By Ben Gelinas
New York Times heavyweight and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Walt Bogdanich held a seminar on writing with Seattle Times editor Jim Neff at this year's IRE Conference in Vegas. Some of these tips are going to seem obvious, but sometimes it's good to be reminded of the obvious. :)
1. When you're ready to write: "Get into a place where you are lonely and no one else is around." Bogdanich often writes on the subway or in a library. He says it is especially important to disconnect from the Internet.
2. Show your work to other people (not your editor) before you turn it in. Don't tell your editor you've done this.
3. Writing a good story is like painting a house, Bogdanich says. You need to prepare before you start or you're going to have to go back and waste time cleaning up the spills and redoing sections.
4. Describe your story regularly to quiet people and watch their eyes. If what you're telling them makes their eyes glaze over, you're probably not on the right track.
5. You'll know it's time to write when you can summarize your story (no matter how big) in 25 words or less. "When I get stuck, it's usually because I need to do more reporting," says Bogdanich.
6. Timelines are key for developing a narrative. Do one before you start writing.
7. Create summaries of your best quotes, sorted by topic, so you can grab them quickly when you need them.
8. Before you write the full story, put away your notebook and write what you know, spelling mistakes and all. Then go back with your notebook open and build upon what you've written. (Rick will tell you to do this too).
9. To organize a bigger story by breaking it into chapters, even if the final product lacks chapters. Each should be its own, self-contained story, with ledes.
10. If you have a good narrative going and need to find a place to insert some somewhat dry facts, put the dry facts between a cliffhanger in the narrative to build suspense and keep 'em reading.
11. Special Bonus Tip!
A good kicker's almost as important as a good lede. "You want it to kind of haunt them afterward," Neff says.
Investigative Reporters and Editors Annual Conference, June 2010
Session: Writing the in-depth story
Presenters: Walt Bogdanich, The New York Times, and Jim Neff, The Seattle Times
Friday, June 18, 2010
Investigating Breaking News
By Ben Gelinas
The Seattle Times won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage this year for their exhaustive work on the shooting deaths of four police officers last November. The paper had an action plan for covering such a big story. It happened on a weekend and the newsroom was bare. But as the news broke, numerous reporters and editors dropped their plans and came in to help. Breaking off into groups with specific goals, they flooded their website with new information as it was confirmed, and all met regularly to make sure they weren't stepping on each others' toes. They broke the name of the alleged shooter online while police still searched for him. A photographer staking out an apparent stand-off with the man live-tweeted the whole affair.
Click here to see the Seattle Times' work on the day of and in the months that followed. Note the sidebar: "Coverage from the days following the Lakewood shootings."
Attached is a tipsheet for covering big stories like this, drafted by Seattle Times editor Suki Dardarian and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editor Greg Borowski. The latter paper won the 2010 Pulitzer for local reporting.
INVESTIGATIVE BREAKING NEWS TIPSHEET
By Greg Borowski and Suki Dardarian
Before News Breaks: Get tools, technology and training
Databases: Build databases and provide access to information services (like Accusearch) not just for long-term investigations but breaking news. Your goal is to track down people, their property, businesses, vital statistics, friends and relatives, voting records, court records.
Technology: Make sure your breaking news reporters and photographers have smart phones or other tools with web access, the ability to take photos and send back information to the newsroom quickly via text, tweet, e-mail, etc.
Social connections: Reporters and editors should have Twitter accounts or access to your company accounts, along with any other social networking tools. Use them regularly to know their advantages, limitations, and importantly, to build followers.
Virtual reporting hub: Inside your system or ina protected place outside your system, establish a sport to store information (databases, documents, notes) so it's accessible by the staff. (Ben's note: this is especially important when news is breaking and one person is writing from multiple reporter files).
Physical hub: Is your newsroom able to accommodate a vast influx of reporters and editors? Are there open desks where reporters can drag their laptops and work?
Training: Do it regularly, across the staff, to stay proficient in all these tools.
Practice: Use smaller breaking-news events as practice opportunities. Build and change based on successes and failures. A good plan gives you a jump well before news breaks.
When News Breaks: Engage the team; collaborate
Flood the zone and clearly define roles: Get bodies deployed in and then out of the office. Assign all taskes; define all roles. Don't leave any meeting with key questions unanswered or key decisions unmade. Assign lead writers for print and online.
