After a solid run of 456 issues, we’ve changed the delivery of our news companion, the Daily FLIP.
Some of the feedback received over the past 18 months was that delivery of an old-school file like a PDF via a smartphone, while interesting, wasn’t very functional. We knew something had to be done, but it came down to finding the time to put together a new version for readers. Starting Jan. 4, 2024, our new Daily FLIP came off the press.
We still believe it fills a gap in local news delivery that provides Calgarians even more of the information they need and want, but it has an environmentally friendly twist to it: It’s built for the smartphone. So, it’s like your daily newspaper, but you’re getting it delivered directly to your phone. That’s where most people are getting their information these days.
The new format still allows us to explore design possibilities that attracted us to the original Daily FLIP concept, it’s just a more accessible version for people to read. We love the tactile, design-focused nature of the newspaper, and finding a way to deliver it in a 21st Century way was important to us.
OK, so what is the Daily FLIP?
The Daily Flip is a daily newspaper filled with curated micro-sized news bits. It’s sized to your smartphone display screen so it’s easy to read and you don’t have to use your fingers to zoom in.
It’s delivered each morning at roughly 8 a.m. (when you grab a coffee) via email.
The goal of the Daily FLIP is in line with our current tagline: Know More Stuff. We want to find new and innovative ways to give you the information you need to know, the information you want to know, the information you should know – AND, the information you didn’t know you wanted to know.
It’s filled with little bits of news that we don’t produce stories on each day that are still important to make sure you’re the water cooler genius at work, at the coffee shop, or at the pub when you’re grabbing a pint with friends.
The great thing is, aside from the On The Web part of the Daily FLIP, 99% of the content is NEW and NOT replicated on our site. So, you’re getting more local news from your favourite independent daily news provider.
Why the Daily FLIP?
Great question. For several reasons.
- Small bits of important news that fall through the cracks because newsrooms don’t have the resources to cover it all.
- It fills a large niche in local news coverage that other media isn’t doing (and they’re not expending resources on it).
- The FLIP is complementary to the livewirecalgary.com website and allows us to provide more information without the need for a lot of resources. Remember, no duplication is the goal.
- People read news on the smartphone (at least, 65 to 70% of ours do). We wanted to put it there.
- Environmentally friendly.
- TIME. People are time-strapped and information-starved, so we want to feed that with convenience.
- Let’s be straight – there’s an opportunity for local advertisers to reach a local audience.
Why not an app?
Another good question. For us, it’s simple.
A native app would cost thousands. We’d rather spend that on great community-focused, local stories for our valued audience.
Plus, today’s websites are responsive to the mobile screens and in tests that we’ve seen done, sites don’t look much different with an app.
The only difference between the two is the icon that sits on your smartphone display. It becomes more of a marketing play than an information delivery one, and we’re just not at that point in our independent news journey.
So, have a look, and sign up for the daily dose of local micro news.