I try not to go on about how great I find the iPhone and hardly ever say 'there's an app for that'.
However, on the whole the iPhone is a great piece of kit and I do seem to have an application for just about everything.
Doing plenty of freelance journalism and PR work I find it invaluable, but I can see an even bigger use for it in reporting live events.
You can instantly email or tweet, attaching a geolocation and picture - via TwitPic - to the latter.
The iPhone even has he ability to upload content to sites such as Flickr and YouTube.
Or, as I'm testing out at the moment, publish directly to a blog.
The application I'm using to publish to this Blogger site is called BlogPress.
It's free and simple to use, and if it works, will mean I can update my blog from anywhere I have a mobile phone signal.
Of course Wordpress have a similar iPhone app which I've used for a while to keep on top of several sites and it works perfectly.
So, without becoming an iPhone bore, there's yet another reason why you should have one these devices.
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Monday, 21 December 2009
Former digtial editor Christian Dunn goes freelance
Many thanks to Journalism.co.uk for including me in their latest Freelance Frontline.
>> Freelance Frontline: Updates from Linda Jones, Richard Johnson, Joe Griffin and Christian Dunn
I gave in my notice as digital editor at NWN Media several months ago and have now started a PhD in geo-engineering looking at the carbon cycle in wetlands.
Throughout my studies I'll be doing some freelance work in feature writing, reporting, filming and multi-media production.
At the moment I'm working on a wide variety of topics but eventually I hope to specialise in science and environment, and web and technology.
I'll also be doing general PR work, web management and search engine optimisation (SEO) consultancy - and I'm lucky enough to already be working with some great clients.
If you're interested in knowing any more please get in touch for a chat - cdunn09 AT gmail DOT com or contact me through Twitter @christiandunn.
Leaving local journalism
I've thoroughly enjoyed my years in local journalism, it has been a terrific experience and given me a fantastic armoury of skills.
I hope I was good for NWN Media, their web presence is certainly pretty impressive now and we got a fair bit of recognition for some of our more ground-breaking initiatives over the years.
My original degree and Masters though were in science and I always suspected I'd return to academia eventually.
Fortunately, just as I was beginning to get itchy feet at NWN Media and thinking of a new challenge I got offered a PhD by one of my old university lecturers and the opportunity was too good to miss.
I never plan on leaving journalism though, in fact I hope to become more involved in science journalism.
Leaving NWN Media
Some people asked me when I was leaving NWN Media whether my decision to go was based on the apparent demise of the regional press.
Well no, it wasn't really. Of course it did concern me but I'm not particularly negative about the state of the industry.
It will survive. Of course it is going to change, but that isn't necessary a bad thing.
Ever since I started working in regional journalism aged 16 I was struck with how antiquated many things appeared, from the staff hierarchy to the computer systems.
This is certainly not necessarily a bad thing. If it works - and it has worked for many years.
However, perhaps now is the time for a massive overhaul of the entire industry.
People are getting their news from different sources and the vast majority of younger people really, really, really don't care about local newspapers (trust me, I now work surrounded by 18-year-olds!).
So, local newspapers will have to change and a lot already are.
I think the time will come though when they will be forced to make even greater changes and this will unfortunately mean job cuts.
Obviously this will be sad but the good people - those that have always gone the extra mile and taken on the new challenges - will survive and even thrive.
Like all cuts though it will separate the wheat from the chaff, but I think everyone would agree there is a fair bit of chaff in local journalism that can be cut - and at every level.
The end result may well be a leaner regional journalism industry. Perhaps smaller micro-local publishers will become the norm, but local journalism in one way or the other will survive.
Though I doubt the wages will be any better!
Thank you to everyone who has helped me during my career in regional journalism - I'm sure you'll hear from me soon when I'm trying to pitch you an idea!
>> Freelance Frontline: Updates from Linda Jones, Richard Johnson, Joe Griffin and Christian Dunn
I gave in my notice as digital editor at NWN Media several months ago and have now started a PhD in geo-engineering looking at the carbon cycle in wetlands.
Throughout my studies I'll be doing some freelance work in feature writing, reporting, filming and multi-media production.
At the moment I'm working on a wide variety of topics but eventually I hope to specialise in science and environment, and web and technology.
I'll also be doing general PR work, web management and search engine optimisation (SEO) consultancy - and I'm lucky enough to already be working with some great clients.
If you're interested in knowing any more please get in touch for a chat - cdunn09 AT gmail DOT com or contact me through Twitter @christiandunn.
Leaving local journalism
I've thoroughly enjoyed my years in local journalism, it has been a terrific experience and given me a fantastic armoury of skills.
I hope I was good for NWN Media, their web presence is certainly pretty impressive now and we got a fair bit of recognition for some of our more ground-breaking initiatives over the years.
My original degree and Masters though were in science and I always suspected I'd return to academia eventually.
Fortunately, just as I was beginning to get itchy feet at NWN Media and thinking of a new challenge I got offered a PhD by one of my old university lecturers and the opportunity was too good to miss.
I never plan on leaving journalism though, in fact I hope to become more involved in science journalism.
Leaving NWN Media
Some people asked me when I was leaving NWN Media whether my decision to go was based on the apparent demise of the regional press.
Well no, it wasn't really. Of course it did concern me but I'm not particularly negative about the state of the industry.
It will survive. Of course it is going to change, but that isn't necessary a bad thing.
Ever since I started working in regional journalism aged 16 I was struck with how antiquated many things appeared, from the staff hierarchy to the computer systems.
This is certainly not necessarily a bad thing. If it works - and it has worked for many years.
However, perhaps now is the time for a massive overhaul of the entire industry.
People are getting their news from different sources and the vast majority of younger people really, really, really don't care about local newspapers (trust me, I now work surrounded by 18-year-olds!).
So, local newspapers will have to change and a lot already are.
I think the time will come though when they will be forced to make even greater changes and this will unfortunately mean job cuts.
