Working remotely through the coronavirus pandemic has given publications associate Erika Ditzman ’21 some new challenges and opportunities, along with the chance to pilot the remote working experience we’ll be offering our student team this fall. More than that: She was able to represent SNC at her very first full-blown professional conference.
With professional travel on hold through the pandemic and budgets carefully scrutinized, conference participation looked to be thin on the ground this summer. But as conferences went virtual, new opportunities also began to present themselves. In particular, this year’s North American Catholic Media Conference (CMC) opened its doors to all working in the field. Even better, the CMC worked with its sponsors to make the full experience available at no cost. Erika jumped at the chance – typically offered to only one delegate from SNC – to attend with the college’s publications team. She was joined by director Susan Allen, associate editor Hannah O’Brien and digital marketing specialist Hannah Kruse ’19.
Erika wore two hats at the conference since she is also co-editor of the St. Norbert Times. Along the way she not only picked up a great new line to add to her resume but also took careful notes that will be useful to her colleagues. Her record offers engaging insight into the life of a beginning professional. Here’s Erika:
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Welcome, Keynote and Happy Hour
As this was my first professional conference, the thought of attending the Catholic Media Conference was, at first, nerve-racking. Me? A tiny undergraduate student amongst these accomplished individuals? After my first day, though, I feel completely at home, particularly with the conference being virtual, as I have become accustomed to a virtual, professional world. Not to mention, I met a St. Norbert graduate in my breakout session! I have much to learn, and this conference will provide me a wealth of information and experiences that will strike future employers on my resume.
Today’s “Welcome, Keynote and Happy Hour” was presented by panel members from the communications team at the Vatican, including Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Dr. Natasa Govekar, Bishop Paul Tighe, all moderated by Julianne Stanz. None other than Pope Francis made an “appearance” through his motivational letter from the Holy See encouraging attendees at the conference in their important work at this challenging time. Paolo Ruffini began with opening remarks, explaining the Catholic Church as an instrument of communication and, therefore, unity, especially during this time of COVID-19. Dr. Natasa Govekar followed, introducing Vatican News, where updates on the Vatican are released in six different languages! Not only has a website been created, but an app. The Vatican’s resources are utilized to, not present a world without problems, but keep dialogue open between communities. This makes me think, why couldn’t St. Norbert College create an app? We could run SNC News (our internal newsletter) through it, create a calendar of events, post photos, etc. Really everything everyone needs to know at the touch of a button.
Paul Tighe concluded the panel. This speaker, in particular, piqued my interest, discussing the commonalities between differing beliefs. From these differences, he said, we are able to learn from one another. As a non-Catholic, I have experienced this first hand, learning much about the Catholic faith I had previously been blind to.
Erika Ditzman ’21
English major
Over the next few days I will be attending a variety of different sessions, broadening my skill set for, not only the office of communications, but the future of the St. Norbert Times as well. Calls are raised for the St. Norbert Times to go digital. Wednesday’s first session will guide the team as we begin to establish ourselves online, hopefully learning how to increase traffic on our sites. Thursday’s session will prove why, regardless of social media, print is still essential for the college and keeping the De Pere community informed. Please stay tuned for tomorrow’s sessions!
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Session 1: Digital Media Track | Social Media Analytics
Today’s first session was certainly interesting but did not prove entirely relevant to the situations of either the St. Norbert Times or the St. Norbert College Magazine.
Before attending this session, I had a very poor understanding of what analytics is. Analytics give insight not just into how that story did, but why people are coming to the site, when they are coming to the site, where the traffic is coming from, how they are experiencing the content and who the readers are. This can all be measured via Chartbeat. Now, the reason why I say this wasn’t entirely pertinent is because the speaker, Tim Swift, spent a great amount of time discussing Chartbeat. Chartbeat is a bit more expensive than the St. Norbert Times, or the college magazine I suspect, can afford. Alternatives were suggested, though, such as Hotjar, Facebook Insights and Google Analytics/Data Studio. I will look into these for the Times, especially as we have a WordPress, Twitter and Facebook page. From here, we can figure out when people are most active on the site, determining when we post, and who our audience members are, determining what we write. Swift’s solution to his poor site performance ultimately boiled down to the site format. This is very frustrating, as, for the St. Norbert Times, we have a WordPress site that dearly needs updating. It’s quite honestly embarrassing. Without the time, though, we have pushed that site aside and really begun to rely on Facebook and the Digital Commons. The Digital Commons has its own way of monitoring traffic across the world, very successful traffic if I might add. The Digital Commons can be found at the following link: https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/snctimes/. As for the St. Norbert College Magazine’s social media, we have already utilized Facebook Insights. Look at that! We’re ahead of the game!
After this session Erika shared this message from a Sisters of Charity delegate to the conference. We felt proud that a much more seasoned communicator was looking to our student intern for her expertise!
