News outlets are in a race to win the mobile device audience, which has exploded in size. Smart phone sales outstripped PC sales worldwide for the first time last year, according to market research firm Canalsys. Shipments of smart phones grew 63 percent in 2011. Tablet sales soared 274 percent.
Those eye-popping gains have prompted many to conclude that mobile device readers are the future of the news business. A recent Pew Research Center study seems to bear that out. The survey found that people use mobile devices for news more often and for longer sessions.
The all news radio station WTOP, based in Washington, D.C., has become a digital news organization so it can reach people on all different platforms, said WTOP reporter Neal Augenstein.
WTOP's new mobile site, launched in the middle of last year, has grown fast, attracting 1 million page views a month, said Jim Farley, vice president of news & programming at WTOP. That compares 18 million page views for its long-standing website.
"If we want to get the younger people we've got to get them on mobile devices," Farley said. "People who listen to radio are 30 and older."
HOW TO ATTRACT MOBILE DEVICE USERS REMAINS AN OPEN QUESTION
There's a debate among mobile developers over whether it's best to have a website or an app, and if an app, which kind, said Rob Malda, chief strategist and editor-at-large for WaPo Labs, a division of the Washington Post that is experimenting with media and technology.
"There's a hundred interest decisions [involved] ranging from who creates the content to how it's curated to what the user interface looks like to 'Do people want to sit down when they read this?' or 'Do they want to listen to it as opposed to read it,'" he said. "This is what media people try to figure out."
Farley said he knows one thing: people are clamoring for apps. And that's what WTOP plans to give them.
The Washington Post has iPhone apps for Trove and Social Reader, which both aggregate content. The paper's Social Reader app has taken off like wildfire, Malda said, with millions of users. The newspaper is also available on an iPad app. Another iPad app has just political news.
Whether to develop apps for android and Windows phones is a question the Washington Post will eventually need to consider, he said.
ANOTHER QUESTION FACING NEWS ORGANIZATIONS IS WHAT KIND OF CONTENT TO OFFER
The Washington Post is seriously thinking about which kinds of content work best on smart phones. That's one of the things Malda is working on. "The younger kids that are used to carrying phones in their pockets, they consume information differently," he said. "It's very much an experiment. We're trying things."
Malda has been analyzing about how the experience of reading information on a phone is different to try to figure out what content to have.
WTOP doesn't produce any special content for mobile device users, Farley said. They can see the WTOP traffic cams on their smart phones between their work and home, just like on the WTOP website.
START-UPS ARE ON THE CUTTING EDGE WHEN IT COMES TO MOBILE DEVICE STRATEGY
"They're experimenting with different ways of displaying and aggregating information," said Malda. Traditional media has better content, however. Traditional media may end up buying the start-ups, he said, though there's a lot of different ways things could play out.
"Everyone want a piece of this stuff because it is the future of media."
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Blair Ruble recalls the historic past of Washington D.C.'s U Street
Blair Ruble discussed his book, "Washington's U Street" with local jazz dj Rusty Hassan at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., last month.
Before the Harlem Renaissance, Washington, D.C. was the cultural capital of black America. Among the intellectual figures who lived in the Shaw neighborhood where U Street is located in the early part of the 20th century were Carter G. Woodson and Charles Houston.
Washington, D.C. has had an important black presence throughout its history. "By the start of the Civil War, D.C., Baltimore and St. Louis were the only cities that had a majority free African-American population," Ruble noted. "The community here was much larger and already had institutions such as schools and churches."
Shortly after the Civil War, Howard University was established near the Shaw area. The school had an important influence on the neighborhood since it brought people like Mordecai Johnson, Howard's first African-American president, and historian Rayford Logan. Sterling Brown also taught at the university.
The neighborhoods two high schools, Armstrong and Dunbar, were among the few places where African-Americans with Ph.D.s could teach, Ruble said, which meant the schools offered a superb education. Duke Ellington was a graduate of Armstrong High School, which was actually a technical school.
Shaw was also home to Griffith Stadium, where the Washington Senators and the Washington Redskins played. Naturally, the games brought many whites into the neighborhood."There was a lot of interaction (between races) that didn't happen in other neighborhoods around town," said Ruble.
In addition, the U Street area was a mecca for musicians like Jelly Roll Morton, who played in its clubs. It became known as the black Broadway and the Howard Theatre was its crowning glory. Opened in 1910, it was the first legitimate theater in the country that was open to blacks. Over the course of 60 years, just about every top entertainer performed there.
The stars would hang out at the neighborhood restaurants, get their shoes shined and their hair cut, said Ruble, adding that they were really part of the community. But the area started to decline after desegregation prompted middle-class families to move away. At the same time, urban renewal displaced thousands of poor people who'd been living in South West Washington, many of whom ended up in Shaw.
The 1968 riots about a decade later devastated the neighborhood. It didn't recover for decades. The construction of the Metro station there in the late 1980s hampered efforts to revive it since the construction project made the area impassible. Just three businesses survived from the mid-60s until after the Metro opened in 1991: Lee's Flower Shop, the Industrial Bank and Ben's Chile Bowl.
The new Metro station made gentrification inevitable though, Ruble said. U Street is younger, wealthier and more diverse than ever before. Indeed, the latest Census showed that some parts are now majority-white.
Before the Harlem Renaissance, Washington, D.C. was the cultural capital of black America. Among the intellectual figures who lived in the Shaw neighborhood where U Street is located in the early part of the 20th century were Carter G. Woodson and Charles Houston.
