February 2009 News Now Update

news now update G A T E H O U S E

THE POST

REPORT

The top 15 most active Wicked Local homepages in New England*

1. BELMONT Posts per day: 10.7 2. SOMERVILLE Posts per day: 8.3 3. TAUNTON Posts per day: 6.7 4. EASTON Posts per day: 6.6 5. WATERTOWN Posts per day: 6.6 6. SAUGUS Posts per day: 6.1 7. MARBLEHEAD Posts per day: 6.1 8. PLYMOUTH Posts per day: 6.0 9. ARLINGTON Posts per day: 6.0 10. CAMBRIDGE Posts per day: 6.0 11. DANVERS Posts per day: 6.0 12. NORWOOD Posts per day: 5.9 13. SHARON Posts per day: 5.7 14. LEXINGTON Posts per day: 5.5 15. NEWTON Posts per day: 5.5

* SOURCE: Google Reader homepage post survey, 30-day average; single town Wicked Local sites only

M E D I A

N E W

E N G L A N D

FEBRUARY 2009

TIP OF THE MONTH: USE GOOGLE READER

Create a Google Reader account for your site(s). It provides helpful data on the volume, day of the week and time of day you are posting. Contact Sarah or Chris for more information.

TELLING STORIES IN

NEW FORMATS 1

1

Q&A FORMAT

PUBLICATION: The MetroWest Daily News REPORTER: David Riley (see interview at right)

NEWS NOW

MOVER

OF THE MONTH

DAVID RILEY

MetroWest Daily News • metrowestdailynews.com

MetroWest Daily News reporter/weekend editor David Riley is leading the way in the use of alternative story formats on his beat. We asked David a few questions about how his approach to ASFs.

How do you decide between ASF or full story for a topic?

2

ASFs are best for reporting info that isn't worth a full story, but is still worth telling readers, or would be very dull in a less-visual format. I don't think ASFs work for complex issues or pieces with a lot of depth. Three tips:

2

UPDATE FORMAT

PUBLICATION: The MetroWest Daily News EDITOR: Rob Haneisen • DESIGN: Lori Gwyr “Try for a general topic that has high interest and is timely,” Rob says. “I think weather-related ASFs have worked well - it's winter in New England, and weather and storms are usually one of the first few things we think of each day. You still must make some phone calls and research and report like you normally would with a story, but you are not looking for quotes. You are looking for good, attributable factoids. They don't take as much time overall.” See more at ghnewsroom.com

1. On Q&As, lean on interviewees to keep their answers to two, maybe three short sentences. Editing their responses to fit the space is a pain. 2. In ASFs that use grids, keep the grafs in each box about the same length to avoid dead space. 3. As beat reporters, we're constantly hit with requests to write about annual fundraisers and events. ASFs seem like a good idea for the yearly things we've already covered a lot. See ghnewsroom.com for more tips from David

HAVE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS ABOUT NEWS NOW? Chris Biondi: [email protected] • Sarah Corbitt: [email protected]