Online and Print Workflows

Uno · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:35 pm Post subject: Online and Print Workflows

Hey guys,
I'm wondering how the other papers manage the workflows between their online content and the print content.
Die Matie comes out every second week, which makes it a bit difficult to keep content new and fresh, yet the problem is if you have all of your content online then people might not pickup the hardcopy because they have already read everything.

At the moment we don't have a system in place, our CMS is only really going to be setup next year, but I'd like to hear from some of the other editors how they function.

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Uno de Waal
Online Editor: Die Matie Studentekoerant

CaptivateExec · Moderator Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 21 Location: GHT

Hi Uno, thanks for joining. I think its up the the particular newspaper to decide what their web based content is going to be in relation to their hard copy content...What I mean is: Is the newspaper subordinate to the website or the other way around?

Hence, is the website updated when the newspaper comes out in print and thus subordinate to the newspaper...or does the website get updated with "breaking news" on a daily basis, thus making the newspaper subordinate to the website.

When I was editor of Activate, we updated the website and sent content to Student Wire on the day that the paper came out on campus (we also print once every two weeks). This made the website into an alternative place for people to go and read what was in the paper as we only print 1500 copies, furthermore we found that doing this did not detract from people picking up the newspaper.

What do you mean by CMS? Do you mean the CSM that you use to update the website or do you mean the CMS that is used internally in the newsroom for the flow of copy and pics to the relevant editors etc?
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Peter Barlow
Captivate Executive Coordinator 2006/2007
captivater@gmail.com

Uno · Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 12:05 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the reply.
Well, I'm thinking of using the site as a way to stay on top of news. Seeing that the print only comes out one every two weeks it has a serious delay in printing time. No stories are newsbreaking, and all the big issues have already washed over in the bigger newspapers (we have Die Burger on our back).

So, how do you balance the content? Currently we use the same system that you do (did), by posting stories the day the paper comes out, but for me that defeats the purpose of having a blog or online presence.

It's a tricky thing, but you say people don't really detract from the hardcopy? Do things work differently with the larger papers?
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Uno de Waal
Online Editor: Die Matie Studentekoerant

CaptivateExec · Moderator Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 21 Location: GHT

I see what you mean but this just brings me back to the question of what the core medium of the newspaper is: hardcopy or online?

At Rhodes, while we have developed an online presence, students seem to prefer the hardcopy judging from the hits we get on the site. We therefore limit the updating to the site to the times when the newspaper comes out.

What is it like at Stellenbosch? do you get lots of hits on the newspaper's site?

I tend to agree with those who say that if you start to put "fresh" news on the website before the newspaper comes out then the newspaper readership will suffer.

It is then important to also look at the challenge of keeping news fresh over the long production cycle that we are forced to have ie: you simply cant have hard news but rather features and analysis....What you could do then is use the website to post hard news as it happens sort of thing and then use that as a teaser to a longer news feature type story that will appear in the hard copy edition.
_________________
Peter Barlow
Captivate Executive Coordinator 2006/2007
captivater@gmail.com

Uno · Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 12:37 pm Post subject:

That's what I've been thinking as well... Use it as an analysis, linking, gallerys, etc.

oh yeah, CMS= Content Management System.
We're using Wordpress at the moment.
Our site has been getting mediocre hits, mostly because it's still in demo phase. Hopefully we're going to up that.
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Uno de Waal
Online Editor: Die Matie Studentekoerant

CaptivateExec · Moderator Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 21 Location: GHT

Yes, hardcopy for analysis and online for breaking/polls/galleries etc etc etc simply because of the nature of the medium. Don't get me wrong, I am all for online and print convergence but I would like to see both mediums survive side-by-side in a symbiotic relationship!

We are also using wordpress which seems to be fulfilling our needs quite nicely as we don't actually employ a webmaster/online editor!

