Robert Niles: December 2009 archive
An online journalist's 10 resolutions for 2010
December 30, 2009
We've talked often on this site over the past 12 months about what online journalists (and journalism entrepreneurs!) should be doing to both prepare themselves for the changes coming to our field, as well as to take advantage of the changes already here. Now, at year's end, let's remind ourselves of 10 things that we can do in 2010 to help keep journalism vital in our readers' lives... and keep our careers in journalism alive at the same time.1. Make your website more mobile-friendly
Everyone I've spoken with in the industry this year about this has reported the same thing: The percentage of readers accessing their websites on mobile devices is increasing. Significantly. I'm seeing high single-digit percentages on the sites I publish, up from the fraction-of-a-point share I saw last year.
You don't have to build a smart phone app, or even a separate mobile version of your website, to serve the mobile audience. But if you don't, you must, at the very least, offer clean code that performs gracefully on a mobile Web browser's small screen. A basic three-column Web layout can perform well, especially when the content displays in a center column of between 250 and 500 pixels. I offered more tips on this topic last summer.
2. Don't redirect mobile viewers requesting an article on your website to your mobile homepage
I couldn't resist repeating this tip. Redirecting deep links requests to a mobile home page is my biggest annoyance with Web design in 2009. Give these readers either the mobile version of the page they requested, or the regular version of that page. But don't break deep links to your website, for anyone.
Like the blink tag, framed navigations and scrolling tickers in the past, let's ditch this lousy design idea in the new year. More...
No comments | 
Archive Link
What should the government do to help journalism?
December 9, 2009
Last week's Federal Trade Commission hearings on the journalism industryPlenty.
Now, before the libertarians within online news community fire up their torches for my march to the stake, hear me out.
OJR's David Westphal last week detailed the many ways that government has, uh, helped the news business in the past. Perhaps subsidies of that sort can continue in the future. But I see two, much larger, steps that the government can take that would help ensure a more stable and diverse journalism industry, one that would have the financial ability to fund more in-depth reporting over a longer period of time that today's newspapers and emerging website can support.
Ready? Here goes.
#1: Raise taxes on the rich. A lot More...
6 Comments | Archive Link
Here's what newsrooms can learn from the Tiger Woods story
December 2, 2009
By this point the Tiger Woods story (or, at least, should be) the domain of the celebrity gossip sites, such as TMZ, and the sports gossip sites, such as Sports by Brooks.What? You didn't know that there were sites devoted specifically to sports gossip? Hey, how many times do I have to tell ya that the future of news publishing is all about working a niche? :-)
Leaving that topic aside for this post, however, let's instead talk about how so many news organizations came to cover the Tiger Woods story, when ultimately they really didn't want to. Then, I'll offer some suggestions on how newsrooms can extricate themselves from a story like this in a way that helps enhance their reputation, instead of damaging it, as I believe many newsrooms did with their handling of the Woods story on its first day. More...
3 Comments | Archive Link
RSS Feed
