Grea Kriopia

Grea Kriopia: Media Day is a Europeian holiday to celebrate our state-run and private media in Euro and its contributions to our region since, as you all may know, our media is very near and dear to us.

Grea Kriopia: As part of those celebrations, we're here to talk about regional media across NS and that is where you all come in as Media officials across various regions

Grea Kriopia: Why don't we start out with introductions, if you don't mind? Ideally your name, your region, and your role in your region's media

Okona: I’m Okona from The Outback! I’m the Governor of Culture, which means that I’m in charge of TO’s regional newspaper, The Shoutback! I coordinate the articles being written for each issue from our different writers, and with the help of Walkabout put them all together into one dispatch.

Aav: Thanks for the invite, GK. I'm Aav, and I'm currently the sitting Minister of Media for Starlight. My role consists of managing our hardworking Media staffers and serving as the main editor for our monthly newsletter Voice of the Stars where I've overseen a transition to a new format of the newsletter alongside production of three special editions since the beginning of the term.

Wizard: Most would know of me as simply Wizard, but there are a few who might instead prefer my nation name - Doge Republics (it was 2018, okay), and I am the incumbent Minister of Media in the Plains of Perdition, and oversee the publication of our regional paper, The Perdition Post, in that capacity.

Aav: 2018... 🦦

Grea Kriopia: Don't worry, haha, we won't judge and we can roll with Wizard. Lovely, appreciate the intros to give folks a sense of who is chatting and where your perspective is coming from.

Grea Kriopia: We already got a peak into this a bit but do you all mind going into more detail on what your media looks like specifically? Some of you mentioned monthly publications vs sporadic, as-things-come releases

Okona: Of course! The Shoutback is just about monthly (it turns a year old this month, actually!) and it’s in the classic written dispatch format. We have small brainstorming sessions to create an outline for the articles featured in each issue, then writers are given a few weeks to prepare and write their stories. Near the end of the month is when me and Walkabout format everything together and publish it.

Grea Kriopia: Oh, congrats to one year for The Shoutback then!! Time flies

Aav: Absolutely. Voice of the Stars is a monthly publication from Starlight's Ministry of Media that covers a summary of foreign affairs information, the activities of our regional legislature, culture events through the region, and what our Galactic Armada has been up to in the R/D fields! We also feature creative content, from anime reviews and song reviews, to our (new in the latest issue) editorial section containing articles on meritocracy and how our oldest regional roleplay caused our region to even exist.

Aav: We have also published three special editions in this last term: an interview with Merethin during their campaign for WA Secretariat, a "what's new in the GA" edition for members of Starlight, and most recently a public opinion piece that surveyed Starborn on their thoughts about how Starlight and Horizon have been performing.

Grea Kriopia: I think I saw the public opinion piece, it reminded me of the satisfaction polling we have done here in Euro for gauging how the Executive is doing running things

Wizard: Lucky then, that this is actually something I feel quite strongly about! For context, The Perdition Post does not follow a strict schedule of publishing at set intervals, beyond an abortive attempt earlier in our history. My own preference is for our paper and our writers to work on their own separate articles, which can be published effectively when they are done and the article passes review, without having to anchor it to a monthly publication that may leave it delayed by weeks or not give it the platform to stand out on its own. I understand why regularly scheduled publications exist - they offer a multitude of benefits, such as general ease of publication, consistent publications, and allowing for certain events - what comes to mind for me is the West Pacific's crosswords, their own GeoGuessr variant, among other things.

Wizard: However, my personal preference is to stay away from a consistent schedule, because I believe there are a similar multitude of drawbacks that can come from that. For those writing and authoring parts of it, it can quickly fall into the pit of being seen as a chore and nothing less - hurting the areas they work on and the publication as a whole - due to a lack of motivated contribution. And, as stated above, I believe there are a number of instances where this can be seen as hampering a paper's ability to cover very recent events, barring exceptions such as special editions. For this reason and others, I have maintained the Post's stance as not following a strict schedule.

Grea Kriopia: It's interesting to see a strong stance one way or the other though, does TPP assign out articles in this format or do you generally let writers drum up work on their own?

Wizard: Our publishing first and foremost relies on our writers - so if one of them simply has an idea, they are allowed to work on it and see it through to publication, with the support of our other writers and editors. There have been ideas tossed around that we can give to others, or ones that a few people are interested in and may end up collaborating on, but it is largely up to the individual contributors to choose what they work on.

