Editing on the Internet

-- A new way to get out the news

-- Content decisions and ethical concerns

The Internet

Go to www.snopes.com, click on the “25 hottest legends list.”

Go to Google and type in your phone number

Go to Chron.com/sports/astros or chron.com/life/houstongardening – the year of the “channel”

Call up www.yahoo.com in new window (do a comparison: see how headlines and visuals are used; and the ads)

Go to Newstrust.net to see a compendium of the top stories of the day and week from a variety of sources

Go to www.pegasusnews.com – the competition? Community bulletin board site offers news, calendar info

The Internet: Shift happens

The MSM (mainstream media) is struggling mightily to incorporate the new technology into the way it delivers its product. But some “cyber warriors” are convinced the battle is over, that the day of the MSM is done.

From the Hattiesburg American

"There are two kinds of people in the newspaper business," says David McRaney, the 29-year-old editor of University of Southern Mississippi's student newspaper. "People who love the news, and people who love paper. The people who love paper are going to go extinct. But now, something that was once stagnant is being purified by new blood, and I want to be part of that new blood."

The Internet

Change has come and is still coming full force at the communications industry. The basic skills for gathering and presenting information are the same and are still vitally important. But the way people read and what they read and what platform they read from is evolving. And like all Darwinism, communications mediums must adapt or die.

The online medium certainly is forcing its print and broadcast colleagues to reconsider and reconfigure how it presents the news … even breaking news.

The Internet: Effect on decision-makingIn July 2006, a Houston jury came back with its verdict in the retrial of Andrea Yates, the Clear Lake woman accused of drowning her five children. The judge announced the verdict at noon over TV and radio; later, the respective lawyers and even some jurors spoke to the media about the case. The Chronicle had a dozen reporters and photographers on the scene, but the newspaper wouldn’t land on any doorsteps until 17-18 hours later. How did the newspaper attack the “staleness” problem?

First of all, the breaking story went up on Chron.com as soon as possible. Additional material related to the Yates case – a history/chronology, prior case testimony, photos, blogs, etc. – was already available for quick linking. The main story and photos were updated as more feeds came in.

Then came the front page coverage. What would go on Page 1 besides the main umbrella story? What would the headline be? That’s what editors had to decide.

The Internet: Effect on decision-making

To maintain a freshness quotient, the Chronicle editors decided to go with a story on the jury (pictured is jury foreman Todd Frank), information few news outlets had. The headline couldn’t be “Yates Acquitted” – that was old news. The headline chosen was “Not Guilty, but Not Free” – it hits at the news and opens the door to the insanity angle in the case. Deck heads provided the other important angles.

The Internet

The Internet provides a marvelous tool and a difficult challenge to editors. It offers a way for the print medium to do an end run on the advantages of immediacy in the broadcast medium. But what do newspapers do about this generation that was weaned on getting information – for free -- from a computer screen rather than the printed page? How should news be presented to them? An article in the American Journalism Review urges editor’s to refrain from “pre-Internet thinking” (handout on the Web site) – get away from first-day treatments on stories that are 12 hours or more old and move the story forward in the print / broadcast product by providing more analysis, context etc.

The Internet

A NetRatings survey released in January 2005 shows that 1 in 3 Internet users read an online newspaper. Here’s another interesting trend -- more and more people are turning to the Internet for breaking news and for local news. Local news has long been “the franchise” of the MSM, but one online survey found that 62 percent of general Internet users choose an online newspaper to get their local news; that number rises to 86 percent in a survey of those who already subscribe to an Internet newspaper.

What does this information mean to a MSM editor?

Internet: The good, bad and ugly

Advantages (besides not killing as many trees)

• Offers immediacy like broadcast

• Online stories can be updated continually; print / broadcast stories less easily so because of their deadlines

• Few if any space limitations, unlike print mediums

• Online type generally larger, or reader can adjust it

• Fewer production costs -- no presses, composing rooms and their employees

• No circulation hassles, unless the server goes down

• It’s often democratic and interactive (the latter is a key word to remember)

Interactivity

Let the reader decide

A number of Web sites have sprung up that allow the reader/user to determine the popularity of content, either by actually voting on the material or by counted page views. On these sites, the reader rates the importance of the news – not an editor.

• www.reddit.com

• www.digg.com

• Del.icio.us

Internet: The good, bad and ugly

Disadvantages

• Access is confined to those with access to a computer. This creates a stratified society of computer haves and have-nots.

• It costs more to gain access to the medium.

• Users are a slave to the server speed. Screen is smaller “palette.”