Delegate/break up into triage teams: Find themes around which to organize mini teams: The event; the suspect; the victims; the system. If themes don't work, try location-based teams: in-office research, scene teams, etc.
Share everything: Keep talking/e-mailing during the day. Everyone should empty notebooks into central files all have access to. A witness who seems unimportant on Day One may turn out to be critical later. Check it frequently, to spot information that is suddenly relevant. Organize it so it's easy to follow.
Huddle/meet regularly: It may be a 10-minute stand-up meeting among editors and key reporters, or a more formal meeting to sketch out assignments and strategies. Collective knowledge is more valuable, and powerful, than individual knowledge. Stay focused on the key unanswered questions -- they provide a road map for pursuing the story.
Start a timeline: As you know key facts and details, put them in a timeline format. Save it in a public spot, so others can add to it. This can help reporters visualize what happened, minimize errors in stories and can be adapted for print and online publication.
Think presentation: You're reporting for online and print. Get a running conversation going about needs and ideas. Should pieces be broken into sidebars? Interactive maps? Get all departments - photo, graphics, design - involved early.
Search public records: Keep some reporters back from the scene. Start identifying key documents on the Internet, or by going to government offices. Make formal requests - inspection reports, license applications, audits, (parole documents, land titles) - early, before your competitors.
Use social media: To push your stories and information out, certainly. But social media is not just a megaphone. It's a listening device as well, a way to share information, monitor what others and saying and often to get first-hand accounts of what is happening.
Expand your source lists: Identify outside experts on a topic. Check your e-mail regularly for tips. Readers with a deep interest or knowledge in a topic are often itching to share information. And keep an eye out for ideas and tips made in comments sections on stories, posts on Twitter and Facebook and elsewhere.
Make community a priority: What information - or social connections - do your readers need? How are you serving those needs?
Reinforcements: Make your colleagues a priority, too. Supply lots of healthy food and drink. Pace yourself and your team. Send people home and tell them specifically when to return.
As the dust starts to settle: Be strategic; develop a vision
Start over: Huddle; review all the information you've gathered, identify questions left to answer. be sure everyone knows what they're supposed to start on the next morning.
Keep meeting: Don't let the steam go out of a good story; keep meeting, and make specific assignments. Use records and sources to advance the story, push it beyond the news conference updates and official word.
Think Sunday: Consider if there is merit in re-telling the story - or a slice of it - in a narrative form. Is there a new perspective to offer, a step-back piece? What will readers need most after days of breaking news stories? If you can, begin to make sense of the story - but don't overshoot your reporting.
Build a plan: Look even further down the road. Does the story point to underlying issues with systems, government or business? Build a strategy to pursue those stories and questions of rthe coming months - and years. If a reform took place, check in at six months to see if it's working as promised. Editors should make clear decisions about the level of commitment to following the story, including when to scale back coverage. Set benchmarks for periodic check-ins.
Investigative Reporters and Editors Annual Conference, June 2010
Session: Investigating Breaking News
Presenters: Greg Borowski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Suki Dardarian, The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage this year for their exhaustive work on the shooting deaths of four police officers last November. The paper had an action plan for covering such a big story. It happened on a weekend and the newsroom was bare. But as the news broke, numerous reporters and editors dropped their plans and came in to help. Breaking off into groups with specific goals, they flooded their website with new information as it was confirmed, and all met regularly to make sure they weren't stepping on each others' toes. They broke the name of the alleged shooter online while police still searched for him. A photographer staking out an apparent stand-off with the man live-tweeted the whole affair.
Click here to see the Seattle Times' work on the day of and in the months that followed. Note the sidebar: "Coverage from the days following the Lakewood shootings."
Attached is a tipsheet for covering big stories like this, drafted by Seattle Times editor Suki Dardarian and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editor Greg Borowski. The latter paper won the 2010 Pulitzer for local reporting.
INVESTIGATIVE BREAKING NEWS TIPSHEET
By Greg Borowski and Suki Dardarian
Before News Breaks: Get tools, technology and training
Databases: Build databases and provide access to information services (like Accusearch) not just for long-term investigations but breaking news. Your goal is to track down people, their property, businesses, vital statistics, friends and relatives, voting records, court records.
Technology: Make sure your breaking news reporters and photographers have smart phones or other tools with web access, the ability to take photos and send back information to the newsroom quickly via text, tweet, e-mail, etc.