Grea Kriopia: I imagine that gives a lot of freedom to the authors which I'm sure is nice. In Euro, I think we try to follow that mindset but there's inevitably pressure put on the Minister of Communications or Radio to be putting out something at a regular interval to be deemed successful in the role. I'm guessing that's less of a concern in TPOP?

Grea Kriopia: And since we're on the topic, Aav and Okona, what do you see as the benefits for doing a monthly production? Although it sounded like for Starlight, you all might be branching away from strictly monthly as well

Wizard: I do feel some pressure to keep a decent stream of articles coming out, but I believe that is more from my own ambition in this role rather than higher-up pressure.

Wizard: Our Chancellor has given the ministry some increased attention recently, and is hoping to put emphasis on it for this term, but that is something I feel is entirely workable - we are actually in the process of setting up a loose schedule for articles once they are proposed and start being written. The intent, rather than some strict publication deadline, is to give enough of a nudge to our writers and allow them to see their ideas through to becoming a full, published article, rather than allowing it simply to linger in the background for weeks or months on end.

Wizard: There is, of course, debate that can be had about this, and toeing the line between too lenient a hand and the schedule having next to no effect, and too heavy a hand where our writers may feel unduly pressured, but I believe we will be able to get through it well, and I am confident in our writing staff in being able to keep excelling at what they have been doing.

Grea Kriopia: Fascinating. Yeah, I fear Euro is not quite as lax in that regard so it's created almost an opposite effect where we've had discussions about our media becoming formulaic to meet the expected metrics rather than being individually thoughtful pieces (with some exceptions, obviously!). It will be interesting to see how TPOP threads the needle, though culturally it sounds like you have more flexibility

Okona: There definitely are constraints that come with publishing monthly, most prominently being the time crunch and obligation it puts on writers to produce content, but a benefit I see is that it serves as a kind of time capsule. Each month of the region’s history is recorded down into one document, so it makes it easy to go back and review notable occurrences in our region and the game as a whole. I actually just used this to look at our previous year’s Xmas in July event when I was writing my article for it in the latest issue. Great for newer players who want to get a comprehensive history of TO!

Okona: Another benefit to monthly content is that The Shoutback, and therefore The Outback as a whole, is routinely putting itself out there to garner new readers and attention from the larger gamewide community.

Grea Kriopia: That is helpful! I like the characterization of it being a time capsule, that does make sense in being able to reference it almost like an archive

Aav: The benefit for us is that Voice of the Stars is the fastest and simplest way for Starborn to get a one-stop-shop for understanding what is going on in the region at large. We provide updates from across the whole region, which allows people to see what's going on even in the parts that they aren't engaged in, leading to people leaving their silos and engaging in new areas!

Aav: Our non-scheduled articles are more freeform and don't need to provide the same scheduled update content and so they've provided an excellent chance for us to experiment with new things -- we debuted our new header imagery with the Merethin interview, and trialed a new layout with the WA Special Edition, for example, and liked them both so much that they became permanent features in Voice of the Stars!

Aav: By the end of this term, we will have published eight pieces in total, four special edition, four Voice of the Stars, and this tempo feels quite achievable for both allowing our writers to write what they want when they want, and to also produce a consistent newsletter piece.

Aav: (I just spent several minutes staring at "debuted" going "that can't possibly be how you spell that," but it sure does seem like it is.)

Grea Kriopia: It happens to the best of us

Okona: That is so relatable

Aav: Spellcheck has never once led me astray 🦦

Grea Kriopia: It's neat you get to try some new formats, though, since I feel like that's another aspect we've continued to play around with in the EBC while talking about how to spice up interest in media. Do you all mind talking about how your regional medias have changed over time, if at all? I think no change may be notable in itself as well

Aav may get off the hook for this question a bit too since that was already touched on some for Starlight

Aav: Hah! I will say that we've actually changed significantly with our tempo, because we were not running monthly VOTS prior to my term.

Aav: The first four editions were on an approximate 1-month release pattern, then there was an over 100 day period where we didn't release one at all, before releasing two main editions and two special editions at a pace of about 1 every month. The term before me only released one edition, and now we've released six and are planning to hit eight by the end of the term.

Aav: We have amazing staffers in Media and I am very thankful for them because without their hard work and dedication we wouldn't be able to put out as much content as we do!

