December 2008
Inside AdWords: Landing page load time will soon... →
Our news content is so pervasive for news topics, I wonder if this would actually hurt us more than our current placement issues in Google. Still, if they start incorporating load time into AdWords, it could easily spread to other metrics. Worth keeping in mind as one of the many, many things improved by page load improvements. [tf]
High Performance Web Sites :: State of... →
Advances in 2008, predictions for 2009. Good read. [tf]
In the Crisis, the Journal Falls Short : CJR: →
The Wall Street Journal, once the dominant force in financial news, is failing, and failing badly, in key aspects of its coverage of the credit crisis and the financial bailout.
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Senior Journal leadership may dismiss this idea, but at least a few among the rank-and-file have expressed to me a gnawing sense that paper has buried itself in the weeds of this unprecedented financial story and...
Facebook and the journalistic impulse —... →
An interesting summary of non-journalists investigating squatting and gaming of facebook’s student groups. The original blog cited is kinda cool to read. Explains my fears that led me to setting up groups for my schools and organizations on social services, even if I’m not much of a cheerleader. [tf]
“[Billie Jean Jackson, aka Lavon Powlis previously] claimed Michael had fathered...”
– Woman sues Jackson for one billion dollars - Access Hollywood - msnbc.com If we have audio capabilities in the story redesign, think they’ll request this story be read with the bassline from “Billie Jean” playing in the background, just to put the puns over the top? [tf]
NPR Now Lets You Roll Your Own Podcast Feed -... →
interesting UI, but confusing with their categories and show titles. I wish I could specify keywords within shows, like catching the economy pieces within the morning broadcasts. Implications for our own RSS feeds? [tf]
'New York Times' To Launch 'Instant Op-Ed'
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“We are looking at a way to take advantage of the expandability of the Internet, the back and forth of it and the instantaneous nature of the Internet. Taking ideas that have existed in Op-Ed form and giving them a robust position online.” Dumb quote. Interesting idea. [tf]
24 ways: Ghosts On The Internet →
Non-intuitive title, but it’s all about content publication, dates and timestamps/datestamps on the internet. A nice overview of how everybody’s doing a confusing job. Should we ever dig into datestamped URLs—topics pages? timelines?—this would be a good comparison point. [tf]
Engagement Mapping - Atlas Institute, digital... →
Links to all kinds of informative (cheezy) decks on engagement mapping by Atlas/MSFT. Supposedly available somewhere in their suite of features. [tf]
Microsoft Announces New Reporting Standard for... →
The concepts behind ads for story pages, with links out to further research. Noted for later reference. [tf]
Improve your jQuery - 25 excellent tips
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What it says. Basic coverage of some of jQuery’s best features and uses. Some decent best-practices stuff to remember, too. [tf]
WatchMichael Skoler on newsroom culture While we may understand this, its good to hear it summarized so clearly. [tf]
Here, in 12 minutes, he talks about needed changes in newsroom culture — how adopting new technologies and hunting for a new business model, important as those are, won’t be enough. He calls for a real rethinking of how we view our audience. Be sure to give this one a listen.
HTML-Ipsum →
Lorem ipsum in already set in various HTML formats. Handy. [tf]
RIA (Rich Internet Applications) Usability: Design... →
Nielsen Norman Group offers up an old report, but one that focuses on rich internet interactions which probably still apply. Work a free skim! [tf]
gridr buildrrr →
With draggable IAB units. Way cool. [tf]
24 ways: Making Modular Layout Systems →
Basically, our grids. But a good reminder of thinking modular behind the story page redesign. [tf]
CSS3 . Info - All you ever needed to know about... →
jQuery sIFR Plugin →
Possibly handy at some point….[tf]
“So you’ve got a big breaking story right in your backyard, e.g. the governor...”
– Breaking News Link Journalism: Blagojevich Arrest - Publishing 2.0 Really good summary of what the Trib did with today’s breaking news, and why. [tf]
Stir it up - News Mixer →
News + Facebook Connect = local news with bland social interaction (but it’s worth a look, and probably watching to see how Facebook Connect works for folks) [tf]
SOAPjr - SOAP Junior makes clean, fast AJAX API's... →
Cool.
Pulitzer expands to web-only outlets →
jimray:
But you still have to print it out to submit! It’s good to see that they’ve finally caught up to 1997. However, “printed magazines and broadcast media, and their respective Web sites, are not…
Keep up with The Times: Big changes coming today →
The Seattle Times is dropping a few sections from the paper edition. Today’s just all bad news for journalism, huh? Looking back from this coming Friday is going to be interesting. [tf]
Image Optimization, Part 5: AlphaImageLoader (Y!UI... →
Way more than you ever wanted to know about the AlphaImageLoader thing and IE6. Guess what! It’s a performance hit. It’s also a matter of staying sale the last few years left in IE6’s lifespan. [tf]
Yahoo!’s search results page used to have a truecolor PNG sprite and employed AlphaImageLoader to achieve the transparency (an older version of the sprite is still around if...
Why not writing a story is innovation - Publishing... →
Once newsrooms better define their idea of filler, it’ll be easier to stop those stories before they start. It’ll also make it easier to come up with better ways of treating certain subjects.
Unlikely, but entertaining. [tf]
NY Times Co to borrow against building →
The company has retained Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm, to act as its agent to secure financing, either in the form of a mortgage or a sale-leaseback arrangement, the paper said, quoting chief financial officer James Follo.
The Times is looking for ways to save money so it can pay off more than $1 billion in debt. The company, which also owns The Boston Globe and other papers...
ESPN.com Launches New Beta Site, Reduces Ads,... →
Digital media: The end of the story - as we know... →
I think that the new unit of journalism needs to be the topic. Newspaper sites do have topic pages, but they are usually just lists of their own headlines and sometimes others’, intended to serve not only readers but Google’s search engine optimisation.
Those topic pages are still inadequate. I want a page, a site, a something that is created, curated, edited and discussed. It will...
Old Media Interview: Aron Pilhofer, interactive... →
How much do things like that cost generally, and what’s the ROI?
Gotta punt on this: I have no idea on either score. We are a news desk, so what we do is motivated by journalistic goals. That isn’t to say that our stuff doesn’t draw significant numbers, and doesn’t “sell.” It absolutely does. It’s just that I don’t have a whole lot to do with that beyond letting our product people know what’s...
Quick and Easy Graphing with the Google Chart API →
Note for when we actually have steady data that could be charted or graphed.
Online Advertising And Its Impact On Web Design... →
Pretty good summary, really.
Guess what? Automated news doesn't quite work. -... →
Lovely counterpoint to today’s NYT “Extra” unveiling. [tf]
Times Extra: The New York Times Opens Web Front... →
…for traditional media companies, this sharing of column inches with other publications is not only difficult, it’s something they have feared (emphasis is mine):
“The days when content sites were afraid to link to other sites are over,” said Marc Frons, chief technology officer for digital operations for The New York Times Company.
So it comes as little surprise...
Cell Journalist Launches Free iPhone App
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The product enables anyone with an iPhone, cell phone, or other mobile communication device to upload images of news, weather and other events as they happen, sharing content in a single-step process. Additional functionality of the new iPhone application integrates with Cell Journalist’s current platform, used by dozens of media outlets.