Sunday, September 20, 2015

NewsTrack: Slate's 'Dear Prudence' column, what works, what doesn't

One of my personal favorite aspects of Slate — which happens to be my favorite online publication — is the "Dear Prudence" column written by Emily Yoffe. It's a spin on the traditional "Dear Abby" advice column in that it's more of a contemporary, high-tech, PG-13 spin on proper courtesy.

It can touch on modern, current events: What do you do if your name is Hillary and people automatically associate you with Hillary Clinton? In that same column, should you allow your child to attend a party with an unvaccinated child? What is proper etiquette for Uber ratings? What happens if you found your husband in the hacked Ashley Madison database?

But her advice is very much evergreen content. When Yoffe is on vacation, Slate likes to recycle old columns and almost "highlights" of her best advice. Recently, they created a "greatest hits" of her wedding-related advice and vacation-related advice. This is a good way to continue to draw in page views (and advertising money) despite not having any new content.

Prudie's column, much like any other advice column, relies on user-generated questions. It's quite an interactive, accessible model — every week, Yoffe hosts a live chat where users can submit questions about anything for her to use in her column that week. It doesn't require quite the effort that a traditional advice column format does.

Occasionally Yoffe will post videos of her giving advice instead of giving written advice, to give some variation in the way people can consume her content.

The column, in all, is a pretty straightforward format that has been modernized to make it younger and more user-friendly.

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