Obviously this will be sad but the good people - those that have always gone the extra mile and taken on the new challenges - will survive and even thrive.
Like all cuts though it will separate the wheat from the chaff, but I think everyone would agree there is a fair bit of chaff in local journalism that can be cut - and at every level.
The end result may well be a leaner regional journalism industry. Perhaps smaller micro-local publishers will become the norm, but local journalism in one way or the other will survive.
Though I doubt the wages will be any better!
Thank you to everyone who has helped me during my career in regional journalism - I'm sure you'll hear from me soon when I'm trying to pitch you an idea!
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Basic HTML for journalists VIDEO
Every journalist who has to put copy online should have some basic knowledge of HTML code - even if it's just knowing the correct tag for creating a hyperlink or bold text.
This video by jimmyrcom takes things a little further and not only looks at HTML but also CSS.
Even though most online journalists and editors won't need to know too much about this, as everything is done for them by their CMS (content management system), I think it's still useful to know some of the fundamentals of how a website is put together.
This video by jimmyrcom takes things a little further and not only looks at HTML but also CSS.
Even though most online journalists and editors won't need to know too much about this, as everything is done for them by their CMS (content management system), I think it's still useful to know some of the fundamentals of how a website is put together.
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Where have all the newspapers gone?
Walking into a major newsagent-type store in Chester I was amazed to find that the large newspaper stand had disappeared.
In Chester’s WHSmith there used to be a newspaper stand with all the major nationals and regionals, plus a host of specialist and foreign titles, slap-bang in the middle of the store as soon as you walked through the doors.
Now though, it’s been replaced with promotional stands for mobile phones.
You have to walk past these and the aisles of magazines before you get to the papers now.
I don’t know the reason for this change in shop layout, but the front of any store has got to be a very important location for drawing in shoppers and selling products.
Maybe moving a newspaper stand away from this prime location is a sign of the times – people are buying less newspapers.
Perhaps WHSmith's newspaper stand is not working as it once did, an easy money maker encouraging people into the store, so they’ve moved it further back.
And looking at the latest ABC figures, it makes you wonder if newspapers will one day be sold only in specialist shops, like vinyl, VHS videos and the soon to be obsolete-CD.
In Chester’s WHSmith there used to be a newspaper stand with all the major nationals and regionals, plus a host of specialist and foreign titles, slap-bang in the middle of the store as soon as you walked through the doors.
Now though, it’s been replaced with promotional stands for mobile phones.
You have to walk past these and the aisles of magazines before you get to the papers now.
I don’t know the reason for this change in shop layout, but the front of any store has got to be a very important location for drawing in shoppers and selling products.
Maybe moving a newspaper stand away from this prime location is a sign of the times – people are buying less newspapers.
Perhaps WHSmith's newspaper stand is not working as it once did, an easy money maker encouraging people into the store, so they’ve moved it further back.
And looking at the latest ABC figures, it makes you wonder if newspapers will one day be sold only in specialist shops, like vinyl, VHS videos and the soon to be obsolete-CD.
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Articles on writing for the web - a journalist's guide
I was asked to put together a couple of articles on 'writing for the web' by Journalism.co.uk
The emphasis of these was not the very technical SEO (search engine optimisation) side of things, but on the practical skills and techniques the average reporter, or online editor, needs to make sure their stories are found by interested internet surfers- and then actually read.
By interested readers I mean people who are going to be genuinely interested the content of your online article. Not those who have been persuaded into coming to your website because you've managed to cram Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, naked and sex all in the first paragraph.
Or 42DD breasts which seems to be how many people find my blog after an earlier article I wrote. They must be very disappointed.
Here are the articles which appeared on Journalism.co.uk
How to write for the web (part 1)
How to write for the web (part 2)
The emphasis of these was not the very technical SEO (search engine optimisation) side of things, but on the practical skills and techniques the average reporter, or online editor, needs to make sure their stories are found by interested internet surfers- and then actually read.
By interested readers I mean people who are going to be genuinely interested the content of your online article. Not those who have been persuaded into coming to your website because you've managed to cram Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, naked and sex all in the first paragraph.
Or 42DD breasts which seems to be how many people find my blog after an earlier article I wrote. They must be very disappointed.
Here are the articles which appeared on Journalism.co.uk
How to write for the web (part 1)
How to write for the web (part 2)
Friday, 10 October 2008
Evening Leader's UFO spotters' map
The Evening Leader's UFO spotters' map has hit the headlines.
Well, it's been mentioned in holdthefrontpage.co.uk and journalism.co.uk.
Basically, I used the site Dipity.com to create a timeline and map of all the recent UFO sightings our newspaper has received. Then I embedded the widget Dipity provides on a custom page on our site.
I been aware that other news sites have been using Dipity for a while, but to be honest I only went and had a look at myself the other day.
It seems to work really well for what I want it to and I expect it can do loads more once you start playing with it.
The mapping system works really well in this case for our UFO spotters, and I think the ability to plot stories on a timeline will be useful if we want to show how an ongoing story has developed.
CLICK HERE for the link to our Dipity UFO widget
Please feel free to follow Christian Dunn on Twitter, www.twitter.com/christiandunn
Well, it's been mentioned in holdthefrontpage.co.uk and journalism.co.uk.
Basically, I used the site Dipity.com to create a timeline and map of all the recent UFO sightings our newspaper has received. Then I embedded the widget Dipity provides on a custom page on our site.
I been aware that other news sites have been using Dipity for a while, but to be honest I only went and had a look at myself the other day.
It seems to work really well for what I want it to and I expect it can do loads more once you start playing with it.
The mapping system works really well in this case for our UFO spotters, and I think the ability to plot stories on a timeline will be useful if we want to show how an ongoing story has developed.
