FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Glen McCandless
EDRoom Inc.
212-787-6056
eSchoolNews Uses EDRoom Online Discussion Service to Strengthen its Editorial Process
NEW YORK, NY (August 17, 2008) eSchoolNews, the popular educational technology-focused publication, recently took advantage of the EDRoom online discussion service and found that it adds significant value to the development of its special reports. EDRoom’s research experts worked with eSchoolNews feature writers for the report in the June issue, Rating the E-rate, to develop a discussion guide of topics and questions about E-rate, the federal program that provides funds to build online capacity for schools.
eSchoolNews staff recruited a qualified group of seven administrators from districts, individual schools, regional service centers, and even a public library system. The discussion was moderated by an EDRoom researcher who used the interactive features of the EDRoom discussion platform to encourage the administrators to offer details and perspective needed to support the story. As the week-long online discussion unfolded, members of the eSchoolNews staff were able to observe and offer guidance and suggestions to the moderator.
eSchool News journalists chose the EDRoom service to enable busy administrators to participate in the discussion and answer questions at convenient times, without disrupting their schedules. The extended exchange among the participants gave eSchoolNews editors and readers a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the E-rate than individual phone interviews with the individual school administrators would have afforded.
“Improving the quality of the information and perspectives we include during our editorial process is a critical to our delivery of high-impact special reports of pragmatic value to our subscribers. We’re better able to attract sponsors for our reports, increase our circulation, boost online readership, and ultimately, drive advertising revenue,” said Dennis Pierce, managing editor of eSchoolNews.
EDRoom’s auto-transcription feature gave the eSchoolNews writers an exact record of the discussion and interactions in a format that let them quickly and easily include excerpts from the discussion in the special report and to make the entire transcript available online. “Using the EDRoom transcript made preparing this report much easier than the traditional method of creating copy for reports by listening to audio recordings or interpreting notes from phone interviews or traditional focus groups. This is a terrific new way for journalists to do their work,” Pierce added.
EDRoom is a new type of interactive online discussion service that was launched in November 2007. Organizations that serve the education markets are using EDRoom to gain deeper insights and streamline their research, product development, and communications processes.
www.edroom.net