But, I have also worked with an online based CMS which facilitates the flow of copy and photographs around the newsroom to the different workstations it is needed at...this I found to be awesome as well! Cool

_________________
Peter Barlow
Captivate Executive Coordinator 2006/2007
captivater@gmail.com

Uno · Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 12:47 pm Post subject:

I'm trying to teach everyone the ropes with Wordpress.
Hopefully next year we're going to have quite a nice package put together, something that would really help with managing workflows!
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Uno de Waal
Online Editor: Die Matie Studentekoerant

CaptivateExec · Moderator Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 21 Location: GHT

Luckily Wordpress isn't that difficult! We have delegated the job of putting the content online to the content manager.

We did get one reader who slated us for using wordpress though...haven't heard any complaints since!
_________________
Peter Barlow
Captivate Executive Coordinator 2006/2007
captivater@gmail.com

Uno · Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 1:00 pm Post subject:

Slated for using wordpress? what was their argument? "How can you use such an easy system! You are sooo not geek!"
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Uno de Waal
Online Editor: Die Matie Studentekoerant

CaptivateExec · Moderator Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 21 Location: GHT

All they said was that is looked bland and yeah...something along the lines of it being "unsophisticated" Mad

_________________
Peter Barlow
Captivate Executive Coordinator 2006/2007
captivater@gmail.com

Nic · Former Student Dep. Editor Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 3

Hi guys, read the discussion. Some very good and interesting posts i must admit.

I think that it is a tricky one to balance: Online vs Print. Especially considering that you have such a limited amount of papers printed and readers available. however, this is not so as I see it. Using Activate as an example, its true that some people might only read the online stories if they were put up daily on your own website or Studentwire (SW). However, you need to also assume that the people who are reading your papers are die hard print enthusiasts and will read the print version in spite of having read stories online already.

Furthermore, there is nothing stopping you from releasing daily/frequent content online that is different to your hardcopy. for example, if the VC screws up, you can put a short little 300 word story online that can then be researched further and elaborated upon in the print edition and subsequently on your own site after print comes out. The print format might have to change to news-features instead of hard news, but it might be something to look in to.

Just some thoughts! Smile

CaptivateExec · Moderator Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 21 Location: GHT

Hi Nic, thanks for the input. Yeah, I think there is a lot of scope for hard news to go straight onto the web be it on SW or our own sites or both! The we can take that story and put some analysis in etc and print it in the hard copy which will also go online as per usual so everyone wins! Very Happy

_________________
Peter Barlow
Captivate Executive Coordinator 2006/2007
captivater@gmail.com

Gregor · Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 6:07 pm Post subject:

Great point so far guys. This is of course a highly important issue. Convergence to the online sphere is not easy yet could prove itself beneficial if done correctly.

What Nic sais is absolutely right. Over and above the content in a print editont, the online presence allows for further content to be put up, especially if it is newsworthy. Often news stories are ignored, because by the time they reach the print edition they are old news.

Further, and this is another way to gain the interest of the reader. Publish material of stories that the print edition did not allow due to space issues. Such as university documents used for research. Interview documents etc. The Mail&Guardian started this highly successfully tactic. This means that you can refer the reader from the print edition to the online edition not just to re-read the content but to find more content about that one specific story. This allows the reader to dig into the content instead of re-reading that which was published in the print edition.

Further, and this relates to Uno's first point. Making your content available online should not decrease your readership. Students will always take a printed paper if handed to them and go through it. They will do this before having to find the content themselves. And yes, by diversifying content online, via galleries, podcasts, polls etc the reader is offered more than just the online print version of the paper. This is why the large online newspaper are successful, because they offer more than just the news, they offer job vacancies, polls, dating services, up-to-date weather information etc etc etc...

So in my opinion, having an online paper that purely regurgitates the print content is just not enough. Yes, it is the first step to online convergence, but now we have to think how to attract the readers and keep them attracted.
_________________
Gregor

Editor - Jo's Toolkit
http://jostoolkit.ru.ac.za

Uno · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 3:35 pm Post subject:

Simply duplicating paper online and then slapping some comments-feature on it doesn't really work for as being online. Our current site is exactly that, minus the comments. And it's useless, so what we are planning on doing is to grow a site that would be interactive and complementary. Something that you want to go visit after you've read the paper, or that invites you to read more and delve into things.

