Archive for the ‘ News/Online Merge ’ Category

4
22
Apr

News/Online Merge: Flustered Beginning

Today was the first day I asked a reporter for some of his story so I could put it on the web. And he was cool about it. I think this flustered me, because I then proceeded to upload it with the wrong priority setting which messed up the homepage, then I put the byline in the wrong place so that there was no excerpt showing and well, Epic Fail. I had to publish the site about three times before I got it right which made me feel stupid. On top of that, when I tweeted the update, I got part of the story wrong.

Yeesh.

Yes, I do know how to run the software and how to tweet but man, for some reason I was just nervous as all get out. So stop telling me horro stories people :) My journos are lovely people who won’t suddenly become evil just because I’m going to ask them for a few more updates :)

In fact the second reporter I asked for an update was just brilliant when she very kindly explained why she’d prefer we hold off putting it on the web until just before 5pm. I was unfamiliar with the story and didn’t realize it was something she really had to work at to get the information, so she wanted to be sure it was our scoop.

I think the journalists here want every facet of The Independent to be successful, including the web. I feel better now that I have some direction on what I can and can’t do during the morning budget meetings, and I’m excited to finally be able to control our site’s content update frequency. I’m going to rock it. I’m going to remember where the bylines go, that Priority ’1′ will bugger up the main package story so only use it if I have a story with a photo, and that the reporters who work here are awesome.

Desk update: I can’t shift desks until next week. Darn.

6
20
Apr

Blogging our News/Online Merge

I found out last week that two of us from the Online Department will be merging with the Newsroom. Our videographer, Denton, will now be a “Multimedia Reporter” and I will be “Web Editor & Social Media Coordinator”.  Denton will sit amongst the reporters and I will be moved to the copy desk area. I thought I would blog the transition we’re making and document how it goes.

In this first post, I’ll give some background as to what’s going on and how our newsroom is set up.

We’re a small staff: Five Beat reporters, three Sports reporters and four Copy Editors. In Online, we have two videographers (one for ad work and one for news), a web developer, and a web editor – me. There are two “halves” to our building – the front half containing classifieds and circulation folk, and the back half containing News/Online/Graphics/Sales. So essentially we’re in one big room back here. Except Online has some half-walls.

We’ve fought many a battle to keep them too, because while we don’t deny everyone could probably use some semblance of privacy when they need to concentrate, when you’re knee-deep in code trying to get something working on a website that gets over a million pageviews a month (I know, I know but that’s a good number for us) having constant interruptions even from people passing by your desk makes it really difficult to concentrate.

If I sounds snobby, I don’t mean to. I know that same argument can apply to every department here, but we, in Online, were given the walls when they moved us between the ad side and the news side, and they sort of help. And if I sound slightly bitter about losing them during this move, well, I’ll get over it.

I really will get over it, I promise because I’m excited about the changes occurring in my job. We lost a fabulous copy editor and super person to the last round of layoffs, and so I’ll be moved to his old spot and given extra desk space (which I don’t really need – I work online after all :) ) and I’m also hoping that sitting in that spot is not “unlucky.” Not that I’m superstitious or anything.

Right now, my job entails a little bit of everything. I manage the “people” side of the website, meaning I handle trouble calls, photo orders, moderate story comments, forum comments, Cover it Live chats, build/manage internal and community blogging, and the past year and a half I’ve become the social media person here kind of on my own volition. I also manage a few client websites from the days when we did web design, and I am a backup video producer (meaning I can shoot, edit/produce and upload videos.) So kind of a jack-of-all-trades in Online. I can design websites and graphics but my job has sort of evolved away from that.

When GateHouse took over my paper, the newsroom took control over site content. We’d hoped that this would lead to a more frequently updated site, but we’ve realized that piling that work onto our print editors was not the right way to go. So my new responsibilities now include: updating the site throughout the day, using a combination of our stuff and wire stuff depending on the timing; working with reporters on updates to post (meaning I can ask them to write a couple paragraphs for the web on any story they are working on – in other words I will be their newest annoyance.)

It just seems to make better sense (and a big ‘Duh’) to have a specific person be in charge of harnessing content for the web rather than putting on those in charge of harnessing it for print; I will also continue to explore, employ methods and train everyone on social media techniques, keep abreast of the latest trends and basically do what I do when it comes to this Twitter stuff.

Part of the change is that I now report to the presentation editor instead of my Online Director (though I’m still getting paid out of that budget). This, along with the move, I think, are the biggest changes that will require me to adapt. I’m excited about my new responsibilities but I’m nervous as well. I hope my reporter friends are willing to give this a try and I will try not to be too much of a pest. But my ass is on the line if we do not have a fresh, updated website throughout the day, and well, when my ass is affected, I tend to get a little whip-cracky. Or panicky – whichever :)

The changes are supposed to start up this week – at least I’m to be moved this week *sniffle* and I will continue to post updates on how it’s going. I will try to stop being such a brat about having to move – it’s nothing to do with my soon-to-be new “roomies” who are all wonderful people, so much as having to move out of my comfort zone. But I’m not going to sugarcoat. If I’m going to document this merge, I’m going to write how I feel about it as well.

Wish us luck!