WSLS launches pop-up newscast, prepares to go 'In Your Town'

WSLS 10 is preparing to take the news on the road and launch a new initiative, WSLS 10 "In Your Town."

Starting in May, WSLS 10 News will be LIVE in a different city every other Friday through November.

“We are passionate about informing and celebrating our communities,” said Margaret Kreger Ashburn, news director for WSLS 10. “This pop-up newscast is more than a tactic. This is our home too, and we are eager to feature extraordinary actions happening all around us.”

WSLS 10 "In Your Town" is an opportunity to help knit communities together.

“WSLS 10 is here to serve others. We are honored to elevate diverse voices, emphasize good news, and shine light on those providing meaningful contributions in our neighborhoods,” said Chrissy Funk, creative services director for WSLS 10.

“This project supports our ongoing commitment to listen and share the perspective of the people in our diverse communities,” said WSLS 10 Vice President and General Manager Jaimie León. “WSLS 10 'In Your Town' is an innovative approach to telling stories that matter here. I applaud the team for taking this on.”

Come, explore more of Southwest and Central Virginia with WSLS 10!

This fun and socially distant promo was shot and edited by creative services producers Rafael Ibarra and Andy DePue.

Graham Media Group wins 2 Editor & Publisher EPPY Awards

This year's Editor & Publisher EPPY Awards are in -- and Graham Media Group won two of them, as was announced earlier this week in a virtual ceremony.

This year’s EPPY Awards received more than 450 entries. Winners were selected from an international list of nominations to honor the best digital media websites across 38 diverse categories, in addition to categories for excellence in college and university journalism.

When it came to best local TV news website with 1 million unique monthly visitors and more – the winner was: WSLS.com

And in the category of best redesign/relaunch with 1 million unique monthly visitors and more – the winner was: ClickOnDetroit.com.

In a way, this was a win for all Graham Media Sites, considering they share a design.

Check out the winners and runners-up on this list to see the best of the best in digital media.

More on the best redesign award for ClickOnDetroit, from GMG audience development lead Dustin Block:

"Our websites have been growing a loyal fanbase for some time, so as website technology and our CMS has improved, the goal was to improve the website without making it feel new and different. We are quite proud of the relaunch and the new sites has been well-received by the community from day one, and continuing through the coronavirus crisis, our users have been able to find their reporters and content that they trust. We did this in the relaunch of the websites by focusing on these important elements:

Improved video: We focused on the mobile experience first, looking to convey the visual storytelling of our reporters without making the site feel sluggish. The video experience of the television station is an element that separates our reporting, so we improved it, offering live previews on the homepage of videos, and scrubbing to mimic the best of the big players. We improved our recommendation engine. This effort more than doubled the number of videos played between January 2019 and January 2020, pre-pandemic.

Improved engagement: We aimed to improve the legibility of the website and allow for easier and more consistent engagement. By improving successful login attempts by mor than 200%, and promoting more reporter and producer involvement in comments, we have increased the quality of commenting on our websites. We have also had consistent growth in our newsletters and are quickly able to build new newsletters and verticals as content topics take off.

Reduced site load: The trade-offs of a rich-video and visual website is generally page load and performance. The team knew this going into the project, but focused on new technologies and techniques to improve the page load and interactivity of the website for mobile and desktop. We believe that improvement of page load has been a major factor for the increase in Google Organic Search traffic we have seen.

Improved advertiser performance: We increased viewability of all ads to >65% while improving page load; meanwhile, continuing to provide valuable first party and remnant inventory, increasing the revenue we can use to support our journalism.

The new site has done more than just provide a new visual, but has been the backbone of a community movement we have been working toward from our television station."

And as for best local TV website, WSLS.com:

"WSLS in Roanoke, Virginia, builds its outsized success on teamwork. The digital team, which recently grew to four full-time employees, worked closely with the broadcast newsroom over the past year to move from a distant second in market to the most-read news hub in southwestern Virginia.

Data-driven reporting throughout the COVID-19 pandemic is an important example of how digital and broadcast teamed up to serve their audiences. The digital team closely tracked and reported public health data that became the backbone of coverage online and on-air. Their commitment to data reporting helped them track changes in how the state reported coronavirus cases and deaths. In turn, 9.4 million users turned to the site for conravirus-related news, including 1.2 million to their daily case tracker and interactive map.

In the past year, the team guided WSLS.com through a site redesign, a move to the Arc Publishing system and a rebuild of their engagement systems. The technology overhaul improved performance, boosted local news production and grew the audience.

The small, but mighty site is now a critical source for news in its market and a working model of what’s possible when an entire TV station works together on-air and online."

WSLS 10’s 'Find Your Money' puts more than $1 million back into Virginia economy

More than $1 million: That’s how much money WSLS 10’s Find Your Money program has pumped back into Virginia’s economy during the past four years.

WSLS 10 partners with the Virginia Department of Treasury’s Unclaimed Property division for a two-day Find Your Money phone bank, which has been worth $2 billion in the state, as one in four Virginians has unclaimed property.

“With your station, we have been able to reach so many people in that part of the Commonwealth,” said Diana Shaban of the Treasury Department. “That’s so exciting for us.”

In years past, Virginia Treasury staff made the two-day trip to Roanoke to staff the phone bank. This year, due to COVID-19, Find Your Money was done virtually.

“We helped viewers find $169,000 over this past two-day event,” "Virginia Today" anchor Rachel Lucas said. “We found $92,000 for a local church this year and our grand total now stands at $1,069,000. That’s amazing.”

Added WSLS 10 news director Rick Moll, “Our viewers have found anywhere from under $1 to thousands of dollars. Little by little, big or small, we’ve broken through that $1 million threshold. That’s fantastic.”

The money comes from forgotten accounts, life insurance policies, uncashed payroll or refund checks, unclaimed stock dividends or tangible items from safe deposit boxes.

“With so many people, businesses and nonprofits taking a financial hit during the pandemic, it was important for WSLS to help return some of this money back to our viewers,” WSLS 10 Vice President and General Manager Jamie Leon said. “I’m very proud of our effort.”

The Find Your Money phone bank ran from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 16 and again from 6 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Friday, July 17 during local newscasts.

WSLS 10 will hold another Find Your Money event in November.