10 Things Jaxsons Have To Explain To Out-Of-Towners

[jcjohnpaint]

Jacksonville doesn't make art?  What?

[thelakelander]

I grew up in Jax and never heard "Jaxson" until this website called it out.  It's not used in everyday language, however, I have adopted it since I have heard of it.

On to this article...I HATE these.  Too fluffy even for fluff...and loads of horse shit.  "You'll never have to go far to find an art museum or other culture?"  Are you F'ing kidding me???  Jax doesn't do art and all one has to do is open this site or read the news to know that.  FL for that matter.  Don't get me started on the rest of the list, just quit posting these things (better to leave yesterday's more informative article up than to post this as the days main article - offensive to anyone who knows better - and I know it's tough to come up with new/original content so it's entirely forgivable that it doesn't happen *every day*).

Another option is one I do on larger sites every day.  I don't click on or read articles that don't appeal to me. I'm sure most of us do this every day with sites featuring a ton of more content.  Regarding today, I did a test. Two articles were posted. One featuring "real journalism" and this being the other one. For all the complaints in this thread, as of 10:00pm tonight, one has 18738 views and the other has 255. One has two pages of comments (like it or hate it) and the other has 3 total comments. This has been consistent over the last few months.  This tells me a few things.

1. There is a segment of our readership and local population base articles like this appeal to.

2. Our existing front page set up is not conductive to the generation of multiple new stories on a daily basis.

3. Our content is being distributed through different platforms, so while it would take more coordination and effort on our part, the different platforms could display different content, meaning we can leave stuff like this off this particular site altogether and share elsewhere....or make it secondary and still share on this site for readers here who don't care about additional content being added.

4. In either case, to continue with Metro Jacksonville's long term growth, sustainability, and tactical urbanism goals, we're going to have to attempt to become an entity that can offer multiple stories catering to several segments of Jax's population on a more consistent basis.  Because at the end of the day, the more exposure we can generate, easier it will become to educate and build support for many of the ideas and things debated here.

With that in mind, the current site redesign is a critical part of this effort.  It's going to give us the real estate to add 10 times as much content on a daily basis. In the event that a list like this is one of the stories, perhaps it won't matter as much to those that don't like them because there will also be several other new stories available at the same time. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

[Tacachale]

I understand the need to increase your content and exposure, and that clickbait listicles are an easy way to do that. However - and I say this as a longtime poster and a friend - these things are lame. I think you may somewhat dilute your image as a place offering incisive discussion of locally important issues if you do to much of this, even if you're expanding your other content as well.

I'm not saying do away with listicles if they work for you. But there are better and worse ways to do them. Cracked has good listicles. Buzzfeed et all have really, really lame ones. Don't be Buzzfeed, be Cracked. Four disasters that wiped Jax off the map, hole in the wall restaurants, all that stuff seems to have been well received. "10 urban legends all Jaxsons know" I would read if it was well researched and written.

With that said, if you have some real journalism pieces you'd like to write and contribute, I'm more than happy to run them as well. Just send them on over, so we can get them properly attributed and scheduled.

If you've got say $50 an article, I'll write you all the real journalism, listicles or photo essays you want.

[thelakelander]

I understand the need to increase your content and exposure, and that clickbait listicles are an easy way to do that. However - and I say this as a longtime poster and a friend - these things are lame. I think you may somewhat dilute your image as a place offering incisive discussion of locally important issues if you do to much of this, even if you're expanding your other content as well.

I agree. Luckily, we do have analytics in our possession to track traffic, overall reactions, etc. We also have our core readers who have spoken loud and clear in this thread. We've been testing various things with our content over the last month, so the feedback here is good.

I'm not saying do away with listicles if they work for you. But there are better and worse ways to do them. Cracked has good listicles. Buzzfeed et all have really, really lame ones. Don't be Buzzfeed, be Cracked. Four disasters that wiped Jax off the map, hole in the wall restaurants, all that stuff seems to have been well received. "10 urban legends all Jaxsons know" I would read if it was well researched and written.

Of course. Those are examples of original produced content vs a shared story on a day we put up two articles. Expect a lot more.

If you've got say $50 an article, I'll write you all the real journalism, listicles or photo essays you want.

Update on yesterday's two articles as of 1:30pm today: 63,307 views verses 427 views. Then there's today's article, which required about a day or two of research, editing and driving out to the westside for images. 655 views so far.

So in order to pay someone $50 an article, the article they may not like is the one that generated the cash to create more "real journalism".

For me, it's a small insignificant price to pay to maintain the long term viability of the site. However, it's clear that our core group of readers prefer things a certain way. Our revamped site will help a lot here.

Nevertheless, while experimenting over the last month, we have found a way to share and benefit from these occasionally, without exposing them to our core readers.  That may be the best solution going forward.

If you've got say $50 an article, I'll write you all the real journalism, listicles or photo essays you want.

Pitch me a story.  I may take you up on your offer!

[Tacachale]

If you've got say $50 an article, I'll write you all the real journalism, listicles or photo essays you want.

Pitch me a story.  I may take you up on your offer!

Ha, sure! I'll email you something.

[finehoe]

Jax doesn't do art and all one has to do is open this site or read the news to know that.  FL for that matter. 

You're right about Jacksonville, wrong about Florida.  Happening as we speak:

Art Basel stages the world's premier Modern and contemporary art shows, held annually in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong. Founded by gallerists in 1970, Art Basel has been a driving force in supporting the role that galleries play in the nurturing of artists, and the development and promotion of visual arts.

In addition to showing exciting works by world-renowned artists, Art Basel is always innovating, thus expanding its platform for new artists who represent the vanguard of the visual arts. Its worldwide reputation – earned over the last forty years – for showing work of the highest merit, and attracting the world's leading gallerists and collectors, has made Art Basel the place where the artworld meets.

https://www.artbasel.com/

[Redbaron616]

Sorry, some of these were really lame.