Hey, the Web is different than the newspaper
Add comment May 27th, 2008
Our newsroom has a writers’ group that meets weekly. Reporter Sean Driscoll, who writes about the city of Rockford, organizes the meetings. Tomorrow’s session is on writing for the Web. He shared a column by Jonathan Dube, a columnist for Poynter and tech writer for MSNBC.com, so attendees could prepare in advance.
In a nutshell, Dube tells journalists to get to the point, keep it short and know your audience. When you’re reading news Web sites, what are the things you expect? Dube sums it up perfectly when he says we need to think differently. What are the best ways to tell this story online? What about pictures, audio, video, etc.? With so many platforms — paper, online, TV — we need to learn how our readers want their information and deliver it appropriately.
It’s good our journalists are talking about how the Web differs from the printed newspaper. Different audiences just might require different approaches. What do you think?
