Rethinking newsroom information flows

Paul Bradshaw over at Online Journalism Blog has written a great proposal of what a newsroom of the future – or better yet today – could look like.

This “information flow,” as he calls it, might not work for every newsroom. Heck, it may not work for most, but he takes a fresh look at how we can re-allocate journalists’ time and energy.

Here is how Paul sums up the typical approach to changes in newsroom structure::

The strategy of many news organisations so far has been to simply require existing journalists and editors to do more – to make videos and podcasts, take photos and write blogs; to scour social networks and forums and video sites; to encourage user generated content and audience participation.

He sees things differently:

In this part I want to look at personnel – and how we might move from a generic, hierarchy of ‘reporters’, ’subs’ and ‘editors’ to a more horizontal structure of roles based on information types. … I’ve identified 6 journalist roles based on 3 core types of information that I see journalists dealing with in a networked environment.

Why I like his proposal

He includes jack-of-all-trade reporters as well as specialists in his proposal.

As a student, I often get seemingly conflicting advice: “Specialize, specialize, specialize” or “Do it all: audio, video, print, databases, Flash.” For most journalists, achieving both just isn’t possible. Paul incorporates the jack-of-all-trades types in his MoJo and Multimedia Producer roles, as well as data-miner specialists.

(For related thoughts on the specialist vs. do-it-all approaches, see Will Sullivan’s post on “fuck you” “peace out” skills.)

He incorporates databases, which newspapers can more easily pull off than individual bloggers.

This is where journalists have a comparative advantage, in my opinion. I am certain some individual bloggers could incorporate databases of information. However, I would venture to guess they make up a small percentage of the blogging community. I think a larger percentage of news outlets could – or should – be able to take a large amount of information, such as public records, and make it searchable online.

He embraces social media and collaboration as an essential part of reporting the news.

Journalists are no longer just talking at the audience, but talking with them.

It might not be the cure-all, but …

… an restructuring how you report and deliver news can allow journalists to focus their energy on what they really need to be producing. His proposal doesn’t advocate just tossing new duties into a system that was formed with a print product in mind. It suggests a way to re-allocate resources in a more efficient, multimedia newsroom.

Instapaper: iPhone application is a lifesaver

Let me introduce you to my favorite application I’ve installed on my iPod Touch: Instapaper. I often find myself stumbling upon interesting – but lengthy – blog posts or New York Times articles right before a class is about to start.

I can simply click “Read Later,” and the application saves the plain text version of the page, which can be read offline, and also links directly to the original page if you want to see the multimedia elements, too.

The standard version of Instapaper is free, and the premium version costs $9.99, though I manage just fine without the extra bells and whistles.

Atlanta, here I come

I accepted this offer weeks ago but haven’t actually blogged about it. Why? Finals week and Daily Nebraskan site work kept me busy.

Either way, better later than never: I’m heading to the Atlanta Journal Constitution as a copy editing intern this summer, and I couldn’t be more excited.

This will be my third internship at a daily after a year and a half stint at the Lincoln Journal Star and a summer at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

I am looking forward to heading back to the South and seeing all that the ATL has to offer.

If you have any favorite Atlanta restaurants, pastimes, sports teams, etc. that you’d recommend, let me know.

ACES starts mentorship program

Layoffs, bankruptcy filings and talk of outsourcing editing can leave anyone feeling a little shaky about their chosen profession. Sometimes, you just need a trusted source for advice. For copy editors – whether you’re just starting out or simply feeling a mid-career crisis coming on – consider your wishes fulfilled.

The American Copy Editors Society is starting a mentorship program. Here’s what ACES says you need to do to apply:

To apply for the program, send your name, contact information and a 500-word or less essay on what you hope to gain from a mentorship to Sara Hendricks, ACES membership vice president, at sara.hendricks1949@gmail.com.

As an ACES member who has been to two regional conferences and one national conference, I can attest to the fact that my fellow members are some smart whipper-snappers. So, go ahead. Apply.

Daily Nebraskan redesign goes live

This has been one heck of a week. For much of my Thanksgiving break and most all of the time since UNL started back to classes, my time has been devoted to one thing: DailyNebraskan.com.

Or more precisely, the new design and content management system for the site.

See the change for yourself: Here is a full-size image of the old site, and then head over to DailyNebraskan.com to see the new one.

Here’s a comparison of the headers and navigation bars, too.

There have been some hiccups along the way, but overall, the transition has been rather painless. (Many kudos to Lara Hanson and her team at College Media Network, as well as my bosses at the DN, for keeping things chugging along.)

The features on the new site that I’m most excited about include its:

• Clean, simple design
• Easy-to-use navigation bar. (The old site’s nav bar practically screamed at users not to even try to find the news subpage, for example.)
• Flexible structure, which is especially useful for sports coverage so we can change what content we highlight based on the season.
• Options for highlighting multimedia content.

