Farley Reveals WTOP's Web Strategy

Story by Tom Taylor TRI Newsletter

"WTOP's Jim Farley doesn't just hand out the latest ratings to his staff, with a few comments. The Hubbard Radio Washington DC VP of programming also shares the numbers for 'daily unique visitors' to wtop.com.

And the 'pages report' covering the home page, weather page, WTOP Mobile, Traffic routes and 'Listen live.' What's the thinking? Farley tells TRI: 'We learn from the web stats - What news stories or funny stories or cute cat videos got the most views on WTOP.com? This is constant feedback from our listeners/viewers/readers telling us what stories most interest them. The stats are displayed on a big screen TV in the newsroom that updates hourly, and both radio folks and digital folks consult it often. When we see a spike in online traffic, we almost always see a corresponding bump in the PPM weeklies two or three weeks later.'

Jim says: 'We are a digital newsroom, not separate broadcast and web/social media operations. There is always a digital editor and a broadcast editor working."

Remember that Farley's bosses asked him to think big - the competition isn't just other radio stations or even TV stations. It's the Washington Post and the TV networks and all the other news sources out there.'

Farley says: 'We define our mission as informing and engaging as many people as possible as often as possible across all platforms: Radio, web, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and text alerts and mobile. The audience is telling us on a regular basis what they want and need. We listen.'

Last year WTOP was America's top-billing radio station"...