Reverse PublishingLecture 5 – July 7, 2009

Get out your pencil & AP Style Book

What are the positives/negatives

of getting news online?

For media consumers?For media organizations?

For news staff?

Positives for online news delivery

Online publishing terms Convergence

Reverse publishing

Web hits

Online news stories vs. blogs

Second-day story

Story package

News writing online

What – writing news story for online and then for newspaper

Time – how long do reporters have?

When – 24/7/365

Who – reporters, editors, online staff

How – call-in, smart phone, laptop, iPad

Readings – Writing for the web

Four key aspects:

Searchability – craft your headline using specificsDisarmament pact mulledUnited Nations considers Korean disarmament pact

Scanability – Tight, bright writing with one idea per grafConcise sentences, inverted pyramid

Readings – Writing for the web

Four key aspects:

Linkability Helps give readers direct access to additional

informationDon’t link to opinion pieces; just informational

SociabilityYour readers may find you via new methods, including

RSS feeds, web searches, etc.

Writing news for online

Need confirmation before posting/publicationHaving it first versus having it right

Brief -- just the basic facts. Must know now.

Summary lede

Inverted pyramid

Writing news for online

Typically 3-5 grafs

Typically one or no quotes

Serious tone

Present tense and past tense together

Today OK; still no tomorrow or yesterday

Don’t need to use all information given

Writing print version of news story after online version

postedWhy is print version needed:

Awareness -- not everyone read online story

Awareness -- those who read online want to know more

Provides additional & updated information

Provides more information -- expanded telling of story, background info, quotes

Think about the audience – When are they reading it? What do they still want to know?

Print Attributes

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/sep/07/collier-commissioners-declare-emergency-despite-ik/

Next-day lede

Story-telling

Delayed information

Back to past tense

QUIZ 1 – Thursday Bring your AP Style Book and laptop

15 minutes to finish

Final podcast presentations Tuesday

Will post online ethics readings for Tuesday

Quiz – Writing for the web• 3-5 grafs

• Use the provided information and quote

• Find a link and place it within your story

• Write a headline that adheres to rules discussed

• You will be graded on AP Style, grammar, and content

• 15 minutes

• Use good judgment in selecting information