More discussion on ditching the newspaper

Add comment October 30th, 2008

I talked a bit yesterday about another newspaper choosing to go the digital route. Here’s what my boss had to say about the subject.

Blogging about our Web-first video

Add comment May 1st, 2008

I get Google alerts any time we’re mentioned on the World Wide Web. Authors Deb Halpern Wenger and Deborah Potter blogged about our Web-first video. The pair wrote “Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World.  You can watch the video there, too. And if you have time, read what Jennie Pollock wrote about the video.

if you want to see what our jobs are like

2 comments April 28th, 2008

we at bricks & clicks write about how our jobs are changing from the old days of just ink and paper to tv, the web and magazines.today, instead of reading about how we’re different, watch us.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/GIJUyNHXrwQ" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

we produced this video by request from our parent company, gatehouse media. it will be used for training: while it’s not a how-to, it’s a how-to-think.

thanks, billy kulpa, for filming and editing this piece. (his first day on the job was the boone county tornado, and he’s been “running” ever since.)

Telling stories differently

1 comment April 8th, 2008

This weekend, sports reporter Doug Goodman decided to use video to tell two stories. Both published online Monday. Doug took a Handycam and a tripod to Rockford Speedway and Kent Creek and got this:

Enduro race opens Rockford Speedway’s season
Spring trout season opens at Kent Creek

I asked Doug if I could share his thoughts with newsroom staffers on what it was like to take a new approach when telling these stories. Here’s what he had to say:

I’m hoping this doesn’t sound too much like a pep rally for the march from traditional newspaper reporting to the world of multi-media reporting, but it might.

I’ve been a sports reporter for eight years now, and after covering the same sports that long it becomes slightly boring. It’s not like sitting on a wooden chair for hours covering a city council or school board meeting, but more of a job than a fun experience.

When I heard we were going to videotape events, it sounded interesting. I’ve never had a video camera but used them in high school and college in classes — many, many years ago.

Last week I told Chris (Soprych, multimedia editor) I wanted to shoot Rockford Speedway’s season-opening enduro race. Billy (Kulpa, multimedia journalist) gave me a 10-minute intro to the camera, and I was ready to go. It’s that easy.

I was covering the spring trout season opener Saturday morning and threw the video camera and tripod into the car. After doing my reporting for the newspaper story, I shot about 15 minutes of video. It was an enjoyable challenge. The footage was not the best — a tripod leg in the frame on one segment — but usable and gave people a feel of what it was like to be there at 6 a.m. Saturday. Kelley Simms (multimedia journalist) edited the video Monday, and I did a voice over for the one-minute video.

The enduro race was more involved. I shot for a couple of hours from different angles on the track. I also interviewed the winners and a loser.

Billy edited the action and interviews into a nice three-minute video.

These are events I would normally cover for the newspaper, but they were made more fun by shooting videos. I was excited about coming to work Monday morning to work on the videos.

Leading change

Add comment April 2nd, 2008

In the last couple years, I’ve been fortunate to get out of the office to attend conferences with other journalists. I’ve learned a lot from colleagues who work in larger and smaller newsrooms than mine. I always take back ideas, and I gain friends in the biz.

Today and tomorrow, I am in Lisle with other GateHousers. This time, though, I am one of the presenters and will be discussing developing and growing a Web-first culture in the newsroom. The participants came from across the country and will go through sessions that examine how to lead during change, covering the news for today, tomorrow and beyond, and much more.

I am energized by change, and this industry is changing quickly. We’re not just newspaper companies. We’re information companies. We have to gather information — through words, photos, interactive graphics, videos, slide shows, audio and more — and distribute on the best platform(s). Most of the time, it’s the Web.

Still, we as journalists can’t abandon our newspaper product. We also have to be creative in how we deliver information across our platforms. So, we try new things. And we get together (like today) and talk about best practices and share ideas on how we can adapt and thrive in a changing industry.

way to go, readers!

Add comment February 27th, 2008

on tuesday, we posted a story that the rock river valley blood center desperately needed donations.

jen bowman at the center told me today that she had a woman come in 20 minutes later because she saw it on rrstar.com. glad we can help you, our readers, help others!

Telling the story in multiple media

2 comments February 14th, 2008

At last count, we had posted 38 photos in our gallery, seven videos and dozens of news updates. That’s how we start telling stories these days: Web first. It would be easy if that’s all we did, but we have tomorrow’s newspaper as well. So as reporters, photographers and videographers are filing from the NIU campus, writers, editors and producers in the News Tower are taking that information and turning it around for posting to the Web and tomorrow’s newspaper. What used to be a simple, straight “assembly line” has morphed into a “Slinky,” where news goes on the first available “platform.” Tonight that was the Web. We’ll recraft the Web for print tomorrow, and push the print back to the Web and keep going.

Some folks think that approach is new. For those of us who have been in the business three or four decades, we know differently. We used to publish two editions a day, sometimes multiple ones, write for radio and television, and send updates to AP and UPI all day. It’s only been in the past 20 years or so that we limited ourselves to one newspaper each morning. I’m glad we can tell stories this way. We’re learning a lot.

P.S. Thanks to those who are reading online tonight. It’s nice to know you’re out there — even the unhappy ones. Godspeed and good night.

We never wanted to cover this

14 comments February 14th, 2008

It’s 7:06 p.m. and I am sitting at my desk listening to the journalists in the News Tower cover the shooting at Northern Illinois University. Is it one dead, or four? Eighteen injured or 17? The challenge is nailing down facts and resisting the temptation to repeat what we just heard from a caller, an e-mailer or another news outlet. In the rush to push information to the Web, to parents, students and people around the world, it would be so easy just to “go with it.” We can’t. That’s simply not what we do. We gather the information, sort it and stake our credibility on what we post and what we print. There’s lots of information out there. Our job is to sort the facts from the speculations.

Over the next several days, this is what you can expect from the Rockford Register Star and rrstar.com: full, 24-7 coverage on the Web. We have reassigned our journalists to ensure they are in DeKalb fulltime, reporting and posting photos and videos around the clock. No matter what time you come to rrstar.com, you should expect to find updated information. In the daily newspaper, we will cover the news, provide more context and help readers understand what happened. In Sunday’s newspaper, we will recap the three days on campus with a multi-page special section.

Rrstar.com will break the news, provide the links and ensure deeper, broader coverage as fast we we can and with our commitment to credible, important, factual information. In print, we will add the context to help us all understand what cannot be understood.

This is our job.

Breaking down breaking news

Add comment January 28th, 2008

This just might be the best dissection I’ve read on what newsrooms should do with big stories online and in print the next day. Rob Curley, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, writes about how the Las Vegas Sun covered the Monte Carlo fire as the mega casino burned. The Sun posted text, photos, videos, a timeline and much more.

We took a similar approach with the recent Boone County tornado. We did a pretty good job, but we’ll use Curley’s post to challenge us to think of more things we can do next time.

Visual artist’s take

2 comments January 10th, 2008

We got a mention on Charles Apple’s blog yesterday. Apple is the “graphics guru of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va.” And he liked our online coverage and special report page on the Boone tornado. Read this post.

(Check out the “Part 1″ and “Part 2″ videos on the special report page. More coming.)