Day Two Agenda• Organizing breaking news online

• Stakeholder wheel

• Story structures

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“Yep, text still matters.” - ONA 2009

WRITING TO PURPOSE AND PLATFORM

Effective writing is defined by:• The audience you are trying to reach

• The message you are trying to deliver

• The medium (platform) you are using

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SCAN and SKIP READING HABITS

• Less than 30 seconds on a home page• Less than one minute on an interior page

SOURCE: HOA LORANGER- Director, Nielsen Normal Group, San Diego- Presented at ONA, October 2009

BULLETS AND HIGHLIGHTS

EFFECTIVE WEB NEWS-WRITING…

• Form follows and serves function– What is core purpose of your report?

• Alert readers to breaking news?• Update ongoing news?• Answer immediate reader questions?• Provide how-to information?• Highlight significance or impact?

KEY ELEMENTS OF NEWS-WRITINGFOR FAST WEB READING

• Priority

• Clarity

• Efficiency

• Brevity

• Transparency

• Audience-think (common sense)

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SIMPLE, DIRECT SENTENCES

• Make understanding easy and immediate– Context and significance are essential

• Where did this story come from?• What does it mean?

– Information needs to be literal and direct• Assumptions are dangerous• Jargon, cumbersome titles, complex numbers, etc.,

create speed bumps

PRIORITIZE & SYNTHESIZE

• PRIORITY: Make essential information fast and immediate

- Priority changes with audience, market and publication

MAD COW DISEASE

A public health story

BUT also

a business story

with

MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS

and MULTIPLE STORY POSSIBILITIES

STAKEHOLDERS

GOVERNMENTS (state, national, foreign)

LOBBYISTS

BEEF RANCHERS

MEAT PROCESSORS

FOOD DISTRIBUTORS

BUTCHERS

GROCERY STORES

RESTAURANTS

CONSUMER

HEALTH INSPECTORS

THE COVERAGE PLAN

• What is the immediate news?• What is the most important question to

answer for YOUR readers?• What can you get from the wire, and what

should you get yourself?• What’s the second-day story?• What are the longer-range stories?

“Stakeholder Wheel”

Quick identification of everyone who is a source and subject

Also identifies secondary sources & audiences for in-depth enterprise follow-ups

News is the HUB of the wheel

Primary stakeholders are the SPOKES

Secondary stakeholders are the RIM

BE REPETITIVE

• Don’t assume readers have followed every update

- Consider a WHAT HAPPENED box to anchor follow-ups

• Don’t assume readers know why a story is significant

- Consider a SO WHAT box

• In complex stories, highlight significance by audience

NEW AGE INVERTED PYRAMID

• Prioritize and synthesize the news

• Summarize context, scope, significance (nut graf)

• Return to the news, writing quickly in prioritized order

SUMMARY NUT LEDENews

ContextSignificance, Scope, Impact

Anchor quoteGeneral attribution

Transition to what’s to come

NEWS BIT

NEWS BIT

NEWS BIT

NEWS BIT

NEWS BIT

BREAKING NEWS WITH BACKSTORY

• Structure that allows quick news/nut summary top, then tells rest of the story chronologically or by hierarchical topic

SUMMARY NUT LEDENews

ContextSignificance, Scope, Impact

Anchor quoteGeneral attribution

Transition to what’s to come

START AT THE BEGINNING

CONTINUE CHRONOLOGY

NEXT/BUILDING CHRONO OR TENSION

NEXT/KEEP BUILDING

KICKER

NEWS TOTEM

• Inverted pyramid but with news sub-items that can’t be easily prioritized in a descending hierarchy

• Lede & nut graf: includes mention of all key sub-items• Then sub-items of news expanded on on by one

LEDE

SUMMARY NUTNews

ContextSignificance, Scope, Impact

Anchor quoteGeneral attribution

Transition to what’s to come

NEWS BIT

NEWS BIT

NEWS BIT

NEWS BIT

NEWS BIT

EFFICIENCY

• Write and organize material for the fastest understanding

- Write for “snapshot” reading and scans- Highlight key news bits to be easily found- Organize your reporting, writing and packaging

in a way that helps you and readers

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LABELS and LINKS

• Fatalities and injuries: xxxx• Property and crop damage: xxxx• Civic disruption: xxxx• The response: xxxx• How the story developed: xxxx• Where to get help: xxxx

The i-Pad NEWS, DECONSTRUCTED

• The announcement: xxx

• Functions: xxx

• Cost: xxx

• Competition: xxx

• Consumer reaction: xxx

HORIZONTAL NEWS TOTEM

• When sub-items in a story are of equal interest to different audiences

• Allows readers to get summary of story and then identify which sub-item they want to read first

LEDE

SUMMARY NUTNews

ContextSignificance, Scope, Impact

Anchor quoteGeneral attribution

Transition to what’s to come

NEWS BITNEWS BIT NEWS BITNEWS BIT NEWS BIT

Imagine This Story Redone

A Possible Web Rewrite

Another $204 million will be cut from the Missouri state budget, Gov. Jay Nixon announced at a news conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Key to those cuts:• The elimination of 650 full- and part-time jobs, mostly through layoffs.• Savings of $32 million by aligning Medicaid reimbursements with

federal rates.Cuts already made this year: $634 million including 1,700 full-time jobs. What’s causing the cuts: State revenues are down 10 percent this year,

Nixon said. Missouri state statute requires a balanced budget.What’s next: Nixon did not identify specific jobs to be cut. He said he

hoped revenues would increase, but did not rule out additional cuts.

TRANSPARENCY

• Be clear about source and credibility of information– If information is not verified, say so

• Consider sourcing boxes– Don’t clutter copy with unnecessary or

awkward attribution

KNOW S-E-O Speak

• Overt about location• Mega-tagging of searchable words

Questions?