Social connections: Reporters and editors should have Twitter accounts or access to your company accounts, along with any other social networking tools. Use them regularly to know their advantages, limitations, and importantly, to build followers.
Virtual reporting hub: Inside your system or ina protected place outside your system, establish a sport to store information (databases, documents, notes) so it's accessible by the staff. (Ben's note: this is especially important when news is breaking and one person is writing from multiple reporter files).
Physical hub: Is your newsroom able to accommodate a vast influx of reporters and editors? Are there open desks where reporters can drag their laptops and work?
Training: Do it regularly, across the staff, to stay proficient in all these tools.
Practice: Use smaller breaking-news events as practice opportunities. Build and change based on successes and failures. A good plan gives you a jump well before news breaks.
When News Breaks: Engage the team; collaborate
Flood the zone and clearly define roles: Get bodies deployed in and then out of the office. Assign all taskes; define all roles. Don't leave any meeting with key questions unanswered or key decisions unmade. Assign lead writers for print and online.
Delegate/break up into triage teams: Find themes around which to organize mini teams: The event; the suspect; the victims; the system. If themes don't work, try location-based teams: in-office research, scene teams, etc.
Share everything: Keep talking/e-mailing during the day. Everyone should empty notebooks into central files all have access to. A witness who seems unimportant on Day One may turn out to be critical later. Check it frequently, to spot information that is suddenly relevant. Organize it so it's easy to follow.
Huddle/meet regularly: It may be a 10-minute stand-up meeting among editors and key reporters, or a more formal meeting to sketch out assignments and strategies. Collective knowledge is more valuable, and powerful, than individual knowledge. Stay focused on the key unanswered questions -- they provide a road map for pursuing the story.
Start a timeline: As you know key facts and details, put them in a timeline format. Save it in a public spot, so others can add to it. This can help reporters visualize what happened, minimize errors in stories and can be adapted for print and online publication.
Think presentation: You're reporting for online and print. Get a running conversation going about needs and ideas. Should pieces be broken into sidebars? Interactive maps? Get all departments - photo, graphics, design - involved early.
Search public records: Keep some reporters back from the scene. Start identifying key documents on the Internet, or by going to government offices. Make formal requests - inspection reports, license applications, audits, (parole documents, land titles) - early, before your competitors.
Use social media: To push your stories and information out, certainly. But social media is not just a megaphone. It's a listening device as well, a way to share information, monitor what others and saying and often to get first-hand accounts of what is happening.
Expand your source lists: Identify outside experts on a topic. Check your e-mail regularly for tips. Readers with a deep interest or knowledge in a topic are often itching to share information. And keep an eye out for ideas and tips made in comments sections on stories, posts on Twitter and Facebook and elsewhere.
Make community a priority: What information - or social connections - do your readers need? How are you serving those needs?
Reinforcements: Make your colleagues a priority, too. Supply lots of healthy food and drink. Pace yourself and your team. Send people home and tell them specifically when to return.
As the dust starts to settle: Be strategic; develop a vision
Start over: Huddle; review all the information you've gathered, identify questions left to answer. be sure everyone knows what they're supposed to start on the next morning.
Keep meeting: Don't let the steam go out of a good story; keep meeting, and make specific assignments. Use records and sources to advance the story, push it beyond the news conference updates and official word.
Think Sunday: Consider if there is merit in re-telling the story - or a slice of it - in a narrative form. Is there a new perspective to offer, a step-back piece? What will readers need most after days of breaking news stories? If you can, begin to make sense of the story - but don't overshoot your reporting.
Build a plan: Look even further down the road. Does the story point to underlying issues with systems, government or business? Build a strategy to pursue those stories and questions of rthe coming months - and years. If a reform took place, check in at six months to see if it's working as promised. Editors should make clear decisions about the level of commitment to following the story, including when to scale back coverage. Set benchmarks for periodic check-ins.
Investigative Reporters and Editors Annual Conference, June 2010
Session: Investigating Breaking News
Presenters: Greg Borowski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Suki Dardarian, The Seattle Times
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Social Network Analysis for Journalists
by Karen Kleiss
In a presentation called Social network analysis: Tracking the paths of power, David Donald of the Center for Public Integrity and Robert Anglen of The Arizona Republic talked about using social network analysis in journalism. Don't confuse this with social networking on Twitter or Facebook; think more along the lines of social scientists tracking the relationships between people in a newly discovered Amazonian tribe, or between Ed Stelmach and the people on various oil sands-related committees.