CLICK HERE for the link to our Dipity UFO widget
Please feel free to follow Christian Dunn on Twitter, www.twitter.com/christiandunn
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
New Sky News website
It's been a while now since Sky relaunched their news site, but I have to admit I'm very unimpressed.
I know the new Sky News website is supposed to be full of new features, making it easier for viewers to comment on stories and such like.
But that doesn't take away from the fact it doesn't look very good.
In fact I kept refreshing my browser thinking there was a bug on their page it looked that bad.
What's with the massive font size? It looks really dated already.
I much preferred Sky News' old website. It was simple and always looked like there was loads of content on there.
Sorry Sky, I still think you're the best at breaking and developing news stories though!
Follow Christian Dunn on Twitter at www.twitter.com/christiandunn
I know the new Sky News website is supposed to be full of new features, making it easier for viewers to comment on stories and such like.
But that doesn't take away from the fact it doesn't look very good.
In fact I kept refreshing my browser thinking there was a bug on their page it looked that bad.
What's with the massive font size? It looks really dated already.
I much preferred Sky News' old website. It was simple and always looked like there was loads of content on there.
Sorry Sky, I still think you're the best at breaking and developing news stories though!
Follow Christian Dunn on Twitter at www.twitter.com/christiandunn
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Regional newspapers need to become 'community media businesses' says Johnston Press boss
Very interesting article looking at how the head of Johnston Press, Tim Bowdler, sees the future of the regional press.
The main point seems to be the need for a complete change in 'mindset'.
I still find it amazing that many people involved in the regional press seem to think that if they just keep on going as they always have done everything will be ok.
Do they know something I don't, or do they just really fear change?
Personally, I find the idea of the industry going through such a dramatic transformation exciting. It could offer a whole new set of challenges and opportunities for everyone.
Journalism.co.uk :: WAN 08: Regional newspapers need to become 'community media businesses' in future – Tim Bowdler, Johnston Press
The main point seems to be the need for a complete change in 'mindset'.
I still find it amazing that many people involved in the regional press seem to think that if they just keep on going as they always have done everything will be ok.
Do they know something I don't, or do they just really fear change?
Personally, I find the idea of the industry going through such a dramatic transformation exciting. It could offer a whole new set of challenges and opportunities for everyone.
Journalism.co.uk :: WAN 08: Regional newspapers need to become 'community media businesses' in future – Tim Bowdler, Johnston Press
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Trinity Mirror's CEO: BBC must not be allowed to distort embryonic online markets of the regional press
I agree with the comments by Trinity Mirror's Sly Bailey about being careful of allowing the BBC to steamroll into the online regional newspaper scene.
I've written about this before but I think it's a very important issue at the momment in the regional newspaper world, and it's good to know the issue is being disccused at the highest levels.
Just about every traditional news organisation is struggling to make serious money from their online offerings.
If the BBC is allowed a free reign in the 'hyper-local' market - without the financial restrictions and demands other businesses face - newspaper companies should seriously suffer.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against competition at all - let the best man win every time - but you cannot compete with the BBC as they are not working to the same business model.
And as Sly Bailey explains, it is vitally important there is an alternative to news from the BBC "if we believe in a plurality of voice".
I think everyone, including those from the BBC, would agree with this statement.
Here's the link to the story on www.journalism.co.uk
Journalism.co.uk :: BBC must not be allowed to distort embryonic online markets of the regional press, says Trinity Mirror CEO
Follow Christian Dunn on Twitter at www.twitter.com/christiandunn
I've written about this before but I think it's a very important issue at the momment in the regional newspaper world, and it's good to know the issue is being disccused at the highest levels.
Just about every traditional news organisation is struggling to make serious money from their online offerings.
If the BBC is allowed a free reign in the 'hyper-local' market - without the financial restrictions and demands other businesses face - newspaper companies should seriously suffer.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against competition at all - let the best man win every time - but you cannot compete with the BBC as they are not working to the same business model.
And as Sly Bailey explains, it is vitally important there is an alternative to news from the BBC "if we believe in a plurality of voice".
I think everyone, including those from the BBC, would agree with this statement.
Here's the link to the story on www.journalism.co.uk
Journalism.co.uk :: BBC must not be allowed to distort embryonic online markets of the regional press, says Trinity Mirror CEO
Follow Christian Dunn on Twitter at www.twitter.com/christiandunn
Monday, 19 May 2008
Golden rules for newspaper websites
I've just put together some golden rules for our newspaper websites.
Here's a few of the ones I came up with for our reporters and news editors from different newspaper titles.
1. All stories to be reported online first
Hard news stories should be reported online as soon as they happen.
A full story does not have to be written up straight away, just the main facts of the story.
The story can then be developed throughout the day.
This does not necessarily mean more work than you would normally do – as all you are doing is putting online the research work you would do for any story.
If possible online readers should be asked for their knowledge/comments on the story.
Here’s a very simplified example -
· A reliable source telephones the office to say they’ve seen a crash on a local road.
· You write a two-paragraph story for the web with the details of the crash given to you by the source, asking online readers to comment/contact you if they have any other details.
· You call the emergency services and you get a statement from them saying they received a call and are attending the scene.
This statement goes online.
· Photographer goes to get picture of crash, several of which can go online.
· Later call emergency services again and you’re informed they are still at the scene, which includes a number of casualties and a fatality.
This statement goes online with a plea for tributes to be left/emailed to the deceased (even though you don’t know their name).
· Contact several nearby residents and get comments from them.
Get these online.
· Call emergency services later and they inform you the road has been cleared – get this comment online.
· Overnight several eyewitness reports and tributes left to deceased, one from his brother quoting the man’s name (in the commenting admin you will be able to find the brother’s name and email address and by leaving a comment they have agreed to be contacted by our journalists).
If the paper now went to print you have a ready made story, with little extra work than what you would normally do, plus a lot more content than you could have hoped for without using the website.
Of course you may not want to use this web first policy to disclose any genuine exclusives.
