Users want video

OK, so you’re wondering what’s the news here? We know people like video online. Well, the marketing and research firm, Horowitz & Associates, put out a news release this week that says 6 out of every 10 high-speed Internet subscribers watch or download video at least once a week. More than one [...]

Integrated newsroom pays off

The New York Times has finally entered the 21st century at its new headquarters at 620 Eighth Avenue. Instead of being housed in separate buildings five blocks apart, the print and online newsrooms are now integrated. Web producers sit right next to the print news desk. As a result, says deputy managing editor [...]

“Pocket journalism” via smartphone

Smartphones are getting smarter all the time. The newest ones not only have cameras, audio recorders and music players, but also WiFi, GPS mapping, and a full suite of office software. Add a foldable keyboard and you’re in business. But are smartphones really ready to replace laptop computers? Maybe for some [...]

Learn from your mistakes

The single most important thing you can do to improve as a photojournalist is to edit your own work, says KSDK-TV’s Eric Voss. “Learn from your mistakes and missed opportunities,” he wrote in the NPPA’s News Photographer magazine. “You will discover new avenues for creativity. Here are a few more of Voss’s [...]

Improving Web video

Do three simple things and your online video will look better, says videographer Peter Ralph on his Shooting by Numbers blog.
1. Keep your lens clean. This is especially important if you are shooting hand-held, Ralph says, because you’ll be shooting wide open to keep the image steady and any smudges on the lens will [...]

Content matters most

Kevin Sites, a pioneer in online solo journalism, says he learned a ton when he covered 20 of the world’s “hot zones” for Yahoo! And one of the biggest lessons came from the story that drew the strongest audience response–a report from Afghanistan that used no video, just still photos and text, because his [...]

Natural sound matters

Natural sound makes stories come alive. It lets viewers experience something close to what it was like to witness a story in person. A story without nat sound is flat and dull. Want proof? Watch this video from former TV reporter Mark Poepsel, who now teaches at the University of Arizona:

Hyperlocal maps

How can you share data quickly and easily online? KHOU-TV in Houston, Texas, used simple PDF maps. Reporter Mark Greenblatt says in The IRE Journal that his station didn’t have time to buy mapping software or train the Web staff to use it, so they created PDF files of neighborhood maps showing where [...]

Local TV Web sites gain

Need more evidence that the Web is a growth area for TV news? A new study says one in four American adults visits a local station site every month, and many of the most frequent users are not heavy TV viewers.
“Television understands the power of the multi-media platform and stations have been putting [...]

This is the future

If you’re going to succeed in journalism today you need to know how to tell stories visually. Don’t just take our word for it. Listen to working journalists like Jennifer Lin, a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer.