Across the Web/Print Divide
E&P examines the new Web initiatives a number of newspapers are taking to focus more on the Web and get news online fast.
The Star Tribune of Minneapolis, for example, recently launched a new strategy, in which the Web site is constantly updated with breaking news and all of the newspaper's resources are devoted to online, similar to strategies implemented in dozens of newsrooms in recent years.
It creates a different conversation than there used to be," says Star Tribune Editor Anders Gyllenhaal. "We rarely hold stuff back from the Web now. There is more original content on the Web and leading readers between Web and print." In the Star-Tribune's case, presenting a continuous news desk meant reassigning 10 staffers from its online and print factions to work together each day in planning the best combined effort for more breaking news and Web-only content. "It makes us think both Web and print," Gyllenhaal adds.
In Chicago, meanwhile, the Tribune set up a new continuous news desk in January with nine full-timers.
Just a year ago, the site consisted largely of AP stories and newspaper articles posted the morning they appeared in print. But now, continuous news editor Charles Madigan says, "We are instantaneous on news. We don't have to wait to do anything."
One Tribune staffer most affected by the online push is police reporter David Heinzmann, who has been with the paper for six years and previously worked for the AP. He says the increased demand for content has required more midday stories as well as late-breaking Web articles, but says he understands the new approach: "I am called three or four times a week for stuff to get up right away. It is a little bit more work, but it is part of the game."One example of this growing demand for instant news occurred in February 2005 when the husband and mother of United States District Judge Joan Lefkow were murdered, local killings that drew national attention because it appeared to be in retaliation for Lefkow's actions on the bench. Heinzmann says the first tip came in around 6:30 p.m. and Tribune reporters rushed to get the first story up, which they broke online by 9 p.m.
"It was an 'all hands on deck' story, and we ended up breaking it before the first news broadcasts," Heinzmann says of the scoop, and the long-term impact that such quick reactions are likely to have in the future. "Sometimes it is disconcerting because we have always looked at what we do as 'hitting-the-doorsteps.' Now our morning newspaper is not going to have the exclusives."
Mar 28, 2006 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(0)
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