Digital skills for subs

● Print vs digital ● CMS & techy elements● Online copy editing● Multimedia overview● Jobs?

Print vs digital

What's the difference between print & digital?

What need did sub-editing fulfil for publishers?

What needs exist now and in the future?

What does an online sub-editor do?

Cathy Relf, Rantingsubs.com:

The boring answer is: they cut copy to fit space, correct spellings and grammar, change copy to fit house style, check facts are correct, write headlines and proofread.

For the web, they also source pictures, write captions and credits, add links and optimise for search engines. Yada yada. More things too, such as poking tardy journos, laying out pages, clarifying meaning, finding missing information and sometimes rejecting articles.

Managing online content • CMS • Content template

Brief Intro to Metadata

● Data about Data

● Data: The content

Metadata: Structure, Context, Meaning

Metadata aimed at

● CMS - to render the article correctly

● Search Engines - to index accurately

● Readers - to contextualise the article

● Organisation - to archive and find

Periodical Journalism handbook - 1985

Human-readable Metadata

Machine-readable Metadata

Machine-readable Metadata

Facebook's Open Graph

Metadata makes Links

Metadata makes Links

Content is also Metadata

How Metadata emerges

Manual

● Title● Description● Categories● Tags / Keywords

Automatic

● Author● Date● Web Address

Basic HTML

● <b>Bold</b> <strong>Bold</strong> ● <i>Italics</i> <em>Italics</em> ● <blockquote>"Indented text."</blockquote>● <ul> <li>Bulletpoint list</li> <ul>● <a href="http://.....">Link text</a>● <a href="mailto:[email protected]">Email</a>

See handout

<p>This is a paragraph of text. <strong>This part is in bold</strong> and <em>this bit is italic</em>. Then there's <a href="http://website.com">a link to another website</a> before the paragraph ends.</p><p>In this paragraph there's a quote which is indented:<blockquote>I'm a quote which is indented</blockquote>The quote is by <a href="mailto:[email protected]">a person</a> and their name is linked to their email address.</p><p>Here is a list:<ul><li>Item 1</li><li>Item 2</li><li>Last item</li></ul></p>

This is a paragraph of text. This part is in bold and this bit is italic. Then there's a link to another website before the paragraph ends.

In this paragraph there's a quote which is indented:

I'm a quote which is indentedThe quote is by a person and their name is linked to their email address.

Here is a list:● Item 1

● Item 2● Last Item

5 tips for online headlines

• Clarity over cleverness• Delivers on its promise• Stands alone• 40-60 characters - frontloaded• Google tools

Which heads/sells work?

5 tips for intros

• Stands alone and delivers• 'Must read more' factor• Frontload the good stuff• 250 characters - intro/metadescription• Alternative keywords

Keywords

fromGoogle's KeywordTool

How to edit body copy - ideas?

1. Break up running copy

• Sections with subheads• Q&A format• List format• Bulletpoints, images, blockquotes • Use shorter paragraphs/sentences

2. Getting the right tone

• Site personality (brand)• Variations across content types • Check the narrative mode• Don't oversub or 'featurise' blogs• Slang, jargon and SEO

3. "SEO the copy!"

What does this mean?

Google SEO starter guide:http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

SEO best practices webinar:http://www.mstoner.com/blog/marketing-and-branding/seo-best-practices-webinar-recording-now-available/

'The ultimate editor'

"In print media, what matters most is engaging prose. In digital media, what matters most is visibility... The ultimate editor, the filter between you and your reader, is humourless and passionless. An algorithm."

- Antonia Senior in The Guardian

"Search engines are in the business of bringing an audience to their paid advertising customers - they do this by offering a quality search experience."

- Mark Sheehy, M Stoner

SERPs

My quick SEO checklist for editors

• Post useful, engaging, relevant content• Use tools to find keywords• Top keywords in page titles and headlines• Sprinkle don't stuff!• Include relevant slang or jargon• Alternatives & word endings: -ings -es -ed• Go niche to beat the competition• Proper names, nouns and titles in full• Must-click metadescription

4. Edit for easy scanning

• People read in an F shape

Editing for scanning readers

• Head/sell most important• De-waffle start of paragraphs• Subheadings• Pull out/emphasise but avoid underlining• Use links with relevant link text

5. Links - why are they important?

● What the web is built on● People want and expect “linky-ness"● Currency of the web● Link karma● Marketing/networking● Stickiness ● Transparency/trust

Q: When to link?

A:

● Explanation or definition● Context or background ● Attribution of source content● Required by © licence● Navigation to related material● Email links to a contact● Google juice

Links need link text

● Use short, relevant text ● Rewrite 'click here'● For PDF links, add: (PDF)

Subbing in a doc or content template?Underline the link/anchor text http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_text and paste the link next to it – as here – to let the uploader know which words are to form the link. (Remove the underline in the CMS.)

How to create a link

Two ways to turn text into a link in a CMS:

1. Visual editor: highlight text, click chain icon and paste the URL: Ebay

2. HTML editor: write it out in HTML:<a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk">Ebay</a>

5 final tips on body copy

• Widows • Smart quotes • Copyfitting • Call to action• Ask 'Why?'

Styling the copy

Within editing screen of CMS

Bold <b> <strong>Italic <i> <em>Indented quote <blockquote>Section Heading <h3> <h4>Lists <ul><li>

<ol><li>

See HTML cheat sheet.

Styling the copy

Looked after by the general website styles

● Headlines● Standfirst● Colours● Metadata● Links

Review so far

CMS & content templatesMetadataHTMLHeadlinesIntrosBody copy (structure, tone)SEO LinksStyling copy

In Print

Distances measured in Points

1 point = 1/12 pica = 1/72 inch

12pt type will be exactly 1/6" high on paper

On Screen

Resolution measured in pixels.

21" screen 1920 x 1080

Laptop 1280 x 800

iPad 1024 x 768

Smartphone 480 x 320

1280 x 800 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

800 x 500 pixels

Type is 11 pixels high

Resize an image - Photoshop

Resize an image - Skitch

Resize an image - Wordpress

Resize an image - online

resizeyourimage.com

shrinkpictures.com

How to resize a YouTube video

Multimedia checklist

● Resize images/video for web use● Use to break up heavy text ● Does multimedia content match the copy?● Check copyright permissions/credits● If audio/video is main story, include a

transcription or summary of content for accessibility and good SEO practice

● Accessibility check - alt text on all images- beware visual-based instructions

More on accessibility

● Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

● Yahoo! Style Guide on gauging accessibility

● Fangs tool on Firefox browser

● Slideshow about accessible content

Pressing publish & final checks

• Beware sub's notes – Oh you dummy!• What exactly happens when you publish?• Cross-platform checks• Errors: amend, strike through or update note

Post-publishing tasks

• Social media work and social bookmarking• Monitor and respond to comments• Analytics and iterative editing

Contact details

[email protected]

Twitter@fionacullinan @peteashton

Blog / Website fionacullinan.com peteashton.com

Content strategist Scott Abel: http://thecontentwrangler.com/