2. Encourage user-generated content
Crowd sourcing, citizen journalism, user-generated content – call it what you want, it’s simply about getting readers to get in touch with you.
Using the website you can encourage more people than ever before to contact you about a specific incident or local issues.
Stories can be enabled to allow user commenting and you can designate a specific email address for online readers to use all the time.
Social networking sites and Web 2.0 sites should be investigated as another way for people to contact you and share content.
For example encouraging YouTube posters to add a specific tag - such as “EveningLeaderVideos” - to their local videos means they can then be easily picked up by news teams.
3. Write Google friendly headline
Nine out of ten times the headlines given to a story in the newspaper are no use online.
Story headlines are one of the most important ways search engines find news content – which in turn drives traffic to your website.
It might sound boring but headlines need to say exactly what the story is about.
Google doesn’t have a sense of humour so don’t use puns.
You also need to ensure the headline refers to where the story is set – otherwise our story about the fatal car crash will simply get lost in all the other millions of stories on the web about car crashes.
You need to think what people looking for the story would need to search for to find your article and use these keywords in your title.
Taking our car crash again as an example the newspaper headline may read something like– “Death on county blackspot”.
However, for the web you may want something more like: “Flintshire man dies in A55 car crash”.
It may not read as smoothly but it is still short enough and gets a few key words into the title.
Always remember though that you still have to write for humans – so don’t just use keywords if it means the title doesn’t make sense!
Here's a few of the ones I came up with for our reporters and news editors from different newspaper titles.
1. All stories to be reported online first
Hard news stories should be reported online as soon as they happen.
A full story does not have to be written up straight away, just the main facts of the story.
The story can then be developed throughout the day.
This does not necessarily mean more work than you would normally do – as all you are doing is putting online the research work you would do for any story.
If possible online readers should be asked for their knowledge/comments on the story.
Here’s a very simplified example -
· A reliable source telephones the office to say they’ve seen a crash on a local road.
· You write a two-paragraph story for the web with the details of the crash given to you by the source, asking online readers to comment/contact you if they have any other details.
· You call the emergency services and you get a statement from them saying they received a call and are attending the scene.
This statement goes online.
· Photographer goes to get picture of crash, several of which can go online.
· Later call emergency services again and you’re informed they are still at the scene, which includes a number of casualties and a fatality.
This statement goes online with a plea for tributes to be left/emailed to the deceased (even though you don’t know their name).
· Contact several nearby residents and get comments from them.
Get these online.
· Call emergency services later and they inform you the road has been cleared – get this comment online.
· Overnight several eyewitness reports and tributes left to deceased, one from his brother quoting the man’s name (in the commenting admin you will be able to find the brother’s name and email address and by leaving a comment they have agreed to be contacted by our journalists).
If the paper now went to print you have a ready made story, with little extra work than what you would normally do, plus a lot more content than you could have hoped for without using the website.
Of course you may not want to use this web first policy to disclose any genuine exclusives.
2. Encourage user-generated content
Crowd sourcing, citizen journalism, user-generated content – call it what you want, it’s simply about getting readers to get in touch with you.
Using the website you can encourage more people than ever before to contact you about a specific incident or local issues.
Stories can be enabled to allow user commenting and you can designate a specific email address for online readers to use all the time.
Social networking sites and Web 2.0 sites should be investigated as another way for people to contact you and share content.
For example encouraging YouTube posters to add a specific tag - such as “EveningLeaderVideos” - to their local videos means they can then be easily picked up by news teams.
3. Write Google friendly headline
Nine out of ten times the headlines given to a story in the newspaper are no use online.
Story headlines are one of the most important ways search engines find news content – which in turn drives traffic to your website.
It might sound boring but headlines need to say exactly what the story is about.
Google doesn’t have a sense of humour so don’t use puns.
You also need to ensure the headline refers to where the story is set – otherwise our story about the fatal car crash will simply get lost in all the other millions of stories on the web about car crashes.
You need to think what people looking for the story would need to search for to find your article and use these keywords in your title.
Taking our car crash again as an example the newspaper headline may read something like– “Death on county blackspot”.
However, for the web you may want something more like: “Flintshire man dies in A55 car crash”.
It may not read as smoothly but it is still short enough and gets a few key words into the title.
Always remember though that you still have to write for humans – so don’t just use keywords if it means the title doesn’t make sense!
Friday, 2 May 2008
Follow Christian Dunn on Twitter
Christian Dunn now has a new personal Twitter feed.
Please feel free to follow me at www.twitter.com/christiandunn
Please feel free to follow me at www.twitter.com/christiandunn
Thursday, 1 May 2008
News organisations using Twitter
What are the benefits for a news organisation using Twitter?
I've been aware of the micro-blogging website Twitter for a while, but never really taken it seriously - partly, perhaps, because of the name. 'Twitter' just doesn't do it for me!
However, there seems to be a bit of a Twittering craze at the moment so I decided to have a look at it properly, and find out how I could use it to my company's advantage.
The first thing I did was set up two Twitters, one for our news headlines at www.twitter.com/eveningleader and the second for the local football team, Wrexham FC - www.twitter.com/EL_WrexhamFC.
Then I used www.twitterfeed.com to send the day's headlines straight to the relevant Twitter accounts.
This means that without even trying I am constantly 'Twittering' and linking people back to my sites.
Of course I can also write occasional snippets of breaking news etc to keep things fresh, but I didn't think this glorified RSS reader was enough - it wasn't really making the most out of Twitter.
But after embedding a Twitter widget onto our website at the Evening Leader I began to see Twitter as simply a cheap and easy way to keep a section of our site updated with breaking news.
By using the widget readers don't have to subscribe to you on Twitter - they don't even need to know anything about Twitter - they can just read the latest updates to a story, or event, on your regular website.
This means a reporter and a mobile phone can report live from just about anywhere - as quickly as their fingers can text and as cheaply as a text message.
So far we've used it to cover a football match and the local election results.