Some really neat American sites that do this are muckety.com, theyrule.net, and Analyze the U.S.. Donald and Anglen said journalists who do this type of work typically use software called UCINET and, increasingly, a program called NodeXL, which works with the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program that comes installed in most computers.
This session was interesting, but social network analysis is complicated and is definitely a specialty within journalism. If you're really keen, there's an awesome primer on the IRE website. To see what social networking can do, read Anglen's piece, Perfectly Legal ,in the Arizona Republic.
I'd also highly recommend the book Precision Journalism, but that's just me.
Investigative Reporters and Editors Annual Conference, June 2010
Session: Social Network Analysis: Tracking the paths of power
Presenters: Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic, and David Donald, Centre for Public Integrity
In a presentation called Social network analysis: Tracking the paths of power, David Donald of the Center for Public Integrity and Robert Anglen of The Arizona Republic talked about using social network analysis in journalism. Don't confuse this with social networking on Twitter or Facebook; think more along the lines of social scientists tracking the relationships between people in a newly discovered Amazonian tribe, or between Ed Stelmach and the people on various oil sands-related committees.
Some really neat American sites that do this are muckety.com, theyrule.net, and Analyze the U.S.. Donald and Anglen said journalists who do this type of work typically use software called UCINET and, increasingly, a program called NodeXL, which works with the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program that comes installed in most computers.
This session was interesting, but social network analysis is complicated and is definitely a specialty within journalism. If you're really keen, there's an awesome primer on the IRE website. To see what social networking can do, read Anglen's piece, Perfectly Legal ,in the Arizona Republic.
I'd also highly recommend the book Precision Journalism, but that's just me.
Investigative Reporters and Editors Annual Conference, June 2010
Session: Social Network Analysis: Tracking the paths of power
Presenters: Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic, and David Donald, Centre for Public Integrity
20 Databases All Newsrooms Should Have or Use
by Karen Kleiss
David Donald of the Center for Public Integrity and Ron Nixon of the New York Times say these are the 20 databases all newsrooms should have or use. It's a very American list; in most cases I don't know whether there are Canadian equivalents or if we can get them. That said, I think it's a great list to peruse if you're looking to get ideas.
Session: Data for investigations locally and around the world
Presenters: Ron Nixon, New York Times and David Donald, Centre for Public Integrity
David Donald of the Center for Public Integrity and Ron Nixon of the New York Times say these are the 20 databases all newsrooms should have or use. It's a very American list; in most cases I don't know whether there are Canadian equivalents or if we can get them. That said, I think it's a great list to peruse if you're looking to get ideas.
- Census data (federal and state-level).
- State finance departments. Shows budgets for each year.
- Single audit databases. In the U.S., any non-profit that gets more than $300,000 from the federal government must be audited. This database tracks the agencies, how much they get, and the audit results.
- Check Register for Vendors. Shows who the government holds contracts with. Donald says this database is frequently compared with election contribution data to identify "pay to play" trends and other forms of pork-barelling.
- Property Assessments. Reporters typically check for liens and high-profile delinquencies, and they look at assessments for politicians' homes, often finding lower-than-average assessments. American newspapers also use these to find the names and contact information for people who live in homes where crimes happen.
- Non-elected committee members. This database is often compared with lobby registries to see who is lobbying and sitting on a committee at the same time.
- Government Employee Salaries. Updated annually, this data is always a big hit with taxpayers. I put in a request for this information after I read Gary Lamphier's column last month.
- Election campaign finance reports.
- Campaign contribution reports for individuals.
- Financial disclosure reports for judges. I think they have these in Canada, too.
- Voter registration databases.
- Election results.
- Crime statistics.
- Sexual predators. We can't get this in Canada.
- Business demographics. Typically collected at the state and municipal level, similar to census statistics.
- SEC10K Data. In the U.S., this database tracks reports from public companies. This information is available online, as well, in a database the government calls EDGAR.
- 990s. In the U.S., these are the non-profit tax filings. These are searchable online in Canada on the CRA's website.
- EPA Enforcement Data. Water safety information is available in the U.S. at the EPA's website.
- Foreign Agencies Registration Database. Maintained by the U.S. Department of Justice, the FARA database tracks people from foreign countries working the the U.S.
- Lobbying database. The U.S., the federal data is here.
