Rebuilding iPatriotPost
When I took over our online publication as editor, I wanted to bring it to new heights it had never seen before. In order to do that, I wanted to improve the website and our posting time. I started trying to post daily, compared to the previous 2-3 times a week my previous editor had followed.
I took over posting articles on our website in the middle of March, and you can see the clear difference in posting once I did. While I did struggle with posting articles in the summer due to a mere lack of articles, I tried to remain consistent. Breaks such as winter break often hurt my posting schedule as well, so I would post 2-3 articles in one day to make up for not posting the day before or after. A darker color means more articles were published that day.
Expansion
When I was appointed editor of iPatriot, our subscriber count was at around 380. Now, we are at 500 subscribers! I helped specifically by writing articles and posting on social media to subscribe, subscribing my friends with their emails, and creating a flyer to air on the morning announcements.
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​Here's an example of the active communication I partake in with helping promote the Patriot Post. By posting our flyer on the ICC webpage, it also is added to a rotating collage of photos in the lunchroom, further exposing our publication.​​​​​​​
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This increase in engagement has led to international impact, as I have helped increased our readership substantially. Over the past 12 months, we have had our articles read in over 120 countries. Here are the top 18:
As we increase our readership internationally, we also increase in our daily view count. Here are our total views over the last 12 months.
Over the past years, our overall readership at iPatriot has increased as well. You can see more unique visitors have been drawn to our site: most likely new subscribers intrigued by what we post everyday. Below, you can compare monthly readership by the year.
Overall, the iPatriot Post has faced major expansion over the past 12 months and now is experiencing its most successful school year yet.
Last but not least, here are the most-read authors over the past year. I have had the most readership over the past year, personally helping with our online readership, activity, and growth. By setting a good example to my other staffers in terms of articles to write for engagement and a commitment to journalism, I hope to see some of their names up here soon too.
Website Design​​
On our website, I post articles daily to certain categories and subcategories. I try to post articles in every category often, so categories aren't neglected.
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In addition to posting, I size each image to proper size to be featured in our revolving banner featuring our latest articles. I also update our widgets on the side every few weeks. I include a countdown to graduation as well as polls such as "Should mid-term exams be before or after winter break?" so our readers could vote on what they think and express their opinions.
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I also have set up a "Subscribe" pop-up, so we can help increase our website subscriber count.
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When I post articles, I have a choice to send an email notification with the articles or not. I do this to advertise our articles and our hard work. Although we might risk losing subscribers due to email spam, I think it's a fair trade-off: we have active engagement and can share what we are writing about with those who care and won't mind a few extra emails.
In addition to having to post articles on the daily as well as update polls, social media, and other website design, I also have to update staffers own bio. In our "About Us" staff page, I have linked every staffers individual profile to their article count. I also have to update their images and bios. When we have a staff change, we have to re-do the entire "About Us" page due to website restrictions. While it is tedious work, in the end, we get to make sure all our staffers shine. By linking our staffers pages to their articles, they also get easy accessibility to all their work to showcase.
