Date post: | 12-May-2015 |
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Day Two Agenda• Organizing breaking news online
• Stakeholder wheel
• Story structures
Photo by Flickr user The SeaFarer
“Yep, text still matters.” - ONA 2009
WRITING TO PURPOSE AND PLATFORM
Effective writing is defined by:• The audience you are trying to reach
• The message you are trying to deliver
• The medium (platform) you are using
Photo by Flicker user Marc_Smith
SCAN and SKIP READING HABITS
• Less than 30 seconds on a home page• Less than one minute on an interior page
SOURCE: HOA LORANGER- Director, Nielsen Normal Group, San Diego- Presented at ONA, October 2009
BULLETS AND HIGHLIGHTS
EFFECTIVE WEB NEWS-WRITING…
• Form follows and serves function– What is core purpose of your report?
• Alert readers to breaking news?• Update ongoing news?• Answer immediate reader questions?• Provide how-to information?• Highlight significance or impact?
KEY ELEMENTS OF NEWS-WRITINGFOR FAST WEB READING
• Priority
• Clarity
• Efficiency
• Brevity
• Transparency
• Audience-think (common sense)
Photo by Flickr user timbrauhn
SIMPLE, DIRECT SENTENCES
• Make understanding easy and immediate– Context and significance are essential
• Where did this story come from?• What does it mean?
– Information needs to be literal and direct• Assumptions are dangerous• Jargon, cumbersome titles, complex numbers, etc.,
create speed bumps
PRIORITIZE & SYNTHESIZE
• PRIORITY: Make essential information fast and immediate
- Priority changes with audience, market and publication
MAD COW DISEASE
A public health story
BUT also
a business story
with
MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS
and MULTIPLE STORY POSSIBILITIES
STAKEHOLDERS
GOVERNMENTS (state, national, foreign)
LOBBYISTS
BEEF RANCHERS
MEAT PROCESSORS
FOOD DISTRIBUTORS
BUTCHERS
GROCERY STORES
RESTAURANTS
CONSUMER
HEALTH INSPECTORS
THE COVERAGE PLAN
• What is the immediate news?• What is the most important question to
answer for YOUR readers?• What can you get from the wire, and what
should you get yourself?• What’s the second-day story?• What are the longer-range stories?
“Stakeholder Wheel”
Quick identification of everyone who is a source and subject
Also identifies secondary sources & audiences for in-depth enterprise follow-ups
News is the HUB of the wheel
Primary stakeholders are the SPOKES
Secondary stakeholders are the RIM
BE REPETITIVE
• Don’t assume readers have followed every update
- Consider a WHAT HAPPENED box to anchor follow-ups
• Don’t assume readers know why a story is significant
- Consider a SO WHAT box
• In complex stories, highlight significance by audience
NEW AGE INVERTED PYRAMID
• Prioritize and synthesize the news
• Summarize context, scope, significance (nut graf)
• Return to the news, writing quickly in prioritized order
SUMMARY NUT LEDENews
ContextSignificance, Scope, Impact
Anchor quoteGeneral attribution
Transition to what’s to come
NEWS BIT
NEWS BIT
NEWS BIT
NEWS BIT
NEWS BIT
BREAKING NEWS WITH BACKSTORY
• Structure that allows quick news/nut summary top, then tells rest of the story chronologically or by hierarchical topic
SUMMARY NUT LEDENews
ContextSignificance, Scope, Impact
Anchor quoteGeneral attribution
Transition to what’s to come
START AT THE BEGINNING
CONTINUE CHRONOLOGY
NEXT/BUILDING CHRONO OR TENSION
NEXT/KEEP BUILDING
KICKER
NEWS TOTEM
• Inverted pyramid but with news sub-items that can’t be easily prioritized in a descending hierarchy
• Lede & nut graf: includes mention of all key sub-items• Then sub-items of news expanded on on by one
LEDE
SUMMARY NUTNews
ContextSignificance, Scope, Impact
Anchor quoteGeneral attribution
Transition to what’s to come
NEWS BIT
NEWS BIT
NEWS BIT
NEWS BIT
NEWS BIT
EFFICIENCY
• Write and organize material for the fastest understanding
- Write for “snapshot” reading and scans- Highlight key news bits to be easily found- Organize your reporting, writing and packaging
in a way that helps you and readers
Photo by Flickr user BigTallGuy
LABELS and LINKS
• Fatalities and injuries: xxxx• Property and crop damage: xxxx• Civic disruption: xxxx• The response: xxxx• How the story developed: xxxx• Where to get help: xxxx
The i-Pad NEWS, DECONSTRUCTED
• The announcement: xxx
• Functions: xxx
• Cost: xxx
• Competition: xxx
• Consumer reaction: xxx
HORIZONTAL NEWS TOTEM
• When sub-items in a story are of equal interest to different audiences
• Allows readers to get summary of story and then identify which sub-item they want to read first
LEDE
SUMMARY NUTNews
ContextSignificance, Scope, Impact
Anchor quoteGeneral attribution
Transition to what’s to come
NEWS BITNEWS BIT NEWS BITNEWS BIT NEWS BIT
Imagine This Story Redone
A Possible Web Rewrite
Another $204 million will be cut from the Missouri state budget, Gov. Jay Nixon announced at a news conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Key to those cuts:• The elimination of 650 full- and part-time jobs, mostly through layoffs.• Savings of $32 million by aligning Medicaid reimbursements with
federal rates.Cuts already made this year: $634 million including 1,700 full-time jobs. What’s causing the cuts: State revenues are down 10 percent this year,
Nixon said. Missouri state statute requires a balanced budget.What’s next: Nixon did not identify specific jobs to be cut. He said he
hoped revenues would increase, but did not rule out additional cuts.
TRANSPARENCY
• Be clear about source and credibility of information– If information is not verified, say so
• Consider sourcing boxes– Don’t clutter copy with unnecessary or
awkward attribution
KNOW S-E-O Speak
• Overt about location• Mega-tagging of searchable words
Questions?