But apart from that, I think we're all on the same page with how things should work in that sphere, but now, how do you actually do that? At the moment our paper is geared towards a 2-weekly deadline. That means: Friday all articles are in, they are proof read (spelling? Smile

) layout gets done over the weekend and then final touches are made on the Monday and Tuesday, afterwhich it gets sent to the printers. If we know something major is going to happen on Monday then we keep space open for that. But barring that, the journalists aren't geared for prowling for news. And if something seems small and insignificant, it doesn't get mentioned or time isn't spent on it because people think it won't be included (in the paper).

Now, our problem, and the actualy problem at the end of the day, how do you get your paper, which is currently geared for a 2-week cycle, to be constantly ready? Your journalists need to send in stories everyday (preferably) and that content needs to be edited and uploaded, everyday. Which creates a huge workload on the editorial team if you are structured for a TWC (Two-Week-Cycle, I've got dibs on coining it!). The question is partly, How scalable are you?

That's one of the problems that we are sitting with. Our content editor, who proofreads etc, can't deal with the massive amounts of stories that would come in. When I told the team about the plans she gave me a look of horror: "You can't expect that from me!" Shame, poor girl! It's easy if you're in the aggregating business (like online editoring), but different if you need to process that content.

Luckily with this your graphic design/layout is taken out of the equation, and that is something that takes up quite a lot of time. You don't need to do any layout now that it's online, only at the end of the day when it needs to be printed.
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Uno de Waal
Online Editor: Die Matie Studentekoerant

Nic · Former Student Dep. Editor Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 3

Hi Uno,

I think that you have a great point, that is a lot of content to do. I do however think that there is an answer to that problem.

You need to start looking at stories not necessarily in terms of write, proof, print. You need to start creating a massive backlog of stories that have been proofed and are delayed and hauled over to a following edition. for instance print 3 features but this weeks cycle make all your writers write an extra one. make them do this over a four or five week cycle and you will have an abundance of content backlogged. Furthermore, you need to remember that placing content online does not always involve placing hard news online everyday. You can easily place the biggest sports story for that day and keep the news as is. then rotate. Remember, You have 7-10 sections (Sports, news, features, arts, entertainment) and you need to make this work for you and your workloads and rotations. Push certain content on certain weeks and others where things have started to fall behind.

There are ways around content subbing issues but they all mostly involve a boat load of dedicated and hard working staff. The begining is always the most difficult part of a process.

Uno · Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:02 pm Post subject:

Yeah, there is a lot of content that you can "multi-use" or that isn't time specific. Especially opinion pieces which can be on a larger timeline than that week.

The biggest part is probably getting the content. And then managing the workflows.
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Uno de Waal
Online Editor: Die Matie Studentekoerant

Uno · Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:13 pm Post subject:

doing some basic research, and I was about to/still am going to ask Metafilter,

this popped up with some results. I'll aggregate them at some stage maybe...
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Uno de Waal
Online Editor: Die Matie Studentekoerant

Uno · Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 7:08 pm Post subject:

good news! Iafrica.com has shown interest in helping to develop the software solutions. Woohoo! Check out the progress over here.
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Uno de Waal
Online Editor: Die Matie Studentekoerant

CaptivateExec · Moderator Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 21 Location: GHT

Thats very exciting Uno....I have looked at the link but cant see the progress...umm, where is it? Sorry...I could be going blind! Rolling Eyes

_________________
Peter Barlow
Captivate Executive Coordinator 2006/2007
captivater@gmail.com

Uno · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 7:02 pm Post subject:

click on the HERE part.
or: http://unodewaal.wordpress.com and then click on the link at the right.
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Uno de Waal
Online Editor: Die Matie Studentekoerant

Guest · Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:43 am Post subject:

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regards, 95