Monday, April 2, 2012

Justifying Web Stories

NPR Digital Services recently hosted a webinar on webifying our radio stories (the slides are online). It's more than just deleting the pronouncers and adding a few links. Studies show web viewers skim (rather than read entire posts) and don't usually listen to the audio even at NPR.org).

One of our blog readers, a reporter/producer in a mid-sized newsroom, is looking for advice. She'd like her newsroom to produce more "cleaned up" web versions of their radio stories, but she says there's considerable push back from reporters. Their arguments:

1. Not enough time to do web versions
2. We need a web editor

We can all sympathize with feeling like we have to do more with less. Still , we can't ignore the web!

Radio/TV folks: What advice do you have for this newsroom? Have you faced a similar situation, but somehow managed to convince your reporters that they CAN do both a radio version and a web version (without working a 12 hour day or losing their minds)?

Web Pros: What are your favorite *easy* ways to "webify" a story?

10 comments:

  1. A lot of the time I find that it's just a matter or reorganizing our routines. Even in a business where things can change on a dime, we stick hard to our routines. Any change to routine just makes us cringe. Putting our work to the web should be quick (depending on what's asked of you) because it's true what Tanya says, most people skim the web and only grab onto the things that grab attention. So it's not like we need to write college thesis papers for the web for every story we produce. And, if that's true then a few extra minutes of our time shouldn't be a lot. I usually write my stories and the web content at the same time. Again, it does depend on what is expected of you and if there's a lot of extra work tossed on your desk then it can be a headache. Just look for ways to make adjustments to routines. (It's like doing a budget - track every minute of a typical day as you would the expenditures you have in a week. Once you see how you're using the time you'll realize where you're wasting some - which I can be notorious for doing. When I do my budget I realize what I've always known - going to Einstein Bagels every morning could be a few extra bucks in the savings account.)

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    1. Side note: your comment makes me think of a commercial news freelancer who's occasionally done work for us. After her first story - a profile of a controversial state figure - she exhaled deeply and said it was like writing a dissertation. She was used to doing :30 spots for a national commercial network. ;-)

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  2. Hey Tanya,

    At Southern Education Desk, reporters are responsible for webifying stories. Usually this means making the lede print friendly. I also make sure quotes change from script form to print form. This often requires changing segues too. Here is an example:

    Script Form
    Campbell: “Only had a couple people that didn’t understand that, but let’s look at it and see.”
    Christy Campbell is teaching her second grade class at Hernando Hill Elementary about rounding to the nearest ten, and these kids have the rule down pat.
    Campbell: “What do we do?”
    Class (together): “Look at the number to the right. Is it five or greater? No. So the tens stay same and everything after becomes zero."

    Print Form

    During a class visit, Christy Campbell is teaching her second graders at Hernando Hill Elementary about rounding to the nearest ten, and these kids have the rule down pat. When asked what to do, the students respond in unison.
    "Look at the number to the right," says the class. "Is it five or greater? No. So the tens stay same and everything after becomes zero."

    Making the change seems tedious at times, especially because it often happens at the end of a long day when minutes are precious.

    Annie

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    1. That's a great example, Annie. I wonder what most people do when it comes to tense when webifying. We mostly write in present tense for radio; but print tends to be past tense.

      Have you guys had discussions around that?

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  3. Tanya,
    Before deciding how much time and effort (and ultimatley money) to spend on adapting content for the web, I guess I would suggest taking a step back and asking: What is the station's mission?

    If the mission is to provide the best radio experience, then any time/money spent on Web is going to ultimately come out of the time/money you would spend on radio content, assuming finite resources.

    If the mission is to provide residents of a certain area with content, then you can't stop with radio and you need to serve your audience wherever they are in the way that they want to receive content. Posting audio with no text, or just posting the transcription of the story isn't particularly friendly to folks who read content online. There's no easy way to adapt the content, it needs to be rewritten either by a web editor or the reporter.

    Just my two cents,
    Jason

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    1. "Posting audio with no text, or just posting the transcription of the story isn't particularly friendly to folks who read content online."

      Agreed!

      Have you seen Jakob Nielson's web usability research? He does those eye tracking studies to figure out how people consume content on the web and while his website itself is a total nightmare on the eyes (?????) I do find this pretty interesting:

      http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

      Especially the stuff 1/2 way down the page where they rewrite the copy and retest it.

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  4. I could write thousands of words on this topic. But I shall limit it to this ...

    Look at what NPR.org is doing. Emulate best practices. Measure, adapt, repeat.

    Lack of motivation on the employees' part is a leadership problem, starting at the hiring process. Hiring journalists with a talent for gathering news and an openness to telling the story in ways that haven't been invented yet would seem to be the key ingredients in surviving and thriving in this modern age.

    If you have to "motivate" employees, you're already fighting the wrong battle.

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    1. I think you nail it, Wade. Not to say our new hires have to be 'born and bred' in digital, but they certainly need to be excited by the prospects and willing to learn.

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  5. Tanya, there's no other way around it: if a station is serious about the web, it *has* to have a web editor dedicated to posting stories who also has the responsiblity/authority to create versions of those stories appropriate to the web. At my former station, WTOP, in the early days, they tried having the on-air-desk-editor update the website. Didn't work. You can't pay proper attention to the on-air product and fuss with html and links, etc. At another former station, I was doing long-form NPR-style pieces for radio, *and* expected to then convert my scripts into web-appropriate pieces. Ended up burning out on taking the web stuff home at night after a long day. I don't care how easy you try to make it with a content management system (CMS) which usually ends up being more difficult than it looks; there has to be someone in the newsroom who has full-time responsibility for the website and its content.

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    1. Unfortunately, Max, at many smaller stations that step is still a ways off. It's something my station (12 full-time staff) struggles with. We do have some really talented interns who can help with this stuff; but that's still mostly cleaning up copy, adding links, etc - and the occasional web exclusive story. Still, there's so much more to do...

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