Session: Data for investigations locally and around the world
Presenters: Ron Nixon, New York Times and David Donald, Centre for Public Integrity
How can I find government data?
by Karen Kleiss
David Donald of the Centre for Public Integrity and Ron Nixon of the New York Times offer the following five tips for finding government data:
Session: Data for investigations locally and around the world
Presenters: Ron Nixon, New York Times and David Donald, Centre for Public Integrity
David Donald of the Centre for Public Integrity and Ron Nixon of the New York Times offer the following five tips for finding government data:
- Ask for a data retention schedule. It will show what the government is required to keep.
- Pick up blank forms. The information is almost certainly being entered into a database.
- Refer to footnotes in government reports. They often cite the data source for numbers in the report.
- Meet the tech folks and data entry clerks. They know what data exists and how it is maintained.
- Put in FOI request to see what data other people have requested.
Session: Data for investigations locally and around the world
Presenters: Ron Nixon, New York Times and David Donald, Centre for Public Integrity
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Ethics 2.0
Canadian Association of Journalists conference 2010, Montreal
Ethics 2.0: The Rights, Wrongs and Maybes of Social Media
Discussion group on social media ethics lead by Kirk LaPointe, managing editor at the Vancouver Sun, and Ivor Shapiro, associate professor of journalism at Ryerson University.
Draft copy of the Twitter ethics guidelines
To retweet or not to retweet. To what extent do journalists need to verify the information first? Argument given for retweeting is that journalists need to stay relevant, to show they are in the loop and trying to find out more. The argument against is that they can destroy their credibility by tweeting rumors that later prove to be untrue. And here's the question, is the threshold lower for retweeting something compared to posting something to a blog or a news website?
I think most retweets will have to be dealt with on a case by case basis (who did the tweet come from, what do you know about them, are they likely to know this?) but attribution is, as always, key. Write “looking into . . .” “unconfirmed reports” “. . . is reporting.” Include links wherever possible. As LaPointe says, the danger is in sounding more authoritative than you are. We need to get used to saying, we don't know yet.
The other challenge is opinion. Studies show opinions are what get retweeted, but traditionally reporters try not to state their opinions in public for fear of appearing biased. An easy way to avoid this, is to simply broadcast links to your own articles and other interesting articles you find, but that makes for a boring Twitter feed. Twitter followers want to know the person behind the account. LaPointe says he tells reporters at the Vancouver Sun to write one observational tweet for every broadcast tweet, but admits there is a lot of gray area between opinion and observation. I guess that's just something to watch out for and muddle through.
On the other hand, the great thing about Twitter is the way it can open the whole process of researching and writing an article to the public. Before Twitter, many tips would come from the public, but then journalists would retreat into the newsroom to research and write before publishing back into the public realm. Now, journalists can let those members of the public who are really interested in the stories they cover help shape them. A quick tweet in the morning to let followers know (in general terms) what a reporter is working on could yield good source suggestions, or suggestions of other questions to ask or directions to go in. That just makes better journalism.
During the past school year, I've mostly used Twitter to research what people at the local post-secondary institutions are talking about, but it's also been great for helping me get to know student leaders. I'm probably guilty of too much broadcast tweeting in my Twitter feed, and opening up the process of writing to get more input on developing stories is one area I'd like to do more of. Ask me how it goes.
Blog post by Elise Stolte,
estolte@thejournal.canwest.com
or follow me on Twitter @estolte
Ethics 2.0: The Rights, Wrongs and Maybes of Social Media
Discussion group on social media ethics lead by Kirk LaPointe, managing editor at the Vancouver Sun, and Ivor Shapiro, associate professor of journalism at Ryerson University.
Draft copy of the Twitter ethics guidelines
To retweet or not to retweet. To what extent do journalists need to verify the information first? Argument given for retweeting is that journalists need to stay relevant, to show they are in the loop and trying to find out more. The argument against is that they can destroy their credibility by tweeting rumors that later prove to be untrue. And here's the question, is the threshold lower for retweeting something compared to posting something to a blog or a news website?
I think most retweets will have to be dealt with on a case by case basis (who did the tweet come from, what do you know about them, are they likely to know this?) but attribution is, as always, key. Write “looking into . . .” “unconfirmed reports” “. . . is reporting.” Include links wherever possible. As LaPointe says, the danger is in sounding more authoritative than you are. We need to get used to saying, we don't know yet.
