Role: Lead editor, writer, content strategist
Collaborators: Writers/editors, design and audience development teams

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Challenge

It was March 2020. The pandemic was beginning to unfold and dreaded uncertainty blanketed us all. As the the editor in charge of curating the Curbed homepage at the time, I noticed that while Curbed is a site about home, there was nothing on the homepage that directly spoke to how big of a role the home was about to play amid fast-spreading quarantine orders.

Solution

After recognizing this gap in the reader experience, I pitched the idea of creating a centralized content hub to help people with their stay-at-home experience. The pitch was approved and I proceeded to do a light content audit to determine the sweet spot between Curbed’s expertise and readers’ content needs. I then curated those suitable pieces of content into the hub, which was sorted into three themes: Stay organized, Stay inspired, and Stay connected.

I collaborated with fellow editors to workshop all display copy, with the design team on developing custom illustrations, and with the audience engagement team to fine-tune distribution across email and social. 

Outcomes

• The content hub went live just 2 weeks after I first pitched the idea — the hub was immediately “pinned” at the top of the homepage, so readers can easily navigate to Curbed’s stay-at-home coverage; the hub also gave other outlets an easy way to share Curbed’s coverage.

• The three main themes in the hub provided a framework for developing new content — staff writers were able to generate new story ideas that deepen existing coverage.

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To figure out what would go in the hub, I began by conducting a light content inventory and audit with the aim of identifying themes in the existing content that would be relevant to pandemic-era readers. I found three:

1. home organization tips

2. home decor inspiration

3. ideas on staying connected with the local community

All three of these topics had consistent coverage within the previous year, which told me they were authentic to Curbed’s expertise. Making sure stories included in the hub were authentic to Curbed’s coverage was not only important for a strong launch product, but also for the continued growth of the hub. Choosing the most naturally relevant themes from the beginning would help ensure a consistent stream of new content to add to the hub.

Collaborating with design team, who helped me understand the content management system capabilities available at the time, I decided to use the three content themes as organization and navigation pillars, as seen below.

Product naming

I pitched the hub title “Stay home with Curbed” to channel the familiar social distancing messaging at the time (“stay home”) while conveying that the Curbed team is going through the same experiences and stands by ready to help.

I recognized that “Stay” was also a useful word to continue using for naming the three content themes for two reasons:

1. Continuity with the main hub title and a sense of cohesion overall.

2. The word itself underscores our ongoing coverage of an ongoing global event — in the same spirit as the familiar expression “stay tuned'“.

Takeaways

1. It’s rewarding to work collaboratively, purposefully, and fast.

The idea for this content hub was so immediately relevant that I felt my team had a lot of conviction and motivation from the get-go. We all wanted to get the hub out the door quickly so we can be a resource for readers ASAP during a time of uncertainty. 

2. There’s always room to improve — and that requires resources.

While it was satisfying to get the hub up and running within two weeks, my attention very quickly had to shift to creating new pieces of content to go into the hub along with other responsibilities of running the site. With more resources, there would be opportunities to continue improving the hub itself, such as increasing the legibility of the stacked links and coming up with a strategy for potentially expanding the scope of the hub as pandemic-era life progressed.