voter disengagement head-on with a multi-platform approach that incorporated in-person events, radio segments, and direct interaction with its audience via GroundSource. For the 2018 midterm election, the station fielded 307 questions via their GroundSource-supported Human Voter Guide and responded to 275.

Public radio, Place-based, Case StudiesSimon GalperinNovember 6, 2018Blog

Getting kraken with GroundSource: How time-crunched news outlets reached their communities through texting

Many newsrooms talk about engagement, about connecting with communities they aren’t reaching, or deepening existing connections. Too often though they get stuck, and time is typically the named culprit (although time is just another way of saying priorities). They know what they’re doing isn’t reaching everyone, or forging deeper connections, but we just don’t have time to do more.

Two very different news outlets tackled the time problem head-on, each creating an engagement experiment limited to a single week.

Digital, Place-based, Case Studies, Podcast, Public radioSimon GalperinJuly 31, 2018Blog

$An info needs assessment at a fraction of the cost using SMS, from Nieman Lab$

An info needs assessment at a fraction of the cost using SMS, from Nieman Lab

Community, Case StudiesSimon GalperinJuly 15, 2018

How GroundSource powers Reveal’s podcast

The long awaited release of Apple’s Podcast Analytics in 2017 was a gift to podcasters who want to read tea leaves to anticipate their audience’s needs. Like many developments on content distribution platforms, it promotes advertising to large audiences, not deeper connections.

You need to build community to make those connections. Reveal’s podcast from the Center for Investigative Reporting is using GroundSource to do just that.

Case Studies, PodcastSimon GalperinJanuary 17, 2018Blog