Over the course of the semester I’ve become more impressed with STAT News. The more I’ve learned about online journalism, the more I’ve seen that STAT seeks to mold itself to fit in with the world of digital news. With a clean, professional interface and well-organized, diverse content, it lends itself well to the internet. The STAT team isn’t afraid to try new things, maximizing their digital presence by using various forms of multimedia journalism. That being said, there’s always room for improvement.
Social Media
In terms of social media, STAT could be more creative. For example, STAT’s Twitter feed and Facebook page don’t always reflect the diversity of media and content on the site. STAT’s Twitter is merely a block of STAT articles; it doesn’t engage readers or re-tweet anyone/other accounts. It resembles an RSS feed more than a Twitter feed. I’d recommend at least re-tweeting STAT contributors and tagging guest writers, asking them to take part in discussions STAT wants to create.
Engagement
Off the website, STAT needs to do more to engage readers. But on the site, I think they do a pretty good job. With different newsletters to subscribe to, readers can personalize their experience. And these newsletters, Morning Rounds for example, put a personal touch on the day’s news by directly addressing recipients with a friendly tone.
Through “STAT Madness”, STAT recruited readers to vote on which research initiative was the most impressive to them in the style of March-Madness brackets. This annual digital event is a creative way to get readers more involved in the site.
Content
While STAT uses different media to tell stories, it doesn’t look like there’s much consistency with frequency of multimedia stories. The exception, currently, is STAT’s new podcast, “The Readout Loud,” which comes out with a new episode each week. The other pages dedicated to multimedia storytelling on STAT either haven’t been updated in a while or aren’t updated regularly.
There could also be more diversity in “front page” stories. Largely, these featured stories focus on the biotech industry and pharma which doesn’t reflect the wide breadth of topics STAT covers. Featuring stories that cover topics, like public health, that are more likely to affect the everyday person could widen its readership beyond people from the medical, biotech and pharma industries.