BrianManzullo.com » Updates

A quick update on JournU (help wanted!)

Brian Manzullo — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:39:29 +0000

To update from the previous post, Project Mango, a site I’m building to bring young journalists together to share their stories, experiences, tips and more, now has an official name: JournU.

The URL will be JournU.net. And it should debut in July. For now, you can follow JournU on Twitter and on Facebook.

But for the site to go public by July, I could use some more journalists to volunteer.

I understand this effort is going to be difficult at first with people not knowing what exactly JournU will be. So I decided to put together an outline of what I’m looking for out of contributors (which will be the “Write for Us!” page on the site itself), plus two posts I’ve already written to launch with the site.

To the right: A preview of the site (so far). Final logo pending.

I’m inviting you

JournU is meant to be a collective effort by as many bright young journalists as possible. If you believe you fall under that category, I encourage you to jump in and write about your experiences, your lessons, your advice and more!

What JournU is looking for

Who should write: “Young journalist” is not discriminatory toward age. A definition to start out with: any college journalist or professional journalists with between 1-5 years of experience. If you fall short of that definition, don’t worry! I still want you to chip in. The point is to bring many journalists together to share what they’ve learned and experienced in the field to encourage and inspire others to grow as professionals.

What to write about: Anything you want. The floor is yours. Are you a designer looking to share what you’ve learned designing front pages? Write about it. Are you in broadcasting and have an incredible story of a day in the field? Write about it. Are you a photographer with tips on how to survive as a freelancer? Write about it! Anything that you think would benefit or even entertain other young journalists, I want you to share it.

Requirements: Barely any. You can write whenever you want, however you want.

Your writing may be subject to some editing, but only for spelling and grammar.
For biographical purposes, I want you to use your real name, a short bio of yourself which at least includes which university you attend(ed), and an avatar (see: right). This can all be filled out in the WordPress Dashboard once your login is set up.

A preview of two posts I’ve written so far:

How to build your journalism reading list: The habit I got into that has helped me the most as a young journalist is reading my RSS feed with the latest updates from my favorite journalism sites and blogs. Therefore, I’m sharing how you can set yours up, with what reader(s) you should choose and how to begin searching for the feeds that suit you.

Looking for a journalism job? Consider moving across the country: I spent my first 23 years of existence in Michigan, but decided to take my first post-graduate job 1,900 miles away in Arizona. It’s not an easy decision to make for anyone, but there are benefits to doing so from my own experiences and why I think journalists should consider that path.

How do I get started?

Fill out the form below!

Caution: Depending on how many people sign up to write, I can’t guarantee everyone who fills out the form will become contributors. However, the more information you provide, the better your chances.

Should you be approved to write for JournU, you’ll be provided with WordPress login information which you can use to access the back end as an author. There, you can update your bio and add new posts whenever you wish.

So get on board:

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An update, one week into my new job at the Arizona Republic

Brian Manzullo — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:57:40 +0000

I probably should’ve updated this a lot sooner but, then again, one week into my first post-education job is probably a good time, too.

The reason for the lack of updates, and the reason for the lack of Twitter usage (at least pertaining to journalism) is tied to the adjustment period over the past 30 days or so. In that span, I said goodbye to friends and family in Michigan, packed up two cars with my family, made the 1,900-mile trek to Phoenix, Arizona, and settled in to my home in Tempe and my job as online sports producer at the Arizona Republic.

I won’t lie; it wasn’t easy. At times, it still isn’t. I spent my entire life in Michigan prior to this point. I was always within driving distance of the people I loved, no matter where I was. But I’ve always felt that my life could use a little perspective. And I think this is a time where I’m really going to figure out what direction things are heading for me, whether it’s here, back home or wherever.

But enough about that. I’m one week into my job. And it’s roughly what I expected it to be — very busy, with a few opportunities for creativity. A great combination. I’ve mentioned before that I consider azcentral.com to be among the best newspaper sites in the country, and it gets that way by upholding a 24/7 standard for new, cycling content. Even in sports. The workflow is designed to keep people coming back to the site multiple times a day. The opportunities for creativity come from what kind of things we can do online with the content that comes in for the print product, and what visual things we can do to supplement those stories and packages. The nuts and bolts of it is posting stories, writing and prioritizing headlines and packages, SEO, slideshow-building, sending out breaking news alerts thru e-mail/tweets/texts, and hopefully an opportunity to cover a live event or two with a chat or something. That’s it in a nutshell.