The other challenge is opinion. Studies show opinions are what get retweeted, but traditionally reporters try not to state their opinions in public for fear of appearing biased. An easy way to avoid this, is to simply broadcast links to your own articles and other interesting articles you find, but that makes for a boring Twitter feed. Twitter followers want to know the person behind the account. LaPointe says he tells reporters at the Vancouver Sun to write one observational tweet for every broadcast tweet, but admits there is a lot of gray area between opinion and observation. I guess that's just something to watch out for and muddle through.
On the other hand, the great thing about Twitter is the way it can open the whole process of researching and writing an article to the public. Before Twitter, many tips would come from the public, but then journalists would retreat into the newsroom to research and write before publishing back into the public realm. Now, journalists can let those members of the public who are really interested in the stories they cover help shape them. A quick tweet in the morning to let followers know (in general terms) what a reporter is working on could yield good source suggestions, or suggestions of other questions to ask or directions to go in. That just makes better journalism.
During the past school year, I've mostly used Twitter to research what people at the local post-secondary institutions are talking about, but it's also been great for helping me get to know student leaders. I'm probably guilty of too much broadcast tweeting in my Twitter feed, and opening up the process of writing to get more input on developing stories is one area I'd like to do more of. Ask me how it goes.
Blog post by Elise Stolte,
estolte@thejournal.canwest.com
or follow me on Twitter @estolte
Online Journalism: You can't fight the future
Canadian Association of Journalists conference 2010, Montreal
Online Journalism: You can't fight the future
Panel with Kirk LaPointe, managing editor of the Vancouver Sun; David Beers, founding editor of The Tyee; and Greg Horn, the one-man shop who started and runs Kahnawakenews.com.
From his position overseeing the development of the website and the Vancouver Sun, LaPointe says he watches employees face “profoundly emotional” changes when shifting perspective to accept online media. The employees go from ruling its significance out completely, to backing away from what seems like much more work, to getting discouraged by the small audience. The breakthrough to acceptance only comes with the first positive experience, such as the first time when a reader contacted through Twitter gives a great suggestion. That personal experience is key to a reporter finally seeing the benefits that linking with an online community can bring. Now, he says, community engagement is no longer a frill, and reporters like Kim Bolan, an organized crime reporter, are expected to scroll through the comments their stories generate on the website two or three times a day to make replies and show the writer is listening. They've also done a complete overhaul of their beat system, making people reapply for beats they would like with an outline of how they are going to interact, reach out and publish in online formats. Those new beats will be announced within weeks at the paper.
On the question of traffic, LaPointe says he's much more interested in “engagement metrics,” which take into account retweets and links. The Vancouver Sun paid a high-profile analytics company to study their website readers. LaPointe is expecting that report soon and talks excitedly about the chance to really know who is going to their website and why.
Beers is the founding editor of a regional news website The Tyee, founded several years ago with funding from the labour movement, invested through a trust fund with an editorial firewall between labour and the Beers. The news website continues to run with those funds, plus money from another investor and funds raised from their readers for special projects. (i.e. during a recent election, readers could select an issue and direct funds to increasing coverage of that issue. Afterward, Beers published a detailed account of the spending.) They now run on about $600,000 a year.
The Tyee succeeds despite ignoring all the truism of web publishing, says Beers. They are neither hyper local nor super global, they do long-form and in depth journalism, they don't make editorial decisions based on traffic. But his measure of success, he says, is that they matter, that the stories they write get picked up, affect public policy and expand public understanding. “We want our pieces to go viral, but we want them to go viral to influential people,” he said, then later added that he wonders sometimes if the website hasn't gotten to “egg heady.”
They publish 1,200 to 1,800 word stories with lots of links and a focus on the how's and why's of the news, closer to an analytical news magazine than a continuous reporting of what happened. “The Tyee is all about the how and the why. That's our niche,” he says. “The Internet has unbundled newspapers. I think you're going to see more and more stakeholders in the conversation.”
Horn is a perfect example of that last point. When he lost his job during a changeover at the local paper, he started Kahnawakenews.com with just $150 as a hobby between jobs. He soon garnered a following and now it's turning into a business where it's actually paying bills, he says. Local businesses are buying ads on the site. He serves his own community of 8,000-10,000 and tries to update the website daily with news from around the community. If he sees links to his stories on Facebook, he knows he's doing a good job.
