Narrated WWII panorama
May 27, 2004
This washingtonpost.com panorama shows the National World War II Memorial on the National Mall that is scheduled to be dedicated Memorial Day weekend. Note that it’s narrated, which is pretty unusual for a panoramic image — but pretty cool.
Memorial day interactives
May 27, 2004
Here are a few ideas for how to interact with readers for Memorial Day special remembrances, courtesy of Ken Sands of The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash., and the APME update:
• The News & Record of Greensboro, N.C., is running short bios and photos (when available) of all the veterans who graduated from local high schools and who died in wars in the 20th century. The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson and The Greeley (Colo.) Tribune are doing similar projects.
• The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has a portfolio of reader-submitted photographs and brief biographies of all area soldiers (regular military, guard and reserve) who are serving in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait. These are offered online and the package is occasionally updated. They also have published these bios a few at a time in a daily section.
• In Spokane, Wash., The Spokesman-Review plans to publish thumbnail photos along with brief biographical information for each of the U.S. military members who have died in Iraq. This information already is available on the Web site. It could take six or so pages of newsprint to publish the entire list.
Related: Online Iraq fatalities databases roundups
Boston.com buys Sox fan site
May 27, 2004
Boston.com has acquired Boston Dirt Dogs, a popular Red Sox fan Web site, and will incorporate its content into Boston.com’s sports section in June. As part of the deal, Steven Silva, founder of Boston Dirt Dogs, will join Boston.com starting June 7 as a sports producer. “We want to give Red Sox fans as many opportunities to talk and debate about sports as possible, and Boston Dirt Dogs is the perfect forum for that,” said Teresa M. Hanafin, editor in chief, Boston.com. “Our users love joining the conversation about sports online every day, whether it’s sending us photos for a Johnny Damon look-alikes gallery, creating party recipes for the Patriots’ Super Bowl run or ranting about a managerial move in the previous night’s game.”
Interesting idea. It probably makes more sense for news sites to first try building their own fan sites, but if they fail and there’s a strong community one out there, this approach is smart.
For two EXCELLENT examples of news sites that have successfully built their own fan sites, check out the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Packer Plus and the Lawrence Journal-World’s KUSports.com.
Demand for mobile video
May 26, 2004
The mobile market is experiencing increased demand for video services, according to a new study from market research firm In-Stat/MDR. The company predicts that by 2009 nearly 22.3 million Americans will be accessing mobile video content and 31.1 million will use video messaging services. Mobile video services will account for nearly 14.9 percent of total wireless-data revenue, the company predicted.
Two electronic newspaper editions that work: Florida Today and The Guardian
May 26, 2004
After writing that several newspaper electronic editions “induce claustrophobia,” Slate’s Jack Shafer comes back with some kinder words for two he thinks does it right, the Florida Today and Guardian electronic editions.
And he’s got some more good ideas, “Electronic editions should concentrate on improving upon the architecture of the daily newspaper, not merely mimicking it. As I’ve written before, electronic edition subscriptions should come bundled with generous privileges for searching back issues. Publishers might consider cross-pollinating their archives, allowing, say, Post electronic subscribers to dip into the archives of the Chicago Tribune and vice versa. Ideally, the electronic edition should be ‘live’ as long as a reader maintains an Internet connection, automatically updating itself 24-seven and even ringing like the old-time Associated Press wire if an extremely important story moves.”
Local candidate blogs in Durham
May 26, 2004
The Durham Herald-Sun has launched a candidate blog page for local elections and offered all local candidates the opportunity to have a Weblog. So far seven candidates have signed up.
This is a fantastic idea and one other local sites should emulate.
Other sites have offered locals blogs, but The Herald-Sun’s approach is particularly interesting because it’s actually coaching the candidates, some of whom are unexperienced in the world of blogs.