If we'd wanted to update our websites in a more traditional method during these events it would have taken a considerable more amount of time and resources.
We even got some national industry coverage on our initiative -
http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/531458.php
As I said in this article, Twitter might sound a bit geeky but it’s simply a website that allows you to offer an extra service to your readers.
There are loads of these kind of websites and services out there on the web, and if you use your imagination many of them can be used give a news organisation's advantage.
I've also started a new personal Twitter so please feel free to follow me at www.twitter.com/christiandunn
I've been aware of the micro-blogging website Twitter for a while, but never really taken it seriously - partly, perhaps, because of the name. 'Twitter' just doesn't do it for me!
However, there seems to be a bit of a Twittering craze at the moment so I decided to have a look at it properly, and find out how I could use it to my company's advantage.
The first thing I did was set up two Twitters, one for our news headlines at www.twitter.com/eveningleader and the second for the local football team, Wrexham FC - www.twitter.com/EL_WrexhamFC.
Then I used www.twitterfeed.com to send the day's headlines straight to the relevant Twitter accounts.
This means that without even trying I am constantly 'Twittering' and linking people back to my sites.
Of course I can also write occasional snippets of breaking news etc to keep things fresh, but I didn't think this glorified RSS reader was enough - it wasn't really making the most out of Twitter.
But after embedding a Twitter widget onto our website at the Evening Leader I began to see Twitter as simply a cheap and easy way to keep a section of our site updated with breaking news.
By using the widget readers don't have to subscribe to you on Twitter - they don't even need to know anything about Twitter - they can just read the latest updates to a story, or event, on your regular website.
This means a reporter and a mobile phone can report live from just about anywhere - as quickly as their fingers can text and as cheaply as a text message.
So far we've used it to cover a football match and the local election results.
If we'd wanted to update our websites in a more traditional method during these events it would have taken a considerable more amount of time and resources.
We even got some national industry coverage on our initiative -
http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/531458.php
As I said in this article, Twitter might sound a bit geeky but it’s simply a website that allows you to offer an extra service to your readers.
There are loads of these kind of websites and services out there on the web, and if you use your imagination many of them can be used give a news organisation's advantage.
I've also started a new personal Twitter so please feel free to follow me at www.twitter.com/christiandunn
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Are Pocket PCs the way forward for journalists?
I wrote the majority of this post whilst waiting for a physiotherapy appointment on a Pocket PC - or some might call it a Smartphone or even a wireless PDA (Personal Digital Assistant).
Whatever you want to call it, it's big and cumbersome and awkward to use as a phone when you just want to make a quick call - but it packs in so many features that you can easily forgive it this.
A full Qwerty keyboard, Wi-Fi enabled, quality camera, a mini Windows operating system with Office, and GPS integrated into Google Maps to name just a few of the functions I've managed to get my head around.
Now although the keyboard does not exactly allow touch typing it's still pretty easy to bash off a good length document.
In fact it could be ideally suited to reporting.
Journalists can sit and write their copy from anywhere, take pictures, or even a short video, and email it straight off to their newsdesk - either via Wi-Fi hotspots or over mobile phone networks such as GPRS.
I've even heard that you can download software to enable broadcast journalists to record high quality sound clips onto their device.
Several news organisations are already experimenting with these types of devices but even regional newspaper reporters could make use of them.
More compact and easier to use, and generally cheaper, than a laptop reporters could work from anywhere on their patch and still make sure multi-media copy is ready by deadline.
In today's cost cutting climate where small satellite offices are being shutdown this could prove invaluable for maintaining a visible presence in an area.
As long as it's used sensibly and correctly this type of technology could enable newsgathering to be simpler, swifter and more mobile than ever before.
Whatever you want to call it, it's big and cumbersome and awkward to use as a phone when you just want to make a quick call - but it packs in so many features that you can easily forgive it this.
A full Qwerty keyboard, Wi-Fi enabled, quality camera, a mini Windows operating system with Office, and GPS integrated into Google Maps to name just a few of the functions I've managed to get my head around.
Now although the keyboard does not exactly allow touch typing it's still pretty easy to bash off a good length document.
In fact it could be ideally suited to reporting.
Journalists can sit and write their copy from anywhere, take pictures, or even a short video, and email it straight off to their newsdesk - either via Wi-Fi hotspots or over mobile phone networks such as GPRS.
I've even heard that you can download software to enable broadcast journalists to record high quality sound clips onto their device.
Several news organisations are already experimenting with these types of devices but even regional newspaper reporters could make use of them.
More compact and easier to use, and generally cheaper, than a laptop reporters could work from anywhere on their patch and still make sure multi-media copy is ready by deadline.
In today's cost cutting climate where small satellite offices are being shutdown this could prove invaluable for maintaining a visible presence in an area.
As long as it's used sensibly and correctly this type of technology could enable newsgathering to be simpler, swifter and more mobile than ever before.
Thursday, 28 February 2008
MEN becomes first UK regional paper to report joint web traffic and print circulation
The Manchester Evening News has combined its web traffic and print circulation figures.
The MEN took a bit of a hammering in the latest ABC statistics for their year-on-year sales, but I expect their free paper policy had a lot to do with this.
However, it appears they’ve understood that people are still interested in their product it’s just that their methods of ‘using’ it are different.
Instead of buying a paper on their way home and sitting down to read it from cover-to-cover, people are logging on to the MEN website at lunch time in the office, or clicking on their RSS feed throughout the day.
But they are still readers.
If more newspapers combined the number of their print readers with those visiting the website they’d probably find out that for the first time in years they actually have a growing readership.
Proving yet again that it's not all doom and gloom for the regional press.
Journalism.co.uk :: MEN becomes first UK regional paper to report joint web traffic and print circulation
The MEN took a bit of a hammering in the latest ABC statistics for their year-on-year sales, but I expect their free paper policy had a lot to do with this.
