Writing Business News for the Web - Day Two

Day Two Agenda
Organizing breaking news online
Stakeholder wheel
Story structures
Photo by Flickr user The SeaFarer

“ Yep, text still matters.” - ONA 2009 WRITING TO PURPOSE AND PLATFORM
Effective writing is defined by:
The audience you are trying to reach
The message you are trying to deliver
The medium (platform) you are using
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SCAN and SKIP READING HABITS
Less than 30 seconds on a home page
Less than one minute on an interior page
SOURCE: HOA LORANGER - Director, Nielsen Normal Group, San Diego - Presented at ONA, October 2009

BULLETS AND HIGHLIGHTS

EFFECTIVE WEB NEWS-WRITING…
Form follows and serves function
What is core purpose of your report?
Alert readers to breaking news?
Update ongoing news?
Answer immediate reader questions?
Provide how-to information?
Highlight significance or impact?

KEY ELEMENTS OF NEWS-WRITING FOR FAST WEB READING
Priority
Clarity
Efficiency
Brevity
Transparency
Audience-think (common sense)
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SIMPLE, DIRECT SENTENCES
Make understanding easy and immediate
Context and significance are essential
Where did this story come from?
What does it mean?
Information needs to be literal and direct
Assumptions are dangerous
Jargon, cumbersome titles, complex numbers, etc., create speed bumps

PRIORITIZE & SYNTHESIZE
PRIORITY: Make essential information fast and immediate
- Priority changes with audience, market and publication

MAD COW DISEASE A public health story BUT also a business story with MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS and MULTIPLE STORY POSSIBILITIES

STAKEHOLDERS GOVERNMENTS (state, national, foreign) LOBBYISTS BEEF RANCHERS MEAT PROCESSORS FOOD DISTRIBUTORS BUTCHERS GROCERY STORES RESTAURANTS CONSUMER HEALTH INSPECTORS

THE COVERAGE PLAN
What is the immediate news?
What is the most important question to answer for YOUR readers?
What can you get from the wire, and what should you get yourself?
What’s the second-day story?
What are the longer-range stories?

“ Stakeholder Wheel”
Quick identification of everyone who is a source and subject
Also identifies secondary sources & audiences for in-depth enterprise follow-ups
News is the HUB of the wheel
Primary stakeholders are the SPOKES
Secondary stakeholders are the RIM

BE REPETITIVE
Don’t assume readers have followed every update
- Consider a WHAT HAPPENED box to anchor follow-ups
Don’t assume readers know why a story is significant
- Consider a SO WHAT box
In complex stories, highlight significance by audience

NEW AGE INVERTED PYRAMID
Prioritize and synthesize the news
Summarize context, scope, significance (nut graf)
Return to the news, writing quickly in prioritized order

SUMMARY NUT LEDE News Context Significance, Scope, Impact Anchor quote General attribution Transition to what’s to come NEWS BIT NEWS BIT NEWS BIT NEWS BIT NEWS BIT

BREAKING NEWS WITH BACKSTORY
Structure that allows quick news/nut summary top, then tells rest of the story chronologically or by hierarchical topic

SUMMARY NUT LEDE News Context Significance, Scope, Impact Anchor quote General attribution Transition to what’s to come START AT THE BEGINNING CONTINUE CHRONOLOGY NEXT/BUILDING CHRONO OR TENSION NEXT/KEEP BUILDING KICKER

NEWS TOTEM
Inverted pyramid but with news sub-items that can’t be easily prioritized in a descending hierarchy
Lede & nut graf: includes mention of all key sub-items
Then sub-items of news expanded on on by one

LEDE SUMMARY NUT News Context Significance, Scope, Impact Anchor quote General attribution Transition to what’s to come NEWS BIT NEWS BIT NEWS BIT NEWS BIT NEWS BIT

EFFICIENCY
Write and organize material for the fastest understanding
Write for “snapshot” reading and scans
Highlight key news bits to be easily found
Organize your reporting, writing and packaging in a way that helps you and readers
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LABELS and LINKS
Fatalities and injuries: xxxx
Property and crop damage: xxxx
Civic disruption: xxxx
The response: xxxx
How the story developed: xxxx
Where to get help: xxxx

The i-Pad NEWS, DECONSTRUCTED
The announcement: xxx
Functions: xxx
Cost: xxx
Competition: xxx
Consumer reaction: xxx

HORIZONTAL NEWS TOTEM
When sub-items in a story are of equal interest to different audiences
Allows readers to get summary of story and then identify which sub-item they want to read first

LEDE SUMMARY NUT News Context Significance, Scope, Impact Anchor quote General attribution Transition to what’s to come NEWS BIT NEWS BIT NEWS BIT NEWS BIT NEWS BIT

Imagine This Story Redone

A Possible Web Rewrite
Another $204 million will be cut from the Missouri state budget, Gov. Jay Nixon announced at a news conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Key to those cuts:
The elimination of 650 full- and part-time jobs, mostly through layoffs.
Savings of $32 million by aligning Medicaid reimbursements with federal rates.
Cuts already made this year: $634 million including 1,700 full-time jobs.
What’s causing the cuts: State revenues are down 10 percent this year, Nixon said. Missouri state statute requires a balanced budget.
What’s next: Nixon did not identify specific jobs to be cut. He said he hoped revenues would increase, but did not rule out additional cuts.

TRANSPARENCY
Be clear about source and credibility of information
If information is not verified, say so
Consider sourcing boxes
Don’t clutter copy with unnecessary or awkward attribution

KNOW S-E-O Speak
Overt about location
Mega-tagging of searchable words

Questions?

Writing Business News for the Web - Day Two

by Reynolds Center for Business Journalism on Feb 08, 2010

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