BrianManzullo.com

Five things (some) news websites are doing right

We’re obviously not there yet when it comes to perfecting the online news site. And there’s probably a different answer for every community and every audience. But from reading and seeing the online presentations of multiple sites for the past few years, I can safely say a lot of newspapers are making strides in certain areas.

Some are doing really well with managing a comments area, while others are just doing well with organizing their home pages. Others are trying new things and experimenting with layout (which is great to see!). Here are some of my favorite developments, although this is by no means comprehensive:

1. A “hanging” interactive menu with each story

When I go to a news website, I don’t want to scroll too much to find & do what I want. I also don’t want to look everywhere to find functions/features/etc. So if I’m a news site, I want to try and make the reader’s experience as convenient as possible. (This is going to come up at least a couple more times in this blog post.)

Some sites are experimenting with a menu that hangs on the screen as you scroll through a story. Most people recognize it on Mashable. But some newspaper sites are doing it, too — The Daily Chronicle in Illinois has one that hangs on the bottom of the screen, complete with options to view/add comments, share the story and even hide the bar if you find it annoying. No matter where you’re at on that page, that menu will be there.

Not only is it convenient for readers, but it also cleans the page from extra clutter (normally, the share/print/comment options are found under the headline, the byline or the story). Simple is better!

2. Heavy social media interaction

Key word here is “interaction.” I’ve mentioned this at least once before: Newspapers need to stop treating their Twitter accounts like RSS feeds. If people want all headlines, they’ll subscribe to your feed or go to your website. Twitter is a networking tool — use it to connect with your audience!

One great example of a site bucking the headline trend: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution routinely interacts with followers by answering their questions, retweeting and providing breaking updates from even sports. Furthermore, the AJC offers plenty of other accounts to follow on its website.

Another good example of a news site using Twitter to its advantage: The Florida Times-Union (JaxDotCom). It’s fine to mix in headlines and breaking updates on Twitter, but it’s also important to listen to your followers and talk with them. It’s really the 2010 way of answering your phone at work.

Facebook: This is another social media site many newspapers are struggling to maximize. But I like what The Arizona Republic (azcentral.com) is doing with its Facebook page. There are plenty of headlines and topics to go around, but also contests and promotions that provide for a huge boost in fans. Readers eat those up!

3. A rewards system in reader comments

This is one of my favorite developments. Very few news sites are doing this but, when executed right, a rewards system on a site’s comments section is an excellent way to liven up the conversation, keep people talking (and in a generally civil way, too) and, most importantly, keep your site from becoming a “comment ghetto.”

The Huffington Post has a prime example of a well developed comments area. Readers can earn badges for frequently commenting on stories and engaging with others (see right). Badges also can be upgraded via levels. This is very similar to how Foursquare rewards its users when they check in frequently. It’s all about giving little incentives!

What I really love, though, is the moderator badge. Don’t have the manpower in your news organization to monitor comments? Outsource that duty to your readers. The Huffington Post explains in their FAQ:

If you’ve flagged at least 20 comments that we ended up deleting and have a high ratio of good flags to mistaken flags, we’ll award you with a Level 1 Moderator Badge and enhance your flags so that they have five times more influence. If you’ve flagged at least 100 comments that we deleted and have a very high ratio of good flags to mistaken flags, we make you a Level 2 Moderator, upgrade your Badge, and trust you to delete inappropriate comments on the site. We will continue to trust you to delete inappropriate comments from the site as long as you handle the task responsibly. If you’re like many users, you’ll want to step up your flagging game and become one of our most trusted users.

This all falls under the idea that a well developed community can monitor itself. And it can. You just have to pull the right strings.

(Note: Yes, I still hold to my opinion that anonymity is not the answer to fixing news site comments. This is just one of the better solutions to fixing comment ghettos.)

4. Home page personalization

The future of news is personalized. It’s hyperlocal. And often, nowadays, when you log into a news site, you have to get around the stories you don’t care about to find the ones that do matter to you. As I mentioned earlier, it’s all about convenience — and personalizing your news experience is a part of that.

We have a long ways to go in this department. But there are still some sites making strides. My first experience with news personalization was with ESPN, when they implemented MyESPN to allow you to track your favorite teams, leagues, players and columnists along the right column (although that column is not there anymore). News sites have rarely ventured into personalization, but the Orange County Register allows you to organize your home page by ordering the categories on the right side of the page (see the image).While this is a primative example of true personalization, it’s a step in the right direction.

One more example of personalizing news, albeit it’s not on the home page (yet): The Grand Rapids Press offers its hyperlocal coverage, “Ada to Zeeland,” via an interactive map. (Disclosure: I am an intern for The Press)

5. Landing pages for extensive content

I’ve been over this one, too (see #3 in the link). When hot topics come up in the community, it’s extremely convenient to have a one-stop shop for all the coverage, whether it be news stories, multimedia or even reader interaction, where everything is neatly organized and summarized. That was one thing we did well at Central Michigan Life while I was editor — two of our landing pages included the tailgating controversy at CMU and also the budget situation.

