There must be a formula out there akin to dog years that explains why change online seems to happen faster than change in the rest of our lives.
A year ago, I was interviewing Will Tacy, the editor at StarTribune.com, about when readers could expect relief from an infestation of user-unfriendly bugs resulting from a site redesign, a server change and a new publishing system.
A year later, StarTribune.com is in a very different place, poised for remarkable changes. It has just won three Edgie awards from the Newspaper Association of America for best site design, local entertainment guide and shopping program. It was a finalist for best overall news site, losing to the Washington Post. In the Online Journalism Awards it was also a finalist for best website, losing to MSNBC. For a regional news site, it’s keeping some lofty company.
Beyond exterminating some pesky bugs, what happened in the past year? A burst of interactivity with readers. Fifteen staff-generated blogs now let readers talk back to the newspaper and to each other. In the online component of the Vita.mn entertainment tabloid, readers can design their own entertainment coverage. For the election, readers could pull up their own precinct ballot and read about everyone on it. Buzz.mn lets readers contribute news about their communities and meet neighbors. The mix seems to be working: In December, pageviews were up 25 percent over the previous year; they were up 20 percent for January.
All of this produces exhilaration in the newsroom, mixed with anxiety about what seem like daily predictions that the Internet spells doom for the printed page. Still, more than a few media watchers resolutely maintain printed newspapers will be around for years.
Amid all that uncertainty, newsroom staffs must work with a foot in each medium, juggling producing the printed newspaper and feeding a rapidly expanding website. Reporters file stories and updates online at a breathtaking pace, even as they write stories adding fresh meaning to the news for the morning newspaper.
Tacy, 40, presides over the news content of the website and tries to predict what his audience will want next. Some want little more than an online newspaper archive. Most want breaking news. Now there’s an emerging desire for interactivity.
That’s a lot of directions to run at once. So what defines online journalism at its core at startribune.com? Which print standards of journalism have migrated online or should, which don’t fit the medium, and what new standards need to be considered in this very dynamic medium?
“We are fundamentally tied to facts, verifiable information. We’re tied to information relevant to our audience,” Tacy explained, sounding very much like a print editor.
But the Internet creates opportunities for journalism that haven’t been available in print. “There’s an edited experience and a self-directed experience,” Tacy said. “If I’m deciding on a movie, show me only the movie theaters in my neighborhood.” But, he added, most online readers also know they need someone to help them maneuver through endless sources to find quality, meaning and just plain news. In short, they still need editors and reporters.
“Newspapers have a long history of not just being a news vehicle but of being a communications vehicle, putting people in touch with not just news but with their community and with other people. We need to figure out how in this medium we become that again. How do we become a conduit, a collection of tools to help people manage all this?” Tacy asked.
Tacy is also looking at ways technology could help replicate online the serendipity of paging through the printed newspaper.
“If eBay can know what you’re interested in, why can’t the Star Tribune? We’ll take significant steps this year toward creating mechanisms that will help readers find content that they may not realize they’ll be interested to read,” Tacy predicted.
In the midst of this fascinating, fast-moving quest to envision the next hot thing in online news, it’s hard to pause and ponder what all of this means for journalism.
How can journalists ensure that in the rush to the Internet we don’t lose standards that make journalism different from and more valuable than just any information lobbed online?
That process got a boost Monday when the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, released online journalism ethics guidelines. Tacy said his staff was circulating the document moments after it was posted.
An early recruit to online news, Tacy worked at the New York Times from 1995 to 2001, the last two years as managing editor of NYTimes.com. He agrees this may be the right time to codify some online standards. But he said those standards must recognize technological differences between the media, not just transplant print practices online.
For instance, Tacy noted, the website can print disturbing but important images behind a warning screen, something the printed newspaper can’t do.
I’m glad Poynter took a big, bold swipe at raising the issue of ethics in online journalism and that Tacy and his staff are talking about it. In the accelerating transition of so much content online, it’s crucial to ask some hard questions now about what defines quality journalism online, elevating it above websites that haven’t taken the time to think that through.
