Good reads for 10.13.07

Posted on October 13, 2007 by Melissa Worden

>> That’s a wrap for Roanoke.com’s TimesCast. Lots of comments about the end of its era going on out there:

The official Roanoke.com announcement says: “We learned a lot of lessons in the two years since the work on the TimesCast began. We’ve applied those lessons to other Webcasts and to broader video efforts. It’s because of those Webcasts and our plans to do more with video produced in the field that we’ve decided to move beyond the TimesCast.”

Former producer and on-air talent Patrick Beeson reflects on the experience and how it affected the newsroom and the entire industry. He also speculates why it may have ended.

Lucas Grindley was never a fan and is only surprised it took so long for them to throw in the towel.

Bryan Murley disagrees and says two years isn’t too far off of the yardstick.

Mindy McAdams wasn’t a fan either. She does, however, give a nod to Roanoke.com for it’s cutting-edge idea, and says: “Maybe this move is a (good) sign of things to come — maybe a lot of other news organizations will realize that the television people have already failed at this, and there’s no earthly reason for newspapers to make the same mistakes.”

>> Online producer = journalist. Really. If we EVER want our news organizations to survive, we have to stop this us vs. them outlook. Meranda Watling says one of the reasons the online department at her newspaper isn’t in the newsroom is “because the online people are more techies and personalities don’t mesh with the word folks in the newsroom.” (Words of others at her paper, not hers.)

>> Need some design resources, tips and samples? Check out Smashing Magazine. I’ve referenced their stories several times. Danny Sanchez provides some reasons why the site is so great .

>> More reasons to Facebook. Steve Outing provides a very nice argument as to why your newspaper should seriously think about spending resources on developing Facebook apps.

Outing writes: “Facebook users are experiencing social interactions on the site, and “you don’t have to jump too far” to go from a Facebook user interacting with his/her friends to the user interacting with content from an organization that he/she trusts, Stutzman says. The key is to understand that the Facebook experience (and of course this extends to other social networks) is about connections. And this can apply nicely to news.”

What are you waiting for? Go make some apps.

>> ABC is reproducing the Evening News for the Web. Says The New York Times: “ABC is the only major broadcast network that is using the staff of its evening newscast to produce a separate and distinct daily program for a Web audience. The 15-minute Webcast often features Mr. Gibson in the anchor chair, but the similarities end there: the segments can run long, and they purposely look raw and personal, as if they were made for MTV rather than ABC.”

Only thing missing from the story is a link to the Webcast. Unfortunately, it was difficult to find on ABC’s page, even. You can watch it here.

Share This

Tags: online journalism, reader interaction, good reads, video

Comments

Leave a Reply




Close
E-mail It