○ Welcome, Erika! That sounds interesting! I would love to hear more about it. We are looking at creating an e-newsletter, but haven’t quite gotten there. It is still put out as a hard copy. If you are ever interested in sharing your knowledge, please e-mail me. sistermfaustina@sistersofcharity.com God bless you!
Session 2: Editorial/Communication Track | Strategic Planning: Diocesan Planning
I found particular interest in the beginning of Gabby Hlavek’s presentation, especially as she spoke about the reformation of the Catholic Moment and the Diocese. (Gabby is the editor of the Catholic Moment newspaper.) One tactic mentioned surveys. Regarding St. Norbert College Magazine, we have already conducted surveys to collect the reactions and suggestions from readers. Another change made at the Catholic Moment was the addition of a content producer. At the St. Norbert Times there exists no such position. In fact, as a way of motivating staff members to write, we even allow them to choose what they want to write about. More recently, though, the co-editors-in-chief, including myself, have begun making lists of important people, events, topics, etc. This ensures that the biggest topics receive coverage.
As the presentation continued, I paid attention to the format of the Catholic Moment as Gabby flipped through different issues. The graphics were captivating. At the St. Norbert Times, we do not often include graphics. It would be interesting to incorporate charts presenting St. Norbert student stats or graphics that defend a certain issue in the opinion section. It gives people a break from the text. The St. Norbert College Magazine did a very nice job of formatting and utilizing graphics in its Spring 2020 issue.
Unsurprisingly, this presentation concluded with mention of COVID-19. Though, with the title “Communicating During a Time of Constant Change,” I thought more emphasis would have been placed on the pandemic. Regardless, I found myself in the same boat as the Catholic Moment, making changes to cope with this new virtual lifestyle. At the end of the last academic year, the St. Norbert Times was forced to go virtual. We began producing weekly articles to keep our viewers updated and then released one final issue as a PDF online on Facebook. I believe this pandemic pushed the St. Norbert Times to become better at managing social media, posting with greater consistency. I believe the Times can follow the great example set by the St. Norbert College Magazine’s social media, ifor which I schedule posts well ahead of time. This just proves how much I have learned from the office of communications, that which I can now put it into effect.
Lessons learned:
♣ Transparency is key
♣ Take more ownership of the plan during initial presentations
♣ Collaboration on creation of graphics/ maps
♣ Prepare for the unexpected and be ready to respond
• Feedback/concerns from parishioners
• Covid-19
o Stopped UiH bulletin announcements
o Started weekly pastoral videos from Bishop Doherty
o Memos/articles re.Liturgy/Workshop updates
♣ Work as a team
♣ Trust one another
♣ Pray and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance
Thursday, July 2, 2020: Business Track | Why Print is Still Essential
I was most eager to attend today’s session. As an avid reader, I feel there is nothing like holding a newspaper, magazine or book in your hand, wafting that paper smell up into your nose. Call me crazy, but it’s the most wonderful thing. Now, that’s not much of a defense when people are trying to rid the world of print. Speaker Patrick O’Brien of FAITH Catholic magazine outlined the most common reasons given for getting rid of print. These arguments are all too familiar and frustrating to me. His presentation proceeded to address each of the concerns, whether they be environmental, expense or timeliness. I was surprised to find out that pulp, paper and print industries are a low contributor of greenhouse emissions. In terms of expenses, O’Brien explained that advertising and circulation revenue cover most, if not all, of the cost of the print publication. I do not particularly agree with this. I cannot speak for the St. Norbert Magazine, as I am not involved in advertising, but don’t recall us carrying any advertising in our magazine. The St. Norbert Times hardly has any advertising despite our efforts to attract businesses. The St. Norbert Times has absolutely no income. We receive all our funding from the Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee. In recent years, our award amount has decreased. This year, thanks to this presentation, I have statistics to back up the benefit of print. While we do not have a readership survey, which was a wonderful suggestion, we can offer up our online data on Facebook analytics. As for timeliness, O’Brien admitted that paper publications are definitely not as timely. He delivered interesting statistics though, including the fact that Catholics do not as often engage with online media. This tidbit of information was surprising, and I wish I knew what factors make Catholics any different from readers of other denominations or religions. This is one question I wish I would have asked Mr. O’Brien before he had concluded. Now, if Catholics are not engaged with online media, what’s the next best thing? You got it. Print.
In conclusion
Sitting alongside this conference’s accomplished attendees, I felt, at first, small and insignificant. I was asked in Day One’s breakout session, “What’s a student doing at a conference like this?” I explained that I was representing the office of communications at the college, where we present the St. Norbert Magazine and the @St.Norbert e-newsletter.
Now, while I am only a student, I realized I was not so different from the others in attendance. We all came with the same intent: to learn. In reality, we are all students seeking knowledge.
