Danny Sanchez on digital media
I ran across this image on Smashing Magazine tonight. I think it eloquently describes one of the biggest challenges specific to news site design:
What do you think? Is creating an effective way for users to find enormous amounts of content and features the biggest challenge news sites face?
[Photo by cutthroat7]
A group of eight young journalists at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. were asked to produce a report on how the newsroom can reorganize to improve efficiency.
Nick Eaton, a sports producer in Spokane, and the team have published the report [PDF], which has some interesting suggestions such as [more details at Nick Eaton’s post]:
Nick and his team’s report is certainly worth checking out, as your own newsroom is probably undergoing or will undergo some form of reorganization soon. It’s also a lesson in harnessing the ideas of young journalists, who, while lacking experience, also lack etched-in-stone preconceptions about how the news business should operate.
[PDF – Spokesman-Review newsroom reorganizaton report]
[Hat tip to Journerdism for the link]
The Readership Institute has released its 2008 study on readership trends of 100 newspapers, which proclaims that “readers have not left the building.”
The study (direct link to the PDF here), shows stability in many trends and some small readership declines, particularly in the age 18-24 demographic. The study suggests that most readership trends are either stable or slightly declining, a finding at odds with the amount of advertising dollars flying out of newspapers’ hands. The study’s authors say:
“The short answer is that reading customers aren’t deserting newspapers at anything approaching the rate that advertising customers are. […] Make no mistake: lots of people still want it and lots are paying attention to the local newspaper.”
Additionally, the study had some disappointing findings for news sites, including:
“62 percent of respondents said they had never visited the local newspaper’s Website, and only 14 percent said they had visited between the last seven to 30 days.”
“Readers are more engaged with print than with the Web site. Ratings for four experiences – “gives me something to talk about”, “looks out for my interests”, “ad usefulness” and “touches and inspires me” were significantly higher for the newspaper than for the site.”
At first glance, the study’s synopsis struck me as overly optimistic in light of the persistent circulation losses experienced by newspapers and large increases in American Internet usage (perhaps I’m biased because I’m an online guy?). So I decided to do a project on it but I already have so much with the SAT prep but I will get this info for a next post. So if you need the info, Signing up for the right SAT prep courses can help you improve your scores on important tests.
However, Readership Institute managing director Mary Nesbitt says in the comments:
“It is a readership, not a circulation study. It rolls three dimensions of readership — frequency, time spent with the newspaper, and completeness of reading — into one score. Thus it measures how “occupied” people are (or are not) with the newspaper, not simply whether or not they looked at a newspaper. Other studies, equally valid, measure frequency only.”
Either way, I’m certainly looking forward to dissecting the study further.
[Readership Institute 2008 Readership Study]
[Hat tip to The Editors Weblog]
Just catching up on my pile of RSS feeds after getting hitched and spotted an important item: Google has improved its ability to crawl Flash content.
Google has historically had trouble “seeing” any Flash content (.SWF files). This means anything you built in Flash was completely invisible to the search engine. However, Google is now able to crawl those Flash graphics to read text content. Be warned: This does not mean Flash web sites will be indexed like normal pages. Building pages in Flash, while pretty, is still a piss-poor search engine optimization strategy.
Here’s the nutshell on Google’s announcement:
-Google will only read the text in a Flash file. It cannot “see” any of the images in the Flash.
-Google will not index individual screens inside the Flash content. It will only index that main page.
-Google still has trouble with certain JavaScript.
-Google still doesn’t index .FLV (Flash video) files.
-If you’re using SWFObject to embed Flash, the Google spider won’t find it (Yet. They’re working on it).
-If your Flash file makes use of external items, such as XML files, Google may index those files.
For the nitty-gritty details, visit the announcement at the Google Webmaster Center Blog.
Quick announcement: Registration for the previously mentioned BlogOrlando is now open! Registration for the Sept. 25-27 conference is free and open to anyone. Registration page is here.
Registration was maxed out for last year’s conference, so act quickly. Yours truly is helping with some of the planning this year, so I can genuinely say there’s going to be some great stuff this year for both beginners and seasoned bloggers alike. If you’re a media professional in Florida interested in increasing your potential online, BlogOrlando is most definitely worth a day trip to Central Florida.
See you there!
[BlogOrlando registration page]
It’s baaaaaaack! BlogOrlando, the awesome unconference on all things bloggy will be back this year Thursday, Sept. 25 to Saturday, Sept. 27. Last year, registration was maxed out with more than 300 attendees, many of which were journalists from Florida’s largest newspapers, including the Tampa Tribune, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and more.
BlogOrlando is a great and FREE way to get smart about blogging and learn from the people who are out in the trenches. There will be discussions on everything from blog technology to community building to journalism practices. Be excited!
To follow updates on BlogOrlando, visit the BlogOrlando site. See you there!
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google will announce a new metrics tool to measure web site audience, a service that would make a major dent in current power players Nielsen and ComScore. [UPDATE: The New York Times Bits blog has details about the service also.]
