planning & coaching content across platforms - meg downey - austin newstrain - aug. 22-23, 2014,...

Planning & Coaching!Content across PlatformsOr catching your breath while running as fast as you can

Meg Downey

Simona

Today’s goals

• How to develop best practices for all platforms. !!

• How to rethink the news process to make it work in a multimedia world.

60% …!

… of U.S. online activity now happens via mobile devices. !!

• Up 20% from last year!• Mobile apps rule!

!Credit: Comscore

Photo credit: Dru Bloomfield

50% !of news page views via mobile.!

Frédéric Filloux

Grist Haiku

A frog in water!doesn’t feel it boil in time. !Dude, we are that frog.

Purple Slog

Develop Best Practices

Set Standards, then follow up• Determine best practices for all platforms.!

• Train and coach staff in core skills. Give them the right tools.!

• Encourage experimentation.!

• Set metrics for engagement.!

• Highlight what works. Learn from what doesn’t.!

• Evaluate feedback, performance.!

• Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Quartz• Understands its audience:

young entrepreneurs, career-focused, global!

• Smart headlines: brief, clever, to the point!

• Tightly written stories!

• Strong in-line links to other coverage — past stories, graphics, Q&As, slideshows, other sites!

• Easy to share: story link at bottom of story, plus social sites

FADE TO BLACK!

There are barely any drive-in movie theaters left in the US

GREAT EXPECTATIONS!

MBAs are totally misguided about how much they’re worth

!

This viral smartphone ad about clueless dads stinks worse than a dirty diaper

Harnessing mobile• Crowdsourcing investigative work!

• Effectively promoting projects through the use of audio and slideshows that tell a story!

• Texts and tweets that give headlines and summaries, with links to deeper content!

• Mobile-friendly databases that allow users to learn how an issue may affect them.!

• Video geared to a small screen: close-ups, word slidesSteve Buttry, Meg Downey

Tablets & WebIncreasing interactivity

Visual storytelling• Slideshows: Easy to do, keep people on site. Should tell a story.

• Audio slideshows: the best kind of video, natural sound, music sets mood, let people tell their story.

• Graphics: explanatory, interactive, must have good navigation

Photo credit: Barry Butler, Your Take, USA Today

Video• Grab attention with strong visual lead-in.!

• One thought per sentence. Write like you talk.!

• Place people on the scene; b-roll can help.!

• Use natural sound.!

• Keep it short — 30 seconds to 1:30.!

• Don’t repeat what is in a slideshow or print.

Poynter, Downey

Capture the moment Edit later

Lucky break? !

Florida sports reporter Dave Dorsey saw news break while he was a spectator at a minor league baseball game.

youtu.be/b0lAaZqK4kM

Documentaries Not worth the time invested unless…

!vimeo.com/24238262

SnowfallImmersion in an experience!

!http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek

Integrating ContentRochester Democrat & Chronicle

www.democratandchronicle.com/longform/news/2014/07/11/boys-neglected-life-abandoned-death/12501141/

archive.tennessean.com/section/projects74/

Interactivity

• Databases, be sure they allow users to search on their own .!

• Games, quizzes all keep people on site.!• More depth: Links to previous coverage and outside sources.!

• Online forums, public events.!!

Expand ways to tell the storyBe creative on the visuals global-warning.org/main/

Story formsNarrative — compelling lede, nut graph of context up high, think playwright, may be broken into chapters!Lists — useful information, may show where to get more information or offer solutions!Breakouts — quotes, numbers, glossaries, quizzes!Blog items — personal, a voice of expertise!Chunklets — informative tightly written graphs with a strong lead-in phrase, good for budget stories, complex subjects, a Q&A on a trending topic

Capture the reader On April 19, 1995, terrorists bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City that would kill 168 people, including 19 children under age 6. More than 680 people were injured. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed or damaged. Hundreds more had shattered glass. It would be the most destructive act on American soil until Sept. 11, 2001.!!When Timothy McVeigh was convicted two years later, what should have been in that lede?

After the explosion, people learned to write left-handed, to tie just one shoe. They learned to endure the pieces of metal and glass embedded in their flesh, to smile with faces that made them want to cry. They learned, in homes where children had played, to stand the quiet. They learned to sleep with pills, to sleep alone.

Drop in with Social Media

Alpha & Omega of Social Media• At the start: Use Facebook, Twitter or Google+ to

brainstorm coverage with people or obtain sources.!

• During: Use Twitter to cover. Use Storify to aggregate images and comments on the issue. Use Instagram to create flip images in real time of an event.!

• Just before and after publication: Promote, engage, follow up. Create a YouTube trailer. Set up forums, tweet-ups.

Nailing it• Make a formal commitment — Social Tuesdays at

USA Today!• Learn from Metrics — Create a dashboard tailored

to each journalist. Show them on the big screen.!• Communicate — Praise what works and share it

with everyone. Critique what doesn’t work to make it better next time. !

• Hold accountable — Engagement performance should be part of formal beat mapping and reviews.

Let’s try coaching• Team leader pitches a story idea: 1-2 minutes!

• The coach asks questions and helps the team leader develop a plan for a multimedia presentation: 5 minutes !

• Reverse roles, pitching (2 minutes) and coaching (5 minutes) !

• Then we’ll discuss how the coaching worked.

How to rethink the news process

Rethink the process• How are you programming the day digitally on

mobile, tablet and the web?!!

• How does your digital content flow into print?!!

• Are you taking into account target audiences and when and how they look for news and information?!!

• Are you integrating your programming with your social media promotions?

Rethink the process• Are you creating different experiences, depending

on the time of day -- early morning, around lunchtime, early evening?!!

• How do you integrate newsletters into this programming? A business newsletter may need different timing from other newsletters.!!

• How do your meetings and news budgets fit into this flow?

Share ideas, gripes• Pair up again with someone else you don’t know.!• Debrief each other on how your news meetings and

budgets work or fail to work.!• As you each talk, the other person will be your highly

paid consultant and suggest what could work better.!• Consider: !

1. Meeting structure and format: Formal, informal, a huddle? Who is there? What is covered?!

2. Meeting times: How many times a day? When?!3. Planning for different platforms!4. Budgets: What is on them and how are they

shared?!• 7.5 minutes total. Then we’ll talk.

One Big ThingWhat will you do Monday morning?

John Seigenthaler (1927-2014) on the First Amendment: “I only ask however you can, whenever you can, please stand up for what Ben Franklin called a precious gift, worth preserving and protecting.”