Joel Postman, author of the Socialized blog on social media will speak and answer questions.

Postman, from Boulder Creek, consults and provides social media strategy, implementation and measurement for progressive companies and non-profit organizations (see Bio).

The Media Lab meetings have been good opportunities for bloggers and Sentinel journalists to talk about their work and make connections. At our March gathering, Nina Simon talked about starting the Museum 2.0 blog, and the ways it changed her life. Going around the room, Media Lab bloggers talked about the way every post seemed to make another connection or another door. We hope our face-to-face meeting offer those opportunities.

We’re meeting at noon, Wednesday at Cruzio – no charge, but bring your own lunch. Send us a note (cml.santacruz@gmail.com) or check in on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/414876248611788/ if you plan to attend.

Thanks! Tom

If you would like to talk to Sentinel health reporter Jondi Gumz about health health insurance, email jgumz@santacruzsentinel.com or call 831-706-3253.

Posted from .

Posted from .

We have soft-launched a new website within the Santa Cruz Sentinel, reaching out the Santa Cruz visitors in a completely new way with “Destination Santa Cruz.”

Built using Rebelmouse to manage stories, photos and social posts from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Media Lab members and others around Santa Cruz County, we’re linking to the best and latest stories, events and information for visitors to Santa Cruz.

We’re also providing advertisers with a wide variety of possibilities for reaching out to visitors, managing their ad postings through Rebelmouse, and offering to connect local tourism related businesses to social followers of Destination Santa Cruz on Twitter and Facebook.

We believe that anyone considering visiting Santa Cruz will find all they need, including connections to the Sentinel calendar, an opportunity to book reservations and the most recent news about all that Santa Cruz has to offer.
Posts will include Arts & Entertainment coverage from longtime Sentinel writer Wallace Baine on the Muse Santa Cruz blog, the Sentinel’s outstanding food and dining coverage, the Sentinel’s best calendar listings, and links out to great posts from around the county.

Thanks to Christina Gullickson and Shannon Burns for their work in conceiving and designing the site.

The Sentinel reached more than 500,000 unique visitors in the month of February and our sites and apps generated more than 6 million page views.

To advertise on Destination Santa Cruz, call 831-706-3274.

The Santa Cruz Community Media Lab gathered Monday for its February meeting and talked about arts, entertainment and the cultural life in Santa Cruz.

Longtime Sentinel arts and entertainment writer Wallace Baine talked with Media Lab members at Cruzio. (Thanks Chris Neklason!). Wallace has teamed up with Kirby Scudder to build a new blog for the Sentinel – The Muse Santa Cruz with the intention of becoming the hub of arts and cultural information for the community.

Wallace has pushed ahead with the blog, with some tireless work from Kirby to build and populate the site. They’re planning a launch party Thursday, Feb. 28th 6-9 p.m. at the Tannery, and all are invited.

Wallace talked about a wide variety of possibilities for the Muse. Among them:

• A more realtime orientation to updates about the arts community
• Guest blog posts
• Multimedia
• Outreach to the community for photos, writing and video
• Linking out to creative events and reviews around Santa Cruz County
• Stories and photos that appear in the Sentinel printed Guide, which comes out every Thursday

If you’re interested in connecting with the Sentinel’s arts and entertainment coverage, and the Muse blog, reach out to Wallace.

This month marks a year since the Sentinel launched its Community Media Lab project. More than 200 bloggers have become involved in one way or another. We link out to the best posts every day, promote those links on the Sentinel home page, on the Media Lab page, through Facebook and twitter and other social media sites. Sentinel copy editor My Nguyen does most of the daily updates and also attended Monday. The lab’s page received more than 10,000 page views in 2012.

The people and organizations that have joined the project have been unfailingly helpful (among other cool developments, we started a Facebook group where questions are posed and help is given among bloggers on social, technical and other questions). Participants have provided news tips, breaking news photos, front page story suggestions, promoted worthy causes, and more importantly, shared their voices about what it’s like to live, struggle, create and celebrate in Santa Cruz.