It’s early on, but it’s been a great start, and I’m definitely looking forward to contributing to an already exceptional product (at least in my view). Online is a division I’m very comfortable working in.

As for Phoenix, it’s pretty easy to describe: Hot and sunny. Every day. I grew up in an environment where it could rain, snow, hail and blast sunshine within a 24-hour span (and it actually did during my graduation in May). I’m also used to long winters of scraping my car and avoiding ice patches on the road. None of that is going to happen here. Today is the beginning of autumn and I’ve yet to see the temperature drop below 93, although that temperature is much easier to deal with when there’s no humidity. Only one day has it rained, and it was for about five minutes.

My Tumblr has some images from the trip itself although, for some reason, I stopped before we actually made it to Phoenix. For a trip across the country, it was very smooth. The state I was most impressed with: Oklahoma. It’s actually a really nice state. We stayed in Tulsa for the first night, and it was pretty cool watching some of the weather patterns happening that evening.

So that’s that. I’ll try to update more regularly as I settle further in. The bigger priority is making sure I’m doing the best I can at the Republic and meet, if not exceed, the standards they’ve set. And I’m sure there will be plenty of moments where I’m inspired to write about something. Stay tuned!

The job search is over: I’m off to the Valley of the Sun

Brian Manzullo — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:26:18 +0000

Well, the next chapter in my life is finally turning.

I remember thinking back to the night the calendar switched to 2010. I knew it was going to be a big year — I just didn’t know how yet. I was heading into my final semester at Central Michigan University. Everything beyond that was a blank sketch. I had no idea what I would be doing or where I would end up by the time 2011 rolled around — only that I’d be working my first job in journalism, hopefully online.

That was so exciting to think about but, in a way, it’s also a little scary. I had a feeling my time in Michigan was limited, based on the job outlook. That would mean spending time away from my friends and family, who I have an amazing relationship with. That would mean spending time away from the Great Lakes, the family lakehouse near Clare, the places I shared great memories with back home in Saginaw. I’ve spent all 23.5 years of my life in this state.

That’s going to change once September rolls around.

On Wednesday afternoon, I officially accepted a job as online sports producer of the Arizona Republic. Or, in the words of LeBron James, “I’m taking my talents to the Valley of the Sun.” I’ll be starting sometime in September.

For me, this is an unbelievably exciting opportunity for an entry-level job. I’ve loved sports my entire life, and online journalism has been, by far, my largest passion the past year-and-a-half. I get to work for a news organization which, in my opinion, is ahead of the curve in online journalism, and I get to follow Arizona sports, which I already follow anyway, particularly the Suns. This also is an opportunity for me to live out West for the first time, which I’ve always thought about doing at least once in my life. It’s a great chance to gain a new perspective, even if I am still in the United States.

It seems like I have a million people to thank for this. Everyone I’ve ever worked for and with at Central Michigan Life, especially my adviser, Neil Hopp, for building me as a journalist, setting the course for my career and — most of all — being such great friends. Those of you I’ve met at CoPress or on Twitter, for networking with me, helping me with occasional questions/ideas and engaging on journalism. The Grand Rapids Press, for being so supportive throughout both my internships and working with me to maximize my experience there. Most of all, my friends and family, for being downright amazing people. I would never be where I’m at today without any of you.

And so, for these last six weeks or so, I’m going to finish up in Grand Rapids, make all the arrangements needed for the move to the Phoenix area and, of course, say goodbye to everyone in Michigan. That won’t be easy, but it’s something I have to do — for now.

See you on the other side!

As one chapter ends, another one begins

Brian Manzullo — Wed, 05 May 2010 13:30:16 +0000

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.

Tip sheet for aspiring journalists, Twitter page and other things I’ve been working on

Brian Manzullo — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:00:40 +0000

It’s been awhile since I updated this, so I thought I’d write up a snapshot of what exactly I’ve been up to the past month or so.

