AR&D Reinventing Local Media

Check out USOpen.org for another fascinating experiment in online multicasting. The site is streaming all its tennis matches live, and it even allows picture-in-picture so you can monitor a second match. There’s chat along with the games, too, making this a social experience.

The picture quality is excellent – you’d be fine if you hooked this up to a large monitor or even your TV. It’s wide-screen and HD. Is it as good as broadcast? No. But for tennis addicts, it’s amazing. It also allows people to watch during Web’s prime-time – 9am – 5pm. (Sorry, employers.) This is an excellent execution for another reason — there is advertising along the top and bottom. It’s unobtrusive yet unmistakable. Advertisers get the branding the whole time. Imagine that for a three-hour game.

It’s not a stretch to go from here to other sports. In fact, the MLB does this already with its MLB Live product. For that, you have to pay. But tennis is hurting a bit in the U.S. right now, so the multicast is one way to capture more audience. The NCAA Final Four tournament offers something similar to this as well.

We have to recognize that these systems allow sports and networks to do an end run around us. Professional sports continues to cut back its access to local media, and here’s an example of why. The more the sports can control their own product, the less they need us. You can call “fault” on them if you like, but for sports, it’s an easy ace.

Lots of sites have a feature that turns a crowded, hard-to read web page into an easy, text-only, print page. You’ll often see this when you hit the “print” button on the site. Stories, often broken up into three or four pages are suddenly just a page long. And I have to ask — why not make all pages as easy to use as the “print pages?”

The answer, of course, is “page views.” Sites will break up stories into several pages (clicks, really) to inflate their page views. This is a cheat. If it’s designed so you can make the audience work harder, all you’re doing is inflating the cost of interaction. You’re not building a page the way the audience wants to use it; you’re building a story that will get more page views (should the reader choose to continue, of course).

There are several problems with cutting up stories like this. The first is that people don’t read the Web this way. They skim. You’re missing out on potential engagement time by having possibly interesting, skimmable material two or three clicks away. Next: According to web usability guru Jakob Nielsen, people only read about a quarter of the text on a page. You’re not helping yourself – you’re hurting yourself. And you’re sending a terrible message to the audience: “We make you work for this.”

This is never more maddening than when used in lists. You’ll often see the “Top Ten” or “Top 20″ whatevers. (Businesses, sports teams, etc.) Some sites will simply list them — a best practice. But others make you work — and work hard. You’ll get one item from the list per page. 20 clicks to get 20 items from a list? I’m just not going to do it.

The only exception is in slideshows. Pictures (good ones, anyway) should be seen nice a big. I’m fine if you take up the majority of my screen with a beautiful picture. And I will click to the next picture to see more. I understand that the cost of interaction here is different. In order to get something I truly want – a large picture – I will click ahead. Some sites have the feature that puts a moused-over arrow on the far right and left of each picture, meaning I don’t have to scroll down to the “next” link. Good choice.

Here’s another problem: by chopping up the pages, you’re making the story more difficult to pass along. Why? Because we like to copy and paste. Sorry – but we’re going to keep doing that. My standard method is to include the link, and then copy and paste the text. You’re thinking “big deal – I get no money for that.” But I say you should love that we do this. We’re promoting your site, and we’re telling our friends. That’s marketing, and we’re doing it for you.

Stop carving up those stories artificially. Make them easy to share and make them as easy to skim as a “print this” page. You’ll see results.

With the onset of hurricane season, and the first significant storm threat we’ve faced this year, it’s important that you’re ready for the emergency. I don’t mean having plenty of supplies on hand or having lots of meetings. I mean for your web presence — especially that front page of yours. In a big, breaking news emergency, you have to change it.

During the California wildfires in October 2007, KFMB did an outstanding job altering its website to give exclusive coverage to the fires.

This is substantially different from how the other San Diego stations reacted, using their existing templates to provide the usual variety of news. Yes, we still want other stories on our site. But when your city is in flames, that’s really all you care about. cbs8.com did a clever job of building a landing page that appeared “before” its regular site. If you look in the upper right, you will see the link that says “For additional news, go to cbs8.com main site.” That’s all you need.

As you can see, this special page was done up in blog format. This is the way to go for a big story. You can simply add items to the stream of information. People want whatever is latest, and they don’t need us to have a “lead.” The site also had prominent placement for a relief line. People from out of the region could still lend a hand through their donations.

The blog format is absolutely the best choice during weather events. Your team can update constantly, without having to go through the “finished news” process. In a quickly-changing situation like a hurricane, we need minute-by-minute items.

If, for some reason, your site won’t support a new front page — demand your developers provide the service. This is one of the key reasons why you need local control of your site. You want to be able to change, on the fly, the look and presentation of your site.

This is also the perfect time for Twitter. You want to be sending out tweets regularly. We usually suggest offering only one – two tweets per day, but this is an exception. Your other choice (and it’s a perfectly good one) is to set up a special Twitter page just for the storm. In fact, having the name twitter.com/stormname is a great idea, as it will draw attention from around the country. As soon as that tropical depression develops, get that Twitter name just in case.

Keep your updates brief. Let your viewers know, via your on-air broadcast, where to find the updates. Invite them to send their Tweets to you for updates. The best way to spread the word about your pages is via broadcast and “ReTweets.”

Local news has always geared up for storm coverage. The aggressive approach has to be no different online. Social media will improve the coverage as a whole, as you will empower your audience to work with you during the emergency. That’s when Being Social shines.

The official presidential picture of Barack Obama is out – the one you’ll see in government buildings, offices, etc. – and there’s an interesting historical footnote for those of us who care about such things. It’s the first presidential portrait to be taken using a digital camera.

Photo by Pete Souza

Pete Souza, the new official White House photographer took the picture. He was a photog for the Chicago Trib before he went to work for Obama in 2005.