My presentation to the Mobile Journalism Conference 2015 http://mojocon.rte.ie/

1. “That’s great!”...
“...does it work on mobile?”
And other learned lessons in mobile journalism, storytelling and
innovation
Alison Gow
Editor, digital innovation,
Trinity Mirror Regionals
@alisongow

2. The innovator’s dilemma
2008 newsroom conversations:
“Wow, that’s great!”
“I know!”
“What did you use to make it?”
“Pure awesomeness”
2010 newsroom conversations:
“How does it look on mobile?”
“Um…”
“You did test on mobile?”
“Um…”
“Does the code work with the app?”
“Um…”
“Let’s… let’s just not launch this yet”

3. Experiments in…
Live mobile:
Immersive
mobile:
Multimedia
● Newsrooms
● Blogs
● Streams
● Q&A sessions
● Longform
● Data visualisation
● Animated news
● Games
● Interactive images
● Panos
● Drone journalism
● News games

4. ● X1 Glass
● X2 centres - Liverpool and Manchester
● X1 Champion… but multiple users
● Successes: Unique PoV reports, non-intrusive interviewing, food
reviews and fun features
Offered the chance to work with interesting new kit, both
newsrooms became more thoughtful about mobile reporting and
audiences, and had great suggestions innovative storytelling.
Engaging colleagues is the start of great ideas.
Example 1: Google Glass project

5. Example 2: Game engagement
● August 2014: Pitch made to
build a fan game designed for
mobile.
● The aim: Grow engagement;
extend brand reach, make
socially shareable unique
content
● Build: Borrowed developer from
Data Unit team; on-going advice
- particularly re mobile options -
from Product team
● January 15: Launch. Immediate
success; huge fan engagement,
and high rate of social sharing
The challenge: Launch an interactive for the 2014/15 football season that lets fans pick their team

6. And some 2015 works-in-progress
Interactive ink for mobile audiences
Wearables - what next?
Interactive panos
Social conversation engine
Experimenting with the IoT

7. Mojo story-making learnings
● Social curation is a key part of mobile
journalism - Twitter lists/collections;
make magazines on Flipboard, make
interactives with Thinglink
● Social needs to be embedded at
the start of your content plan
● Ephemeral conversations can work -
but stories also need lasting records
● New and Shiny does not
automatically equal Of Value to
Audience
● Analytics inform decisions - but you
make them
● Know who your audience is; keep
in mind: ‘How does this story need
to be told?’
● Involve your Product department
and listen to their ideas
● Proof of Concept can help make
your case when pitching ideas
● Spoof your browser, test on
mobile, in app - know what your
work looks on devices
● Kit matters - test, assess, listen
to feedback upgrade

8. Some favourite 3rd party apps and
tools
● Livestream: Bambuser
Hyperlapse (timelapse)
● Instagram/Flickr
● Vine and gif-toaster
Snapseed pic editing app
● Storify - curated
storytelling
● Canva and PicMonkey -
desktop photo editing
● Marksta (watermarking
app)
● Flipboard
● Thinglink - interactive pix
● Skitch (mark-up pix)
● CartoDB - mobile-frindly
animated maps
● Twitter lists, collections
and searches
● Google Hangouts
● Codepen.io
● Github

9. Platforms, devices and tech change, but some
journalism rules remain:
WHO is my audience,WHAT screen will they use, WHERE are they accessing
content, WHEN are they reading, WHY am I telling the story this way, HOW can
I make it soar online?