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Gear for the multimedia newsroom

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How to meet the practical needs of digital journalists in the field

By J.D. Lasica
Online Journalism Review

Every year at budget time, news organizations sort through the swarm of new technologies on the market, grappling with the question of how to outfit their operations to meet the needs of a multimedia age. A new generation of cool but practical digital tools offers print, broadcast and online journalists the chance to serve audiences that increasingly demand a more immediate, sophisticated news product.

The Advanced Journalist Technology Project, an initiative of the Ifra Centre for Advanced News Operations, has been studying the technological needs of media organizations since 1998, when it put together its first list of NewsGear components. “Several of our members came to us and asked for recommendations on the best equipment that would let their reporters become more mobile and agile,” recalls the center’s executive director, Kerry J. Northrup.

Northrup and his team began evaluating hundreds of technologies for their usefulness in a networked, converged newsroom: the best laptop, digital camera, digital camcorder and mobile networking device.  “After a while it dawned on us that we were essentially creating a backpack toolkit for journalists,” Northrup says. “We bought an airline-size suitcase, fit everything into the bag and, voila, we had NewsGear. One of the key issues was whether the pieces were all interoperable and how do you integrate all these elements without having to make a reporter carry around a ton of cords and power bricks. So the focus has been to get everything into a manageable size that a correspondent could work with in a car or on a plane.”

This year’s NewsGear recommendations were especially noteworthy because Northrup and his staff relied on the list of best-of-breed gadgets to outfit Ifra’s Newsplex, the $2 million converged newsroom prototype that opened on the campus of the University of South Carolina on Nov. 12. [Read more…] about Gear for the multimedia newsroom

Where Net luminaries turn for news

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PopTech attendees send a cautionary signal to mainstream news publications

By J.D. Lasica
Online Journalism Review

Late last week, while the Online News Association held its annual conference in New York, a handful of online journalists headed to a different kind of conclave, trekking to a scenic coastal village in Maine for PopTech, the annual gathering of Internet deep thinkers and technology heavy hitters.

In between sessions, I asked some of the participants their views about the state of online journalism, the news sites they frequent, and their digital news habits. (For more on PopTech, see Dan Gillmor’s coverage and related photos.)

If the digerati gathered here represent the leading edge of the Internet Age, reflecting where our wired society may be headed a few years hence, then online news publications have their work cut out. Few of the early adapters in this crowd spend much time at mainstream news sites.

Here are off-the-cuff ruminations about online news from eight PopTech founders, speakers and attendees:

Jaron Lanier

Tech cred: Coined the term “virtual reality.” His company, VPL Research, was the first to introduce immersive virtual reality products.  Lead scientist of the National Tele-Immersion Initiative, a coalition of research universities studying applications for Internet2.
Lives: New York, San Francisco Bay Area

Apart from my time driving in my car, the Internet is my only source of news, and it has been for some time. There isn’t any one news site that I would be willing to depend on by itself. I think it’s important to look at the Internet as a whole as a news source, and some sites make up for the others’ failings. I try to find sources from other points of view, from other countries. [Read more…] about Where Net luminaries turn for news

storycenter

Center for Digital Storytelling brings out the personal

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Center for Digital Storytelling helps people hold up a lens to their own lives

This column originally appeared in the Online Journalism Review on Oct. 8, 2002.

Technology, which has already helped spawn a class of amateur journalists through text-based weblogs and niche news sites, is about to blast into oblivion another largely artificial distinction: the gap between professional and amateur visualists.

In the past few years, the cost of creating personal documentary works has fallen so dramatically that the tools are no longer available only to a specialized class. People from all walks of life are now picking up the tools and telling their own stories, with the help of training facilities like the Center for Digital Storytelling.

On a recent Thursday morning, Kiok Gruttend, an emergency room nurse at Kaiser Permanente, sat nervously at the pockmarked table as a dozen strangers sat and waited. “Pardon,” she said, “my English not too good.” Her fingers trembled slightly as she began reading her two-minute script. [Read more…] about Center for Digital Storytelling brings out the personal

Kansas’ CJOnline: Innovation in the heartland

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Kansas’ CJOnline wins awards — and audience — with its multimedia pizzazz

By J.D. Lasica
Online Journalism Review

The pilgrims come from the world over, making the journey from far-flung media empires to learn the True Way of Online Publishing, the precise combination of innovation, grit and pluck that the folks at CJOnline have concocted to make it the liveliest little news site in the land.

Last March, for instance, a delegation from London’s Daily Mail — including owner-publisher Lord Rothermure — trooped out to the mecca of Topeka, Kansas, to glean the secret of the site’s success. Others have journeyed from Gannett, Lee Newspapers and umpteen universities.

