Writing for the Web (Some Notes)

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/07/eight_questions_for_jacob_weis.cfm

Interesting interview with Slate editor – especially:

DIA: Do you feel people write differently for the web than they do for print?

Mr Weisberg: If they don't, they don't succeed online. Writing that's native to the web is different in ways that are crucial but subtle enough that you can miss them if you conceive of your audience as reading a printed product. The tone of good web writing grows out of email. It's more direct, personal, colloquial, urgent, witty, efficient. It doesn't waste your time. It reflects that engagement, responsiveness and haste of web surfers, as opposed to the more general passivity of print readers. It integrates the use of links into the creative and intellectual process as opposed to tacking them on afterwards. And it uses multimedia in an organic rather than an ornamental way.

Old vs. New Newsroom (Some Notes)

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/wolff200908?currentPage=1
"This is a flattening not only of information and sources but also of newsroom process. The point about a traditional news organization is its high level of orchestration, of hoops to jump through to get into the paper or on the air, of stylebooks to follow, of a hierarchical, tradition-bound, gatekeeping idea of who gets to say what’s news."

The 10 things local newspapers should do - compiled in one blog post

OK, I was critical of the American Press Institute's tired ideas for the newspaper industry. But what do I propose? Well, here goes: 10 ways to strengthen local newspapers in the face of the economic meltdown and the societal shift to the Web.