Other links:
Kirk LaPointe's blog on change in the media
Blog post by Elise Stolte,
estolte@thejournal.canwest.com
or follow me on Twitter @estolte
Online Journalism: You can't fight the future
Panel with Kirk LaPointe, managing editor of the Vancouver Sun; David Beers, founding editor of The Tyee; and Greg Horn, the one-man shop who started and runs Kahnawakenews.com.
From his position overseeing the development of the website and the Vancouver Sun, LaPointe says he watches employees face “profoundly emotional” changes when shifting perspective to accept online media. The employees go from ruling its significance out completely, to backing away from what seems like much more work, to getting discouraged by the small audience. The breakthrough to acceptance only comes with the first positive experience, such as the first time when a reader contacted through Twitter gives a great suggestion. That personal experience is key to a reporter finally seeing the benefits that linking with an online community can bring. Now, he says, community engagement is no longer a frill, and reporters like Kim Bolan, an organized crime reporter, are expected to scroll through the comments their stories generate on the website two or three times a day to make replies and show the writer is listening. They've also done a complete overhaul of their beat system, making people reapply for beats they would like with an outline of how they are going to interact, reach out and publish in online formats. Those new beats will be announced within weeks at the paper.
On the question of traffic, LaPointe says he's much more interested in “engagement metrics,” which take into account retweets and links. The Vancouver Sun paid a high-profile analytics company to study their website readers. LaPointe is expecting that report soon and talks excitedly about the chance to really know who is going to their website and why.
Beers is the founding editor of a regional news website The Tyee, founded several years ago with funding from the labour movement, invested through a trust fund with an editorial firewall between labour and the Beers. The news website continues to run with those funds, plus money from another investor and funds raised from their readers for special projects. (i.e. during a recent election, readers could select an issue and direct funds to increasing coverage of that issue. Afterward, Beers published a detailed account of the spending.) They now run on about $600,000 a year.
The Tyee succeeds despite ignoring all the truism of web publishing, says Beers. They are neither hyper local nor super global, they do long-form and in depth journalism, they don't make editorial decisions based on traffic. But his measure of success, he says, is that they matter, that the stories they write get picked up, affect public policy and expand public understanding. “We want our pieces to go viral, but we want them to go viral to influential people,” he said, then later added that he wonders sometimes if the website hasn't gotten to “egg heady.”
They publish 1,200 to 1,800 word stories with lots of links and a focus on the how's and why's of the news, closer to an analytical news magazine than a continuous reporting of what happened. “The Tyee is all about the how and the why. That's our niche,” he says. “The Internet has unbundled newspapers. I think you're going to see more and more stakeholders in the conversation.”
Horn is a perfect example of that last point. When he lost his job during a changeover at the local paper, he started Kahnawakenews.com with just $150 as a hobby between jobs. He soon garnered a following and now it's turning into a business where it's actually paying bills, he says. Local businesses are buying ads on the site. He serves his own community of 8,000-10,000 and tries to update the website daily with news from around the community. If he sees links to his stories on Facebook, he knows he's doing a good job.
Other links:
Kirk LaPointe's blog on change in the media
Blog post by Elise Stolte,
estolte@thejournal.canwest.com
or follow me on Twitter @estolte
The future of online media - the Las Vegas Sun?
Canadian Association of Journalists conference 2010, Montreal
Keynote speaker Rob Curley, new media editor of the Las Vegas Sun, on the future of online media.
Rob Curley and the Las Vegas Sun are running an experiment that could become the newspaper model in 20 years. Their print product has become an analytical news magazine, and their website the paper of record.
In print land, the Las Vegas Sun runs as an 8-page insert in its main competitor, the Las Vegas Review Journal, and because of a federally-imposed joint operating agreement, this part is funded by the larger paper. The insert doesn't try to be comprehensive, just more contextual, focusing on the how and the why, says Curley. Twelve reporters (about 20 staff total) work on this side.
The website has roughly equal staffing, but here they cover the 'what' of journalism and try to make everything hyper local. They might have 25 to 45 stories a day on their website and only a handful in the paper. Eventually, they hope, the online will pay for the print edition, and Curley says they are already halfway to making the web portion self-sufficient.