On the online front, we have an online editor at Central Michigan Life — Dave Veselenak, who was managing editor last fall. This makes it a lot easier on me to focus on playing the editor in chief role — managing the staff and making sure the paper looks good and has good journalistic content. But it also helps to have another mind thinking Web an how we can use it to our advantage.

One thing we’ve done to begin the semester is built a Twitter page. Now, when you click on the Twitter icon on the right side of the CM Life site, it takes you to cm-life.com/twitter, a page that 1) shows a feed of the Twitter list “@cmlife/staff” and 2) centralizes all accounts for CM Life and its current editorial staff. I realize the “What we’re saying” box is obnoxiously big, but we haven’t quite figured out how to code the widget to float it right just yet. (If you know, tell me!) But the main goal, obviously, is to promote Twitter like we promote Facebook with the Fan Box — make it noticeable, and make sure people have a convenient outlet to engage with you.

Other things we’re covering, or will cover very soon:

We’re using a new landing page: University Budget, which covers all stories this semester relating to CMU’s budget, which is expected to be cut anywhere between 3 to 9 percent within each cost center.
We’re increasing use of the Digital Roundtable, our live chat series. At 8 p.m. Thursday, we’re bringing in CMU’s Police Chief, Bill Yeagley, to speak with us and with readers who wish to log in. We’re hoping to bring in interim President Kathy Wilbur, President-designate George Ross, Athletic Director Dave Heeke and more as the semester goes on. The more public officials, the more discussion, the better!
Hopefully, we’ll finally get e-mail editions going again. This was popular with our readers when we ran College Publisher 4.0 and one of our biggest caveats when switching to WordPress. But it looks like we can move forward with that.
We’ve had the Text Alert feature on our site since it launched, but I’m hoping to promote that a bit more and using it a bit more often than we do right now.
Coming soon: A Central Michigan Life iPhone app? Time will tell on that one; Some of us at CMU are looking into the possibility. We do have a mobile version of the site, but not an effective one.
I’m still working on the CM Life Online Handbook. The goal is to have it done and printed before I graduate. It’s basically going to be a comprehensive guide on using WordPress and the CM Life site, strategies and how to work with it in conjunction with multimedia and social media. About 10 pages of it are done, quite a few more to go.

* * * * *

Another thing I did, particularly Monday, is write up a quick tip sheet for aspiring journalists in CMU’s journalism program (mainly new CM Life reporters). It’s important for us in particular to build up young talent because we have a lot of senior graduating in May (including me). So I wanted to come up with some general tips on how to move ahead, how to get better and what should lead to internships and jobs. I didn’t get too much into the meat of being a journalist (such as investigative work and things like that), mainly because that instinct should come over time with class work and experience. I just figure these are things journalism students can work on right away in building a brand, staying ahead on the field and such.

I will update again pretty soon on some other things. I have to catch up on Google Reader one of these days, anyway!

The short-lived Detroit Daily Press seemed doomed from the start

Brian Manzullo — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:13:09 +0000

I get pretty excited anytime something new or innovative happens in the field of journalism. Recent example include Google Wave, the Texas Tribune and even AnnArbor.com, to an extent.

The Detroit Daily Press was not one of them. Click the link for further proof.

The journalism screen of death.

For those of you unfamiliar with the venture… brothers Gary and Mark Stern, who are longtime publishers in Detroit and elsewhere, came up with the idea of launching a 7-day home delivery newspaper since the Detroit News and Free Press cut delivery by four days. The Daily Press, based in suburb Royal Oak, published its first edition Nov. 23.

However, by that Friday, production of the Daily Press was postponed until Jan. 1 because of complications in circulation and advertising. It took less than a week. And it’s not even certain if it’s coming back.

No offense to the Stern brothers or anybody employed by the Daily Press; I’m sure they are hard-working people and meant well when attacking that niche in the Detroit market left open by the two big newspapers. But this venture reeked from the very beginning. And my beef has little to do with the supposed circulation/advertising problems, which is a tremendous oversight in itself (the Press was on pace to lose more than $1 million in less than two months!)

