Online Journalism – Class Notes Feb5 2008

Online Journalism – JOUR 3340

Class Notes – Engaging ReadersFeb. 5, 2008Prof. 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

According to our February-April 2006 survey, 66% of American adult internet users, about 97 million people, use the internet on an average day. Here are some of the things they do on a typical day:

Percent of internet users who report

doing this “yesterday”

Most recent survey date

February-April 2006Use the internet 66Send or read e-mail 53 Dec-05

Use a search engine to find information

38 Dec-05

Get news 31 Dec-05

Surf the Web for fun 30 Dec-05

Check the weather 22 Nov-04

Do any type of research for your job 21 Dec-05

Dai l y I nternet Acti vi t i es

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Tracking surveys (March 2000 – April 2006). Please note that the wording for some items has been abbreviated. For full question wording, please refer to the questionnaire.

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 DownEditors toReaders

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?

Types of News Websites

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

Types of News Websites 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?