“It blows me away to see all these people who want to fly out to Kansas. I’m always afraid they’re coming to make fun of us,” says Rob Curley, the dry wit who ran the Topeka Capital-Journal’s new media operations until last month. “They quickly find out how small-townish Kansas really is. You can walk right up and talk to the governor.” [Read more…] about Kansas’ CJOnline: Innovation in the heartland

Convergence at the OK Corral

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Newspaper, broadcast station join forces online in NewsOK.com

By J.D. Lasica
Online Journalism Review

Convergence has received something of a black eye lately. Black eye? That might be understating things a bit. We’re talking broken ribs, multiple lacerations and third-degree burns, thanks to the spectacular flameout of AOL Time Warner, the poster child of media convergence.

But not all converged news operations are created equal. Case in point: NewsOK.com, a joint operation of the Daily Oklahoman and KWTV News9 in Oklahoma City.

Both news organizations bring considerable assets to NewsOK, which will mark its first birthday August 19. The Oklahoman, the largest news operation in the state, has a daily circulation of 209,000 and newsroom staff of 160. News9, the leading newscast in town, can spur viewers to pick up the next day’s paper with a preview of a joint news project, or send them to NewsOK. [Read more…] about Convergence at the OK Corral

The reinvention of city guides

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Now that they’ve grown up, what have city guides turned out to be?

By J.D. Lasica
Online Journalism Review

What ever happened to city guides?

After staking claims during the mad online land grab of the mid-1990s, a few hardy survivors are still around, though much evolved. Others have morphed into “local networks” or city portals. And still others have given up the ghost, fleeing the space that just a few years ago was being hyped as a bonanza of local advertising riches.

But let’s forgo the usual business stories about content-driven sites hemorrhaging money during the online advertising slump. How are today’s city guides serving their editorial mission?

The answer, in short, is: pretty well, given today’s lowered expectations. [Read more…] about The reinvention of city guides

Requiring registration at online news sites

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Online newspapers are requiring users to register — but at what cost?

By J.D. Lasica
Online Journalism Review

Afriend, Jon Maples, e-mailed the other day with a question. “Is it my imagination, or are newspaper sites suddenly requiring registration to read the news?” he writes, citing the Web sites of the Chicago Tribune and Dallas Morning News. “I have to say that the Dallas registration was so intrusive and required so many fields that I gave up.”

What’s going on?

Mandatory registration is making the rounds at major online news sites, as media companies try to peel away the Internet’s cloak of anonymity and build closer relationships with their customers. But it’s a tricky dance, and one that risks alienating news junkies when they bump into registration walls as they surf from site to site.

Registration also throws up roadblocks for weblogs, community news sites, discussion boards and e-mail newsletters that point to news articles.

“Two years ago if you asked anybody in the industry, the response would have been overwhelmingly negative,” says Elaine Zinngrabe, executive producer of Latimes.com. “In 2002 we’ve come to realize that it’s a business necessity. Consumers are becoming savvy about opt-out and privacy policies, and they’ve come to expect this sort of customer interaction.”

Adds Tribune Interactive exec Mike Silver: “The Internet is becoming less anonymous.”

While a dozen mostly small online newspapers now charge for access to their sites, other media companies have taken a middle route, gating off their content until users provide personal information, such as name, address, interests and whether they subscribe to the print newspaper. [Read more…] about Requiring registration at online news sites

Telematics for news while you’re driving

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Dashboard computing offers new distribution option for news, but don’t look for a revolution

By J.D. Lasica
Online Journalism Review

Telematics just may be the most interesting new distribution vehicle for news that you’ve never heard of.

That’s because news makes up only a small slice of the cool, if pricey, features you’ll find in the telematics systems now showing up in dozens of car models.

First, let’s define the gangly little term. Telematics is a computerized system in a vehicle that connects you to services or content based on your location — current traffic conditions on the stretch of highway up ahead, for example, or a list of restaurants within a square mile.

Dashboard computing now comes in 2.5 million of the 220 million cars on the road in the United States. It’s catching on fast, so hang on for a quick crash look at a trend that’s coming soon to a car near you.

“We’re just now getting out of the pioneering stages and getting into the market takeoff stage,” says Phil Magney, principal analyst for the Telematics Research Group in Minnetonka, Minn. By 2007, the firm estimates, 42 percent of new cars sold in this country will come equipped with telematics devices.

Telematics features generally fall into four main buckets:

• Safety and security, including an automatic distress signal if your car crashes. [Read more…] about Telematics for news while you’re driving

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