Our face-to-face meetings with with members have been enjoyable without exception. Sentinel reporters, editors and photographers who have attended always come away feeling energized and full of the possibilities for their work and network. The project has informed us about the possibilities for collaboration in every aspect of Sentinel coverage.

We hope (and believe) that Media Lab bloggers come away from the meetings with new ideas and a better understanding of what the Sentinel is about.

Thanks for attending Monday to Sentinel Digital Producer Christina Gullickson and bloggers from:

• Positively Santa Cruz
• The Aums
• Motherhood, A Descent Into Madness
• Seasonal Eating
• Tom Jacobs Photography
• Laugh.research.write.run
• Riding Pretty
• Civinomics

- Tom Moore

Volcom is giving away $20,000 to the first person that can land a “proper” kickflip while surfing! By proper we mean an “above and off the lip” kickflip where first you bottom turn, launch an air, use your front foot to flip the board, and then land on it and ride out cleanly. No chop hops, backwash, fingerflips, grabs or laybacks. Just a proper kickflip. We’re going to be strict on these following guidelines. The rules are all listed here, so get out there and put this trick in the history books. Good luck!

Rules:
1. Your entry must be on video from the start of the trick through the ride out. No photos allowed.
2. This contest is open to everyone. The contest begins today and will run until there’s a winner.
3. The kickflip must be a proper air that begins from a bottom turn, is launched “above and off the lip” and travels above the wave. No backwash, No chop hops, or anything in the flats, from the wave face, or below the lip of the wave.
4. All waves must be self caught – You must paddle into the wave. This means NO tow-ats, step-offs, jetskis, boats, dinghys, winches, canoes, oars, helicopters, dolphins or assistance of any kind.
5. No grabs of any kind. Not before, not after, not during.
6. You must completely “ride out” of the kickflip. That means if you land on the back of the wave and fail to continue surfing the wave – it’s not a make!
7. No heelflips. Or else we’d have called it the Heelflip-Off.
8. No shoes. Who surfs in shoes anyway? Regular “made for surfing” booties are acceptable.
9. You must be riding a real surfboard with at least one fin. No boogie boards, softboards, wakeboards, wakeskates, skimboards, kiteboards, trays etc.

Here’s the video explanation of the contest rules. (Volcom already paid Torklos $10,000 in its first edition of the challenge).

Here’s Zoltan Torkos of Santa Cruz in one of his submitted kickflips:

Zoltan deserves a vote. What do you think?

The Sentinel website, staff blogs and mobile apps received more than 4.8 million page views for the month of January. Below we’ve included a list of most-viewed stories. The list is topped, unfortunately, by an account of a man who adopted an unusual fighting technique. The story was picked up on the front page of fark.com and received more than 20,000 page views.

Those kind of stories, even when they get some viral attention, don’t drive the most traffic on the site. The Sentinel home page received more than 870,000 views. Photo galleries, led by shots from the Mavericks Invitation, this year and years past, generated more than 110,000 views. The Sentinel calendar (look for February updates to the most-used online calendar in the county) accounted from more than 85,000 views.

Of the total of close to 5 million views, about 20 percent (just shy of 1 million) came from mobile apps for iPhone, Android and iPad that didn’t exist in January 2011, and more than 370,000 came from m.santacruzsentinel.com – viewed on mobile web browsers.

Upcoming projects include the launch of updated tourism pages, a new commenting system (hint: Disqus), calendar updates (hint: Eventful), site redesign, continued work with the Santa Cruz Community Media Lab, more extensive use of photos.santacruzsentinel.com for local photo presentations, updates to Sentinel staff blogging platforms, an updated content management system, development of local apps from our newsroom, and we’ve been experimenting with interesting possibilities from rebelmouse.com.

