‘Ten Principles for Washington Post Journalism on the Web’

Posted on July 5, 2007

The Washington City Paper was so kind to post an internal memo encouraging the WP and WP.com to play nice.

Say Washington Post Executive Editor Len Downie and Managing Editor Phil Bennett:

We wanted to develop and prioritize the most promising aspects of our partnership, address bottlenecks in our relationship and create the 2.0 version of the newsroom’s role in what is already one of the most successful journalism sites on the Web.

And here’s the list:

1. The Washington Post is an online source of local, national and international news and information. We serve local, national and international audiences on the Web.

2. We will be prepared to publish Washington Post journalism online 24/7. Web users expect to see news as it happens. If they do not find it on our site they will go elsewhere.

3. We will publish most scoops and other exclusives when they are ready, which often will be online.

4. The originality and added value of Post journalism distinguishes us on the Web. We will emphasize enterprise, analysis, criticism and investigations in our online journalism.

5. Post journalism published online has the same value as journalism published in the newspaper. We embrace chats, blogs and multimedia presentations as contributions to our journalism.

6. Accuracy, fairness and transparency are as important online as on the printed page. Post journalism in either medium should meet those standards.

7. We recognize and support the central role of opinion, personality and reader-generated content on the Web. But reporters and editors should not express personal opinions unless they would be allowed in the newspaper, such as in criticism or columns.

8. The newsroom will respond to the rhythms of the Web as ably and responsibly as we do to the rhythms of the printed newspaper. Our deadline schedules, newsroom structures and forms of journalism will evolve to meet the possibilities of the Web.

9. Newsroom employees will receive training appropriate to their roles in producing online journalism.

10. Publishing our journalism on the Web should make us more open to change what we publish in the printed newspaper. There is no meaningful division at The Post between “old media” and “new media.”

I’ve never worked at the Post, so I don’t know how it really feels to work there, but from the outside it seems to me that it’s got to be quite difficult when the two aren’t even in the same state.

Well, OK … print is in D.C. and online is only across the Potomac in Arlington, Va., but not even being in the same building has got to hurt some of their efforts. Geesh. I sit about 30 feet from the city editor and still find it tough. I can’t imagine the obstacles these two news organizations must face (which is part of the problem — they should be one news org.)

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What AP looks for in storytellers

Posted on July 5, 2007

Sandeep Junnarkar spoke to Ted Anthony, founding editor of asap, about how the new service has grown during the past two year, how it is tackling multimedia storytelling, and what skills AP looks for in new hires. (Link via News Videographer)

Here’s an excerpt:

OJR: Can you tell me about the qualities you are seeking in journalists to tell stories in alternative ways?

Anthony: … We were looking for people who were flexible in their storytelling–and by that I mean people who wouldn’t say, we don’t do things that way. Too many news organizations in today’s world are populated with many people who say, we don’t do things that way. Those people are not going to be doing things at all if they keep up that attitude. We have to be willing to acknowledge that there is a certain core group of values and skills that we have, but that beyond that we are in this brave new world and we have to be able to think critically about how a story should be told and whether a story will resonate, will echo if it’s told in the best way. I really was aiming to hire people who are willing to say, “okay, we will not be bound by convention.”

We’ve started using asap multimedia on our site, and I’m impressed with some of the projects — such as Dan Deacon’s soundboard explained, A look inside the Yale Yearbook, and The return of the hat.

I like ‘em. They’re edgy and interesting. And, honestly, much better designed and consistently well-put-together than some of the other AP multimedia I come across.

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Good (design) reads for 07.05.07

Posted on July 5, 2007

Speaking of facelifts, there’s a lot of newspaper redesigning going on (my fear in listing these is that I’m going to miss one — so please let me know if I have!):

>> Jack Lail, Managing Editor of MultiMedia for the Knoxville News Sentinel, shows the evolution of Knoxnews.com, which got a design update last week. Jay Small, director of online products for the Newspapers Interactive Group of the E.W. Scripps Co, explains,

The design emphasizes multimedia, especially video, more. The Knoxnews content team gets more design options for the first screen of the home page, to reflect news of the day.

>> Josh Catone compares the designs of CNN.com, USATODAY.com and AOL News. His conclusion:

My feeling is that while CNN likely has the most attractive and professional-looking site (they could certainly win some web 2.0 design awards), USA Today has social media down cold.

But he also points out:

However, interestingly, in contrast to what the anecdotal evidence would seem to suggest, USA Today has seen a huge drop off in traffic since their redesign went live in March according to Compete.

Howard Owens came to similar conclusion.

*UPDATE* >> Andy Rutledge also put together a comparison between CNN.com and USATODAY.com, illustrating how CNN has a “quiet” structure.

>> Also regarding CNN.com’s new design, Patrick Thornton says:

Technologically speaking, the new CNN site is probably the best journalism site out there. If it wants to go toe-to-toe with The Washington Post, however, it will need to add more unique special features and sections. They have their basic content displayed well, but now they need to add features like OnBeing, The U.S. Congress Votes Database or the Tracking Teen Shopping Habits, among other features.

>> New designs are popping up across the pond, too. ‘icLiverpool’ has given birth to two new sites: Liverpool Post and Liverpool Echo, which better reflect their markets. Paul Bradshaw says:

It’s been a move the ‘ic’ sites have needed for a long time, and the contrast is considerable. The endless list of vertical navigation options has gone, replaced by a much clearer horizontal bar and the generally ‘bigger canvas’ look that most recent news website relaunches have adopted (larger images, fewer stories).

>> Gannett launches “Nimbus,” a new weather feature on some sites, according to Lost Remote. (See a sample in the right-hand corner of this site.)

Eh. The cartoony look is too cutesy for me, and the video took WAY to long to load.

>> AOL updated its video portal Tuesday. New features include:

* A redesigned main page that makes it easier for consumers to discover, search for and find millions of videos from across the Web;

* A redesigned video search experience that leverages industry-leading Truveo™ video search technology and features better presentation of Web search results to help users more easily find what they are looking for and;

* A new embedded playback experience where consumers can find and watch videos from other popular video sites on the AOL Video site.

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An X Degree facelift

Posted on July 4, 2007

Just changing a few things around here … moved to Wordpress because I like the widgets/add-on options (I think the new Moveable Type version will have something similar, but I couldn’t wait).

The new theme, I hope, will be easier to read. I’m also creating a library of books I’ve read and am reading (idea taken from Angela Grant over at News Videographer), and I’ll feature a video of the week about multimedia/the journalism industry.

More to come, including parts of my portfolio and other fun features and working out the kinks as I come across them.

UPDATE: First couple of kinks I’ve encountered: New RSS/feed URL is here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/xdegree

And it looks like most of my links are the same, but some have changed — so links on other blogs may not work. Darn it. I’ll try to go back and fix as/if I can.

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