The screen above and on the right is what you see when you go to detdailypress.com, then click on the “Delivered 7 days to your door!” advertisement plastered on the page. It is this type of screen where modern-day news organizations go to die. You can’t gate your Web presence like this and expect to stay in operation. Especially if you have DetNews.com and Freep.com to deal with. Journalism is moving fast toward the digital world and, if you want to be a successful news operation, you have to keep up with it. Asking for my subscription number when I go to your Web site is not the way to do it.

Again, I realize the niche market the Daily Press is trying to nab. It is going after the population still seeking 7-day delivery, mainly an older audience. So its primary news delivery is via print. That’s great and all, but what are your long-term goals? Do you expect this operation to stay afloat in 10 years?

* * * * *

I apologize for the lack of updates. The last month has been busy, as usual. But the end of the semester at Central Michigan Life is just about here (minus a GMAC Bowl tabloid we’re releasing Wednesday), and I have an exam and a project to do this week before winter break begins.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to update a few times over the following three weeks. Stay tuned.

Five goals for Central Michigan Life’s Web site the rest of the semester

Brian Manzullo — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:44:09 +0000

As you can probably tell from the sporadic posting on this blog, my life has been, for the most part, Central Michigan Life.

We’re in the middle of Week 4 of the semester – football season is under way, our first CMU Board of Trustees meeting is Thursday and the archives from as far back as 1999, thanks to CoPress, are coming to the new Web site. Things are going well for the most part, despite a few hiccups here and there. But that’s all expected.

I did get a chance to outline five goals I have for CM Life, particularly in its Web presence, that I’d like to accomplish by the end of my first term as editor in chief, which ends in December. (Not the only goals we have, just some of the more prominent ones) Whether all of these come through remains to be seen. But it all goes back to what I’ve been pushing since the beginning — interaction. Engagement. Collaborating.

1) Building a Facebook following and taking advantage of it

In mid-August, our Facebook page had approximately 115 fans and was used primarily as a news feed for our Facebook followers. One month later, we are up to 463 and counting. It’s time to do more with that audience and get even more people to become fans.

Starting Friday or early next week, CM Life is going to promote its Facebook page on a much larger scale in the print edition and on Twitter.

And, in addition to posting some of our featured stories on Facebook, we are going to start discussions on AT LEAST Monday, Wednesday and Friday, covering the issues and topics on campus people care about. For example, what people think about the CMU presidential search? How will the football team fare this year? Would you want concealed weapons on campus?

We also allow fans to post on the wall, share their photos and post links. These are things we have to promote, as well, since most do not know about those features. After all, if you’re going to give your fans the opportunity to do things like that, you have to let them know.

2) Start bi-weekly CoverItLive discussions featuring public officials and/or student representatives

We’ve already started working with CoverItLive in covering CMU football games. Now my hope is to take it to the News side, where we can encourage students to come in, voice their issues, concerns, etc. and allow public officials, administrators, and student representatives to join in and listen. We also want to give students a chance to voice their comments, suggestions, etc. to CM Life.

But back to the CMU side of things… a bit of background: CMU, from my perspective, has been extremely lacking in open forums with administrators to discuss how to improve campus. A few years ago, our University President, Michael Rao (who is now gone to VCU), hosted forums at least twice per semester where he would field questions from students. Two years ago, that stopped, because the administration said there was too small of a turnout, and we haven’t seen much since.

A couple weeks ago, the CM Life Editorial Board met with the Student Government Association President (Jason Nichol) and Vice President (Brittany Mouzourakis) to discuss ways we can work with SGA. Doing CoverItLive chats was one thing I mentioned to them. Students can’t always make it out to meetings and forums. But they can easily log on to a computer, on to CM Life and join a discussion that way. It’s not in person, but it’s convenient, and we’re entering an era of convenience. If you make it easy, students will attend.

3) Build a “Hot Topics” area with pages centralizing the biggest campus issues.

This one may take a little longer to complete, depending on the time I have.

But in my opinion, it’s needed. Sometimes you can’t search for every story concerning a big campus issue by searching for a key term or looking for tags.

So let’s make it easy.