With all kinds of hard work from Kirby Scudder and Wallace Baine, we’ve also launched The Muse blog – for all things related to the Creative Life in Santa Cruz County. Sign up for e-mail updates for all new posts (bottom right of the blog) to be connected with the best art & entertainment coverage.

Thanks to all who visited the Sentinel online, on your phones, tablets, and to our print and e-edition subscribers. We’re taking your news tips and suggestions 24/7.

Most viewed stories for January:

1. Man drops drawers during fight challenge on West Cliff Drive, police said
2. Galactic surprise: New find overturns theories how our galaxy evolved
3. Teen with dad, dog drives off Santa Cruz wharf
4. Driver strikes cyclist on Branciforte Drive, then crashes into concrete divider
5. Killer whales on the hunt in the Monterey Bay
6. Newsmaker 2012: Fatal party bus incident under review by Santa Clara County prosecutors
7. Dave’s Gourmet Albacore ends 13-year run in Santa Cruz
8. Scotts Valley-area man missing since Friday
9. Images released of fake doctor in Santa Cruz hospital heist
10. Felton woman injured in 2009 Mount Hermon Road crash dies
    

1. Bigger headers, with RSS feeds and links to cleaned-up section pages.
2. New section feeds including Food and Wine, and Home and Garden. Our features department regularly produces helpful and informative pieces that now will be more prominently displayed. Because these are weekly sections, they will be boosted from the bottom of the page to higher up when they publish.
3. We removed some of the clutter. Many of the items that were creating the NASCAR effect on our home page have either been cleaned up or removed (where possible) for a better viewing and reading experience.

Coming soon: Updates to our social media feeds on every page. We’re going to update and improve our events calendar. Redesign of the entire site, courtesy of Digital First Media, is also in the works.

Suggestions? There are some things we just can’t change due to advertising obligations or our content management system setup (also scheduled to be updated this year), but if you have an idea, it’s possible we can make it happen. Let us know!

PS – We’re also working on a repository of the vast “Weird” news from Santa Cruz – follow @weirdsantacruz on twitter, like us on Facebook and visit the Weird page.

The story of the effort to steer the San Lorenzo River away from the historic Santa Cruz Boardwalk was among the most viewed of 2012 on the Sentinel website. Dan Coyro photo

Crime, surf and sea creatures were among the most popular subjects on the Sentinel’s website in 2012.

The site received more than 41 million page views through early December of 2012 and the Sentinel’s mobile apps (iPhone and Android introduced in February, iPad in November), received another 6 million views.

The Sentinel welcomed more than 4.6 million unique annual visitors to the site.

The most viewed local story of 2012 was on the tragic stabbing death of Shannon Collins on Broadway. Collins, who ran a popular downtown business, was walking during the morning of May 7, on her way to a hair appointment, when she was attacked and brutally murderd. Charles Edwards, who was arrested and charged with the crime, was a felon with a violent history who had been earlier released on parole due to a clerical error. Readers grieved, struggled to understand the senseless loss, and offered their support to Collins’ loved ones.
The story received more than 70,000 page views during the year.
The second most viewed story of 2012 was about a woman who gave birth to a baby girl in the lobby of the county jail. The woman had been arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public on a Sunday afternoon. Jail staff initially refused to book her because she was pregnant and intoxicated. She was evaluated at Dominican Hospital and then brought back to the jail Sunday evening for booking. On Monday, sober and being released, she gave birth in the lobby, with help from jail medical staff. The baby girl was estimated to be 2 or 3 months premature. The Drudge Report posted a prominent link to the story, which was viewed more than 59,000 times.

Fans of “Chasing Mavericks” may have gone home from the movie and searched online for more information on Santa Cruz surfer Jay Moriarity. When they did, one of the top results was Wallace Baine’s 2010 column marking the 10th anniversary of Moriarity’s accidental death. The story was read more than 44,000 times.

