Emma Carew Grovum, assistant managing editor for The Daily Beast, teaches journalists how to make smart choices among alternative ways to tell a story to get the maximum audience impact with the least expenditure of time, energy and effort. She prepared this presentation and a handout of the same name for NewsTrain in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Sept. 30-Oct. 1, 2016. NewsTrain is a training initiative of Associated Press Media Editors (APME). More info: http://bit.ly/NewsTrain

1. Digital Storytelling:
Making Smart Choices
Emma Carew Grovum / @emmacarew

2. Who’s in the room?
Reporters, editors,
students, others?

3. Why are we here?

4. Why are we here?
Make smart choices among alternative ways
to tell a story to get the maximum
audience impact with the least
expenditure of time, energy and effort.

5. Warm-up: 1 min
Brainstorm as many types
of storytelling building
blocks as you can.

6. Warm-up: 2 min
● Who is your audience?
● What are they looking for
from your newsroom?
● How do they ingest/consume
your coverage?

7. Warm-up: 1 min
Describe the staffing,
digital skills and
organization of your
newsroom.

8. What’s in your
storytelling
toolkit?

9. Live blog
SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2016/feb/16/westminster-kennel-club-dog-show-live

10. Common hurdles
●Smaller newsrooms may not have an
existing template for a live blog.
●Staffing for a live blog requires
senior staff who can self-edit.
●Can be difficult to coordinate
with some staff working on the
scene/in the office.

11. Video

12. Common hurdles
●Gear can be costly.
●Not all journalists have video
training (both shooting/editing,
as well as on-camera experience).
●Video-editing software may not be
available to all staff.
●Video editing is time-intensive if
it’s not your primary job.

13. Charts and Graphics

14. Common hurdles
●Free/cheap tools may not match
website aesthetic.
●Not all journalists have
data/spreadsheet skills.
●Easy to fall into the trap of data
for the sake of data.
●Free/cheap tools may not play
nicely with CMS/website.

15. Spectrum of data-viz tools

16. Long-form template
http://www.vox.com/a/hillary-clinton-interview

17. Common hurdles
●Templates needed to make long-
forms easy to execute.
●Can be a heavy lift for
designers and developers.
●Easy to fall into the trap of
building one-off stories to save
time that aren’t reusable.

18. Photo Stories
SOURCE: http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/07/the-women-of-kobani/

19. Snapchat
SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/nytopinion/videos/1168972886450999/

20. Common hurdles
●Live events = audio quality may
suffer.
●Legacy newsrooms may dismiss as a
storytelling tool.
●Vertical video can be tough to
repurpose.
●Easy to fall into the trap of
tasking an intern with this tool.

21. Facebook Live / Periscope
SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/thedailybeast/videos/10154454770259203/

22. Common hurdles
●Better gear can improve the quality
of these videos, which can be
expensive.
●Audio quality is not great.
●Can be difficult to coordinate
between staff in the field and in the
office.
●Long videos are tough to keep an
audience’s attention.

23. Facebook Q&A
SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/foreign.policy.magazine/posts/10154585597580347

24. SMS/Chatbots
SOURCE: http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/08/inspired-by-purple-the-new-york-times-will-text-readers-behind-the-scenes-updates-about-the-olympics/
http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/02/with-an-interface-that-looks-like-a-chat-platform-quartz-wants-to-text-you-the-news-in-its-new-app/

25. Common hurdles
●Requires heavy preplanning to
design, develop and implement.
●Specialized skills needed to
utilize this storytelling tool.
●Many smaller newsrooms will not
have resources for these kinds
of stories.

26. Alternative Story Forms:
Quizzes, Bingo Boards
SOURCE: http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/05/from-bingo-games-to-brackets-the-washington-post-is-building-alternative-story-forms/

27. Common hurdles
●Free/cheap tools may not “fit” or
“play nicely” with legacy
CMS/older websites.
●Easy to fall into the trap of
creating single-use stories that
can’t be recycled.
●Can be time-consuming to conceive
and execute for breaking news.

28. Group activity: 5 min
Sort your storytelling
toolkit:
● less than one hour
● more than one hour
● less than one day
● at least one day

29. What’s important to this
story?
●Fast
●Exclusive/
scoop
●Comprehensive
●Visually
appealing
●Voicey or
edgy
●Update-able
●Shareable
●Interactive

30. Iterations
●What’s the smallest, simplest piece
of content this story needs to get
out the door?
●How quickly will you update with the
next version?
●And how much will the
story/presentation grow with each
step?

31. How much of the story can
be told in...
●5 minutes
●1 hour
●3 hours
●6 hours
●12 hours

32. Group Activity: 20 mins

33. Storyline 1:
There’s a local natural disaster
occurring (tornado, earthquake, flooding,
take your pick).
How will your newsroom tell this story?

34. Storyline 2:
All hell breaks loose at a planned event
(like a concert, a sporting event, award
show, etc.)
How will your newsroom tell this story?

35. Storyline 3:
One of your reporters has a huge scoop,
and you’re able to spend some time
putting the package together.
How will your newsroom tell this story?

36. Report Back: 10 mins
1. There’s a local natural disaster
occurring (tornado, earthquake,
flooding, take your pick).
2. All hell breaks loose at a planned event
(like a concert, a sporting event, award
show, etc.)
3. One of your reporters has a huge scoop,
and you’re able to spend some time
putting the package together.

37. Emma Carew Grovum
@emmacarew
ecg@thedailybeast.com
Photo by Gareth Simpson