As digital partner to the daily sports newspaper Diario AS, AS.com is a popular destination for sports fans looking for the latest news, statistics and commentary. Based in Madrid, AS.com publishes local editions in Spanish and English for readers around the world.

AS.com has always set its sights on new and innovative content formats. “Our main goal is to make an impact with the reader. Our journalists at AS are experts at finding the right format for each piece of content to maximize the impact on our audience,” says Diario AS Deputy Editor Tomás de Cos. But with so many online destinations for sports fans, the pressure was on for the team to not only retain but grow their audience. They found their solution with Web Stories. 

Introducing Web Stories to the mix

The AS.com team first learned about Web Stories at the AMP Conference 2018 in Amsterdam. Later that year, they published their first Web Story, “Las Claves del Clásico contadas por AS” (“The Keys to the Clásico, explained by AS”), for the Barcelona vs. Real Madrid match — a face-off between the two biggest rivals in Spanish football. “It was a super fun and enriching experiment,” says Manuel Barrios, Deputy Director of Strategy, Digital Distribution and International Expansion at Diario AS. The team spent the next year researching how other media sites use Web Stories, while testing out different publishing tools for their own website. 

“Next, we went for a much more ambitious project — a guide to the NBA, launched at the start of the 2020 playoffs,” Manuel shares. The guide included a series of Web Stories about each of the league’s 30 teams, which were featured in a carousel on the homepage. 

Spotlighting major sporting events

Since its success with the NBA series, AS.com has used Web Stories to spotlight other major sporting events, including the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2020). AS.com placed the Euro 2020 Web Stories carousel at the top of the AS.com homepage to make sure visitors would see it.

“We are all too aware that the percentage of users who scroll down on news sites is very low, so our Web Stories had to be seen as soon as our homepage loaded,” Manuel explains. “The coverage from Euro 2020 was crying out for the Web Stories format, because we knew our journalists would be able to make the most of the format and create unique content.” For example, one Web Story shares a behind-the-scenes look at an AS.com journalist’s experience inside the EuroCup stadium. 

Engaging sports fans with Web Stories

With the help of their partner StatMuse, a Web Stories editor from BeSocy, and the Google Web Creators YouTube channel, AS.com editors have continued incorporating Web Stories into their special news features and events coverage. 

“The global audience of our Stories hit 4.4 million pageviews for the European Championships, 3.4 million for the Tokyo Olympic Games, and more than one million for our LaLiga Guide (men’s pro soccer league),” Manuel notes. “Since we launched Web Stories for the European Championships, we’ve had a marked increase in our audience consumption — with the carousel published in a number of international editions of AS.com, such as AS México and AS USA,” Manuel shares. “On average, 15 pages per story were reached, indicating significant reading depth.”

The site hopes to use Web Stories to further boost their daily sports content. “One of our ‘obsessions’ is to have Web Stories integrated organically as a standard format on our site,” Manuel says.

They’re also using Web Stories for more long-form features, like the 2021 Formula 1 racing competition kickoff. This particular feature has a separate Web Story for each team, including snippets of video interviews in the pages of the story.

The team now hopes to take their success with Web Stories to the AS mobile app. “We loved Web Stories from the very first moment for their editorial potential, and their capacity for storytelling,” Deputy Editor Tomás says. “Web Stories let us create the dynamic content our audience is hungry for.”

Gopi Shah began working with clay at age 14, and has now spent nearly 20 years making ceramic cups, dinnerware, sculptures and decorations. From her one-woman studio in Long Beach, California, she crafts designs inspired by Mesoamerican and Andean art, textiles and prints, and her natural surroundings. Recently, the Google Web Creators team teamed up with Gopi to create a Web Story, A Guide to Shaping Clay, about her work. 

 The story takes you behind the scenes in Gopi’s studio. Instead of just seeing the finished product as you would on Gopi’s website, you explore the whole pottery-making process — starting with the tools of the trade.

You can sit back and watch as Gopi demonstrates the four steps to shaping a cup — and then decorates it in her own whimsical style. Every personal touch, from the tags painted on her studio wall to her rustic wooden furniture, allows readers to better understand the person behind the brand.

The last page of the Web Story features links to her shop and social media so readers learn more and keep in touch.

We recently chatted with Gopi about creating content based on her clay creations, and how collaboration helped her build her brand and her confidence. 

How did you first find an audience?

I started finding my audience through the help of others. I honestly wasn't sure what I was doing when I started doing social media, and started picking up followers once brands that liked my work started posting about me. I now use that to my advantage by sharing other people's work I appreciate and collaborating with other brands so that we can market together.

