New news feed gives more researchers at KTH the opportunity to reach out
A news feed service is now being launched on kth.se. Via the Researchers’ Noticeboard, KTH researchers can reach out with research news that is not picked up on the main news feed.
“It is about showcasing the breadth at KTH and the research that is being done here, and to communicate what is happening at our Schools, both to sector colleagues within industry and higher education, research financiers, decision-makers and opinion formers, plus niche media and also internally at KTH. It may well lead to new collaborations, both externally and internally,” says Anna Gullers, Research Communications Officer at the School of Industrial Engineering and Management (ITM).
The Researchers’ Noticeboard can be found under the News tab on the external website kth.se, under News from KTH. The articles appear in chronological order and intros plus image news puffs for the three latest stories are displayed on the page.
A channel on what is happening at the schools
ITM came up with the initiative originally. Gullers felt that there were not enough channels for the Schools to talk about what they were doing and what was happening there.
“There are certain criteria for getting something published in the main news feed at kth.se. Such as being of broad general interest,” she says.
She persuaded Josefin Backman, Communications Manager at the School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE) to back the proposal. Together with Johanna Blomqvist and Kjell Carli at the Department of Communications and Business Liaisons (CBL) they formed a working group to draw up guidelines. Gullers and Backman then continued to develop the concept and gained the support of Communications Officers at the various Schools.
Now, an editorial group with a Communications Officer from each School is able to publish in Polopoly in this part of the system. They are responsible for quality assurance and assessing whether a potential story would be suitable for the Researchers’ Noticeboard or if some other channels would be more appropriate.
“There will be about one news story a week from each School. All the articles will be published in both Swedish and English,” says Backman.
Shorter as well as longer articles
The Schools at KTH have different resources when it comes to communication, some Schools have up to five or six Communications Officers, others just one. Therefore, the editorial group has produced a form in which the researchers themselves can enter a heading, intro and body copy and submit it. The School editor can then edit and publish the story.
At some of the Schools who have more communication resources today, the writers there will continue to produce somewhat longer and more detailed articles.
“We reckon there will be two kinds of news stories in this feed. One that is a bit shorter, more of a news item, and that uses our form. But if an editor has more time and scope, they can also write slightly longer articles,” says Backman.
Håkan Soold