• Not as portable as print product; harder to make “keepsakes”

• The cyberspace market is still somewhat volatile; advertisers as a whole are not yet completely trustful of the medium. That could be changing -- there is a move afoot by the film industry to pull its print ads and exclusively use the Web.

• Too much unvetted information. One critic calls it “an electronic bathroom wall.”

• The search for information is often in a narrow scope, limiting the discovery of news outside the search framework. The scatter-shoot approach of print products gives the element of surprise.

The Internet: A cash cow?What about making money? All public newspaper companies' reports indicate that their Web sites are significantly more profitable percentagewise than their print operations. Since 2005, the annual volume of print advertising in U.S. newspapers has plunged by $12.7 billion, or 27 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Over the same time, the amount of online advertising on newspaper Web sites has risen by $1.1 billion, a 53 percent increase, not nearly enough to offset the erosion in print.

Newspaper revenues are likely to become more content based than advertising based. Steven Brill is one of three media veterans behind Journalism Online, a site that will charge fees for some of its content.

“The number one thing that newspapers have is that a newspaper throws away more content in a day than Yahoo makes in a year.” – Shawn Riegsecker, CEO of Chicago-based Centro.

The Internet: Immediacy, interactivity

Many in the baby boomer generation are conditioned to receiving information in the morning, or at noon, 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. The Internet and 24-hour cable news channels have changed all that. Print editors have taken notice. The Internet gives print editors a chance to even the score with their broadcast counterparts in the immediacy game. In fact, they may have an advantage – generally print has greater manpower than broadcast mediums and thus can offer sidebars and background elements that the competition cannot. Also, the Internet gives both print and broadcast editors a way around FCC rules on market penetration and competition.

The Internet: Immediacy, interactivity Push technologies streamline or tailor news to your individual wants

and needs. Or perhaps you want breaking news alerts. Advertisers have already made such technology one of their tools. RSS Feeds software automatically notifies you when a story or a Weblog is updated.

Podcasts: This takes advantage of the popularity of iPods and other hardware. A number of news mediums have someone read the news, a la radio, and make it available as audio files for iPod users. See the Podcasting related article.

Vodcasts: Also takes advantage of the popular hardware out there, iPods, Slingboxes, cell phones etc. You receive a video newscast on those devices. At the Naples Daily News in Florida, the newspaper has its own “studio” and offers vodcasts at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., paid for by 30-second ad from sponsors. See the Adapt or Die related article.

Blogs: Web logs aren’t immediate per se, but some are pretty close. The blogs allow interpretative journalism – providing explanation, analysis and context – and for interactivity with readers/users.

Making it simple (see report)

Communicate what the site offers: Tell readers what they can expect to find

Help users know where to look: Too much competing data can cause reader disorientation (drudgereport.com)

Make it easy to tell what’s news

Use appropriate information density: Strike a balance; heavy users like lots of news, light users like simpler approach

Categorize content effectively: Match what users would think is correct, whether vertical or horizontal (espn.com)

Provide effective cues about meaning and importance: Some sites are like old newspapers – dense with type. Yahoo.com does good job simplifying

Innovation

Sometime in the next two years, if Hearst Corp.'s plans work out, a handful of Seattle Post-Intelligencer readers will begin getting their morning news from a new electronic newspaper that's displayed on a screen as light and flexible as paper. The screen will be about the size of a small tabloid newspaper, and it will be in color.

The electronic P-I will carry real-time news, same as the Internet.

And when those readers head off to work, they will roll up the electronic P-I and stuff it in their pocket, purse, or briefcase.

Innovation

The San Diego Union-Tribune has had a mobile edition since 2002; the Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive just started one. The Arizona Republic offers one with a small banner ad on nearly every page. The Republic provides news and ad info to users who enter “short code” text messages. In the future, brief ads may be incorporated into “short code” responses.

The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., has a text-only mobile edition that gives access to most info on the paper’s Web site. It also provides users access to retail and classified advertisers.

Innovation

Like getting news, scores, weather and traffic updates on your phone but you have a hard time reading the screen? Meet Readius, unveiled in February 2007. This portable reader features a 5-inch rollable screen and folds to the size of a mobile phone.