Our two biggest issues: The approved Medical School opening in 2-3 years, and the search for a new University President. Those will be our first two “Hot Topics” (tentative name). Another one we might do deals with the CMU operating budget. But we’re still working on starting that series.

We’re going to create pages for these issues that feature every story in chronological order, newest at the top, plus any multimedia and links we have concerning those issues. The list, which will look a bit similar to The Spokesman-Review’s “Quick Links,” will go below the second navigational bar on our Web site. The Mustang Daily, the student newspaper at Cal Poly, also does this.

This way, if you are coming to our site looking for medical school news, or presidential news, everything is one click away. And we’ll continue building other pages, perhaps one for football, that will centralize content as well.

4) Build a community photography site, allowing users to upload their pictures and review others.

Let’s consider this an extra credit project. This would be, by far, the biggest undertaking of the five I have here. But, if built right, we would have a gem of a sister site.

We are looking at building a sister Web site to CM Life with a simple premise: Users submitting their photos of around CMU and Mount Pleasant and rating others with “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” and leaving their comments. After every year, we could publish a book with a compilation of the top-voted photography and sell it. Anybody could partake in this – professional photographers in the area to people with no photo experience shooting with their iPhones.

In essence, we want to create something similar to Capture Cincinnati. Images are powerful and, giving everyone the opportunity to show off what life in their perspective is like, and what they conceive as the definition of Mount Pleasant, is paramount. Sure, we are a smaller market than Cincinnati, by far, but getting a few dozen people to partake in this would be a start.

For now, people can share photos on Facebook, but it is nowhere near as extensive and as interactive as it can be. We’re looking at building this site by the end of the spring semester, if not much sooner.

5) Get the entire staff involved online.

Here’s the one goal different from the rest, in the sense that it deals with the management part of being Editor in Chief. CM Life has no set Web Editor; I oversee the Web operation while the respective departments post stories, multimedia, photos, etc., along with doing all the tagging, linking and embedding.

Why? To give everybody Web experience. To give everyone an idea of how our Web product is different from our print product and how we can take advantage of it together.

The goal from here? Simply keep going. I stress my editors to use Twitter as much as possible, and to get involved on Facebook as well, particularly on our fan page. We’re also teaching reporters the core basics of writing for the Web, and including links with every story. We’ve also recently started embedding YouTube videos when the time calls for it. I also plan on getting everyone involved with the other four goals, as well.

Now that the new Web site is up and the resources are there, it’s time to take the next step and create the optimal news experience for today.

Tomorrow, it begins: The official redesign of Central Michigan University’s student newspaper

Brian Manzullo — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:36:10 +0000

One of my biggest projects as a young journalist and my first as editor-in-chief of Central Michigan Life embarks early tomorrow afternoon: The redesign of cm-life.com, the Web site for the student newspaper at Central Michigan.

This is a project that has been in the talks for more than a year. We began thinking redesign sometime early 2008 in a move that would upgrade us from College Publisher 4.0 to 5.0. We went through personnel changes and standstills up until last January, when I assumed Online Editor duties. My main task was to redesign the site. I was trained on 5.0 and began working a design that, truthfully, looked pretty good.

But like many other campus newspapers in transition College Publisher, we ran into problems. I don’t necessarily blame College Publisher for them; they have been extremely helpful while we worked with them and certainly weren’t trying to make things difficult on us. But there were things we wanted with our new Web site that they just did not provide, especially on the multimedia and advertising side of things. We also saw our site, despite the additions I was making to it, becoming more and more outdated, causing us to lose our patience. We delayed our redesign and looked for alternatives.

Enter CoPress, a nonprofit of young journalists and tech enthusiasts who specialize in creating appealing student news sites through WordPress. After seeing what WordPress is capable of through sites such as The Miami Hurricane and The Mustang Daily, I felt like we found our match. We began talks in late spring and early summer with the full intention of signing on and beginning work as soon as possible.

That brings me to the present. I am receiving a WordPress orientation of sorts tomorrow afternoon so I can get started on the new site right away. The goal: To launch a completely new cm-life.com by August 20, in time for our first fall edition.