For those not in the know, ComScore and Nielsen use panels of users to determine the audience of news sites. If you’ve ever compared ComScore or Nielsen numbers to your in-house server log data, you’ll know those numbers often differ significantly, which can be frustrating for content producers. However, Google’s numbers would be backed up by the immense amount of Internet traffic data that’s stored on its servers, hopefully making it more accurate (although there will always be difficulties with tracking unique visitors by cookies, IP address, etc.). Best of all, Google is offering its data free to marketers. From the WSJ:
Google’s approach, aimed at bolstering its ad-sales business, could pose a major threat to the Web measurement services that are available now, ad executives say. The two main players in the business — comScore and Nielsen Online — gather data on Internet use largely by tracking what panels of people do online or by conducting surveys, and their results can be inconsistent and incomplete. Google’s new offering will be based mostly on data from Web servers, allowing for a deeper and broader view of Internet use. And unlike the services from comScore and Nielsen, Google’s will be offered to marketers free, according to ad executives.
[Wall Street Journal – Google to Offer a Tool to Measure Web Hits]
With so many of my journalism colleagues out there facing layoffs, I though this might be a good time to highlight the many understated uses for newspapers. In the spirit of the ever-resourceful Angus MacGyver, there’s much more to newspapers than lining birdcages, wrapping fish and …um… reading news. So share this list with all your friends before they foolishly cancel their subscriptions!
MacGyver Newspaper Use #1:
Make your windows streak free!
If you’re a fan of household frugal tricks (as I am), you’ll be glad to know a great way to eliminate streaks from windows is to wipe them with glass cleaner and newspaper. And it magically leaves no ink stains behind! (No, it doesn’t work on your face.)
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MacGyver Newspaper Use #2:
Pick up dog poo!
That paper has plenty of uses, but folks often overlook the plastic bag in which it’s wrapped. It just so happens that this plastic bag is extra long and slides conveniently up your arm, making it perfect for use as a poop-snatching glove. The newspaper industry may be in deep crap, but that doesn’t mean your tender skin has to be! (Protect the skin with the best mask of under eye masks)
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MacGyver Newspaper Use #3:
De-stinkify your shoes!
It’s pouring rain, and your shoes just got soaked with rain and foot sweat. Newspaper industry to the rescue! Just ball up a bunch of newspaper inside the shoes, and the paper’s miraculous moisture-absorbent properties will take care of the problem faster than you can say “Dr. Scholls”.
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MacGyver Newspaper Use #4:
Entertain your kids with a cheap coloring book!
In many newspapers, the comics appear in black and white on weekdays. To a child, that colorless newspaper is an untapped canvas, my friends! Give junior a box of Crayolas and let him go to town on those funnies while you work on updating your resume. Once he finishes with the comics, give him some news pages for fun activities such as coloring funny mustaches on Thomas Friedm… er…
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MacGyver Newspaper Use #5:
Beat somebody stupid!
They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Well, it’s true when you can roll up a newspaper, coil it, wet it and turn it into a truncheon that can crack a grown man’s skull. Extra points if you stick a rusty nail in it! (Tutorial here.) British soccer hooligans began using so-called “Millwall bricks” as stealth weapons during melees at soccer matches after police began confiscating other possible weapons. In “The Bourne Supremacy”, super-agent Jason Bourne fights off an enemy using a rolled-up newspaper and Eskrima, a Filipino martial art that makes use of everyday objects. So if you’re on a plane that’s suddenly hijacked, pour your Dr. Pepper on that Wall Street Journal, wrap it up and start beating the snot out of terrorists.
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BONUS MACGYVER TIPS: Make a telescope, distract your enemies, defuse a bomb and send a message via hot-air balloon [Wikipedia]
MORE REAL-LIFE TIPS: 80 Uses For Old Newspapers
[Photos by jellywatson, keaggy, massdistraction, stefernie and Wikipedia. Paper hat tip to my esteemed colleague John Cutter for the Bourne tip.]
An excerpt from Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten’s ode to copyeditors:
“The inessentialness of copy editors is underscored by the advent of sophisticated spellchecking systems which have introduced a hole new level of error-free proofreading. No longer can we say that the editor’s penis mightier than the sword.”
I nearly did a Diet Coke spit take on my keyboard. Read the rest here.
[Hat tip to Common Sense Journalism]
After being inspired by Charles Apple’s list of open journalism jobs, my Sentinel colleague Steve Mullis (soon to be at MPR in Minneapolis) has posted a list of open online journalism jobs with links over at his blog.
While some online j-jobs ask for highly technical skills such as Flash design or programming databases, many others are online copyediting jobs coupled with some basic Photoshop photo-editing know-how and the ability to understand the online audience.
Hey Journalistopians, just a quick heads up that the Journalistopia Crime Map Directory has been updated with a slew of new crime maps. A lot more folks are getting into the crime map act, including news organizations, neighborhood associations and lone wolf developers (as usual, the list only includes non-police groups).
If you’re developing a crime map or thinking of developing one, you’ll want to explore this list for plenty of dos and don’ts.
If you’re starting a search for a parach …er… another journalism job, drop by the blog of news designer Charles Apple. Apple has taken the time to compile a list of currently open journalism jobs complete with links to the openings. Most of the jobs are copyediting, design and photo jobs.
While you’re there, make sure to read some more of his other posts. He’s got some great stuff, including a closer look at the upcoming Orlando Sentinel redesign (with actual reporting!).