I have always been a big fan of the Spokesman-Review website. Not only is it one of the cleanest sites out there, but it is so unique in how content is organized. You can easily search by time, place, and topic, and you can also see the hot topics through the “Quick Links” navigation bar. Take a look at how some of these landing pages are designed (for example, Mount St. Helens). They should never look like a list of tagged stories.

Another recent example of a hot topic page: The Washington Post and its Stephen Strasburg page. Although it’d be much nicer if the URL was simplified (i.e. washingtonpost.com/strasburg).

Other good reads from the week so far:

• Why link out? Four journalistic purposes of the noble hyperlink. A good summary of the value of the link, especially in journalism. As Jeff Jarvis says, “Do what you do best, and link to the rest.” (NOTE: Here’s another read fron Nieman Lab on the maximizing the value of the link.)
• Bloggers: 7 questions to ask before hitting publish. Sometimes, it’s easy to lose perspective when writing. Use these tips to keep you in line.
• The best journalism you’ll see today: “Prison Valley”. Actually from last week, but I loved it so much, I thought I’d link it again. Not only does this project involve stellar video and photo work, but it’s interactive: You can navigate your way through the story. Amazing work.

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As one chapter ends, another one begins

This Saturday marks the end of my college career. Upon the completion of my take-home exam, which has to be turned in 2 p.m. Wednesday, I will graduate from Central Michigan University with a bachelor of science in journalism (news editorial concentration) and a minor in media design, production and technology.

It took me five years and three switches in majors and minors to do it, but it’s finally happening. It probably won’t hit me until August, when I’m not returning to school with many of my other colleagues at Central Michigan Life, where I worked for virtually the entirety of my college career. I started as a news reporter, working my way toward sports and arts/entertainment reporting before becoming Lifeline Editor my sophomore year. I worked as an editor on virtually every desk, including online, before becoming editor in chief last fall.

It’s certainly sad to think that my time at CM Life is over. But I’m ready to move on to new things.

I return May 17 to the Grand Rapids Press, where I spent last summer as a copy editing intern. This time, I’ll start on the sports copy desk and hopefully take a crack at some Web work as the summer progresses. I’ll begin looking for a full-time job once July comes around, preferably as an online producer or a sports reporter (with an online bent). No matter what I do, I want to be a part of journalism’s future. This is such a critical time in the industry, and we need more people thinking forward and not just talking innovative, but being innovative.

A reflection

I hate to be so cliche about my time as editor in chief, but it really was a roller coaster ride. I accomplished many goals I set out for the staff, but failed at several others. We launched a new Web site in August, began livestreams and live chats, unleashed our first extensive multimedia project and set the path for the online movement at our 91-year-old publication. We won our first-ever Online Pacemaker Finalist award this spring (check back in October to see if we’re a winner). Our print edition wasn’t so bad, either, though — it We did run a couple dozen corrections, I was threatened a lawsuit twice, but didn’t have to fire a single staffer.

The part I’m most proud of, however, is the staff returning for the fall. My overarching goal throughout the year was to make sure the newspaper was better off in May than it was in August. And at a student newspaper, where the entire staff circulates every four years, you have to make sure students are in an environment to grow, get better and eventually take the reins and lead their peers. The staff set in place next fall, led by fall editor Jackie Smith, looks like an exciting group, and I can’t wait to see what they do in print and online. I’m sad I can’t be a part of it.

It’s difficult to pick one piece of advice to take from my experience and share. But I think that now — in 2010 — is the time for every student newspaper to get cracking and move forward, something that really should’ve been done a couple years ago. Innovate. Take risks. Break status quo. Even Central Michigan Life as a ways to go in that department. But it’s not something you do overnight — you have to make progress and work toward something. We launched a new Web site last August and followed up with our first-ever livestreams, live chats and the like. Now, hopefully, we can move toward a Web workflow, or developing mobile applications.

No matter what you do, though, never forget about your readers and what they want out of your publication. You’re serving them. Gauge their interests and do what you can to meet them in person. Hold special events, set up a table outside your central park area, hand out newspapers at athletic events — get on ground level and be a part of your community. Live chats and livestreams help (make sure you use those, too), but they don’t replace the intimacy of real-life conversation. That is what really goes a long way toward building trust, reputation and the impact your news outlet has among your audience. The more your publication acts like an ivory tower — “we report it, you read it, you’re welcome” — the smaller it becomes. So get out there.

I’m not the only editor in chief graduating moving on to newer (and hopefully better) things. I asked Alex Byers, outgoing editor in chief of George Washington Hatchet, GWU’s student newspaper, to give his take as well, and he makes some excellent points as well:

When I got elected as The Hatchet’s next EIC in March of 2009, my
predecessor told me that it would be the most difficult and rewarding
year of my life. He was spot on.

