Adding content to the site
My newspaper column
Earlier post
If you haven't visited News-Record.com lately, you've been missing out. There is a slew of new content about Greensboro and the Triad that changes by the hour.
Last week, for instance, you could watch a video of the annual rodeo at Southern Guilford High School. You could check out 15 photos of the Tiger Woods-Michael Jordan golf extravaganza in Charlotte, including several amusing ones of Jordan, hat on backward, puffing on a large stogie.
And, of course, you could get breaking news, lots of breaking news.
Last week, we changed staff writer Amy Dominello's job so that she could create content specifically for the Web. She updates overnight news and digs out new stories. For instance, she posted news about a lockdown at two Randolph County schools, a car chase in Alamance County, a shooting in Greensboro, a teacher assault, and Tolly Carr's blood-alcohol test results, among other stories.
Amy cringed when we told her that her day would start at 6:30 a.m., but she quickly understood that many readers check for news updates online as soon as they wake up. As a result, we now actively provide local breaking news online from 6:30 a.m. to midnight on weekdays. National and world news is available 24-7.
News is the site's bread and butter, but it is only a taste of what's there. Like the newspaper, we also measure in a healthy mix of features and light-hearted fare. There are also:
* Videos. In addition to the rodeo, we posted three other videos in the last couple weeks about Charles R. Gregory, championship football coach at Randleman High School; saving baby goats at the Green Farm in Sophia; and GameBuzz, our weekly Webcast on video gaming. Check out today's video on the expansion of the Natural Science Center.
* Photo galleries. Along with the Wood-Jordan show, we had photo galleries of the filming of “Leatherheads," the George Clooney movie being made at Triad locations; the local celebration of the National Day of Prayer; and the training of dogs to participate in a sport called dog agility.
Amy isn't the only news staffer whose role has been refocused. Photographer Jerry Wolford spends most of his day shooting video and creating multi-media shows.
Their work represents another step toward adapting to the evolving ways in which people get news and information. It opens up many wonderful opportunities for those of us once restricted to publishing on newsprint once a day.
Back in the oh-so-distant 1990's, newspapers stocked their Web sites with stories that had been printed in that morning's edition. As the Internet became more vibrant and access became more widespread, papers gradually added forums, blogs, podcasts, interactive stories and multi-media shows.
Even the term newspaper is becoming outdated. While it applies to what you're reading right now, it doesn't accurately describe so much of what a newspaper staff produces. The best newspaper Web sites are stocked with unique content, written and presented specifically for Web readers.
In our case, the entire staff creates content that goes online, into the newspaper or both. The days of daily deadlines are gone, for all practical purposes. The Internet has allowed -- demanded, really -- that our deadline be right now. As a result, our mantra is to publish news as soon as we have information verified. If the first place we can publish is online -- and it usually is -- then that’s where it appears first.
If you don't have a computer, don't despair. Much of the news posted online during the day moves into the next day's newspaper, often updated as reporting continues through the day and into the evening. But you will miss the videos and interactivity of the Web; we haven't figured out how to do that on newsprint.
Yet.
Comments (2)
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I'm a daily reader of the paper and frequent user of the web site. I wish I could rely on the web site to contain all of the stories in that day's paper. I suppose I assume that the most important stuff still appears in the paper, but I know that much of what is in the paper is not online. The web site would be more useful on days that I cannot or am uninclined to read the paper if I could count on all the content being on the web site. It seems to me the paper should be the minimum content for the web site. If you want to add more and web exclusives, that's fine. The disparity is also frustrating when I try to use the web site as a reference. Yesterday after I recycled my paper, I wanted to check the locations of the strawberry farms mentioned in the Life section, and I wanted to find out from the print story about the Kentucky Derby which TV network carried the race so I could find the video. I couldn't find either story on the web site.
Posted on May 6, 2007 2:48 PM
You're right, Patrick. We do not put all of our content online. We like to give our paying customers some things the free browsers don't get. :)
Posted on May 7, 2007 10:54 AM