However, it appears they’ve understood that people are still interested in their product it’s just that their methods of ‘using’ it are different.
Instead of buying a paper on their way home and sitting down to read it from cover-to-cover, people are logging on to the MEN website at lunch time in the office, or clicking on their RSS feed throughout the day.
But they are still readers.
If more newspapers combined the number of their print readers with those visiting the website they’d probably find out that for the first time in years they actually have a growing readership.
Proving yet again that it's not all doom and gloom for the regional press.
Journalism.co.uk :: MEN becomes first UK regional paper to report joint web traffic and print circulation
Virtual courtroom proves popular
A ‘virtual courtroom’ initiative my website has been working on is proving very popular.
We’ve teamed up with the area’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to produce videos of a mock trial.
The viewer watches a series of them as if they were the magistrate in a domestic violence case and then gets to choose the sentence for the ‘criminal’.
Have a go yourself -
http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/CustomPages/CustomPage.aspx?PageID=71753
I found I was more lenient that I thought I would be, even when I was sat watching the videos with the CPS lawyer - when I told him my decision he instantly went into prosecution mode firing questions at me to such a degree I was nearly ready to send the poor convicted chap to the gallows.
It was a real pleasure though working with the CPS, they were tremendously professional and showed terrific lateral thinking coming to us with the idea.
They wanted the publicity and web traffic our website could provide and we were looking for interesting content to add value to our site.
Links:
http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/080221judge.shtml
http://www.newspapersoc.org.uk/Default.aspx?page=3216
http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2008/02/21/evening-leader-launches-online-courtroom-project/
Thursday, 14 February 2008
Is geotagging the future?
I was asked to write a report on Geotagging.
The more I looked into it the more I began to see the potential in getagging content and stories, especially for increasing a newspaper website’s ability to get ‘hyperlocal’.
I’ve copied a bit of the report below.
Geotagging
What is geotagging?
Geotagging refers to the process of adding specific data to web content which allows it to be identified in terms of its geographical location.
How this is then presented to an online reader can differ.
It could simply be used in delivering relevant information to someone when they search for a specific area, either on a specific website or a search engine such as Google.
Or the reader could set up an email alert for stories from the area they interested in and then an alert is delivered directly to them – a more refined version of Google News Alerts.
However, the presentation method that many users and providers are getting excited about involve automatically plotting the stories on digital maps.
Who are geotagging?
Many news organisations are now looking at geotagging all of their content.
The main method for this seems to involve reporters keying in the postcodes associated to their stories.
Then a piece of software strips this information out and automatically plots the news story on a digital map, sends out an email alert, allows a more relevant search etc.
Just about every major news provider is now investigating geotagging and it is expected to be at the heart of the BBC’s new local website plan.
Google News service is also experimenting with a new feature on its news aggregation service, which allows users to see stories for a given geographical location.
Currently you specify keywords, such as Chester, but this is not necessarily restricted to news stories solely from Chester, UK.
A proportion of our visits come through Google News so if we can target this better it will be to our advantage.
What is the point in geotagging?
It is thought by geotagging stories, traffic to newspaper websites will increase greatly as users will prefer the more relevant and tailor-made service on offer.
Advertising can also be targeted to people interested in very specific areas – increasing their value.
Perhaps the most important aspect of Geotagging is that it can allow newspaper websites to get ‘hyperlocal’.
Sites like http://www.everyblock.com/ merge all kinds of information such as news, public information, blogs, business directories, etc onto a digital map which users can zoom in on, right down to their own street.
If we get geotagging right we can potentially beat any attempts by the BBC to muscle into our region.
Plus we can start our own, or join forces with all the local community websites that are beginning to spring up - which could all potentially take away advertising revenue.
Many experts predict that becoming hyperlocal is the only way forward for newspaper websites.
One cheerful soul even predicts that: “If you don’t have an aggressive hyperlocal strategy, you’re not going to be around in five years.”
References
Geotagging
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotagging
http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/01/15/guest-post-archants-web-editor-on-geotagging
http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/fleetstreet/2007/05/10/archant-plotting-maps-for-regional-news-localisation
Google News
http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/all-news-is-local.html
Hyperlocal
http://www.everyblock.com
http://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recovering_journalist/2008/02/living-la-vida.html
Technology
http://www.metacarta.com/
The more I looked into it the more I began to see the potential in getagging content and stories, especially for increasing a newspaper website’s ability to get ‘hyperlocal’.
I’ve copied a bit of the report below.
Geotagging
What is geotagging?
Geotagging refers to the process of adding specific data to web content which allows it to be identified in terms of its geographical location.
How this is then presented to an online reader can differ.
It could simply be used in delivering relevant information to someone when they search for a specific area, either on a specific website or a search engine such as Google.
Or the reader could set up an email alert for stories from the area they interested in and then an alert is delivered directly to them – a more refined version of Google News Alerts.
However, the presentation method that many users and providers are getting excited about involve automatically plotting the stories on digital maps.
Who are geotagging?
Many news organisations are now looking at geotagging all of their content.
The main method for this seems to involve reporters keying in the postcodes associated to their stories.
Then a piece of software strips this information out and automatically plots the news story on a digital map, sends out an email alert, allows a more relevant search etc.
Just about every major news provider is now investigating geotagging and it is expected to be at the heart of the BBC’s new local website plan.
Google News service is also experimenting with a new feature on its news aggregation service, which allows users to see stories for a given geographical location.
Currently you specify keywords, such as Chester, but this is not necessarily restricted to news stories solely from Chester, UK.
A proportion of our visits come through Google News so if we can target this better it will be to our advantage.
What is the point in geotagging?
It is thought by geotagging stories, traffic to newspaper websites will increase greatly as users will prefer the more relevant and tailor-made service on offer.
Advertising can also be targeted to people interested in very specific areas – increasing their value.
Perhaps the most important aspect of Geotagging is that it can allow newspaper websites to get ‘hyperlocal’.
