Looking from the outside in
Posted on April 27, 2008
I’ve been away from the newsroom for only two months, and I feel my news consumption has changed considerably.
For some background: I was an online news producer for eight years. During that time, I covered entertainment, travel and breaking news. I helped out with the sports and money sections as needed. I focused on online community development and then, specifically, multimedia. I’ve worked for large and small papers.
And I loved what I did because I loved being a part of a community. Serving their need to know what’s going on around the world and in their towns and their need to be educated about how what’s happening affects their lives.
I was a news junkie. I consumed news reports as much as I produced them.
- Of course, I read the site I worked for daily, and I subscribed to the print edition.
- I knew all of the breaking news updates that happened — every single day.
- I supplemented my local news updates by reading the national newspaper and cable TV news Web sites.
- I used an RSS reader to keep up with blogs and news sites.
- I used del.icio.us all the time to keep up with blogs and news sites.
- I “played” with content and sought out video, interactive graphics and special reports by newspapers — not just in my local area, but around the world.
- I watched cable and network TV in the morning, evening and weekends.
- I looked at the Drudge Report and Google & Yahoo news a couple of times a day for another overview.
I wasn’t reading and watching everything, but I felt plugged in.
Now? Well, my schedule’s not nearly the same.
- I don’t subscribe to my local print papers (there are four in my area, including two in my town). Sometimes, one of the town papers ends up on my driveway for some mysterious reason, but I rarely read it. And when I do, I’m disappointed by the lack of LOCAL coverage.
- During the day at work, I don’t have time to read these four newspapers’ Web sites. I might check them during lunch. But I won’t be going back to the sites for the rest of the day, so I’ve missed out on all those breaking news updates.
- I remember how important it was to beat the competition by even seconds when posting to the Web. But guess what? As a news consumer now, I don’t care. In all honesty, unless there’s a 9/11-type event, I’m probably not even checking the site. I don’t even know it’s posting all that great content.
- I only have time to “play” with multimedia and other content that’s most important to me — I’ll engage in interactive graphics, watch videos and read blogs that interest me most. The others, either I don’t have time to read or I don’t know the content even exists.
- I still check Drudge, Google and Yahoo when I have the time.
- I depend on RSS feeds even more.
- I still watch a lot of cable news TV at night and on the weekends.
Here’s what’s completely new:
- I’ve become one of “them.” I don’t get my news from newspapers and I get little of my news by traditionally viewing a newspaper Web site — as one would a newspaper. I don’t go to the homepage (A1) as often. I don’t flip through the different section fronts and scan the headlines as often. And I certainly won’t read any type of e-paper.
- But I DO subscribe to print magazines. Why the difference? I get niche content in magazines. My perception is I don’t get that in my newspapers.
- I subscribe to news Twitter accounts. CNN posts breaking news tweets, and I love that it doesn’t overload me with updates. When I get a tweet from them, I pay attention. I enjoy USATODAY.com’s “On Deadline” tweets. They give me a great overview of what’s going on nationally during the day. More newspaper Twitter accounts are out there, but none for my local or city area.
- I get news stories from friends on Twitter. It’s like standing around a virtual water cooler. Sometimes tweets are chit-chat. Sometimes they’re gossip. And sometimes they’re news links.
- I depend more on links shared by friends via Facebook.
- I depend on my del.icio.us network even more to keep up with blogs and news sites.
- I’ve gone back to reading e-mail newsletters. These have been so valuable to me, and I’ve noticed blogs offering an e-mail option (I don’t know if this is new, or if I’m noticing it because it’s more important to me now).
- I seek out shows that analyze the news and entertain me. I watch “The Daily Show,” “Reliable Sources” on CNN, and I browse YouTube videos.
- I’m less often distinguishing my news by TV, print or blogs. News is news. Information is information. The only distinguisher is whether I trust the provider.
I’m still not reading and watching everything. In fact, I feel like I’m seeking out much less. But I still felt plugged in.
Lessons to be learned for news organizations:
>> Make it local. Of all the news I get, the information I usually want most is what I’m not getting: local content. And what I really, really want is micro-local content.
>> Rethink what interactive means. Newspaper’s are doing a great job of creating innovative interactive content, but much of it requires a user/reader to seek out the Web site to participate.
Why not tie social networking tools into your next project? Make it viral. Let readers “play” with that awesome database you made — from their mobile. Here’s an opportunity to take greater advantage of the Web to break up linear storytelling.
>> Personalization is so important. The beauty of blogs and social networking sites is the ability to drill-down to niche content. THAT is what I want as a news consumer now. I still want the main overviews, but I don’t have time to get specifics about everything. I want the specifics about what matters to me most.
Too often newspaper Web sites are too difficult to navigate. I find it hard to find the specifics I need. When I worked for a news site, I used it and several others every day. I knew where most everything was on those sites and could click to the content I needed quickly. But since I’m not visiting them daily now, I tend to get lost right away.
>> Push your content & take advantage of social networking (aka, learn how to market your site and its content). All the fabulous, innovative work that newspapers are doing may be lost to readers who have to seek it out themselves. There are a lot of other Internet and real-life interests, commitments, and demands that are competing for your readers’ time.
As a former journalist, I may be able to find links to innovative special reports via NPPA, ONA, NAA, etc. But “average” readers probably don’t know about these awards or these sites, nor would they be likely to seek them out.
