• Will electronic newspapers replace dead-tree newspapers someday? Probably.
• Online media offer readers more variety—and better yet, more control.
• Navigation is a crucial factor on news Web sites: Sites must be informative, inviting and intuitively logical, so users can roam at random, following their curiosities and customizing their news.
• Electronic news reporters need to develop new storytelling techniques.

• Timeliness: Web stories can be posted seconds after they're written and updated constantly as events unfold.
• Images usually run smaller on Web pages (readers can click to enlarge).
• Online text uses bigger type, and stories run in just one column.
• A print story consists of just text, photos and graphics.
• Online stories can become part of a complex multimedia package, combining text, photos, audio, video, animated graphics, interactive chat and more. Stories, images and digital extras can be linked together in layers, with related options just a click away.
• Though the options are more diverse online, journalistic standards and reporting techniques should remain the SAME.

• It's becoming clear that smart journalists understand how to deliver stories across multiple platforms.
• An effective story unfolds in the following order: a tweet, a blog post, the website story, and finally the printed story.

• Journalists should use social media because:
  1. It's where your audience is
  2. It's an easy, effective way to cover breaking news
  3. It directs traffic to your publication's website
  4. It extends the shelf life of the stories you produce
  5. It helps you engage with your readers
  6. It improves your reporting
  7. It improves your writing.
  
  
• When tweeting, remember to mind your online image, stay above the rumor mill and, although it's okay to loosen your writing style, don't neglect your ethics.

• Posting news online is a complicated process but blogging makes it easy.
• Blogs are reshaping journalism by increasing immediacy, simplifying storytelling, and empowering citizen journalists.

• What are blogs?
• Who creates blogs?
• Blogs also help journalists establish a dialogue with readers, don't they?
• How is blog-writing different from traditional newswriting?
  Most journalists seem to distrust ordinary bloggers. Why is that?

• The Web is changing reader habits and challenging journalistic conventions.
• The new motto in modern newsrooms is: think online first.

• Linking provides extra layers of information to online stories.
• Use links to organize coverage and to guide users to your archives.

• Texts, photos, audio, video, graphis, searchable databases – they are all online essentials.

• Online audiences want to interact with their news.
• User participation has both advantages and disadvantages.
• There are four main ways in which you can let web users participate in the stories you write.
• Citizen journalism is media power to the people.

• Newsroom convergence: Journalists from different media (TV, radio, newspaper, online) all share the same workspace, instead of occupying separate offices in separate buildings.
• Newsgathering convergence: Reporters, editors and photographers collaborate on story production—Journalists multitask in multimedia.
• Content convergence: The final story is presented in multimedia form, combining text, images, audio, video, blogs, podcasts, slide-shows, etc.

• The Home page:
• The gateway to the online news.
• Links users to every related page. It must be comprehensive, yet easy to navigate; busy, yet clean.
• Story links require compelling headlines and concise, engaging summaries.
• Key elements on the home page defined (time/date, index, lead story, page depth, footer, navigation button, search engine, ads/promos, interactive extras, links).

Multiplatform Reporting: Convergence at The Journal-World

• The printed word remains the fundamental building block of online journalism, but there are smart, new tools to enhance it.
• Multimedia Options
• video
• audio
• webcams and webcasts
• podcasts
• animated graphics
• Interactive Options
• live chats
• reader feedback and comments
• online polls and quizzes
• downloads
• Links

• What are blogs?
• Who creates blogs?
• Why are blogs important?
• But are blogs journalism?

• The Web is changing reader habits and challenging journalistic conventions.

• "Chunk" your information.
• Tweak your type to make it easier to scan.
• Rethink what a "story" is.
• Enhance your story with extra elements.
• Collaborate.

• A form that helps reporters and editors plan stories for the Web.

• Newsroom convergence: Journalists from different media (TV, radio, newspaper, online) all share the same workspace, instead of occupying separate offices in separate buildings.
• Newsgathering convergence: Reporters, editors and photographers collaborate on story production—Journalists multitask in multimedia.
• Content convergence: The final story is presented in multimedia form, combining text, images, audio, video, blogs, podcasts, slide-shows, etc.

PLANNING ONLINE PACKAGES

• Creating online content is a complex process that requires collaboration for success.

• A form that helps reporters and editors plan stories for the Web.