Their approach to building readership is understanding what their audience wants to read. There are four reasons why people go to the web, he says: for practical reasons such as finding out where a restaurant is, for personal communication as in email, playful/fun reasons, and for porn, which he can't help you with, he says, even if he's from Las Vegas. Beyond that high-level understanding, the paper is unashamedly neurotic about traffic statistics for the site. They only cover what gets clicked on, which is why they cover professional fights and local college football teams. They also cover high school football games and get great uptake, but only for five schools, the ones with a sense of legacy. The rest of the schools get covered from the office because they weren't getting significant numbers of clicks.
On the Edmonton Journal site, minor crime stories seem to get a disproportionate number of clicks when compared to what I would judge as their overall significance, especially when compared to some political and in depth stories. That's what I was thinking about when someone from the audience asked, “What gets lost in the pursuit of traffic?”
Curley played down that concern. “Our readers are very sharp” he said. “Our readers really do want the news.”
Curley also talked about the paper's upcoming launch of a super hyper local website. For the past two years, they have been geo-coding all of their stories. In several weeks, readers will be able to enter their zip code and get crime data, restaurant reviews, gas prices, home prices, advertisements with coupons, and local news, all on a customizable website and for their neighbourhood. They also do things like this history project, which people keep coming back to for years.
The paper has five full time programmers on staff to help dream up and complete these projects, and some of the best writers poached from big newspapers. We need great writers for these web teams: quick, clean and good because, he says, unlike in print land, they don't get the luxury of three copy editors. Plus, all 12 of the web reporters are self-assigning. They all have beats or areas of reporting and send a note letting the editor know what they are doing that day.
Curley's blog post explaining the Las Vegas Sun
A Washington Post columnist's take on Curley's project
City Life article with much more depth, including some challenges to the scheme
Blog post by Elise Stolte,
estolte@thejournal.canwest.com
or follow me on Twitter @estolte
Keynote speaker Rob Curley, new media editor of the Las Vegas Sun, on the future of online media.
Rob Curley and the Las Vegas Sun are running an experiment that could become the newspaper model in 20 years. Their print product has become an analytical news magazine, and their website the paper of record.
In print land, the Las Vegas Sun runs as an 8-page insert in its main competitor, the Las Vegas Review Journal, and because of a federally-imposed joint operating agreement, this part is funded by the larger paper. The insert doesn't try to be comprehensive, just more contextual, focusing on the how and the why, says Curley. Twelve reporters (about 20 staff total) work on this side.
The website has roughly equal staffing, but here they cover the 'what' of journalism and try to make everything hyper local. They might have 25 to 45 stories a day on their website and only a handful in the paper. Eventually, they hope, the online will pay for the print edition, and Curley says they are already halfway to making the web portion self-sufficient.
Their approach to building readership is understanding what their audience wants to read. There are four reasons why people go to the web, he says: for practical reasons such as finding out where a restaurant is, for personal communication as in email, playful/fun reasons, and for porn, which he can't help you with, he says, even if he's from Las Vegas. Beyond that high-level understanding, the paper is unashamedly neurotic about traffic statistics for the site. They only cover what gets clicked on, which is why they cover professional fights and local college football teams. They also cover high school football games and get great uptake, but only for five schools, the ones with a sense of legacy. The rest of the schools get covered from the office because they weren't getting significant numbers of clicks.
On the Edmonton Journal site, minor crime stories seem to get a disproportionate number of clicks when compared to what I would judge as their overall significance, especially when compared to some political and in depth stories. That's what I was thinking about when someone from the audience asked, “What gets lost in the pursuit of traffic?”
Curley played down that concern. “Our readers are very sharp” he said. “Our readers really do want the news.”
Curley also talked about the paper's upcoming launch of a super hyper local website. For the past two years, they have been geo-coding all of their stories. In several weeks, readers will be able to enter their zip code and get crime data, restaurant reviews, gas prices, home prices, advertisements with coupons, and local news, all on a customizable website and for their neighbourhood. They also do things like this history project, which people keep coming back to for years.
The paper has five full time programmers on staff to help dream up and complete these projects, and some of the best writers poached from big newspapers. We need great writers for these web teams: quick, clean and good because, he says, unlike in print land, they don't get the luxury of three copy editors. Plus, all 12 of the web reporters are self-assigning. They all have beats or areas of reporting and send a note letting the editor know what they are doing that day.
Curley's blog post explaining the Las Vegas Sun
A Washington Post columnist's take on Curley's project
City Life article with much more depth, including some challenges to the scheme
Blog post by Elise Stolte,
estolte@thejournal.canwest.com
or follow me on Twitter @estolte
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)