Get With The Program
by David M. Cole
What would you say if I told you I was going to start a newspaper, but notuse color photos? In fact, this venture wouldn't use any photography--noinfographics or illustrations either. The typography? Six-point type set on four19-pica columns across.
This is the moral equivalent of what most newspaper Web sites are like now.
The things that make the Web compelling--interactivity, audio, video andeven animated Java logos--seem strikingly absent from all but a few pioneeringnewspaper Web sites.
There is a case to be made that these features are just so much gimcrack.There's no question that they take a lot of time--and time is probably the mostprecious commodity in the newspaper new-media world.
The editorial content of most newspaper Web sites is usually put together bya mere one or two editors. They labor mightily to get the day's edition onlineand have little time for anything else.
The problem is that they are creating uncompelling Web sites. It isunfortunate--but true--that though the World Wide Web is probably more likeprint publishing than like television, the sites with the biggest repeatbusiness are the sites that have fancy audio, video and interactivity.
Let's discuss what "interactivity" entails.
At its most basic level, an interactive Web site embraces readers and theirthoughts.
A good interactive site should have not only dozens of "mail to"links (allowing readers to send e-mail to the writers and editors), but itshould also have threaded discussion forums and chat areas.
This type of interactivity does require work on the part of the Web-sitestaff. E-mail has to be answered, forums have to be monitored and helped alongwith contributions from the staff, and chats need to be hosted.
Many of these tasks can be delegated to regular newsroom employees, some ofwhom would not only be happy, but also flattered, to help out.
The next level of interactivity would be to provide your Web readers withaccess to your archives--both text and photos.
The irony is that while only a handful of newspaper Web sites have archives,those sites that make money do so because of the income from selling publicaccess to the archives.
In other words, at this point in time, if you want to make money in the Webbusiness, you'd better have archive access.
This is less a worker and technical problem than a political one: The vastmajority of North American dailies do not preserve their text or photos indigital form. Publishers have not been convinced (despite my personalharanguing) that archives are worth whatever the cost of the computers, softwareand personnel it takes to run them.
An archive is like an annuity--you may only make $10 a week (or $100 or$1,000 or $1 million), but you'll make that money week after week, month aftermonth, year after year.
Another big piece of what makes a Web site compelling is its use of audioand video.
Where are we going to get audio and video, you ask--nobody around here knowshow to do that stuff.
Well, there's no time like the present to learn. The typical Web user isfickle: If there isn't something new and flashy up on your site day in and dayout, they will go elsewhere.
Getting broadcast-quality audio is not that difficult, really.
I don't know the last time you went to a press conference, but mostly you'llfind a professional sound company has installed a system that has a bunch ofstandard microphone connectors on it. You buy yourself a nice tape recorder(take a look at what the radio reporters are carrying), plug it into that soundboard, and you'll have audio. A couple of hours to learn a computersound-recording utility and a sound application like Progressive Networks'RealAudio, and you have an audio file that can be served off your site.
Of course, this means you'll have to train your reporters to take the taperecorder to the press conference and remember to plug it in. But the radiopeople seem to be able to handle that.
Video? The easiest solution is to cut a deal with one of your local TVstations (hey, your paper might own one of the local TV stations) and get accessto their video. Have them send over a VHS "dub" of that big fire, pluga VCR into a video-equipped computer, use a video-recording utility, and you'llbe serving QuickTime-based video in no time.
Yes, to make your Web site compelling, it will take more work than you arenow putting in. But remember, on the Web you're competing with everyone fromMSNBC to M&Ms. The skills and equipment necessary to make your Web sitesuccessful won't go to waste--you'll need them every day.
Something like the way you need color photographs, infographics,illustrations and good typography in your print product.
Cole is a San Francisco-based newspaper consultant and editor of TheCole Papers, a monthly newsletter on technology, journalism and publishing.E-mail, dmc@colegroup.com; phone, (415)673-2424; fax, (415) 673-2449. The opinions expressed are those of the authorand not necessarily TechNews or NAA.