Washington, D.C. has had an important black presence throughout its history. "By the start of the Civil War, D.C., Baltimore and St. Louis were the only cities that had a majority free African-American population," Ruble noted. "The community here was much larger and already had institutions such as schools and churches."
Shortly after the Civil War, Howard University was established near the Shaw area. The school had an important influence on the neighborhood since it brought people like Mordecai Johnson, Howard's first African-American president, and historian Rayford Logan. Sterling Brown also taught at the university.
The neighborhoods two high schools, Armstrong and Dunbar, were among the few places where African-Americans with Ph.D.s could teach, Ruble said, which meant the schools offered a superb education. Duke Ellington was a graduate of Armstrong High School, which was actually a technical school.
Shaw was also home to Griffith Stadium, where the Washington Senators and the Washington Redskins played. Naturally, the games brought many whites into the neighborhood."There was a lot of interaction (between races) that didn't happen in other neighborhoods around town," said Ruble.
In addition, the U Street area was a mecca for musicians like Jelly Roll Morton, who played in its clubs. It became known as the black Broadway and the Howard Theatre was its crowning glory. Opened in 1910, it was the first legitimate theater in the country that was open to blacks. Over the course of 60 years, just about every top entertainer performed there.
The stars would hang out at the neighborhood restaurants, get their shoes shined and their hair cut, said Ruble, adding that they were really part of the community. But the area started to decline after desegregation prompted middle-class families to move away. At the same time, urban renewal displaced thousands of poor people who'd been living in South West Washington, many of whom ended up in Shaw.
The 1968 riots about a decade later devastated the neighborhood. It didn't recover for decades. The construction of the Metro station there in the late 1980s hampered efforts to revive it since the construction project made the area impassible. Just three businesses survived from the mid-60s until after the Metro opened in 1991: Lee's Flower Shop, the Industrial Bank and Ben's Chile Bowl.
The new Metro station made gentrification inevitable though, Ruble said. U Street is younger, wealthier and more diverse than ever before. Indeed, the latest Census showed that some parts are now majority-white.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
How Journalists Can Help Readers Deal with Information Overload
As a journalist, my goal is to write things that
people want to read and be a trusted source. Part of that includes performing
the function that publishers once did of filtering out the clutter. The Internet
is filled with content that’s superficial at best.
A lot of it comes down to good news judgment, I
think, recognizing things readers would be interested in. That depends on the audience, of course.
Despite information overload, the public’s appetite for news hasn’t diminished. But the writing needs to be compelling and condensed, more like radio or t.v. news writing, for people who get their news online or on their mobile devices. And writing style becomes just as
important as in magazines since readers can quickly lose attention.
Online readers use headlines to decide what to read, so headlines take on greater significance as well. They need to be
more attention-grabbing and self-explanatory than traditional newspaper
headlines.
Attracting readers requires interesting, well-written news content that doesn’t waste their time and enticing headlines that are easy to understand/scan.
This class will teach me much more, I’m sure, about the kind of content that mobile device users want to read.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Journalists on How They Use Mobile Devices
Two journalists who’ve made the switch to mobile
journalism shared what they’ve learned with Damon Kiesow of Poynter’s Mobile Media Blog. Poynter launched the blog in January of 2010, which shows just how
new the field is.
News gathering is changing, according to long-time WTOP
reporter Neal Augenstein. He covers D.C. now with only an iPhone. Producing a
segment and sending it to the newsroom takes just 10 minutes using the device and
he can quickly send photos and video to the WTOP website to accompany his
story, he said.
The iPhone has its drawbacks, however. Augenstein said
he hates typing on it. Wind can also be a problem. “Even a moderate breeze can
distort a recording.” And the phone is useless in remote areas with no AT&T
signal or Wi-Fi.
He said journalists need to find creative ways to
work around the iPhone’s limitations. For instance, there’s no way to mount the
device to a podium for a news conference. So he superglued some thin foam
inside a regular mic stand clip, which holds the iPhone ‘snugly without
scratching it.”
Likewise, no one makes a windscreen for the iPhone
to filter out background noise. But sticking the phone into any standard
windscreen that fits will help, Augenstein said. Even so he had his
biggest challenge with the iPhone when he was covering the hurricane last
summer because of the wind distortion.
Tiffany Campbell, lead producer for SeattleTimes.com
also gave her experiences with mobile reporting. The newspaper’s use of
mobile devices like Twitter and Qik helped the Times earn a Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for
its reporting on the slayings of four police officers in Lakewood, Wash.
Streaming live video from the scene “was an
extraordinarily powerful way to get information out during breaking news,” Campbell
said. “It’s immediate, tangible and simple with a smart phone. … We can go live
from anywhere.”
Times journalists reported updates in real time on
Twitter, which they also used to talk to residents and track what they were
saying. “Using hashtags like #washooting, we were able to become a town square
and clearing house for tips, updates and conversation,” she said.
The Times’ coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in
Vancouver, B.C. was the paper’s other big success with mobile reporting. Reporters
used their smart phones to cover the events from a ground level and capture some
of the flavor of what it’s like to attend. They reported on the related street protests
using Twitter and Twitvid and used a Picasa camera phone and Google Maps to map
photos and “update our blog in real time, live without ever stopping to file.”
The Times always sees a spike in traffic when
reporters are tweeting live or streaming live video, Campbell said. And “we didn’t stay with just the Twitter community” while reporting on the murders
of the police officers, which critical, she said. Readers who weren’t on Twitter could see the same content
on the Twitter feeds on the Times’ blog pages and other web pages. Reporters
also tried to wrap up the coverage for the general audience in blog posts
later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)