Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen many radio stations roll out their annual fall football guides. Many are really impressive. They have team previews, schedules, player profiles, stadium information, photos and stories that somebody at the station spent a lot of time gathering. Salespeople sold sponsorships, advertisers bought pages, and a designer (or station marketing director) put considerable effort into making the whole thing look good.
Every time I see one, I wonder the same thing: Why isn’t all of this content on their station website?
I don’t mean uploading the finished football guide as a PDF or putting one of those page-flipping viewers online. Nearly all stations have it embedded as a PDF. I mean taking the actual information inside and building it into a football section of the website where listeners can find it, search it, share it and keep coming back throughout the season.
Think about how much useful local information is already sitting inside that football guide. Schedules, team information, coaches, stadium locations, photos and previews are exactly the kinds of things people search for once Friday night rolls around. As the season continues, the website version can grow with scores, schedule changes, playoff information, game coverage and whatever else your station is already producing.
Instead, I’ve seen stations put more original local content into a football guide than their website gets in months. Then we deliberately give all of that work an expiration date.
I’m not suggesting stations stop printing football guides. A well-produced guide can still be a great product. Advertisers understand it, salespeople know how to sell it, and listeners will pick one up when there’s something useful inside. What doesn’t make sense to me is treating the printed guide and the station website as two completely separate projects.
The website could be the permanent home for the content, while the printed guide becomes the special edition. Give people additional reasons to pick up the print version with advertiser coupons, special offers, schedules they can keep handy or other things that work particularly well on paper. Use QR codes throughout the guide to send people to updated scores, expanded coverage or other information online. Promote the printed guide from the website and promote the website from the printed guide.
Then, when football season ends, don’t tear down the website section.
Next summer, update the schedules. Refresh the team information. Add the new coaches and players. Keep the stadium information that’s still accurate. By the time next football season arrives, you’re improving a local resource instead of starting from an empty page again.
And if your station isn’t a local news source, this could be your answer to the question, “What can we put on our website?” You don’t have to operate a newsroom to create useful local content. High school sports, boating, gardening, farming, local shopping, community events or whatever matters in your market can give you something to build around throughout the year. Pick the subjects your listeners already care about and become a useful local resource for them.
There’s an advertising opportunity there, too. If a local business sees enough value in reaching football fans to sponsor the printed guide, there’s a pretty good chance that advertiser would also be interested in reaching people using your football section online throughout the season. You’ve created another piece of digital inventory around an audience the advertiser has already told you it wants to reach.
And this idea doesn’t stop with football. The same approach can work with a spring gardening guide, summer boating guide, holiday shopping guide or almost any other seasonal publication your station produces. Build the permanent resource online and let the printed piece become a special seasonal edition of it.
That’s one of the advantages of a station website that I think we sometimes overlook. A useful website accumulates value. Last year’s article can be updated. A local guide can become more complete. Search engines and AI search can continue discovering the information. You can use it in newsletters, apps, social media and on the air. Most importantly, listeners have a reason to return because the information is still there when they need it.
None of this requires creating twice as much content. It’s about getting more mileage out of work you’re already doing.
If your station spent the last several weeks researching teams, gathering schedules, taking pictures, writing stories and designing a great-looking football guide, you’ve already done the hard part. Put that information to work on your website, too. Next football season, you won’t be starting over. You’ll build on what you already have.
Pic generated by ChatGPT.
Jim Sherwood is a radio veteran turned digital strategist dedicated to helping radio stations thrive online through engaging websites and mobile apps. As the founder of Skyrocket Radio and host of the Better Radio Websites podcast, he shares best practices to help stations grow audiences and revenue in the digital space. With decades of experience in radio and a passion for connecting content with listeners, Jim ensures that every station—no matter its size—can make a lasting impact online.