Tell us about your brand. How do you want it to be perceived by followers and fans?

I want my work to be perceived as high quality and unique. My brand is me, which means it focuses on women of color entrepreneurs who had to build from nothing. 

How do you stand out in a crowded content marketplace?

The quality and diversity of my work is what sets me apart from others. I've been doing ceramics on and off for about two decades now, which means my wealth of knowledge is deep. I'm also striving for improvement in my work, so I usually am not happy unless I feel like my work can show my skills and talent.

How do you come up with ideas for content?

I tend to showcase the day to day of my life in the studio. My content is created by me, so sometimes I stop and think other potters may want to try this technique, or it would be a good way to showcase my process to my greater audience and customers. I think more people are taking ceramics and pottery classes, so they tend to understand how pottery is created, but for those who don't, it's pretty exciting to see how a lump of clay becomes something you use daily.

 How do you manage your content calendar? Any suggested tools or resources?

I don't really have a content calendar. I just end up posting what I'm doing in the studio, and if a holiday or a studio sale is coming up, I add that to the mix.

 How do you make your content interesting? Keep it short? Add photos and videos? Other?

I like to diversify my feed by showing my process as well as my final products. Making pottery is an interesting subject, and so many people tend to receive benefits from watching pottery being made, [almost like] ASMR or an "oddly satisfying" moment. I just started doing reels this year, so I can show an entire process rather than just small snippets of a process to really engage a viewer  with how something is made.

How do you post content across platforms? What types of content work best on each platform?

I like sharing events on Facebook and on my website through my blog, so that when people are searching for an event, my website will also hopefully pop up using SEO and keywords. I also like posting news on my Instagram as well as my website. For example, when I got a new kiln, I wrote a blog post about how and why I decided to go with the kiln I selected. I consistently post about my kiln on my Instagram, and if people ask about it, I can refer them to my website with my blog post that goes into more detail about it.  

What advice would you share with your earlier self when you were starting on this journey, based on what you’ve learned along the way?

Stop being scared and believe in yourself. It has taken me a while to have the confidence I have now in my work and my skill, but I'm grateful that I have such a strong and supportive community backing me.

You might think you love pizza, but Miriam Weiskind truly loves pizza. She has given pizza tours of Manhattan and Brooklyn for Scott’s Pizza Tours for over eight years, runs a website and blog at the ‘Za Report, is active on Instagram at @thezareport and now makes her own pies for her local community — with a month-long waiting list. And while Miriam also runs a Brooklyn-based creative studio called mdoubleu Design, she is clearly a professional pizza enthusiast.

To help people around the world learn a bit about Miriam and her passion for pizza, the Google Web Creators team partnered with her on a Web Story showcasing a virtual pizza tour of Brooklyn. 

The story’s title page draws you in with a mouth-watering video of a pizza being tossed and baked. The personal introduction makes you feel like you’re right there with her. She also appears throughout the Web Story, offering her opinions on what makes each pizza great.

Video shot in the pizza shops brings this Web Story to life. Instead of reading a blog post mentioning coal-fired pizza, you see a pizza with melted cheese emerging from an oven with red-hot coals.

The Web Story also has summary pages, featuring Miriam’s favorite pies at each pizza shop. It ends with the names of the three places visited in the story, and features photos and a link to  locate these places on Google Maps.

We recently chatted with Miriam about her love of pizza, and how that’s given her success on the web and social media.

How did you find your audience?

I began working with Scott’s Pizza Tours, giving tours once a week while working as a freelance art director in advertising and branding. My passion and love for pizza grew from that.

How did you figure out what you wanted to sell?

During the pandemic, I began to bake [pizza] pies for free to help those out who lost their jobs, were first responders or essential workers, or who were feeling sad or isolated due to the pandemic. Word of mouth quickly spread that I baked amazing pizza for free, and people began to donate to keep me baking. I now offer a limited menu of wood-fired pizzas and Sicilian pies that sell out 30 days ahead of time.

Tell us about your brand. How do you want it to be perceived by followers and fans?

I’m a pretty simple woman, working to make it in the pizza world while leaving a lasting impression to inspire others to do good and be good to others. Followers and fans love my story and the amazing pizza when they try it. 

How do you come up with ideas for content for your blog?

On a whim. I let ideas come to me, but I do have a certain algorithm I stick to in order to keep my audience engaged. Also, I do everything on my own. I want my voice to stay true to who I am, and if I were to have someone else do it for me, I don’t feel it would resonate as well with my audience.

How do you manage your content calendar? Any suggested tools or resources you rely on?

