The Changes Brought on by ‘Digital First’
On Thursday afternoon, I received an email from The Washington Post with a link to a story about exciting new arts and concert venues in the city. This turned out to be the cover story for the next day’s Weekend section. For a few seconds, I felt like Rip Van Winkle. I know “digital first” is now a commonly pursued strategy, but still wasn’t it just a couple years ago that repurposing meant taking from print to feed online, not the other way around?
Most news entities—including many SIPA members—already publish daily on their websites and then use their print products for information that may not be as timely. But as the Washington Post demonstrated, a prevailing wind now is that if you have a good finished story, why wait? Put it up on the site and move to the next story. In this scenario, the purpose of the print product changes depending on your audience and subject.
There was a great article on the Guardian website in the U.K. this summer by Jeff Jarvis titled “Digital first: what it means for journalism.” He wrote how the article itself isn’t even first anymore, be it in print or online. “Consider Andy Carvin (@acarvin), the National Public Radio social strategist who has been tweeting and retweeting news from the Arab spring, up to 1,300 times in a day. He adds journalistic value: finding witnesses who are on the ground and tapping into their networks; vetting facts and debunking rumours; assigning users to translate videos; adding context – but writing no articles.”
Jarvis then pointed to the Texas Tribune where readers are directed to searchable databases rather than articles—no gatekeeper need apply. At Postmedia, a Canadian newspaper company, reporters worked the election previews by Tweeting and going on Tumblr to post photos and videos all day. Back at the office, a colleague made blog posts from this information and then finally, articles.
“I say reporting is our highest journalistic priority,” wrote Jarvis. “Telling stories will always have a role. But journalists have more roles to play today. When working in collaboration with the public – which can help news become at once more expansive and less expensive – it may be useful to help collaborators improve what they do: journalist as community organiser, journalism teacher, support system… At every turn, the question must be where can I add the greatest value? Is that necessarily in writing articles?
I guess it’s all a natural—or digital—progression, and it may especially apply to SIPA. Like beat reporters at a newspaper, journalists in SIPA know their subject better than almost anyone else. The question then becomes how to best convey that knowledge to where it will most help subscribers; perhaps it’s in Tweets from a regulatory meeting, perhaps it’s in must-do lists.
Again, from Jarvis: “One way to answer that question would be to audit the articles we are served today…How many repeat news we already know?…How much space is taken up with background paragraphs – which inevitably tell some readers too little and the rest too much? Couldn’t that need be better served with links to a constantly updated archive of recent history and in-depth explainers?”
The ultimate goal here is to make the best use of your journalists’ time and to best serve your audience. Interestingly, does this also change the way articles are written? Jarvis notes that some entities celebrate the transition because it would allow reporters to go beyond their usual, here’s-the-background, here’s-the-story approach. You have the knowledge, now take it to the next level of engagement.
Jarvis made other good points, that the abundance and boundary-less nature of digital can be unsettling. And that “digital first means the net must drive all decisions: how news is covered, in what form, by whom, and when. It dictates that when journalists know something, they are prepared to share it with their public. They may share what they know before their knowledge is complete so the public can help fill in blanks.”
It’s a fascinating discussion that I should probably write about in Hotline—or not. Hmmm
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