Editor, revised

For the third time in almost as many days, I’ve woken up to snow. The water-cooler talk about when winter will finally leave continues. (Answer: Not soon enough, and kicking and screaming then). I’m feeling an energy deficit; the falling snow has put me in a bunker mentality. So a perfect day to play around on the Internet. Here’s a sampling of where I’ve been wandering worth checking out.

Mastering multimedia: My boss and video mentor Colin Mulvany comments on the cultural shift at work in our newsroom. I get a mention. This is an inspiring read for anybody looking to build a video team.

Journerdism: Will Sullivan is hosting the Carnival of Journalism this month. This is a good place to get a taste of what journalism bloggers are talking about.

College Media Innovation: The tips here are just as valuable for working journalists as aspiring ones. On my list today: start building my “brand.”

New Yorker: Eric Alterman sizes up the uneasy and essential alliance newspapers have with the Web. Oh, and he basically rings the bell for the funeral of print journalism as we know it.

Secrets of Self-taught Web Developers: I confess: When it comes to learning web development, I’ve been dragging ass even though I realize it could turn out to be an essential tool for staying employable. Eric Hebert offers this list of resources perfect for people like me, and he presents it with the pitch-perfect voice of the sage, reassuring adviser.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixk7U_0aVMM&hl=en]

What: A tour of Zola, a new downtown Spokane nightclub, with owner/developer/artist Dan Spalding. He created the interior with almost completely salvaged and recycled materials.

High hopes: I got to use a much nicer camera than I had before, so I was expecting to create greatness. I don’t know if I got that, but I’m pretty happy about what I was able to do in about two minutes.

Areas for improvement: This could be sharper technically. I wish I’d taken the time to set up a tripod for several shots. But I liked the flexibility of working without. I also debated going back to the bar at night to get some crowd shots to round out the B roll. In the end, time and energy constraints kept me from doing so. Low-light conditions affected several shots, which I included anyway for the sake of variety.

Conclusion: I have to remind myself that this was only my fourth video effort, and I can’t expect to nail it all at this point.

For more: Visit spokane7.com.

First watch this video. Then read this story from The Spokesman-Review.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeuEMeg8eQE&hl=en]

One of the great things about my job is its flexibility. When things are slow, I can pretty much work on whatever I want. So recently I started taking an idea I’ve had for months and practicing it: daily slideshows of compelling and newsworthy photographs from around the world. (Click here or on the image below to see an example.)

Here’s some advice for those looking to do the same:

• Search the Associated Press photo feed with the term “aptopix” and you’ll get AP editors’ choices of the best shots from the day’s takes.
• Use the AP’s frequent news digests to look for stories that have photos.
• Go for variety. Use the photo of the scene of a car bombing in Karbala, Iraq, but don’t neglect interesting profiles, weather shots and even the occasional baby animal. With fewer limits on space compared with the printed products, including these fluffier items can’t be considered pandering to less-serious appetites.
• Take the time to edit cutlines. If applicable, find the corresponding story and flesh out the details or add background. This is added value.

I can hear the objections waiting in the wings. When I was in graduate school, the journal articles and trade publications I read nearly all said a local newspaper website should be about local news. Why replicate content that is available all over the Internet, more so now than ever thanks to news aggregators.

I think this prejudice kept from exploiting the slideshow idea for a long time. But here’s why I chose to pursue it. First, my newspaper’s homepage often needs some good art, especially in the middle of the day. A slideshow teaser displaying one of the images helps that. Second, visual content is rich content, and I had a hunch that a collection of images would draw viewers. Third, I still think there’s a place for nonlocal content on a local news site when editors use what news aggregators lack: judgment.

For example, instead of kicking over the 10 latest images off the AP wire, I’ll look through the day’s offerings, often using the AP’s news digest to alert me to stories that might have strong photographs. Additionally, I can offer variety, both in terms of geography and style (features versus hard news, for instance).

I’ve been doing this a little over the week, and the results are encouraging. I’ve watched pageviews climb from about 500 a day to more than 1,000 on Monday. Granted in our system each photo in a set will register as a separate view, but I’m sure our online advertising people wouldn’t slice it that thin.

Hearkening back to the days of yore in pursuit of the future.

Situation: Sample jury verdict document that needs updating to be posted online once the decision is in (with full acknowledgment of facsimile status).

Problem: No full version of Adobe Acrobat, and anyway, the original document didn’t have dynamic fields.

Possible solution: Take a screenshot and photoshop in text to fill out the fields.

Preferred solution: Typewriter, then rescan the documents.

I had to ask our editor’s administrative assistant to use her typewriter, one of two in the newsroom. There were several jokes made by people who remember newsrooms before computers. Fair enough.