STRATEGIC PLAN FOR QUACKD.

COM
Emerald Media Group

December 2012

Why WE WOULD CREATE SOMEThING LIKE ThIS

Hard news has a readership ceiling.

Eventually, we will reach the maximum number of local readers who are interested in our public service journalism. While we havent lost track of the importance of the journalism that newspapers create, we do realize its not the only type of storytelling that has value to students.
We also acknowledge that our readership has an expectation of the content that is available on DailyEmerald.com. They expect that it is unbiased, just-the-facts-maam journalism. That led us to create an entirely new online publication: Quackd. What is it? Quackd is a website that generates social content essays and multimedia that people want to engage with. They want to share it and discuss it because it relates to them. Well use humor and drama to do this. There is no publication at the University of Oregon that produces high quality magazine journalism with an emphasis on sardonic wit and deeply personal coming-of-age stories. We have seen time and time again that 18-24 year olds engage with intelligent long form stories that are highly relatable and edited by a sharp eye. There is also no publication that prepares students to go on to produce for sites such as Thought Catalog, VICE and Gawker. Its an honest and sometimes funny look at growing up in Eugene, Oregon.

FOUNDERS Quackd was created in Fall 2012 by Mia Schauffler, Ponta Abadi and Andy Rossback. Its yet another daring experiment from Emerald Media Group.

CONTENT TyPES
WRITING FROM REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Writers will contribute three original pieces per week of no more than 600 words. SUBMITTED WRITING User generated content will become Quackds backbone: Dont think were funny or depressing enough? Submit your own essay. Quackd should become a community and an avenue for more writers to get published. MULTIMEDIA

INTERNET CULTURE TUMBLR

WORKFLOW SyNOPSIS
SUBMISSIONS Submissions will require a @uoregon.edu email address. They will be accepted with a Google Form directly on the site. These will be heavily edited by the editorial director within two weeks of submission. EDITING The editorial director will heavily edit content to ensure that it is always relevant, humorous or dramatic and it has a consistent voice and style. Quackds copy chief will ensure that the content is factually accurate, grammatically correct (except when that hurts the joke), well tagged and categorized and otherwise of high quality. The art director will ensure that every post has a featured image that matches the sites design style. ExPECTATIONS There will be one new essay per day on the site. For the first several weeks, the editorial director will work closely with the editor in chief to see that content is high quality and has the right tone. SOCIAL Quackds editorial director will be responsible for maintaining the Twitter and Facebook page. The expectation is that our essays will be tweeted and other interesting reads will be retweeted. Links to essays will also be posted on our Facebook page.

BRANDING
We wanted Quackds brand to represent the mystery of growing up as a Duck. A silhouette of a duck suggests a lack of true identity. Its that identity that we are filling in during our late teens and early twenties. Were figuring out our lives, our jobs and our relationships. We make the pilgrimage to Eugene confused about ourselves but the friendships and memories we make here will help us sort everything out.

LOGO OPTIONS Two possible logo configurations are possible: the circle logo or the bold logo. They logo may appear in black or in signature Emerald brand CMYK for which the value is C35% M0% Y100% K0%. Either option should be complimented with a significant amount of white space at all sides.

TyPEFACES Freight Sans Pro Bold (top) serves as the headline face. Proxima Nova Regular serves as the body face.

ALWAyS CLEAN DESIGN Quackds appearance must be tied together through all branding to give a sense of quality. The design must be clean and simple with ample white space. This is done for dramatic purposes but also prevent the design from distracting and to let the content speak for itself.

DRAFT COPy
SLOGAN Quackd is pretty funny. Sincerely, the Emerald. ABOUT PAGE Lets get together and talk about what we love, what we hate, what we do and what we wish we could do. Lets imagine something better. Lets comment on our lives while they are happening. Lets get meta. Lets join causes, then join causes against those causes. Lets document what we were watching, who we were listening to, and what was important to us when we were this age, because we will never be this age again. SUBMISSION PAGE To contribute to Quackd, submit a pitch fewer than 100 words describing why your essay is relevant to the students at the University of Oregon. Dont forget to attach your essay. It should be no more than 600 words. Well get back to you within two weeks. TUMBLR Quackd delivers culture from around the net.