Other most viewed stories included an embedded video made by a Santa Cruz fisherman who captured incredible underwater shots of dolphins swimming with his boat. A shark attack on a kayak near Pleasure Point closed beaches and captured the community’s attention and the story drew more than 20,000 page views. It also prompted Sentinel reporter Jason Hoppin to build a shark attack map, detailing all reported shark attacks in California history. The map also received more than 16,000 page views during the year.

The Sentinel’s online audience continues to grow (page views were up 17 percent this year), and our newsroom is committed to delivering news and the community’s stories across all platforms and devices. We break news on twitter, we share community stories on Facebook. We built a Community Media Lab to connect with and highlight local bloggers (more than 10,000 views of that page). We’ve added more than 1,300 followers on Instagram this year. YouTube videos produced by the Sentinel were watched more than 300,000 times.

Readers were drawn to sex (Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show photos drew more than 60,000 views), to the absurd (Shark falls from sky, lands on California Golf Course – 8,400 views), to up-to-the-moment election coverage (nearly 600,000 page views on election day and the two days following), to the in-depth (Our investigative project on the $123 million proposed desalination project in Santa Cruz generated more than 60,000 views).

We published all public salaries in Santa Cruz County, and those databases drew more than 100,000 views. We worked harder than ever to involve our readers in polls, commentary, in tipping us off to news, and to connect with local bloggers and experts in their fields. The Sentinel events calendar was viewed more than 800,000 times.

We also built partnerships with Santa Cruz Waves (a new surf photo every day on the Sentinel home page), and Cruzio (our top referrer of traffic, more than 340,000 views from their site) and updated our weddings page, updated all subscriber services online, launched community pages and offered an online-first series on the Top 10 Things to Do Before You Die in Santa Cruz (20,000 views). We also offered our first annual Readers Choice voting, and we’re pleased to say that our audience is always reaching out to us, with the “contact us” page receiving more than 60,000 views.

The 10 most-read local stories on the Santa Cruz Sentinel website in 2012:

1. Police call Monday’s stabbing of downtown Santa Cruz business owner ‘unprovoked and random’
2. Woman gives birth to baby girl in lobby of Santa Cruz County Jail early Monday morning
3. On the 10th anniversary of the death of iconic surfer Jay Moriarity, his widow reflects
4. Santa Cruz County Jail escapee apprehended
5. Employee of Santa Cruz business thwarts armed robber by grabbing his gun, police say
6. Daughter of surf shop owner dies after falling out of party bus, CHP says
7. Tuna fisherman posts video of dolphins swimming with underwater ‘torpedo’ camera
8. Shark attacks kayak near Pleasure Point
9. Crews fight off San Lorenzo River to save Boardwalk
10. Granite Rock CEO Bruce Woolpert dies in boating accident

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with the correct count of story views, showing that the story on the stabbing death of Shannon Collins was the most viewed of 2012.

The story about Jay Moriarity, from June of 2011, was among the Sentinel’s most popular this month

In the month of November, the Santa Cruz Sentinel website received 3,574,475 page views with 486,647 monthly unique visitors. In addition, Sentinel mobile apps received more than 700,000 page views.

The most-viewed story, about an employee who grabbed a robber’s gun, was helped by landing on the front page of fark.com. The second most popular story, Wallace Baine’s story from June of 2011 about Jay Moriarity, received attention from search traffic for Jay Moriarity as the movie “Chasing Mavericks” was released.

Other popular pages included the local election results page, which received more than 15,000 page views, the Sentinel online calendar (more than 90,000 views), and a nationally generated Victoria’s Secret slide show (63,000 views). The Sentinel’s media center, which features photos of interest updated daily from around the world, received more than 155,000 views.

Thanks to all for visiting. Here’s the list of most viewed stories.