Sites like http://www.everyblock.com/ merge all kinds of information such as news, public information, blogs, business directories, etc onto a digital map which users can zoom in on, right down to their own street.
If we get geotagging right we can potentially beat any attempts by the BBC to muscle into our region.
Plus we can start our own, or join forces with all the local community websites that are beginning to spring up - which could all potentially take away advertising revenue.
Many experts predict that becoming hyperlocal is the only way forward for newspaper websites.
One cheerful soul even predicts that: “If you don’t have an aggressive hyperlocal strategy, you’re not going to be around in five years.”
References
Geotagging
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotagging
http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/01/15/guest-post-archants-web-editor-on-geotagging
http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/fleetstreet/2007/05/10/archant-plotting-maps-for-regional-news-localisation
Google News
http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/all-news-is-local.html
Hyperlocal
http://www.everyblock.com
http://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recovering_journalist/2008/02/living-la-vida.html
Technology
http://www.metacarta.com/
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
American journalists fear for their jobs
With unprecedented job cuts in the American news industry a worrying report shows widespread concern for the future of journalism in the USA.
Job losses, falling ad revenues, tumbling share prices and a constantly depleting readership or audience – things aren’t looking good for the traditional news providers across the Atlantic.
This article for the Press Gazette reports that 43 percent of the 1,000 or so professional journalists interviewed say they have little confidence they will be working for a newspaper in five years. 30 percent said they were not sure.
Perhaps the most worrying line in the article is this one:
“More than half reported their readership or audience has shrunk more than 60 per cent over the past five years . Asked if they thought the trend might change and perhaps stabilize, about three-quarters replied pessimistically: 'It's hard to say it ever will.' ”
This is not a rant about how newpspapers are going down and everybody should get onboard to the ‘digital revelotion’ because first of all I like newspapers and don’t want to see any go under.
But secondly, and most importantly; at the present time most online newspapers and newspaper websites rely heavily on the readership of their print product – both for driving web traffic and revenue.
In the UK we are not at the stage yet when a newspaper group can survive solely on their online advertising revenues – far from it.
Also if readers are turned off from traditional newspapers written by professional journalists, why would they go to the same product but online?
However, we are not America and it is not set in stone that we are going to follow them down the road to such a, potentially, newspaperless future.
So what’s the solution?
Well, there certainly isn’t any simple solution, but looking at our industry wide slump in readership it’s pretty obvious we’ve got a lot of work to do.
Read the original article here:
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=40220&c=1
Job losses, falling ad revenues, tumbling share prices and a constantly depleting readership or audience – things aren’t looking good for the traditional news providers across the Atlantic.
This article for the Press Gazette reports that 43 percent of the 1,000 or so professional journalists interviewed say they have little confidence they will be working for a newspaper in five years. 30 percent said they were not sure.
Perhaps the most worrying line in the article is this one:
“More than half reported their readership or audience has shrunk more than 60 per cent over the past five years . Asked if they thought the trend might change and perhaps stabilize, about three-quarters replied pessimistically: 'It's hard to say it ever will.' ”
This is not a rant about how newpspapers are going down and everybody should get onboard to the ‘digital revelotion’ because first of all I like newspapers and don’t want to see any go under.
But secondly, and most importantly; at the present time most online newspapers and newspaper websites rely heavily on the readership of their print product – both for driving web traffic and revenue.
In the UK we are not at the stage yet when a newspaper group can survive solely on their online advertising revenues – far from it.
Also if readers are turned off from traditional newspapers written by professional journalists, why would they go to the same product but online?
However, we are not America and it is not set in stone that we are going to follow them down the road to such a, potentially, newspaperless future.
So what’s the solution?
Well, there certainly isn’t any simple solution, but looking at our industry wide slump in readership it’s pretty obvious we’ve got a lot of work to do.
Read the original article here:
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=40220&c=1
Monday, 28 January 2008
BBC announce new web plan
Members of the regional press have slammed the BBC’s plans to launch a network of 60 ultra-local websites.
The UK Press Gazzete has revealed the BBC hope to create a raft of new sites using the latest “online localisation and mapping technology”.
In October last year the BBC dropped their plans to broadcast ultra-local TV following pressure from regional newspapers.
The problem that people in the regional press have with the BBC is that they can’t compete with them on a level playing field.
It’s no secret that when the BBC do something, they do it very well – and this is because they have the expertise and the revenue to invest.
If they were a commercial company this wouldn’t be a problem – fair play to them.
But they’re not - they are publicly funded, through the license fee, and they don’t have to take commercial issues into consideration.
This means that the BBC doesn’t have to compete with the regional press for advertising or anything like that, but unfortunately we have to compete against them.
If people are getting their fill of news from the BBC, in whatever media used, they will not need to come to us: our circulations, or web visitors, will drop - inevitably followed by our advertising revenues.
In the past one of the only advantages regional newspapers had over the BBC was that they covered their local area in far more detail.
But now it seems the BBC want to flex their considerable muscles here too.
Should they be allowed to do this?
Personally I don’t think so.
I don’t mind if any of the big guns like Sky or ITV want to turn their sights on the hyper-local side of the business - at least they will be doing it to make money.
This means they risk falling foul of all the same pitfalls and problems that the rest of us already have and will only have limited resources to throw at any project.
I think if the BBC is allowed to go ahead with their website plans it will inevitably hit local newspapers and local newspaper websites – and hit them hard.
So hard that it may even mean the end for some.
It will only be then that readers, and many people in the industry itself, understand that regional newspapers are unfortunately not a service - like the publicly funded BBC – but a business.
And any business can only exist if they are making money.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=40081&c=1
The UK Press Gazzete has revealed the BBC hope to create a raft of new sites using the latest “online localisation and mapping technology”.
In October last year the BBC dropped their plans to broadcast ultra-local TV following pressure from regional newspapers.
