Online News Site

I pulled a lot of great ideas for my online newspaper from the "Redesigned Newspapers" article. I really like how the Chicago Tribune tried to engage readers with their new design. Editor Jonathon Berlin detailed how reporters are going to directly address and reply to reader comments in feature stories. Reporters are going to up the conversation level between themselves and their audience. This is going to help the Tribune create warmer feelings of personal investment within readers. As Berlin said, readers respected and trusted The Tribune, but there was an emotional disconnect amongst readers. The audience did not feel overly attached to the newspaper. By having reporters address the questions and concerns of the audience in news articles, the level of engagement and personal involvement will certainly escalate. My news site will use similar tactics and often address or comment on readers' concerns in our articles. We will also ask our audience to critique our design in the same vein as The Tribune. This is a brilliant way to get excellent feedback, see if a design works, find out if a layout is practical, and let the audience know that their input is treasured and respected.

My site will also take a few cues from The Hartford Courant. Like The Courant, we will never get stuck in our ways or find ourselves to comfortable to usher in change. Many newspapers fail because they are too stubborn to adapt to modern times. The Courant showed off its flexibility and adaptability by completely revamping their newspaper's layout. They did the unthinkable and flipped the newspaper trademark nameplate on its side. This move seems inconsequential, but to me it shows that the Courant is heading into the future, and refusing to be bogged down by tradition or complacency. The Courant also cleverly added a "dot-com" to the end of their nameplate. I think this was an excellent way to introduce fixed newspaper readers to a larger world of information. I have older relatives in Connecticut who start every morning off with coffee and a peruse through The Hartford Courant. They refused to surf the Web for news stories. My great-uncle used to say he trusted the printed word more than the electronic one, and besides he'd just spill his coffee on the keyboard anyway. But then, he noticed his trusted Courant included a "dot-com" at the tail of their nameplate. The man is still reluctant to surf the web with a hot drink in hand, but he does look at the Courant site from time to time to get more in depth coverage of stories. My site will have to use tactics like the Courant in oder to find successful ways to adopt new inexperienced web readers.

We will also take some pointers from the Oklahoman newspaper. I loved how their paper used a wide array of colors to attract a reader's attention. We will use something like this on my site in order to focus readers on particular stories and even lead them from one article to another.

I was glad to hear that more journalism students are receiving visual training in the article about Karl Gude. Web users decide if they want to stay on a page mere seconds after navigating to a site. If a site is heavy on verbal explanations and light on gripping graphics, chances are the majority of readers are going to click away from the site. My site will use exhilarating graphics, like the one presented in the article, to pull readers into a story. The visuals will not only attract more readers but also completely transform a story. Gude's article about the coffee shop robbery would have been an average run of the mill piece without those stunning pictures. The design added another element to the piece and placed reader inside Sparty's shop. This technique will most definitely appeal to readers who are more visually oriented. The visuals make the piece come alive and let a reader know what happened in a way a textual explanation never could.

My site will also follow Wagener's advice and condense the size of our headlines. She uses two Hurricane Katrina related headlines to show the sheer power of a single word. Too often headlines appear clunky or try to include too much information. It is not the headline's duty to reveal numerous facts, figures or a wealth of data. Most importantly, a headline must draw a reader into a piece. These headlines are most effective when they coincide with a presented photograph. When done effectively, the words and picture alone can tell a story that touches a reader more than the actual article itself. Short phrases or single words can have far more impact than entire paragraphs. Wagener offers examples like "Heartbreaking," "No mercy" and "Help Us, Please." These are all words and phrases that try to connect with readers at a human level. They pack a weighty emotional punch. My news site will try to cut down on lengthy headlines where possible, in favor of this type of short, powerful speech.

I think Wagener is absolutely right in saying that most readers desire a compact, easy-to-read format, whether they're reading a newspaper or using a laptop. I particularly like her comment on how the Internet could seemingly provide an infinite amount of information per page. I have often thought of this myself. A news web page could be as long or as wide as an editor wanted. A news team could cram an endless amount of information in a seemingly endless amount of space. However, when this comes to mind, I think of the New York Times web page. That site has an abundance of links and information buried at the bottom of the page. It takes eons to reach that information. It comes after a list of Top Stories, World News, National News, Business News and Entertainment coverage. My friends, family and I rarely make it anywhere near that information. We get distracted by stories at the top of the page, or at the middle of the page, or in between the top and the middle of the page. Simply put, the Times has too much information in too little space. They need to spread it out and adopt a thinner, shorter page that models itself after a traditional newspaper. As Wagener addressed the tabloid issue, she did so on a compact page that had thin columns and easy-to-follow information. My news site will present a thin, practical news page, that is not overloaded with text or bogged down by too much space.

I think Wagener did a nice job debunking most of the editing myths in the last assigned article. I particularly agree with the section on picture captions. Over spring-break I read my local newspaper daily. My eye was consistently drawn to intriguing photos. The problem was there were very few captions. In one case the people in the picture were not labeled. It was a photograph of a drunk-driver and a crash victim. The picture featured two-head on shots of the individuals involved. I honestly could not tell who had been killed and who had done the killing. I'm sure the family of the victim was incredibly distressed by the omission of a caption. Now, this case may be more sever than others, but to prevent any possible confusion, my news site will always offer an informative caption below or to the side of our photographs.

To be honest, I did not agree with the debunking of Wagener's first myth. I firmly believe a page looks better and is more approachable if the subject in a picture is pointing at or looking towards the text. I think the page with George Bush would look much better if the column on the left was moved to the right hand side. This would leave Bush pointing at the text, and not clumsily looking away from the information.

I was in class on Friday the 6th and did not have to post on the last article.