Story by Matt Bigelow, MSJ07

The 2007 class recommended the creation of ZeelandNow.com, a hyperlocal Web site devoted to all things Zeeland.

This year's Media Management Project class suggested that another adjective could soon be added: Connected.

The class recommended the creation of ZeelandNow.com, a hyperlocal Web site devoted to all things Zeeland, and a weekly companion newspaper, the Zeelander, featuring plenty of hometown faces and user-submitted articles and photos. These recommendations were delivered in June to executives of Morris Communications and the Holland Sentinel, the Morris newspaper that serves Zeeland.

Zeeland has a strong sense of community and there's a lot of civic interest, explained Brad Flora, a new media major who helped develop the online prototypes. Their strong interest in what happens in their community made us think there was an opportunity for a news-driven digital community.

This year's group set out to tackle several different challenges. The faculty (Professor David Nelson, Associate Professor Rich Gordon and Lecturer Cynthia Linton) charged the class with exploring the potential for online tools to enhance a strong, local community.

The Holland Sentinel and its parent company, Morris Communications, gave the class more specific, practical assignments: to identify underserved audiences within the Holland market, to find advertising sectors not buying ads in the company's publications and to develop a new product that could meet the needs of both.

Zeeland seemed ripe with opportunity. Located just a few miles northeast of Holland, the Zeeland area is one of the fastest growing parts of Michigan.

We wanted a newspaper that reflects the community and encourages those who live and work in Zeeland to get connected, said Kirsten Korosec, who helped lead the development of the print prototypes.

The Sentinel already publishes a weekly section about Zeeland, but it reaches only people who subscribe to the newspaper. The newspaper company also publishes a weekly shopper publication, but it doesn't include editorial content. And neither has a strong online presence.

Working together, ZeelandNow.com and The Zeelander were designed to create a platform for lifelong Zeeland residents as well as newly relocated families to connect with their community. Just as importantly, the two would offer Zeeland-area businesses, as well as establishments in neighboring Holland and Grand Rapids, an attractive vehicle to reach everyone in the Zeeland area.

The class made four trips to Michigan over the course of the eleven week project and surveyed hundreds of Zeelanders and area business owners. They contacted more than 30 successful hyperlocal Web sites around the country and formulated a positioning statement that guided their branding efforts. They then built Web and print prototypes, conducted six online and in-person focus groups, garnering plenty of local feedback, and developed a three-year business plan.

This project taught me to look at journalism beyond the newsroom, said Soo Kyung Seo, a master's candidate who worked closely on the business plan.

I really enjoyed working on this project, learning the dynamics of media organizations that try to produce news for people and make profits for companies at the same time. I learned that the management and business side of media organizations are important to keep good quality in journalism, Seo said.

The class recommended Morris Communications use the same methodology the group used to roll out hyperlocal publications in other markets.

The content of these products will depend on the nature of the community. But the methodology can work anywhere, said Logan Molyneux.

The students utilized the "Newspaper Next" report, issued by the American Press Institute, to help them understand how to assess the Zeeland community's needs. They also used research from Northwestern's Media Management Center and conducted their own research on hyperlocal initiatives in the newspaper industry.

According to the "Newspaper Next" report, to compete in a marketplace of nearly limitless choices for content, newspapers should determine what jobs to be done exist in the community, and how a news product could meet the needs of audiences and advertisers alike.

For example, in Zeeland, the students found that many small businesses had neither the time nor energy to host an adequate Web site to attract local people to their storefronts. The Web prototype, therefore, included an in-depth business directory where every Zeeland-area business would have its own unique URL.

The Holland Sentinel and Morris Communications were aware that the growth of neighboring Zeeland presented an opportunity for the Holland Sentinel, and expressed gratitude to the students for their work in formulating a strategy for the community.

In the end, I think their work gave us a lot to work with in our future efforts to develop a community-based, hyperlocal Web site and publication for the Zeeland community, said Pete Esser, publisher of the Holland Sentinel.

I was very impressed with what the students were able to accomplish in the short time they had to do this project. It speaks volumes about their individual and collective talents and work ethic, Esser said.

The faculty, too, was impressed with the students' work.

This year's Media Management Project class worked together as a team as well as any of us on the faculty can remember, Gordon said. The ideas they came up with were creative and well thought out. And their approach to a hyperlocal print and Web news product could work in many markets besides Holland.