Live Blogging: ONA Mizzou Meeting 10/20/11

Thanks for coming to our meeting. Tweet @triblocalPat and get on the Mizzou Mafia board.

5:45: "At Mizzou, I should have overcome fears to do events that may seem dull."- Rollens

5:43: Rollens' favorite story- Commercial real estate magazine where he got to travel a lot. Rollens went to Iowa and was supposed to tour a developer. The developer turned a concrete bunker into a great development.

5:39: "I've learned so much about what things people want to read. We use daily hits to see how well we are doing and how stories are doing."- Rollens

5:37: Aggregation has become a big topic with advisor Amy Simons leading the discussion.

5:35: "Our websites are a little text heavy but I always try to find YouTube videos to post. Also our photo galleries are the bomb."- Rollens

5:30: Q: Some things you learned at Mizzou that you use at TribLocal? A: Working on Vox was a great experience. Small, scrappy staff that can work remotely. Sense of camaraderie. Be comfortable wearing a bunch of hats.

5:28: Q: Would you consider advertising to businesses in the area that you run? A: Ad reps go after local businesses all the time. And we hope they convince them to run ads in both print and on the website.

5:26: TribLocal uses Twitter for serious and breaking news. They use Facebook for more slideshows and events like that.

5:24: "I use Twitter to push out news as much as I try to hook in news."- Rollens

5:21: The social media is left to the producers. It's one main Twitter account called @TribLocal.

5:20: "At the end of the day, you have your authority on your website. They don't have their 1st Amendment right on your website."- Rollens

5:16: Q: How would you go about starting a hyperlocal site in a smaller town? A: A simple Blogger or Wordpress. It would help to have citizens participate.

5:15: TribLocal is always monitoring our postings.

5:13: "Their is no approval process for getting an online contribution account. Then I contact the person that signs up. It's help when I perform one on one customer service."- Rollens

5:11: Q: How did you get citizens to write for TribLocal? A: Call up local libraries, park districts etc... and gave them a way to get their message out not only online but in print as well. The OPRF high school do not want to use the website and that's their choice.

5:09: TribLocal journalists are trying to become more and more hyperlocal.

5:08: Citizen journalism, social media, print component all make up TribLocal's cycle.

5:07: "I don't tweet about journalism. I tweet for journalism."- Rollens

5:05: Rollens breaks down his schedule and what he does for the week while working with the TribLocal site.

5:03: Rollens works on Oak Park and River Forest and Elmhurst pages.

5:02: Go to http://triblocal.com/ to follow along Rollens' discussion go to this page. Click on the Find Your Town on a List to see all the towns in TribLocal's web.

5:01: "Social media is a big part of my week. Nice Facebook page as well. Not to share just breaking news but also highlight citizen contribution."- Rollens

5:01: Rollens is a Mizzou grad of '04.

5:00: Rollens met a bunch of ONA people at the conference in Boston last month.

4:58: History of TribLocal: 3-4 years old, since '09 they have been investing time and money into TribLocal.

4:57: The Skype connection has been established with Patrick Rollens.

4:53: Guests start arriving and snacks are put out.

Welcome to the third meeting of the year for ONAMizzou. Today we are Skyping with the Chicago Tribune's TribLocal Community Producer Patrick Rollens.