The problem that people in the regional press have with the BBC is that they can’t compete with them on a level playing field.
It’s no secret that when the BBC do something, they do it very well – and this is because they have the expertise and the revenue to invest.
If they were a commercial company this wouldn’t be a problem – fair play to them.
But they’re not - they are publicly funded, through the license fee, and they don’t have to take commercial issues into consideration.
This means that the BBC doesn’t have to compete with the regional press for advertising or anything like that, but unfortunately we have to compete against them.
If people are getting their fill of news from the BBC, in whatever media used, they will not need to come to us: our circulations, or web visitors, will drop - inevitably followed by our advertising revenues.
In the past one of the only advantages regional newspapers had over the BBC was that they covered their local area in far more detail.
But now it seems the BBC want to flex their considerable muscles here too.
Should they be allowed to do this?
Personally I don’t think so.
I don’t mind if any of the big guns like Sky or ITV want to turn their sights on the hyper-local side of the business - at least they will be doing it to make money.
This means they risk falling foul of all the same pitfalls and problems that the rest of us already have and will only have limited resources to throw at any project.
I think if the BBC is allowed to go ahead with their website plans it will inevitably hit local newspapers and local newspaper websites – and hit them hard.
So hard that it may even mean the end for some.
It will only be then that readers, and many people in the industry itself, understand that regional newspapers are unfortunately not a service - like the publicly funded BBC – but a business.
And any business can only exist if they are making money.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=40081&c=1
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Sky News breaks first
Yet again Sky News demonstrated just how the internet should be used to break a story.
At around 1.30pm today, January 15, Sky News’ Breaking News section stated that two anti-whaling activists were being held ‘hostage’ after boarding a Japanese ship.
The story consisted of one grainy picture and less than two paragraphs of text.
Most sites such as the BBC had, to the best of my knowledge, no reference to the story at all.
Within just half an hour Sky had updated their story three times, adding more detail, colour, background information and pictures.
A few hours later there was a full picture story.
Being able to build on a story quickly like this is the biggest advantage of the internet – especially for a newspaper website.
Broadcasters have always been able to use their mediums of television or radio to keep a story rolling, but newspapers have only ever been able to print the story as they knew it, up to the time of going to press.
Now though they can compete for people’s interest in news via the web - they can develop a story just as quickly as anybody else.
And Sky News show how this should be done.
Editors shouldn’t be afraid of going with a story: as long as all the normal, basic checks are done.
But every detail is not needed before something is published online – these can be added as and when they come in., just like the whaling story on Sky.
However, some news organisations still appear to be too restrained: waiting until they have all the information before publishing online – but nowadays that can mean the story is hours old and has already been published on dozens of official and unofficial news websites.
Of course this doesn’t mean that traditional standards and legal issues should be forgotten; far from it - they just need to be carefully adapted to the changing digital environment.
Thursday, 10 January 2008
An ex-mayor, 42DD breasts, Fark and Fox News
Seeing a spike in your website’s traffic is very satisfying, especially if you’ve managed to engineer part of it yourself.
I’ve found the news aggregating site http://www.fark.com/ is one of the best ways to do this.
Just about every news organisation in the world, including BBC, The New York Times, Sky, The Sun etc, send their unusual and quirky stories to Fark – in the hope that the site’s editors will choose their stories to appear on the homepage of http://www.fark.com/.
Only around 50 a day make it, but as each story is linked back to the original website the rewards - in terms of increased traffic – can be immense.
Within five minutes of getting our last story on Fark 2,000 people were directed back to our site - 24 hours later our story had over 60,000 views and nearly 200 Fark comments.
A pretty impressive spike for any set of page impression statistics.
Another advantage of Fark is that other sites pick up on the story and link back to the original site.
Our story has now been picked up by Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321392,00.html) and appears on their site - so the visitor count continues to rise.
Some digital editors still seem reluctant to get their stories picked up external sites, especially if the only visitors they are likely to attract will not live in their newspaper’s patch.
But this shows a lack of understanding for how the web can, and should, be used – as well as a little naiveté. After all would print editors object if they suddenly received a request for 60,000 copies of their newspaper from America?
By the way, the story that got picked up Fark this time was this one:
http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/Women-cant-resist-squeezing-former.3653030.jp
And the title I gave it for the Fark editors was:
“Women can't resist squeezing former town mayor's 42DD breasts. "I don't know why he's complaining, he loves it really," says his friend. Yes, there's a picture”
Who couldn’t resist reading more?
I’ve found the news aggregating site http://www.fark.com/ is one of the best ways to do this.
Just about every news organisation in the world, including BBC, The New York Times, Sky, The Sun etc, send their unusual and quirky stories to Fark – in the hope that the site’s editors will choose their stories to appear on the homepage of http://www.fark.com/.
Only around 50 a day make it, but as each story is linked back to the original website the rewards - in terms of increased traffic – can be immense.
Within five minutes of getting our last story on Fark 2,000 people were directed back to our site - 24 hours later our story had over 60,000 views and nearly 200 Fark comments.
A pretty impressive spike for any set of page impression statistics.
Another advantage of Fark is that other sites pick up on the story and link back to the original site.
Our story has now been picked up by Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321392,00.html) and appears on their site - so the visitor count continues to rise.
Some digital editors still seem reluctant to get their stories picked up external sites, especially if the only visitors they are likely to attract will not live in their newspaper’s patch.
But this shows a lack of understanding for how the web can, and should, be used – as well as a little naiveté. After all would print editors object if they suddenly received a request for 60,000 copies of their newspaper from America?
By the way, the story that got picked up Fark this time was this one:
http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/Women-cant-resist-squeezing-former.3653030.jp
And the title I gave it for the Fark editors was:
“Women can't resist squeezing former town mayor's 42DD breasts. "I don't know why he's complaining, he loves it really," says his friend. Yes, there's a picture”
Who couldn’t resist reading more?
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