It all started with the self-proclaimed "BAG lady."
Media analyst Gwen Brown maps data extensively to promote advertising through direct mail and in "The BAG," a collection of circulars distributed weekly to 700,000 households in central Ohio.
Last summer, Gwen suggested the creation of a mapping users group open to all of the local companies under the umbrella of Wolfe Enterprises Inc. In addition to On Target Marketing, the direct marketing arm of the Dispatch Printing Co., the family-owned company's holdings include The Columbus Dispatch and WBNS-TV, the local CBS affiliate.
The idea for a GIS users group emerged during a three-day course on using ArcView mapping software. The class included 14 employees from the newsroom, the newspaper's marketing department and the direct marking group.
The class diehards formed the nucleus of the GIS users group, whose mission is to share data resources, technical expertise, mapping-related news and ideas about creative uses. Members meet quarterly, rotating among the company sites, and correspond regularly between sessions.
Several of the members have used mapping software for years, so they bring a wealth of experience and technical support to those of us in the newsroom who ventured into mapping just a year ago.
Many newsrooms could benefit from becoming part of a GIS group, whether it involves marketing and advertising or other departments at their media company, a more far-flung corporate group such as ours, or a community group of users in local government and business.
Already, we've seen numerous benefits:
• Substantial discounts on software and licenses bought at the corporate level with multiple users.
• Professional bonds with mapping experts outside the newsroom who can help trouble-shoot technical problems and assist on enterprise work. Gwen spent several hours in the newsroom looking over data for a project on the Columbus School District and offering ideas on how to map it effectively. Cherie Smith of the marketing department took the same data and ran a regression analysis on it to find the most influential demographic factors in student proficiency test scores.
• The sharing of data that already has been cleaned up and standardized. For example, our marketing department provided a database table of all drug stores in central Ohio with latitudes and longitudes. That enabled us to produce a quick map to run with a business story about an escalating retail war in the Columbus area among the big drug chains.
• Creative brainstorming on tackling upcoming news stories. Our group includes several people who have worked extensively in analyzing census data; their expertise will be pivotal in helping The Dispatch prepare for the mapping mother lode of demographic data from the 2000 census.
• The sharing of local shape files.
• Connections with other mapping users. Newsroom representatives have attended the quarterly meetings of a local government GIS users group and reported key developments to the Wolfe Enterprises group.
• The sharing of training tips and handouts from conferences, such as the mapping boot camp last fall by NICAR and the annual IRE convention.
Involvement in the GIS users group has kept the newsroom on a steady course as we continue to explore the practical uses of mapping software. Think of the group as a local version of the IRE and NICAR listserves – a source of inspiration, story ideas, trouble-shooting and emotional support.