MARKETING PLAN
hOUSE ADS Wed like to run a house ad campaign during weeks one through three. We think that full and half page ads would be effective assuming the space is available. These ads will be created soon but can be modified to fit any situation. STREET TEAM During the second week of the term, wed like to have the Street Team hand out simple underground-looking leaflets. Well take care of the design for these. MARKETING TEAM Before midterms, wed like to consult the team about organizing an event to promote Quackd. One rough idea considered hosting a Quackd author reading at The Buzz on pub night. We will come to the marketing team with more ideas soon. Ultimately, we acknowledge that they will be the experts on what sort of event will reach this audience. SOCIAL We would like to send three tweets and three Facebook posts out from the Emeralds accounts tagging Quackd and linking to three seperate Quackd essays. The messages would appear similarly to our sponsored tweets and posts. BRAND NETWORK In February, wed like to have a discussion about building a Emerald Media network navigation bar that would cross all media properties and include links to Quackd, InstaO, Ducks Housing and more. BUDGET Typefaces make up $75 of our budget with the goal being to build our entire brand around these faces. Freight Sans Pro Bold costs $45 and can be purchased here: http://bit.ly/Wp2ll6. Proxima Nova Regular costs slightly less at $29 and can be purchased here: http://bit.ly/Yl6wSW. Were asking for an additional $425 for other marketing costs incurred during Winter Term.

PROJECT TIMELINE
JAN. 4 First collection of twenty essays will be in WordPress and ready for publication.

House ad and leaflet designs will be finalized and available to creative services and street team.

Copy for tweet and Facebook ads available and ready to push during week two.

Copy chief and art director selected for Quackd.

JAN. 7 First house ad will run and continue weeks one through three.

Any remaining standing copy on the website will be completed. JAN. 11 Final web development tweaks will be done by Ivar.

JAN. 14 Site will launch, DailyEmerald social campaign will begin and street team will distribute leaflets.

FEBRUARy Discussion about Emerald Media network navigation bar.

SPRING TERM Discussion about monetization and decision about whether to continue publication.

MASThEAD
EDITOR IN ChIEF Andy Rossback EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Mia Schauffler ART DIRECTOR TBA COPy ChIEF TBA TUMBLR EDITOR Jake Crump REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Mark Lavis, Emily Kirk, Katie Hamlin, Maya Ward, Ryan Hoefle, McKenna Brown, Andy Rossback, Nate Makuch, Ponta Abadi, Mia Schauffler MULTIMEDIA PRODUCERS Tommy Pittenger, Davis Burns DEvELOPMENT Ivar Vong FOUNDERS Mia Schauffler, Ponta Abadi, Andy Rossback

COLOPhON
READER ExPERIENCE Quackd uses WordPress with a modified version of the WordPress Svbtle theme by Ricardo Rauch (@gravityonmars). Social platforms include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Tumblr.

REACh US
quackd@dailyemerald.com arossback@dailyemerald.com mschauffler@dailyemerald.com

SOCIAL quackdcom @quackdcom quackd.tumblr.com

SAMPLE ESSAy
ALL OF ThE BOOKS I AM QUALIFIED TO WRITE I have aspired to becoming a writer ever since my high school English teacher told me I was a natural writer. I now realize my teacher was trying to motivate me to participate in class discussions and to get me to stop trying to rip off Less Than Zero era Bret Easton Ellis. I realize there is no such thing as a natural writer and that these are the only books I am qualified to write: 1. How to stand in the corner of the room during house parties in college 2. Ignoring people with the aid of technology 3. Slouching towards a bachelors degree 4. Different ways to order delivery food with minimal human interaction 5. Netflix, a love story 6. Blacking out from drink specials 7. Dealing with a one night stand who pees the bed 8. A list of sexually suggestive text messages which will be ignored by the recipient and contain the emoticon ;) 9. Crying your way through your freshman year 10. A novelization of Keeping up with the Kardashians seasons 1-4 11. A collection of semi-correct CamRon lyrics 12. Getting someone into bed by using the words and names: juxtaposition, aesthetic, Jean Luc Goddard, vinyl, analog, gentrification 13. Intern or How to Work at a Magazine for 4.5 months and learn nearly no marketable skills 14. On vomiting in public 15. Surviving a devastating breakup and becoming a cold, dark person 16. How to lose your identity and start looking for it on the internet

GRIFFIN FUNK is a former design editor for the Emerald. He wrote this piece last summer while finishing his degree. He now works at The Washington Post and its unlikely any these things actually happened to him.

hATChING JANUARy 2013.

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