December 2012
The past year has been a whirlwind for many news outlets and the way they work digitally. But what are the main lessons we can learn from 2012?
Panellists at the final session at the news:rewired – digital stories conference were on hand to answer and provided the following key lessons from the past 12 months.
Bobbie Johnson, co-founder of web startup Matter, told delegates at the news:rewired – digital stories conference, in London today, how he arrived at the ‘model for high-quality journalism’ and managed to raise funds for the idea in a month.
Matter works by publishing a single long piece of journalism every month. The first article went live on Wednesday 14 November after Johnson and his business partner Jim Giles managed to raise $140,000 in a month – from a campaign on Kickstarter – to support run the business they run from their bedrooms.
Visual storytelling helps an audience to understand and digest big, complex stories – often through an image alone, the news:rewired – digital stories conference was told this afternoon.
While national publications have the benefit of developers to help drive their visual content, regional outlets should not let their more limited budgets be an excuse for failing to innovate.
The news:rewrited – digital stories conference heard, this afternoon, some of the lessons for news outlets in 2012, interesting innovations and disruptions to keep an eye on as we head into 2013 and some of the important questions still to be answered.
The panel for this session was made up of: Dr Johnny Ryan, chief innovation officer, The Irish Times; Stephen Pinches, group product manager, emerging platforms, Financial Times; John Levitt, director of marketing, Parse.ly; Mark Little, chief executive and founder, Storyful.
The session was moderated by Kevin Anderson, editor and digital strategist, Knowledge Bridge, Media Development Loan Fund.
Nate Lanxon, editor of Wired.co.uk, presented a workshop at news:rewired – digital stories this afternoon explaining how to news organisations can produce successful podcasts without breaking the bank.
Here are ten of his top tips.
More and more newsrooms are using live blogs to illustrate stories and get different content to their audiences.
Panellists this afternoon at the news:rewired – digital stories conference, in London, offered ten top tips on how organisations can use live blogging effectively and efficiently in their newsrooms.
Amongst those sharing their thoughts were: Seb Ramsay, hub news editor at the Manchester Evening News, Neil Macdonald, head of web and data development with Trinity Mirror, and Ben Schneider, director and general manager of CoveritLive.
During an afternoon session at the news:rewired – digital stories conference panelists looked at a range of visual storytelling techniques and tools being harnessed by news outlets and the social web.
Our speakers were: Nic Newman, digital strategist; Jonas Forth, creative director, ThingLink.com; Phil Kenny, head of infographics, the Economist; Paul Rowland, deputy head of content (digital), Media Wales.
David Hayward, head of journalism programme, BBC College of Journalism moderated the panel and talked to our speakers about more sophisticated uses of displaying images.
This session of the news:rewired – digital stories conference looked at the opportunities for long-form journalism; including investigative reports published to e-readers and video documentaries.
Speakers also discussed revenue models, allowing delegates to learn from their experiences of what does – and what doesn’t – make long-form journalism pay.
Those speakers were: Bobbie Johnson, co-founder, Matter; Alex Miller, executive editor of VICE UK; Simon Frantz, deputy editor of BBC Future, a project from the commercial arm of the BBC; Patrick Hussey, design lead, Aeon magazine.
Kathryn Corrick, strategic communications consultant, acted as moderator for the session
Anna Doble, head of online at Channel 4 News, and Jenny Rigby, social media and special projects producer at Channel 4 News, shared their advice on Twitter reporting this afternoon at the news:rewired – digital stories conference in London.
The third session of news:rewired – digital stories focused on digital news design as a key element in drawing readers to news content and keeping them engaged.
Our panel discussed user experience, focusing particularly on the importance news readability, site journeys, and ensuring audiences come back at a later date.