Obviously, this is not going to be easy. I’ll probably enlist the help of several coworkers and ask CoPress at least a dozen questions along the way. There is a lot to do to make this site as functional and as professional as I can. But it is a challenge I’m willing to accept, especially since I could not put something together in the spring.

What will this new Web site have? I’m not sure yet. I have a vision for it, but not a clue for how the finished product will look.

All I know is if you have been a regular visitor of cm-life.com, you will be amazed. Our readers are conditioned to read the Web site three times per week, the days we publish — we’re changing that. Our site will have fresh content every day of the week, no matter what. It will utilize the latest social networking tools and technologies to keep our audience coming back multiple times per day. It will run faster, look cleaner, navigate easier and flat-out work better in delivering Central Michigan news and content. Should everything go according to plan, it will be among the best student newspaper sites in the country in 2009-10.

Those are the things I can guarantee. The rest, we will see. Keep checking this blog for more updates regarding this venture – I will use it as a log, of sorts, to provide updates on what you will find on the new cm-life.com. I’m extremely excited to get to work on this, and I hope our regular readers are happy once we get this thing live.

My initial thoughts on AnnArbor.com, the now-live online news organization

Brian Manzullo — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:35:56 +0000

Late Thursday night, the party came early for AnnArbor.com. The site went live for the first time in replacement of The Ann Arbor News, which ended its long run the same day.

Like I said in the previous entry, this is a big step for not just Ann Arbor, but for the journalism industry in general. As far as I can recall, no city of Ann Arbor’s size lost its only community newspaper and replaced it with an online news organization like AnnArbor.com. Some anticipated this launch as a possible step forward in the new wave of journalism. It’ll be interesting to see the response in the coming weeks as this site takes its baby steps and grows to form.

I checked the site out for a little while, reading a few stories, checking out the navigation and looking through some of the advertising (in a section called “Deals & More.”). First things first. I don’t claim to be an expert on building a news site, although I’ll get to take a crack at it in the next month or two. I am purely giving my thoughts as an online journalist and reader of many news Web sites, and I would want to see if I was reading the local publication. Furthermore, I understand this is AnnArbor.com’s first day up. I imagine it will improve greatly as it receives feedback, troubleshoots and tries new things, especially on the multimedia side.

Without further ado, here are my thoughts:

Pros

Good opening-day content. Although it was a little lacking in multimedia, AnnArbor.com had stories to offer in virtually every topic, and the handful I got a chance to read were well-written and detailed. And the site is consistently updating with new stories if you refresh the home page once every hour or so. A couple of minor errors, such as missed periods, were found, but no real mess-ups, at least from what I saw.
The readability is excellent. You will see a lot of news sites on the Internet that cram information into small spaces, trying to get as much content on the home page as possible. That can be hard to read for older audiences not used to using computers. AnnArbor.com veered toward simplicity here with a lot of spacing and slightly bigger fonts, a good move if you are trying to attract all possible Ann Arbor audiences. Plus, load times are extremely fast.
Good reader interaction. Maybe it’s because the debut of AnnArbor.com was so close but, even on the eve of its supposed launch, there already were a handful of comments on several stories. Several AnnArbor.com employees are talking within comments as well. There is a section on the main site called “Your Voice” in which readers supply, well, their voices. The interaction is prevalent on such a young site, as it was one of the site’s biggest goals coming in. I hope AnnArbor.com continues to make strides in this area.
Clean advertising. Some news sites are dominated by ads, taking a toll on the rest of the content and art. But, for the most part, AnnArbor.com is clean. You will find ads in between story listings, but they are not annoying and flashy to those uninterested. The “Deals & More” section is fairly easy to navigate upon first viewing. You can view listings by topic or by business, and even sign up to an RSS feed. It’s fairly easy to find the “Advertise with us” button along the right sidebar.
Other little things: The “votes” function is nice if people don’t want to leave a comment, but would like to recommend the story to other readers anyway. A2 Today on the right sidebar, while it features the same links as under the flag, does give you the number of today’s updates (good if you’re checking periodically each day). The video on how to use the site will be helpful for those new to using a computer to check the news.

