Patrick Purdy
experience | interaction | design
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As readership dwindles and advertising revenue continues to decline, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette desperately needed to find a solution that would lead to a sustainable business model.

With this project, our goal was to uncover new insights related to newspaper readers and find opportunities to leverage these insights.

Our solution involved targeting an audience of people unfamiliar with the city of Pittsburgh using relevant local information. This information would be delivered through a new free publication and supported by a redesigned Post-Gazette website with the end goal being to provide a sense of belonging.

Download the final report
In our research, we learned that people who felt a sense of belonging, those that identified themselves as "Pittsburghers", were much more likely to be subscribers and daily readers of the Post-Gazette. This sense of belonging was so strong that many "Pittsburghers" who had relocated to other parts of the country were still reading the Post-Gazette after they moved.

We also learned that there was a large number of transplants, people in Pittsburgh without this sense of belonging, who were unaware or uninterested in the Post-Gazette.
In order to provide transplants with this sense of belonging, turning them into "Pittsburghers", we needed to provide our target audience with knowledge of local offerings, familiarity with surroundings and comfort in community.

The Post-Gazette already had the ability to provide knowledge of local offerings including news, events and entertainment. For people unfamiliar with Pittsburgh, we knew we needed to make this information easily discoverable. Also, we would provide our audience with a familiarity of their surroundings by linking the information to a map of the city.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette would need to create something new that was both tangible and easy to distribute in order to make the information easily discoverable and accessible. We decided that a free weekly publication focusing on local news, events and entertainment information would communicate the desired information and be easy to find.

A key feature of the publication would be the map highlighting relevant information geographically, providing readers with a better understanding of their surroundings. An interactive version of this map would then be included on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's website, incorporating location with the latest news articles and events.
The first part of our solution was the creation of The Burgh, a free publication focusing on local news, events and entertainment information. The discoverable nature of the free publication combined with the focus on local information works to give the transplant a better understanding of their surroundings.

The second part of our solution involved a redesign of post-gazette.com using an interactive map showing local news, events and entertainment as a central component. This would help focus the content on local information and aid readers in their search for more knowledge about the city of Pittsburgh.
    Our literary review uncovered many good insights
    Transplants rank low on both participation and connectivity with the city of Pittsburgh
     
    Turning transplants into Pittsburghers (Experience Cycle from Evenson, Dubberly)
    Service blueprint showing a breakdown of the new offerings
     
    Based on the recipients love for the city this concept model shows the reach of the Post-Gazette
    The Burgh, a free weekly publication focusing on local events, news and entertainment
     
    Redesigned Post-Gazette.com with an interactive map featuring local news and events
    (Click play to start movie)
    © Patrick Purdy 2011
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