1. Employee of Santa Cruz business thwarts armed robber by grabbing his gun, police say
2. On the 10th anniversary of the death of iconic surfer Jay Moriarity, his widow reflects
3. Obama’s speech on Election Night: The full text
4. Election Live Blog: Results and commentary on Bay Area, California and national races
5. Whale skeleton fossils in Santa Cruz area draw gawkers
6. Police: Ben Lomond man found lying in the middle of Ocean Street
7. Surfer who died at Privates Beach identified
8. Capitola Police: BMW chase suspect is wife of Soquel homicide victim
9. Police arrest three in Friday night homicide near Depot Park
10. Hundreds climb aboard for inaugural train ride up the coast; $14.2 million acquisition

Advertise on the Sentinel website.

Jason was asked to share some of his homework on how he become the Nate Silver of Santa Cruz County’s biggest political race. Here’s what he said:

Not sure if you’d categorize this one as dumb or smart, but the result worked out so we’ll call it smart. Here’s how we “called” (OK, we said the apparent eventual winner had “reasons for optimism”) an election with 26 votes separating two candidates and 6,500 absentees still to tally. Before you scoff that it’s too simple, we were off by a grand total of 14 votes.

It was actually pretty basic, with an assist from an elections office that has come to expect detailed requests from us. When the dust settled on election night, we had results by polling place, broken out into several categories, including the number of in-person ballots and results and the number of vote-by-mail ballots and results.

Deciding that the absentees to be counted would break much like those absentees already cast (instead of in-person voters, which one campaign somewhat wishfully expected), we created a spreadsheet. For each polling place we analyzed the split of already-counted absentees. Two days after the election, the county clerk was able to supply us with the raw numbers of ballots from each precinct (in many cases, I had to combine precincts to get the total number for each polling place, since several precincts often make up one polling place).

From there, we ran the numbers. Applying ratios from already-counted absentee ballots to pending absentee ballots, we came up with expected results for each polling place. Then we added those together. We also reduced both totals by 8 percent — the difference between all counted ballots within this supervisorial district and the total number of votes in this particular race (in other words, the dropoff rate).

That’s it. We predicted that when the counting was over, Candidate A would have a lead of 231 votes over Candidate B. It ended up being 245. I’m sure part of this is luck, but we had a pretty big sample size on which to run our projections. In the end it worked out. -Jason

Stories:

• McPherson’s lead widens to 245 votes
• In Santa Cruz County’s Fifth District, Eric Hammer got progressive hand up: Is toss-up also a rebuke to establishment?
• Result in Santa Cruz County’s Fifth District will take days: Eric Hammer, Bruce McPherson deadlocked
  

This is the first edition of the app, built with the same providers and technology from the well-reviewed Denver Post app. Updates to the app are already planned including further opportunities to share photos and your creative projects, reader commenting, more video and integration with our calendar and Media Lab projects.

We hope readers enjoy it as much as the iPhone app, which launched in February and has received more than 5 million page views.

We also think that the iPad app is great for advertisers. Want to talk about the possibilities for your business? Contact Sentinel Publisher Michael Turpin.

The Sentinel's iPad news app is available now.

Digital First Media recognizes best digital journalism in October. The Santa Cruz Sentinel’s J.M. Brown may be recognized.

We’ve added a photo page to the Sentinel website at www.santacruzsentinel.com/photos.

Digital Producer Christina Gullickson, designed and launched the page this week.

It’s built to feature our best images, and promote our Instagram account, where we have more than 1,100 followers, (display via snapwidget.com).

The page is also about sharing the wide variety of images of Santa Cruz County, and providing easy links to shots from our partners from Santa Cruz Waves, to our photo contest, to all the different ways we feature photos. We welcome submissions the community, tagged photos on Facebook and we make the most of our longtime staff photographers. Images are evolving and become a bigger part of everyone’s conversation as they are easier to share. We’re building slide shows, we’re connect to a new media center, to Flickr, Pinterest and other social accounts.

In our last gathering with the Santa Cruz Community Media Lab, we talked photography with Shmuel Thaler and were encouraged to build this kind of page.

Previous debate polls: First Presidential debate | Second Presidential debate

Posted from .

Suggest a poll question for readers

Posted from .

Share?

]]>