Cons

The home page lacks visual appeal and offers little variation in stories’ play. One tweet I found following launch said, “It looks like one of those fake websites you wind up at if you type in nyyimes.com or something.” Ouch. Although I wouldn’t go that far, as it is right now, AnnArbor.com has no centerpiece for your eye to focus on first. There is not enough stories on the front page, and little variation in play — a City Hall fire virtually would have as much play as a pipe installation in a township building. Photos also are underplayed, making the site look too bland. For starters, I feel like it needs to split its left column, since it’s too wide anyway, and add topic headers of cycling content and font size variation for its news content. I get what AnnArbor.com is trying to do, but readers’ eyes need more direction.
Where’s the identity? Even though AnnArbor.com’s main focus is catering to its community, there is little effort to inform people who find your site via Google News or another aggregator where you are covering and what exactly you are. The flag could use something extra, such as, “The 24-hour online news publication for Ann Arbor, Michigan.” A skyline implemented in the flag would immediately help, or other significant landmarks, such as Michigan Stadium. I just feel a wayward viewer would have to investigate to find out where this site is covering, and that is not a good thing if you’re looking for that extra traffic.
Redundancy in news navigation. I like some of the navigation options, such as A2 Topics on the right side. But with the same buttons below the flag, is all of it necessary? Furthermore, why can you find “UM Football” under “Topics and Neighborhoods,” but not “Sports” when I hover my mouse over it? Both News and Sports need mouseover functions to include more topics under them, because that is where readers are expecting them. The fifth navigation below the flag is just fine as an All Neighborhoods tab where readers can navigate to it for news and sites specific to their community.
Other little things: I find little value in posting PDF’s of crosswords and sudokus — I question how many people will actually print them out. Promotion of social media sites such as Twitter is underplayed, as is RSS feed functionality. There should be a dropdown menu of some sort for the site’s blogs, as they are difficult to find and need better play, as well. And, finally, photo cutlines need better positioning — some are found at the very bottom of their respective stories.

Other things I would add, from the top of my head: A mobile site (right now, it’s in pre-AnnArbor.com form). A page for people to view and buy photos. A “Related Posts” section within posts to drive traffic to other stories. Much more multimedia in the form of photo galleries and Soundslides.

Overall, there are several good things to be had on AnnArbor.com. Nice content thus far, and casual readers will take a liking to how clean and simple the site is. But it could be better. For a site that was hyped to be something completely different from traditional news sites, it seems rather ordinary. Our eyes still need direction upon opening a news site, much like a page design strives for. I understand it’s early, again. I’m sure these guys are hard at work in developing the site and doing more things with AnnArbor.com, and perhaps they have different things in mind than I do.

And, finally, good luck to AnnArbor.com. They are taking on a difficult task in revitalizing local journalism after its only newspaper went under. I hope they continue to build and have great success with this undertaking.

Feel free to share your thoughts, as well– If I missed something, or got something completely wrong, please let me know. Thank you!

New feature: Read what I’m reading, thanks to Publish2

Brian Manzullo — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:48:20 +0000

Just yesterday, I added a new feature to the right sidebar on my page, below my recent posts and above my Twitter feed, called “What I’m Reading.”

This is a widget designed to feed the stories I linked from Publish2, a collaborative journalism platform which, among its features, powers “link journalism.” It allows news organizations and journalists to take the links they read and share them in one spot with one click of a button. If you are a journalist, I highly recommend getting an account with Publish2.

In a nutshell, I will take any links which I feel are worthy of reading and link it with Publish2, which will enter the feed on that right side. Soon, I may organize them into topics, such as New Media/Journalism and Sports. (Which I mean to cover more often, but haven’t quite gotten there yet) Anything you find under “What I’m Reading,” at least to me, is a highly recommended read.

Click here to subscribe to the RSS feed. I will add this under the widget soon, too.

Special thanks to Daniel Bachhuber, who designed the widget and helped me with an error during installation.

Another update on my sidebar: I’m continuing to add more links (below the Twitter feed) and organize them into different categories, such as journalism, blogroll and so on. Later today, I will add another category of places where to find me, such as Publish2 and Flickr.

Obviously, with me just entering my third week with this site, additions and fixes virtually are mandatory. Feel free to comment and give suggestions on what else you would like to see!