I use a text editor on my phone. I should really use a calendar.

Please share some of your most successful posts/content. Why did they work so well for you?

Anything related to my mom and how she inspired me followed by beautiful pizza shots. I was being myself and allowing people to connect to my story.

Do you have tips for recycling your content across platforms?

I shoot multiple things for one post. I like to do a teaser, then a post a day later. I always shoot video, and share snippets in stories. Stories are the fastest ways to catch eyeballs these days on Instagram. 

What advice would you share with your earlier self when you were starting on this journey, based on what you’ve learned along the way?

Set up a good website, and be ready for anything. Get organized and partner with people who want the best for you and your product.

Any other advice or tips for success that you’d like to share that we haven’t already asked about?

Never ever use a knife and fork to cut your pizza!

DAP The Contract is a classically trained pianist, but grew up in Lagos, Nigeria listening to almost every genre of music. After falling in love with hip-hop music in boarding school in the U.K. during his teenage years, he made his first beat at age 14 and never stopped. Now living in Brooklyn, New York, DAP is a producer, rapper and singer, all while having just finished law school. Recently the Google Web Creators team and creative agency Ueno partnered with DAP to share a bit of his story and music in a Web Story.

DAP’s “day-in-the-life” showcases the power of Web Stories by taking readers along for the ride from the moment he wakes up to when he shuts off the studio lights. Comprised primarily of first-person video, DAP’s story feels like a conversation where he’s sharing his routine directly with his audience. This structure follows the best practices for creating a Web Story highlighted on stories.google, including being video-first and providing a first-person point of view.

The Web Story also highlights some of the key features of the format, like links to listen to his music and to follow his other social channels.

We recently chatted with DAP to learn a bit more about his background and how he uses the web to connect with his audience.

Tell us a bit more about your journey to becoming a musician and producer.

When I was younger, my sister played the Motown classics: BeBe and CeCe Winans, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson. When she played me Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire” and then Kanye West’s “Through the Wire,” something drew me to hip-hop more strongly than any other music I had heard. But it wasn’t until I made my first beat at age 14 that I completely fell in love with hip-hop and the art of lyricism.

While I have supreme confidence in my ability as a musician, my work ethic is what got me to this stage. I had already played the piano for a decade before I made my first beat, and knew that having a long-term mentality and putting in the work over an extended period of time would separate me from my peers. I labeled each beat I made by number, starting from the first beat until the most recent—906. I love that I have some kind of marker for how much blood, sweat, and tears went into this journey.

I studied Latin and Greek (Classics) from middle school through college at Brown University. Scansion (the term for finding the rhythm of poetry) was my favorite aspect because of my lifelong passion for music. I always wanted to be a producer, but studying these subjects made me appreciate lyricism and storytelling on a deeper level. I drew a lot of inspiration from the simple fact that I could relate writings from 2000 years ago to my life and others’ lives today, and from recognizing the power of words and art, music especially, to change people’s lives. 

On February 5, I released an EP called “I’m Glad You Made It This Far.”

How can folks stay up to date on what you’re working on?

In the last 20 years, the capabilities of the web have grown tremendously, but it’s also become more complex. Figuring out how to configure, manage and monetize your own site can be difficult, especially if you’re not technically savvy. Social media apps, and the massive growth of mobile phones, are popular because they make it easy to create and share content online—but that doesn’t always translate to the web, even though it has the widest audience of almost any platform on the internet. 

We want to help with that. 

Today we’re launching Google Web Creators to provide tools, guidance and inspiration for people who make awesome content for the web. In addition to this blog, you can check us out on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 

A web creator could be a blogger, a photographer with a website, or a journalist—anyone who places their content on the open web. And while web creators may have different backgrounds, industries or areas of expertise, we think we can all learn from each other. By building a community of web creators, we aim to create a place where people creating for the web can learn, be inspired and grow.

In the coming months we’ll be sharing a lot of ideas and guidance to help those already creating on the web, as well as those interested in getting started:

• Guidance on how tools from Google and others can help

• Profiles of people in the creator community who are already producing great content

• Tips and tricks on how to be successful

To start, we’ll be featuring web creators like Abby Mills, a vintage fashion and lifestyle blogger, Hetal Vasavada, a Masterchef contestant who blogs about food and travel, and Cole Gaffney a cookbook author who shares recipes on her site. We’re also highlighting more than 20 different web creators who inspire us on our new Twitter handle, @webcreators. 

We’ll also launch interactive forums like office hours and (virtual) events to answer your questions directly and build the community. For now, our YouTube channel is a great place to start to learn more. We’re excited to connect with all of you.