The judges gave extra points to this entry because it showed that interactivity isn't just for the journalistic big dogs. Hamilton, Ontario is an old steel town struggling to find new ways to prosperity in a post manufacturing age and that means the local newspaper probably is struggling too.
Nonetheless the Hamilton Spectator devoted enormous amounts of imagination and resources into creating this package, designed to engage readers in a discussion of their future.
The editors used the image at the left, a half-vacant skyscraper that also
served as a venue for a discussion among civic leaders that is available for viewing on-line, as a symbol of the challenges facing the community.
In addition to a series of stories, suitable for the traditional newspaper, the "Hamilton Next" package included a number of only-on-the-Internet features, such as:
- A blog where members of the community could respond to the package and sound off with ideas of their own;
- A series of videos, broken down by topics, of civic leaders discussing possible new job-creating projects for the city;
- An interactive game that poses various scenarios about the city's future and allows users to respond.
While the game might be too far-fetched for some tastes (the stage includes a teleport that Hamilton's alien population of 2016 use to commute to their orbiting space station), the judges felt that its colorful interface and cheeky content might be just the thing to attract users who might otherwise never engage with the newspaper content.
Bottom line: The Hamilton Spectator brought all the resources of the Internet to bear on this project and turned what otherwise might be a dry, even depressing topic into one likely to appeal to and engage readers. Not only is it a great use of multi-media, it's also a terrific community service.
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