We all know how hard it is to find multimedia/special packages on a site when we’re IN the industry (I depend on multimedia blogs such as Teaching Online Journalism, News Videographer & the former Multimedia Shooter). Now I know how hard it is on the outside. If a reader misses seeing a special package the day it was highlighted on the news Web site, they may never see it.
Particularly if readers are focusing on their niche areas, they’ll miss a great effort that could possibly be of great importance to them. I need an easy way to stay in the know.
This is already happening to me. For example, road work may be done to a highway near where I live, which would have a significant impact on my community. But I keep missing the stories about it written by my local papers. Sure, I could set up a Google search alert and hope it finds the stories I need to read. But now you’re requiring the reader to do a lot of work to access your content. It should be easy for them. Plus, what if I didn’t know the road work was going to happen in the first place? I’d most certainly miss it.
Social networking is more than creating a community on your own site (which is definitely an important step). It’s creating a community around your news that’s off your site, too:
- Does your site use mobile and e-mail updates? If so, do they work effectively and correctly?
- Does your site use Twitter? It’s such an easy way to keep your readers in the know about breaking news, weather and traffic.
- Does your site use Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr?
- Does your site interact with bloggers — not just as sources, but to engage in a conversation on their sites? Does your site leverage news aggregates such as Fark, Drudge Report, etc.?
* NOTE: Patrick Thornton has a great post on how news is a social event for his generation that ties in well with my post-newsroom experiences.
Links that stink on news sites
Posted on April 4, 2008
Links that stink on news sites
"The real sin here is how extraneous links induce link shyness: When the time comes that the reader will benefit from clicking on a link, he’ll not bother because the site has taught him its links are worthless."
New York Times: Facebook Strategy
Posted on April 2, 2008
New York Times: Facebook Strategy
"We’ve seen a positive effect on traffic. Referrals from Facebook to NYTimes.com have increased since the launch of our NYTimes.com profile page last fall, as has the number of Times articles being shared among Facebook users."
DNA2008: Newspaper video will die in 2008
Posted on April 2, 2008
NewspaperVideo: DNA2008: Newspaper Video Will Die in 2008
Says Fadely: "… publishers need to think about the back end before handing gear to staffers — content management systems that can embed video with stories, servers that work, players that don’t piss off viewers, and tagging that Google can find. It sounds easy but very few papers are doing even these basics.
Yahoo launches ‘Shine’ for women
Posted on March 31, 2008
Yahoo launches ‘Shine’ for women
"With Shine, Yahoo plans to expand its offerings in parenting, sex and love, healthy living, food, career and money, entertainment, fashion, beauty, home life, and astrology."
Advice for the class of ‘07
Posted on January 4, 2008
Members of the first graduating class of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism received their diplomas December 18. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times Assistant Managing Editor Dean Baquet received an honorary doctorate from the school and gave the commencement speech. In it, he said:
What do you say to a group of young men and women who have chosen to go into a profession that many people think will be obsolete in a generation or so?
The great secret that no one seems to be talking about right now as we all wring our hands about the uncertain future of our profession:
If you go into journalism, and you approach it with humanity and not as a crass careerist, you will have more fun, more pure joy than anyone graduating from any place this year.
You will wake up in the morning unsure of which new adventure awaits.
You will see places nobody in your generation will see — distant places, but also the darker corners of the places where you live.
You will meet great writers and thinkers.
You will confront morale dilemmas that will force you to grow.
You will make epic mistakes, I promise you. But things will move so fast that if you own up to them, you will have the chance to fix them.
In short, you will have an absolute blast.
Looking back on 2007
Posted on January 1, 2008
The bad news first: As we are all too aware, 2007 was filled with layoffs, buyouts and hiring freezes. I fear it may not get better soon enough.
Circulation and advertising woes aside, part what irks me about the industry is the type of journalism we too often do: So many of last year’s headlines were dominated by “news” coverage of Anna Nicole Smith, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. (Here’s a top-10 headlines list I found, though, that evens things out.)
Not that this is anything new. But it seems so much more prevalent today given the drive for more revenue and the need to constantly update the Web and 24-hour cable TV shows.
A Pew poll from this summer shows the public blames the media for this coverage. Part of my job is to monitor their reading habits so I can put together a mix of news that satisfies both the readers and the editors. But what I’ve found: Readers are clicking on sex, celebrities, and money. Post a story about Britney, and it’ll pull in the page views. It’s a vicious circle.
Now for the good news: We’ve made some significant advances in the way we disseminate information (Susan Mernit outlines 10 more 2007 moments and milestones), and our newsrooms are transforming.
For a little New Year’s humor, here’s a year in review from JibJab:
The REAL Daily Prophet?
Posted on November 1, 2007
Virtually at the ONA conference
Posted on October 15, 2007
Speaking of conferences, since I already spent my travel allowance this year, I’m quite disappointed I won’t be able to attend the Online News Association conference in Toronto, which starts Thursday.
But once again, I’m so happy I can still keep up on what attendees are talking about and learning. Twenty-one students will be covering the event by blogging, video taping and writing news stories and features.
Also, on the ONA conference’s opening night, CBC news will host “The Future of the Future of News,” a panel discussion that will be streamed live at 6 p.m. Can’t save the date? They’ll archive it for later viewing, too.
Want to talk about the future? Post your thoughts on CBC’s forums.
Good reads for 10.13.07
Posted on October 13, 2007
>> 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.
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