02 Mar 2010
by Stephin Social Media, Tools of the trade, Working on the Newsroom Tags: breaking news plan, newsroom
At The Independent, we’re trying to come up with a breaking news “mobilization” plan to put into place that takes into account our tools (cameras, phones, other recording equipment), our software capabilities and reporter abilities.
What? Why haven’t we done this already?
Well, it’s not like we don’t know how to cover breaking news. We do that pretty well. But it’s time to create a plan that includes social media and some staff that our 140 year-old newspaper is still getting used to using.
For example, we’re ditching our cludgy, GL-2 cameras that require tapes and take two to three hours post-production and switching to Kodak Zi8s with external microphones. We will eventually have three or four (more if we can get them) of these available to the newsroom and we will train and expect our staff to grab them when heading out on a story. Not every story will need video, but the reporters are the best judge as to which stories WILL require video to enhance them and it needs to become second nature to them to remember to grab a camera. We’re lucky to have a couple people in-house who can take that video, edit and upload it for them, but in my opinion, reporters would be smart to learn how to do this themselves. The Zi8s and Moviemaker (or iMovie) are really all you need to get something online quickly.
Our recent experiment with live tweeting has taught some of us how to use an amazing tool like the Verizon Droid to manage a whole new kind of news story. We can’t afford to buy our reporters each a Droid, but we *might* be able to invest in at least two that will be designated for newsroom use. In my wildest dreams, I want every reporter to have a Droid (or iPhone, but those aren’t available here) because I still believe they are one of the best tools a reporter could have in their arsenal. So, I’ve been tasked with coming up with a Breaking News plan that goes from news tip to the very last update. I’ve found a few suggestion online, but it’s pretty sparse. So I’m going to try my luck again with a little crowdsourcing and ask, maybe even beg for advice and suggestions from my fellow awesome journos.
- Do you have a plan?
- What do you include in it?
- Who do you include in it?
- Do you post all updates within one story with timestamps or post multiple stories each time there is an update?
- Do you have someone “corral” all incoming information?
- Do you flow everything through an editor before anything gets posted?
- Do you post “as-is” and make corrections later?
- How big does a story have to be before this plan goes into effect?
- How do you handle the front page of your site? (Does the template change etc.)
- Do you have a general plan or do you tailor it to your organization? Which is best?
Any help would be much appreciated. Comments are open! 
11 May 2009
by Stephin News/Online Merge, Social Media, Working on the Newsroom Tags: merging, newsroom, online
I will eat some crow now. I have done a complete about-face on my views about open plan environments for newsrooms. It was my own personal dislike of not having much in the way of privacy that made me so grumble-y about it. But after a week of sitting in view of the City Editor who runs the morning budget meetings, and within shouting distance of every reporter, plus a week of having a website that is refreshed and updated often throughout the day because of my visibility, I can safely say that I’m over it. The benefits far outweigh a little uncomfortableness that’s pretty much all in my head.
I sit next to the scanner. Always tuned it out when I sat further away, and I still kind of do, but when something is happening, I catch it faster. I can also sit at my desk and tune into the conversation happening right now between the City Editor and one of the reporters and try and see if it’s something that can go online. Once I got past some initial clumsy hurdles (software story prioritizing system is antiquated and difficult), I find myself slipping into the flow much better now. I’m losing the shyness that keeps me from timidly asking a photog for art to go with a story. Without going into personal detail, shyness is one of the things I worry most about in this new role of mine.
In what’s become something of a routine, the City Editor will come out of the 10am budget meeting with a story for web right away and will email me some other stories that are coming up later in the day for web. It’s working nicely, but I think it will be even better when I can start going to the meetings myself (time conflict presently with our daily morning chat “show”) . I’m hoping to be able to sift through the list myself and be able to choose. I never felt like I could “be the decider” before but I do now.. It’s really weird to me and hard to explain, but I’m totally digging the new digs
Also, really enjoying being able to nag people into tweeting stuff
22 Apr 2009
by Stephin News/Online Merge, Social Media, Working on the Newsroom Tags: merging, newsroom
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.
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