Okona: Honestly The Shoutback hasn’t changed too much over the past year… Over time we’ve found popular mainstay features that appear in almost every issue, such as Hauntings From Around the World and Puzzle of the Month, and we’ve included more lighthearted articles such as recipe guides and real-life sports stories, but for the most part the format and content hasn’t changed too drastically.

Grea Kriopia: Wow, yeah, that is a fairly significant change with regard to publishing tempo, Aav, it sounds like VOTS is really hitting its stride

Grea Kriopia: For The Shoutback, that makes total sense and is perhaps another feature of the monthly consistency where you can find what works and stick to it reliably since you know what readers like and don't like

Wizard: The Perdition Post has certainly changed in its formatting, as one could see if they were to go back to some of our earliest publications, but I will also accept that those changes can simply be written off as growing pains, as we moved into our current format, and are otherwise unremarkable. For the underlying structure of our paper, I will accept that we have not had significant change - barring the aforementioned attempt to shift to a monthly publication. I feel my position on the stance between a rolling schedule and taking a lighter hand is clear, but beyond that, I am happy with where the Post's structure lays.

Wizard: One thing I will note is that I consider Perdition as a whole, and I do not suspect this would be hard to apply to Starlight and the Outback broadly, as our regions are all in a rather similar camp, to still be in a formative phase of its lifespan as a region. The actions I and others take in establishing our regional institutions and regulating their operation will leave a legacy that might still be followed five or ten years down the road, and acknowledging that is a large reason I prefer to simply keep things as-is, where I am already happy with our structure and how it works, rather than trying to re-invent it entirely, which may well set precedent for future Ministers of Media in Perdition to try the same.

Aav: Yeah! I'm very excited to see where the next term takes it, and I hope that it will continue its momentum.

Grea Kriopia: Don't let me scare you away from typing Okona!!

Okona: Exactly, Shoutback is still in its infancy and so we’re trying to build a simple, solid foundation that’ll last far into the future.

Okona: Sorry I reread my messages like three times before sending them 😅

Aav: Ugh so real

Grea Kriopia: mood

Aav: I'm also doing my best here to minimize editing required and actually typing with capital letters 😂 which feels slightly wrong for me to do haha

Aav: idk if anyone else here suffers from that

Grea Kriopia: It's a good point that TPOP, TO, and Starlight are all relatively young region-wise so things are still formative. Probably easy to forget with how large and impactful each of your regions are now. I will also be the medium-old person to say that to me it's a good sign that newer regions are opting to build media outlets because I think some regions see it as unnecessary work for little reward and it's been a shame to see media on NS go down for a time

Grea Kriopia: More recently, I'd say it's bounced back some in no small part thanks to you all

Okona: Aw shucks 😊

Wizard: I'll also add that it might well be harder to get the ball rolling today, if only because NS overall has entered a bit of a lull in terms of gameplay activity. It's well beyond doubt that the current order has very much solidified its dominance over all others, and that often leaves a lack of notable events that one could cover. Working through that has definitely made it a little harder to keep things interesting, or in our case, get articles out at all.

Aav: That's absolutely correct. We ran into issues with our last edition as there just simply wasn't anything of note to cover in the Foreign Affairs column.

Grea Kriopia: I can see that. Is that also because TPP (and feel free to apply this to the others) tends to focus on foreign coverage over domestic or not so much? Admittedly, foreign coverage tends to get a lot of the hype here in Euro because it seems like juicy drama compared to domestic issues

Okona: That’s definitely an issue Shoutback has been dealing with too, especially since our most popular article is Hauntings From Around the World… can’t do much if there’s no hauntings.

Aav: We're mostly a domestic paper by volume, but foreign coverage is still something that we value.

Grea Kriopia: Love the name Hauntings From Around the World btw, very fun

Wizard: We certainly did capitalize on foreign issues while they were still routine. Probably our best article yet was coverage of Starlight's own departure from the Sunrise Pact, and we have a handful of articles covering the NPO's fall from grace. Adapting to a gameplay where these events are far less common has been difficult, and it is certainly hard trying to force out articles from a smaller theater in domestic affairs.

Grea Kriopia: I'd say the EBC has run into some of the same issues, though we have a little more appetite at home for coverage about our ever-present elections or lately court-related topics. It helps but it's not exactly mega readership like we'd expect from articles about FA crises or what not

Wizard: That said, I would not describe it as a concerted focus on one or the other; I think it's much easier to say that we take what we can and write about it, and that naturally shifts towards foreign affairs coverage.

