Showcase: PennLive.com Sparks Heated Discussions with Searchable Pension Database

PennLive.com, a news website covering Central Pennsylvania, has seen a spike in traffic and comments driven by the recent reporting series on state pensions named “Set for Life”. This featured reporting package examines different aspects of pensions in Pennsylvania and has generated wide discussions on the issue.

The special reporting series resulted from an interactive searchable pension database created by Jan Murphy, PennLive’s Capitol Bureau Chief. With source data obtained from the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System and Public School Employees’ Retirement System, Murphy discovered that public employees can get annual pensions as high as $400K. She then worked with PennLive’s web and mobile producer Megan Lavey-Heaton to publish the data in a searchable database using Caspio — the first time such data has been made available to the public in an interactive format.

The pension database made it to PennLive’s homepage quickly after it went live, generating hundreds of comments on the story page and shares through social media. Such wide popularity has inspired Murphy to expand the story to 9 different articles exploring pension related issues in more depth, all of which have brought nearly a quarter million views to their website.

Readers can search the pension database by last employer, first name, or last name of a public employee. They can also sort search results by criteria, including  total years of service, last employer, or yearly and monthly annuity.

With over 10 years of experience serving online news websites, Caspio offers extensive industry expertise to help editors and journalists design interactive online database applications to amplify the impact of their reporting.

Learn more about our services for online news websites and contact our News Media Success Team for a complimentary custom project consultation.