“I’m sending them periodic emails about blogging and sent them links to Rebecca Blood’s weblog ethics article,” Jon C. Ham, director of digital publishing at the Herald-Sun, tells Ed Cone on EdCone.com. “Some seem to know the drill. Others are totally in the dark but intrigued. My guess is it might take an election cycle or two to get this cemented.”
Ham’s always been ahead of his time in using the Web to create communication between politicians and his audience. The newspapers Votebook site won a 1996 Digital Edge Award for Public Service.
More from Ham via Ed Cone: “Our candidate blogs are under our VoteBook umbrella. VoteBook is a site I dreamed up in 1995 (you can tell I was a political scientist in a former life) to allow unmediated communication (you can tell I was a gubernatorial press secretary too) from local candidates to voters (it won the first Digital Edge Public Service Award in 1996, by the way). We don’t even edit their essays. Last year one candidate’s was so filled with grammar and typographical errors that we were accused of trying to sabotage her campaign. But our view is that if you don’t have the common sense to let a friend edit your VoteBook essays and questionnaires then maybe you shouldn’t be in office.
Here’s how they’re making it work: “We wrote our own blog application instead of using one of the well-known ones. I’m a blog fan (but not a blogger; too many conflicts with this job) so I worked with our main IT programmer to get it into some form that blog fans would understand. It’s in our main template, which was just easier for us to do. It has all the bells and whistles for posting (hyperlink, boldface, italic, blockquote, etc.) It’s simplified a bit — no trackback, but we have permalinks.”
Google threatens ad branding
May 26, 2004
A cross-media optimization study released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau in May showed 6 percent of sales of Ford Motor’s F-150 pickup truck were the direct result of online ads that didn’t receive click-throughs. Click-on ads attributed to sales above and beyond the 6 percent.
“For big publishers like The New York Times on the Web, a Google AdSense partner, the image service is not an option,” CNET reports. “Jason Krebs, vice president of sales and marketing NYTimes.com, said that he likes the delineation between tiny text ads on the publishers’ site and large graphical ads it sells to Fortune 500 customers. ”
Great Sun-Sentinel multimedia interactive includes closed captions
May 26, 2004
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel spent nine months examining the marine park industry using federal records, and found that “more than 3,850 sea lions, seals, dolphins and whales have died under human care, many of them young.”
The package includes an impressive interactive presentation that includes maps, video, data, animations and more.
There’s even a high- and low-bandwidth version, which is becoming standard practice on the best interactive presentations you see online these days.
The package includes another clever innovation that most don’t have — but should. The narrated presentations include a small Closed Caption button at the bottom — click on it and you can read the transcript of the narration as the presentation plays. An excellent feature for people who might be watching without speakers or at work. What a great idea.
Travel.nytimes.com relaunches
May 26, 2004
NYTimes.com has launched an improved travel section. Note, in particular, that the section offers free access to past Times travel articles (unlike most Times’ archives, which you have to pay for). And check out the “Readers’ Ratings” tool that allows travelers to rate over 40,000 restaurants, hotels and venues.
CNN developing broadband channel
May 25, 2004
CNN is in the early stages of development on a 24-hour broadband news channel for Internet users, CableNewser.com reports:
The channel, called CNN NewsStream Live, is targeted for a first quarter 2005 launch. “It’s just entering development,” the source says. “It will not suck as much as ABC News Live,” they joked. It is being planned as part of a broadband redesign of CNN.com….
Users will subscribe to the channel via their ISP. “Your ISP will pay for your subscription just like your cable operator pays to carry CNN,” the source says.
Some CNN executives have floated the notion that the content model will shift to online subscriptions — in essence, an Internet version of cable TV’s business model.CNN’s television feeds cannot be simulcasted online, due to cable licensing restrictions. The network will be able to estimate the number of viewers by measuring the number of simultaneous feeds. A CNN spokesperson declined to confirm the project, but said: “CNN.com has a very active product development group, and we are considering many ways to enhance our online offerings.”