Innovation

Still like a print product but don’t have time to read in the morning? The Toronto Star and the Bakersfield Californian offer 12- and six-page afternoon editions downloadable as PDF files. The Update is free, can be read on-screen or printed and is posted by 2 p.m. The Star P.M. is posted by 3:30 p.m. and is heavy on entertainment, sports and business news

Innovation

This not-for-profit site, formed with $1 million in seed money from the Knight-Ridder Foundation, is a “serious” alternative newspaper. The content is mostly columns and analysis. It offers a printable version – in color or black and white – as well (right). Another non-profit Webpaper is www.voiceofsandiego.org

Innovation

Still like an old reliable newspaper but don’t often have spare change in your pocket? How about a newsrack that will accept credit cards. A dozen or so newspapers are experimenting with them now – some have noticed a bump in single-copy sales as a result. To get more of a boost, some papers are offering 50 percent discounts on credit card purchases.

Innovation: Video news you can useThe Miami Herald has its own version of Entertainment Tonight with “What the 5!”, a videocast that highlights five offbeat news items out of South Florida. The show runs for about two minutes, and the site features links to MiamiHerald.com stories and often gives a nod to Herald advertisers.

In a similar vein, the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch created www.dispatchkitchen.com to showcase the culinary skills of its food editor. Her cooking segments on the local CBS affiliate are made available online. Convergence, anyone?

Planning online packages

Here is a worksheet

courtesy of Tim Harrower,

author of the design book,

on how to coordinate online

packages, complete with

ideas for multimedia options

and interactivity options.

Note that this involves

collaboration with reporters,

assigning editors, graphics

artists, photographers, etc.

The Internet: Headlines

Headlines are often the primary gateway to online stories. The online reader has to click on the headline to get a short summary, or lead, of the story. Another click might take them to the full story. Depending upon the computer and server speed, this can be a bit of a burden on online readers, who then gravitate to headline scanning rather than reading full accounts. This puts greater pressure on Web headline writers to get readers to make that time investment. Web headline writers have another disadvantage compared with their print cousins: they often don’t have the photos, full layout, deck heads and story that can give contextual clues to print readers. The online headline alone often has to explain and sell the story while often competing with an entire block of other headlines.

Internet Heads: Key words are the key

When writing headlines for online stories, stop thinking like

a creative wordsmith for a moment and start thinking like a

Web surfer. What words in that headline would you most

likely put in a search engine to find that story? Those words

should be in your headline. Sure, it’s a lot of subject / verb /

object construction, but we want to help Mr. Surfer find the

story. Search engines are a big deal, if you didn’t know that

already, and many news organizations are using search

engine optimization techniques to help their Web sites get

noticed. Times Online, because 30 to 60 percent of its traffic

comes via search engines, modifies the headlines imported from

its print affiliate to make them more “search engine friendly.”

Internet Heads: Key words are the key

Stephan Spencer, president and founder of search engine optimization company Netconcepts, says many of the most historic and famous newspaper headlines don’t translate to the Web as well as they do in print. You have to think like a Google user. Here’s a famous one from the San Francisco Examiner after 9/11.

He says interjecting keywords like "terrorism", "terrorists", or "terror attack" would have helped this article in the search engines.

Spencer’s comments on other famous newspaper headlines:

Wall St. lays an egg --Variety on Black Monday (1929)Spencer: Searchers won't type in "Wall St", they'll use "Wall Street". Spell it out. And where's the all-important phrase "stock market"?

Dewey defeats Truman --The Chicago Tribune reporting the wrong election winner (1948) Spencer: Needs "election results" in order to gain visibility for the phrase "election results" as well as for "election". "Election results" is more popular with searchers than "election winner".

Ford to city: Drop dead -- New York Daily News reporting President Ford's denial of a federal bailout (1975) Spencer: Would suggest "President Ford" over "Ford", and "New York City" over "City".

Gotcha! --The U.K.'s Sun on the sinking of the Belgrano during the Falklands War (1981) Spencer: Sprinkling keywords like "Falklands", "war", "conflict", battle", "Argentinian" into this one-word headline would take away some of the punch, yet it would be essential if search engine visibility is important.

Headless body in topless bar -- New York Post on a local murder (1983)Spencer: No New Yorker searching Google, Yahoo News, etc. for local crime news would have found this story. Needs to include "crime" and/or "murder", along with some location-based keywords like "Manhattan" or "NYC“.

The Internet: Headline guidelines Accuracy. Always on top of the list

Pick the key word(s). That should be the first word of the headline, whether it’s Bush, Texans, TomKat, whatever. Like print headlines, avoid articles a, an, the.

Avoid teaser heads, focus on the central idea. In general, leave teaser and pun headlines to print. Don’t make the reader guess what the story is about. That doesn’t mean you have to forsake creativity entirely – the play headline on your home page can certainly be punchy, but that’s not likely to be the text that links to the story. You can take a magazine-style approach: a punchy main headline with the deck serving as both the explainer and as the link to the story.