Okona: Same here, we’re a pretty even split of domestic and foreign news. Even besides Hauntings, we also often cover recent Sovereign Seven happenings and The Outback’s moves in the WA space (shoutout to all of the awesome TO WA writers!) I know for our most recent issue we won’t be featuring a Hauntings and we’re focusing on more domestic news/features.

Aav: Funny you mention the WA space -- Voice of the Stars actually began to run a WA column in earnest two editions ago now, but our Ministry of World Assembly Affairs actually publishes their own newsletter (The Intergalactic) completely devoted to WA happenings independent of Media.

Grea Kriopia: WA topics are definitely becoming more popular across the board, I'm sure in parallel with everything happening in the GA and its reset

Wizard: Oh, and also for reference: Perdition does have WA updates and IFVs we publish, but that isn't under the purview of the Ministry of Media or me - it's handled by our Ministry of World Assembly Affairs (mouthful)

Grea Kriopia: Makes sense!

Okona: Aav, do you think mixing them together now will bring more interest to WA affairs in your region, as opposed to just the separate newsletter?

Aav: That was our intent -- I coordinated it with our Minister of World Assembly Affairs with the express hopes that it would drive more readership and engagement with WA products.

Grea Kriopia: I'd definitely be curious to know how that goes

Aav: We're even trialing synchronizing our production schedules down to the minute to publish together.

Okona: Now that’s teamwork!

Grea Kriopia: 100%

Grea Kriopia: There can be a high context bar when it comes to engage in WA debates so the idea of bringing more WA content into media makes complete sense for trying to educate readers and draw them in more

Wizard: Admittedly, my own hand on WA publications is non-existent. I probably could nudge them for something at some point, but eh

Okona: I’ve also been working with TO’s Governor of WA Affairs to coordinate some new articles for future issues focused on educating players new to the WA. Definitely a new focus for publications post-GA reset

Grea Kriopia: I will have to take notes then, the GA reset has certainly been a topic of interest and maybe we'd benefit from doing the same

Grea Kriopia: I know we've been going for a minute here so perhaps one last question? Again, something we've touched on a little bit already, but where do you see your regional medias going in the future? Any aspirations or goals?

Okona: Honestly chatting with you guys has been pretty inspiring! It makes me want to look further into ways we can branch out a bit from the status quo we’ve created, while still keeping the aforementioned strong foundation. I’m not sure about the long-term future, but in the short-term I hope to find more mainstay articles that are more domestic in nature to combat foreign news droughts.

Wizard: Predicting where we'll be down the line, especially in terms of many months or years, has always been difficult, so I can not say anything with total confidence. But, what I can say for certain is that I am confident in our writing staff, in the articles we have published both under my time as minister and before, and I am proud of what we have accomplished in a relatively short time. The Perdition Post is already at the forefront of NS media publications, and I believe that status is one that we will maintain for a long time, long after my departure from this office, whenever that may come.

Grea Kriopia: Well, I'm happy to have helped! It's always interesting to hear how other regions work on the same things and a little brainstorming goes far

Aav: We have a lot of talented writers in Starlight and Horizon and removing barriers to entry for them to get their thoughts on paper is a goal of mine. With the advent of our new editorial section, I plan to open submissions to all Starborn to allow guest writers to write articles as they choose, instead of strictly limiting content production to Media staffers.

Aav: Beyond that, my goal is always to grow and nourish the staffers who power Media and make it as great as it is. I am exceptionally proud of them for what they've done in growing our publication.

Okona: Same here, very proud of the diligent writers who have truly made The Shoutback what it is- one year down, hopefully many more to go!

Grea Kriopia: Everyone is shilling for the "Favorite Minister of Media" award by sucking up to their staff I see!! In all seriousness, I do not blame you all one bit because Media is basically impossible without a strong staff supporting it so I'm sure the shoutouts are appreciated

Wizard: I said it first and everyone else is just following me. It's as if I'm a shepherd

Grea Kriopia: Thank you all for taking time out of your day to talk all things Media! I fear I've kept you all hostage long enough so I think we will call it there and I really appreciated all the points that were brought up because I think/hope it ended up being a fairly nuanced discussion about what media across NS looks like these days

Okona: Thanks for having us GK!

Grea Kriopia: Any time!!

Aav: Thanks for the invite, GK! Always happy to talk Media, it's genuinely one of my favorite things to do on NS!