At a student news organization, one of the biggest obstacles is the
conceptual difference between student and professional. The term
“student” newspaper implies something less than professional; after
all, when it comes to most fields – athletics, finance, politics – you
wouldn’t expect most student-based organizations to be perfect or as
effective as their older counterparts. In the news business, though,
there is no room for being anything less than professional. Facts are
facts, and accuracy is a necessity – stories that are 85 percent true
aren’t acceptable. Being held to a higher standard than most student
organizations, and doing it with people who are inherently amateur is
no easy task. Which is why it’s all the more rewarding when
you’re successful.

Student journalists today have so many great ideas for innovation and
the future of news. If I could only give one piece of advice to the
next crop of student newsroom leaders, it would be this: Understand
that you won’t accomplish everything you set out to – it’s okay if you
never develop that real-time, dorm-by-dorm Twitter mash-up you
outlined. But if you keep trying new things and pushing the envelope
of how information is presented, you’ll put out a great product and
learn a thing or two in the process.

It isn’t over

Although I am moving past the college chapter of my life, I want to continue engaging with students working with their campus publication and hopefully work toward a brighter future for journalism education.

Why? Because that’s where it all begins. This industry needs young journalists more than ever because of their innovation, their passion and the new perspective they bring, having grown up in a different generation with new technology and new ways of thinking. But they need to be taught to innovate, take risks and break status quo. So many student newsrooms suffer the same exact thing professional newsrooms do — they’re not adapting to 2010. They need to change.

So for those of you involved in journalism education in one way or another — students, faculty, assistants, etc. — let’s stay connected.

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And so it is launched: The new cm-life.com!

First of all, I apologize for the lack of updates in the last two weeks (for those of you who stayed faithful to my site, at least). I hope you’ll forgive me if I told you the last two weeks have been two of the busiest in my 22-and-a-half year life. It wasn’t just overhauling a news site; it also involved coordinating a 4-section Back-to-School edition that, by itself, is one of the more difficult editions to put out at Central Michigan Life.

But I don’t want to ramble too long, because the site I’ve been building for the last month is finally complete and up for everybody to see: http://www.cm-life.com.

If you are a frequent cm-life.com user, you can obviously see the changes, with the simple design and navigation. Scrolling is kept to a minimum. You can browse by subsections (i.e. football, money news, etc.). You can browse through five featured stories played at the top in a slideshow.

But here are some of my proudest additions:

• “What We’re Reading” – Publish2 is a collaborative journalism effort I’ve already talked about in a previous entry. If you look on the right-hand side of the site, you’ll see this section, with three of the lastest links I, or anyone else on staff, have posted. Basically, we want to give our readers our recommended Web links, which usually deal with issues that matter to students, whether it’s social networking or with paying for higher education.
• Facebook Fan Box – Kudos to the Mustang Daily for this idea. We want to increase our Facebook presence, so we installed a box which 1) shows select fans of our publication, and 2) makes it extremely easy to become a fan. Our hope from here is to build a big enough fan base so we can increase interaction with our readers.
• The Virtual Edition – Our old site would feature front-page PDF’s on the left-hand side. Now we can easily post our entire print edition (with advertising) on the site. It takes a little bit to load, especially on an older computer, but it comes out extremely nice for those who are patient. (Part of it is the 4-section BTS issue, so once we go down to 2 sections and 16 pages total, it’ll load much faster)
• Police Log – We’ve embedded Google Maps on our site to include the latest items in the CMU Police log. There isn’t too much on there now, but we’re getting it going. This is information that, I feel, is critical to some readers.

Of course, I am constantly looking for new ideas. So if you have any, let me know.

One of my biggest projects for this year is to develop a comprehensive author page that sheds better light on some of our writers and editors. Right now, they’re built to show each author’s bio, their e-mail link and their Twitter link (if they have one, and most aren’t put in yet).

Leave any feedback you can… like I said, I’m always looking for ideas, and asking my peers for it is one of the best ways to make something better. Thanks!

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Welcome to BrianManzullo.com!

Greetings!

After about two weeks of setting up hosting, compiling files and building the site, BrianManzullo.com is finally up and running.

As you might be aware, this site, as of right now, mainly is an online portfolio. I will use it throughout its duration as a place to store my work for others to see and comment on. Feel free to offer comments or criticism on anything you find here!

The other use of this site is right here: As my blog. My hope is I will regularly update with my views, links to interesting stories and other forms of discussion mainly relating to journalism, new media and sports. After all, those are my main career interests. The goal is to have a nice little forum for discussion on issues relating to those things and possibly more.

If I could only ask one thing, for the few who read this: Let me know what you think of the site, at least so far. I will continue improving it throughout the coming weeks with plugins, features and other useful tools. (And I’ll also get a “HOME” button, I just haven’t gotten to that yet… for now, you can click my name at the top to return to my blog area)

Thanks a lot for visiting, and be sure to check back often!

~Brian J. Manzullo

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