Avoid words that could lead readers to think the material is advertising or spam. This is more geared toward info that is emailed or text messaged to users.

The Internet: Headlines

Optional extra credit:

Rewrite the five print headlines provided by email into heads that are more suitable for the Web, according to the guidelines given. The heads should be 5 to 10 words in length, although shorter is better. Be catchy but accurate – remember, Web readers are often “scanners.”

Worth 2 points each (10 total) added to a story grade.

The Internet: Credibility issues

Credibility issues are perhaps the most serious editors must deal with. How many of you have heard someone say: “It must be true … I saw it on the Internet.”? That phrase has become a standing joke, practically synonymous with urban legends. Much of the material passed along the Net doesn’t even receive a routine copy editing and is rife with errors. Some are carelessness and some are intentional deception. You have to up your credibility quotient by being both newsworthy and trustworthy. People will gravitate to sources they trust.

In addition to being an information platform, the Web is a vital tool to editors for fact-checking (beware of Wikipedia!) and as source material for stories and visuals. Information from the Web should always be credited.

The Internet: Credibility issues, Poynter tips

When to have a “trust” discussion – even if it’s only with yourself:

No discussion needed• Online information has gone through an editing process where a standard of

reliability can be assumed • Verbatim texts, or speeches or documents from properly cited original

sources

Discussion recommended• Online information was gathered by a generally reliable news outlet but was

NOT published or broadcast previously because of space or time constraints.

• Archival materials or original documents that have been altered or shortened to fit the online format

Discussion required• Information found online has not gone through any sort of editing process,

or at least one equal to the standards of a reliable news outlet (Blogs would be a good example).

• Databases can become outdated and thus misleading. Be sure to check the creation date of material you are citing.

The Internet: Ethical concerns

The rules regarding ethics, libel and plagiarism should still be applied. Because it’s not “in print” won’t keep you out of court if you falsely damage someone’s reputation. And, just because you can download it, that doesn’t mean it’s yours.

Here are some other new ethical concerns:

• Privacy: There are a lot of databases on the Internet. What can journalists use? What’s off limits? We all know that hacking and delving into private email is a no-no, but the other bounds are still being formed.

• Advertising: Newspapers and magazines generally try to label advertising as advertising, and they apply of rules on typefaces, placement, content etc. But online, ads regularly break up copy or pop up over the story you are reading. There is no attempt to separate advertising from editorial content.

The Internet: Ethical concerns

• Manipulating photos: PhotoShop makes it easy to do. In general, don’t do it. But if you are changing a photo to gain an effect, make sure you tell the reader you are doing so.

• Corrections: Some sites merely update erroneous information with the corrected material. But what about the poor reader who only saw the initial version? Perhaps using a well-placed Correction or Clarification label might draw the reader’s eye to the new information.

• Hyperlinks to external sites: Interactivity is great, but should you provide editor’s notes about the trustworthiness of the content or warnings of graphic images when linking to some sites? Some media ethicists argue you should never link to a site that has content that you wouldn’t otherwise print or broadcast. (Would you link to a site with the name and photo of the alleged Kobe Bryant rape victim? Would you link to a site that has the full video of the beheading of Daniel Pearl?) Also, some sites -- like NPR -- forbid anyone from linking to them. Can they do that?

The Internet: Convergence of skills

There is a growing trend toward convergence, where more and more mediums are asking their news gatherers and presenters to have a combination of skills. Some newspapers have their own studios to create news video reports online. Many newsdesks prepare copy for the online product as well as the print product. Reporters have to write for more than one medium, even under the same company umbrella. Photography is nearly all digital so photos can be put in print or on the Web. It’s not uncommon for reporters to be photographers as well. To stay viable in today’s media market, it’s likely that you or your staff will need to be versed in text, audio, video and interactivity.

The Internet: More help

Coding tips• For tips on Web coding, you can find tutorials at:

http//www.werbach.com/barebones http//www.webmonkey.com

Handouts• “How We Read Online”• “How to Write Online”

Handy Dandy Web Guide

The Internet: Help with headlines

• http://news.com.com/Newspapers+search+for+Web+headline+magic/2100-1038_3-6155739.html?tag=sas.email

• http://news.com.com/Newspaper+headlines+lost+in+Web+translation/2100-1025_3-6155618.html?tag=sas.email

• http://access.newsu.org/index.php?v=2&id=159