Category: web 2.0

Editorial board rocks the vote with video

Big kudos to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel for posting full videos of the editorial board’s interviews with Florida’s gubernatorial candidates. The page features the entire interview with smaller clips broken down by topic (I’m sure THAT was fun to edit). [Full disclosure: I worked at the Sun-Sentinel in 2005.]

This is exactly the kind of thing at which online news sites can excel. These videos are a terrific example of promoting the democratic process and involving readers by opening the newsroom to them. Editorial boards are a ripe area of the newsroom that are just tingling with potential for the web.

If you haven’t already, check out the Spokesman-Review’s Transparent Newsroom iniative. Some may argue this approach is too much. I’m of the mind that newsrooms need more interaction with the public, not necessarily transparency; editorial boards are a great place to begin.

[via Online News Squared]

Google strikes with map coupons

The New York Times reports on how Google is now allowing businesses to upload coupons for free onto its Google Maps service. The acrimonious lede, which I confess I enjoyed, goes:

“Google is expanding its local directory business using the same sort of disruptive tactics it has used in other areas: giving away something for which others charge.”

Newspapers may again be left with the same dust in their faces that Craigslist kicked up. For newspapers to survive, the best and brightest need to redouble efforts to figure out what local news operations can offer that Google can’t.

Alert: Internet Explorer 7 downloads automatically

Microsoft will be releasing its new Internet Explorer 7 as an Automatic Update, according to a CNET report. This update stuff is a huge deal because: a) it will likely cause a quick, sharp drop in IE6 users since it’s automatically downloaded, and b) IE7 could cause certain layouts or features on your Web site to break because of changes and bug fixes.

The Web development team should begin combing through the Web site IMMEDIATELY with IE7 Beta 3 (find it here) if they haven’t started already. Also, staffs should be testing whatever content management systems or other Web-based software (e-mail, photo archives, etc.) to ensure that it all works in IE7. While IE7 won’t automatically install, it will automatically download.

When you install IE7 Beta, make sure it’s on a computer on which you don’t need IE6. Unfortunately, you cannot install more than one version of Internet Explorer without doing funky stuff like editing the computer’s registry (I know, I tried it!).

Browser testing panic aside, newspapers should re-examine their RSS feeds. IE7 features a user-friendly, built-in RSS system, which means that more people will likely start subscribing to your site’s feed.

Thought of delivering ads through the feed? Now might be a good time to ponder it considering the potential increase in RSS users. Only 80 of the 100 largest newspapers are now delivering ads through RSS, according to a recent study by the Bivings Group.

How does your newspaper site stack up?

The Bivings Group has released a comprehensive study [PDF] on “the degree to which newspapers are embracing the Internet.” The study, which examines the Top 100 newspapers in terms of circulation, is an excellent one-stop shop to get ideas from other large newspapers’ practices. (Thanks to Desiree.)

The criteria of the study serves as a great list of basic technologies that newspaper sites should be offering (RSS feeds, story-level comments, blogs, most-popular lists, podcasts and more). Check out Mark Glaser’s breakdown of the study on PBS’ Mediashift.

Some of the report’s key findings:

  • 76 of the nation’s top 100 newspapers offer RSS feeds on their Web sites.
  • Only 31 of the papers offer podcasts.
  • 80 of the papers offer at least one reporter-written blog
  • Only 19 allowed readers to comment on the articles.
  • And much more…

So why are these technologies not available on so many of the top newspaper sites? Is it primarily a lack of initiative, development staff or something else altogether?