Nieman Foundation at Harvard
I learned about The Boston Globe’s Instagram valentines not from a PR person or a news nerd, but (gasp) from a friend who doesn’t work in news and just sent it to me because she came across it on Instagram and thought it was funny.
This counts as a pretty strong audience engagement effort by a local news organization, if you ask me! The Valentines work because they’re about Boston — Dunks, T fires, Ben Affleck — and not about how great the Boston Globe itself is.
The Valentines were an audience team effort, said Heather Ciras, the Globe’s senior assistant managing editor for audience — from the Globe’s Ryan Huddle, Cecilia Mazanec, and Steve Annear. Readers have been suggesting plenty more (“Are you the orange line? — because I’ve been waiting for you for forever 💅🏻❣️), which the Globe’s audience team will turn into additional Valentines and post later today.
The Boston Globe isn’t the only news organization making Valentines today. Here are some more.
