Here's the Tech Gang's views on how live news updates to the Spec.com should work:
THE NEAR TERM GOAL:
To have 5-10 Live News posting to our web site each weekday, with a reduced number on Saturdays and Sundays. These would be visible and accessible off the Spec.com's front page (although initially during a 'soft launch' period they would be one click away, behind a "LIVE NEWS UPDATES" button.)
These items will appear in a list with a headline and short summary and thumbnail photo, if one is part of the story. These are ALL items that have NOT appeared in the paper (and may or may not ultimately).
Live News postings will include:
- brief updates of ongoing stories (60-150 words)
- short news bulletins and stories on breaking news (50-400 words)
- full news stories, most often wire-supplied.
- occasional web-only content (slideshows, maps or graphics), perhaps extending the file from the day's paper
Other news sites web use suggests peak readership times will include begining and ends of the work day and lunch hours. At a minimum, we should manage our Live News Postings to give them fresh content at each of those times. Early in the day these posting will consist mostly of fresh wire stories and late sports scores (and pics?) from the night before. This will be augmented by local content throughout the day.
CONTENT EDITORS:
Each day content editors, as they prepare their daily skeds, will look for stories that are logical candidates for Live News postings to our web site. It is hoped that each section will contribute daily but we expect the initial bulk will come from wires, city, business and sports.
Daily, all Content editors will:
- identify Live News possibilities on their daily sked,
- flag them accordingly on the newsnote with LIVE NEWS or WEB
- assign them — with target lengths — to writers (and as appropriate, photographers,) giving them TWO deadlines, web and print.
Editors should ensure we post some new content by 9am, noon, and 4 pm each day.
Each content editor - in the near term - will need to have a designated person (at least a group one level) who will be charged with reading/editing copy, marrying it with a photo if necessary, and posting it to the web.
MORNING NEWS MEETING:
The morning news meeting will identify missed opportunities and prioritize the Live News postings for the web the same way they identify A1 candidates. (They might add a photograph or order up a graphic or even build a quick web package — or simply dictate which story should be posted when and where on the queue.)
CONTENT CREATORS:
Writers and photographers will create and file content as they always do, with these small exceptions:
Writers
Writers will be meeting much earlier deadlines
and generally writing much smaller pieces for the web than for the
paper. They will write in CopyDesk and file to a universal "WEB" desk -
regardless of section.
(With Jeff and Ross's input, I'm suggesting we create a new desk in Copydesk with unique status designations - Live, Approved, Uploaded - to ensure our web product does not inadvertently end up in the print work flow)
Photographers
Photographers will be asked to return
immediately from Live News assignments (or perhaps file remotely) and
edit their pictures and load them into Media Viewer (with cutlines) as
they normally do. They will also produce a paper proof with cutline
that they'll give to the photo editor.
EPD
The electronic picture desk will prepare a web
ready jpeg of a predetermined size and drop a copy into a UPDATES
folder on work desk.
The designated 'posters' will retrieve copy from the Web desk in Copydesk, cut and paste it into the web based Live News update form, attach a photo if any, and publish it to the web site.
There. Wasn't that easy?
We all expect the process to change as the staffing pieces begin to fall in place.
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