Online Journalism – Class Notes Feb5 2008

Online Journalism – JOUR 3340 Class Notes – Engaging Readers Feb. 5, 2008 Prof. Foote

Today’s Agenda
Super Tuesday – Engaging Readers
What Are Media Doing to Capture Readers Online & Offline

What’s Good? What Works?
CNN.com
WashingtonPost.com
Politico.com
National Journal – The Money Tracker

The Early Days – News Websites
The Evolution
Mainly straight text, no graphics
Bulletin boards (BBS), forums ruled
Minimal investment
Late 70s/early 80s: VideoText
Miami Herald: Viewtron
Belo: BISON – Belo Information Systems On-line
Progidy: Cowboys Content
Knight Ridder, Tribune: $30 million
Regurgitation: What was in print showed up online
No staffs – Gungho geeks who become mavericks of their time

Dedicated keyboard/terminal that could only be used for the videotext service. This equipment cost $600 to $900; later, as personal computing caught on,Viewtron would try to sell its services via IBM, Apple, or Commodore PCs.
A television set to display the color images, which took time to load or paint
A monthly subscription fee of $12 (the first month was free)
A phone line to send information back to a central computer, for which the consumer initially paid $1 an hour
Source: Poynter.org: “Before there was the Internet, There was Viewtron”, by Howard Finberg, http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=52769 The Miami Herald, then owned by Knight-Ridder, invested $17mm in 1984

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/carlson/history/ScreenShots/Fred_the_computer.jpg 1993: September 2: Middlesex (Mass.) News launches first Internet gopher-based online newspaper .

January 1994: Salt Lake Tribune opens a BBS called Utah Online. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/carlson/history/ScreenShots/utah_online.jpg

Who and What is Competing for Traditional Media’s Audience? Local Newspaper/ TV Station Weeklies Magazines Local Websites Cable ISPs Direct Mail Bill Boards TV Yellow Pages Radio TelCos Software Cos. Time Work Family Videos Movies Housework

The Interactive Audience
Shorter lines of communication between journalists and audience
Traditional Media:
Readers v. Non-readers
Readers an ‘amorphous mass’
Defined audience – by geography
Circulation, ‘signal’

The Interactive Audience
Now:
Individual, personalized, direct
Email addresses for reporters
Tracking readers: Story by story
Top Down Editors to Readers Readers in Control Audience Participation

Interactive tools
Web polls
Discussion forums
Blogs
Personalization
Yahoo, Google

Participatory journalism - “We Media” http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/weblog.php?id=P36

Types of News Websites
Shovelware
What you read in the daily newspaper or see on TV is what you see on the website
Costs
Staffing
Lack of technology/content management system
Strategic decision
All stories written in traditional inverted pyramid style
What are the pros & cons?

Periodic Updating
Mainly shovelware with some exceptions
Breaking News
Sports stories/scores
Some dedicated staff assigned

Continuous Updating
Combination of shovelware and original packages
Wire-service (AP, Reuters) operation mentality
Sports stories/scores
Special ‘web-only’ reports
Extensive interactive features, graphics, including audio and video
Full-time dedicated staff

Corporate Structure
Specific newspaper brands tied to the home town
Dallasnews.com
Washingtonpost.com
Nytimes.com
Umbrella sites
Newhouse News’ Regional Approach
AlabamaLive.com
NJ.com
ClevelandLive.com
Which approach is better? Does it matter?

Online Journalism – Class Notes Feb5 2008

by Neil Foote on Feb 14, 2008

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Online Journalism – Class Notes Feb5 2008 — Presentation Transcript