Along with a less cluttered design comes a new content management system. We now are operating on College Publisher 5, which looks and functions almost completely different than its predecessor, College Publisher 4.

The biggest change: The new system uses a round-the-clock publishing platform, rather than an issue-based setup.

Obviously, content is king when it comes to a newspaper’s site, but users also have to be able to easily find that content online.

I think the newest reincarnation of DailyNebraskan.com, finally, allows them to do that.

Multimedia journalism from UC Berkley

Take what you think journalism students can do in multimedia journalism courses and throw it out the window. UC Berkley has proven students can produce solid content, present it in a professional manner and tear to shreds all the preconceived notions of how multimedia journalism courses must be structured.

Will Sullivan over at Journerdism linked to this video on Vimeo* where one of the instructors at UC Berkley breaks down the Digital News Initiative:

In short, here’s what the project involved:

• Roughly 60 students and five faculty members
• … running six hyper-local sites for Bay area communities
• … containing 840 articles
• … that attracted more than 20,000 unique visitors.

The sites themselves, which are based in WordPress, features useful tools for readers. I particularly liked Mission Loc@l’s events calendar in the right sidebar and Oakland North’s traffic visualization tool, which also appears on some of the other sites.

So how’d they do it, and how can you apply it to your own work?

Students had a weeklong multimedia bootcamp run by the Knight Digital Media Center.

• Having taken multimedia journalism classes, I know my biggest headache came from the logistics of class schedules. A five-hour class once a week doesn’t lend itself to having students grasp a concept – and then, most importantly, remember it a week later.
• Lesson: Traditional university class schedules make things difficult. See if you can set up a boot camp environment to teach basic skills from the get go.

The program was funded through a grant from the Ford Foundation, which provided the cash to hire two digital media specialists as faculty members.

• Money helps if you need to hire extra help.
• Lesson: Apply for grants. Talk to alumni who might want to donate money. Start a fundraising drive, if needed.

Want to read more?

Check out the sites:

• Oakland North
• El Cerrito Focus
• inEmeryville
• East Bay West Online
• The (510) Report
• Albany Today
• (Plus, Mission Loc@l in San Francisco)
  

Read a bit from UC Berkley and also a fairly in-depth article from the university’s public affairs office.

*Sidenote: If you want to visit a video-sharing site like YouTube – but want more high-quality videos and fewer snarky commenters – I recommend Vimeo.

Delicious: Read on, young journalists

(I realize I’m more than a little late at jumping on board with this one, but better late than never.)

If you’ve never used Delicious before, let me add my voice to the chorus praising the site. Basically, it’s a social bookmarking tool, meaning you can share the links you find useful and see which links others find interesting. You can also tag each link so they’re easy to sort.

I’ve added a widget to my sidebar to show my 10 most recent Delicious links, and you can see more on my Delicious page.

Wonder where your tech-savvy journalism role models gets their information? If they use Delicious, it’s easy to catch up on what they find interesting — and learn a thing or two in the process.

Learning new programs on your own

I wouldn’t recommend this as the best way to always learn a program, but it’s possible. Plus, it can be a fun challenge to figure things out

As I have transitioned into my new role as Web director at the Daily Nebraskan, I also have assumed the responsibility of producing content with programs with which I’ve had little to no experience.

Sure, sometimes it’s frustrating, but a can-do attitude gets you pretty far.

Lessons learned:

1. In Soundtrack Pro, the little red button only enables a track for recording. It is not the record button. … Even though it looks suspiciously like one. You want the bigger – but not really that big – red button if you’re trying to record.
2. Help menus are your friend. Use them … lots.
3. Have a piece of equipment but no manual? Search for one online. Download the PDF. Violà!

P.S. If you happen to be a developer for Soundtrack Pro, I might suggest labeling the enable button with “Enable.” At the very least, don’t make it look so much like a record button. Please and thank you.

DailyNebraskan.com: What I've been up to

I promise, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. I’ve just been up to my eyeballs in content management systems.

Right now, the Daily Nebraskan is running on College Publisher 4, and I am in charge of managing our transition to College Publisher 5.

I also work with reporters and section editors to develop Web-only content. (Though admittedly, it’s tough to find time to actually develop content myself while still fulfilling other management duties.)

However, I did find time to squeeze in a quick Flash project this week: UNL’s Geography Student Organization held its annual geography bee, so reporter Kiah Haslett got me a few questions ahead of time and I compiled a short quiz.

Check it out.

It’s not the most sophisticated Flash project or the most in depth, but it’s a start. Keep checking the Daily Nebraskan to see more projects from our staff.

Too much to do, too little time

I know, I know: I’m doing pretty horribly at keeping this blog updated.

It turns out that when you put in a 60-hour week at work, you tend to slack off in other areas.

So, if you’re really hankering to see what I’ve been up to, head over to the Daily Nebraskan Web site.