Guide to riches
Posted on March 22, 2007
Some food for thought: E.W. Scripps’ 23-point plan for riches (thanks to Jack Lail for listing them all)
This point calls out to me particularly nowadays:
“3. Never do anything yourself that you can get someone else to do for you. The more things that someone else does for you the more time and energy you have to do those things which no one else can do for you.”
Exploring Antarctica
Posted on March 22, 2007
Really good stuff coming out of washingtonpost.com lately. And Rob Curley says there are many more in the pipeline to look forward to.
Today, a “Multimedia Special Report” titled “Exploring Antarctica.” Nice design and navigation, subtle but fun sound effects. And, of course, beautiful photography.
Perhaps what I like the most: It’s linked out of what I think of as the top-story location (the display photo) off the front of washingtonpost.com. No long print story to go with this one, either. The multimedia/video/audio/photos IS the special report.
I’m curious if any of this got into print and, if so, how it was treated.
Lots to say about this project, but not enough time to blog; I’ll have to come back later and update with some more thoughts.
What NOT to do in Web design
Posted on March 20, 2007
Before you start your next multimedia project, take a look at Josiah Cole’s list of 19 things revenue-generating Web site designers should avoid. It’s geared toward ecommerce sites, but Cole — who doesn’t mince words — shares some thoughts that also are applicable to newspaper Web sites (which last I looked are also are trying to generate some revenue).
I like this point he makes:
“Technology for the sake of technology is silly and only belongs on your personal show-off site, or your own computer where not one will be exposed to its horrid creativity except you.”
Broken Trust
Posted on March 20, 2007
Whew, it’s been a busy month. Here’s some of what I’ve been up to lately: Working on a piece of “Broken Trust,” a comprehensive report about teachers in Florida schools what have been investigated by the state for inappropriate behavior.
Charlie Szymanski and Maurice Tamman did an amazing job creating an interactive database with which you can find details about the accused teachers’ acts in a map- or text-based search. It’s a deep, useful site that has the potential to make a real difference in our lives; it reminds me why I love journalism so much.
Click on the “Case flow” tab to see what reporter Tiffany Lankes and I produced: An interactive flowchart that describes each step along the way of reporting abuse with audio clips from Dr. Robert Shoop, a professor of educational law at Kansas State University. I found it to be a challenging project because it is such a confusing, complicated system. During production, we decided that was the best way to illustrate it — go ahead and let the reader feel a similar frustration they might experience in reality.
How to call in sick
Posted on March 16, 2007
Some people work really hard at not working. HeraldTribune.com’s “Word on the Street” podcaster Latisha R. Gray talked to Sarasotans to find out the secrets to calling in sick.
I’m a behind-the-scenes gal — prefer to produce rather than be the personality — but she talked me into making my over-acting podcast debut.
Good reads for 03.14.07
Posted on March 14, 2007
“Lost” is on tonight, so no time to blog (priorities, you know?), but I found lots of good stuff to share:
>> For 2007, Portals Are Back, Pageviews Are Dead: Report, by David Kaplan
>> State of the News Media: Fight or Fright?, by Tom Abate.
>> The new news(room), by Jeff Jarvis.
>> Defining interactivity, by Paul Bradshaw.
>> Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design, by Laura Ruel and Nora Paul.
>> News, Improved. The State of the News Media, Not, by Tim Porter (link via Howard Owens; another good read)
>> What you should know about blogging, by Mindy McAdams
What next?
Posted on March 13, 2007
Check out the career development discussion Ryan Sholin’s having on his site with fellow bloggers about what he should learn next.
Some say business, some say databases, some say Flash.
It’s a tough call that depends on your long-term career goals. I think Flash is a common denominator to them all, so getting a good foundation in that will help in any direction you go. Sort of like learning to add before using the calculator.
I’m fascinated by the number of responses he’s received, proving that 1) blogging is helpful in many ways and on many levels and 2) this industry is so young that we’re defining our education and career paths as we go.
No time to sleep on a Web job
Posted on March 13, 2007
New York Times columnist Mike Freeman talks to TheBigLead.com about sports writers, his career and the journalism industry. In that interview, he says:
“You hear a lot of reasons for the demise of newspapers and the growth of the Internet. Many are valid and some are more important than others. Now having worked in both mediums I can definitively say one reason for the troubles of newspapers is something few people talk about and it has to do with work ethic.
“Too many newspapers have become lazy; too many newspaper reporters have become lazy. No one in the industry wants to discuss this. This is not everyone in newspapers of course but almost everyone I know writing for the Internet works far longer hours and writes more than most newspaper guys I know. It is not even close. I think readers know this and appreciate the difference.”
Web editors and producers know this — we have constant deadlines and a product that’s never put to bed. Every reporter and photographer should sit at a Web producer’s desk for at least one day to see what it’s like. I think it’d be quite an eye-opener.
(Link via Jim Romenesko)
KISS (keep it short, stupid)
Posted on March 13, 2007
Michael Eisner’s jumping into online video, reports the LA Times:
“The former Walt Disney Co. chief executive said his Tornante Co. will shoot 80 episodes of a new series called ‘Prom Queen,’ each lasting just 90 seconds. The series will start showing online April 2 at Vuguru.com, YouTube and Veoh.com, a video sharing service in which Eisner is an investor.”
Angela Grant, who thinks shorter is better, pointed out the other day that:
“People are willing to spend more time and energy when they’re being entertained than when they’re being informed. I don’t think that at this time someone would watch a 90 minute journalistic video online.”
I agree with Angela. But I’m intrigued that the entertainment industry is experimenting with shorter clips. Will viewers prefer it, or will they end up frustrated by the short?
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t …
Posted on March 13, 2007
The top two reasons people unsubscribe to your blog feed, according to blogger Darren Rowse (I’m sort of committing the No. 4 reason here: posting off topic):
>> Too many posts (the post levels are too overwhelming) — 37
>> Infrequent Posting (or the blog is effectively dead) — 29
How ’bout that?
Honestly, I’ve found already that it’s so easy to get caught up in stats, who’s linked to whom, etc. But I remind myself that I’m in this to learn — to see what others are doing and saying about multimedia and to push myself in formulating my own opinions.
In the short time I’ve worked on this blog, I already agree with Howard Owens when he said:
“The process of blogging has taught me more — both about the world around me and about myself — than I ever gained through a private diary.”
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