Tag Archives: The Washington Post Company

Reuters using Apture for multimedia linking

Last year BBC News online trialled technology from Apture, which created pop-up windows to wikipedia pages, youtube and relevant articles from certain hyperlinks.

Now Reuters is using the the feature – predominantly on its blogs – to do the same, linking to images, maps, Twitter updates, videos and relevant articles.

The service ‘helps Reuters.com enhance its content with intuitive links to related information available on the Web, without directing reader traffic away from Reuters.com’, says a release from Apture.

You can see it in the screengrab below or take a look at Apture in aciton on the Reuters Fan Fare blog.

Apture on Reuters

The Beeb ended its Apture trial – despite positive feedback – but with the Washington Post and Reuters using it, let’s see what happens.

Obama’s first 100 days: how the web is covering it

Some great multimedia coverage as US President Barack Obama completes his first 100 days in power.

The Washington Post has set up a ‘special package’ to mark the day – complete with videos, more than 300 photos arranged by topic (see below) and an interactive timeline of the period – with symbols marking the days key legislation was introduced.

(The Post has used Daylife previously to organise its photos – for example during the Olympics last year – so I’m wondering whether that’s the case here too.)

Screenshot of Washington Post's 100 days photo site

Similarly, the LA Times has its own 100 days site with the emphasis on readers’ views. The Times asked commuters for their video thoughts on Obama’s progress so far.

What I like in particular about this effort is the ability to filter videos by policy and the interactive calendar that dominates the top of the page – click on any date from the 100 for more information.

It’s a very clean layout with a nice feed of LA Times’ related articles too.

The White House is getting in on the act too with its own Flickr group of images depicting the start of the presidency.

Any more good examples of coverage?

UPDATE April 30:

Am reliably informed by Daylife that they’re not behind the Times’ photos – it’s being done internally – but their technology has had a hand in the Wall Street Journal’s coverage, which pulls together video, relevant articles, images and create interactive graphics.

Also enjoyed Slate highlighting the 100 days on Obama’s Facebook feed.

Bivings’ top 10 US newspapers: missing the news point?

The Bivings Group‘s recently released Bivings Report of the top 10 US newspaper sites in 2008 consisted of:

  1. New York Times
  2. Washington Post
  3. Wall Street Journal
  4. Florida Times-Union
  5. Philadelphia Inquirer
  6. USA Today
  7. St Paul Pioneer Press
  8. Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  9. Arizona Republic
  10. Columbus Dispatch

The study, which picks the list based on usability, design and web features of the US’ 100 largest newspapers, is purposefully limited to covering US-based, newspaper sites.

But as one commenter on the Bivings blog says, ‘No Mention of any of MY best news sites’ – he then goes on to list his own top 10, including Huffington Post and EveryBlock (which another commenter then takes as the Bivings’ list).

Is comparing like-for-like really that useful – newspapers aren’t just competing with each other – or other mainstream news organisations – anymore. What the Bivings Group rates the sites on may be completely different from the readers’ criteria – particularly if these comments are anything to go by.

It reminds me of this Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) study from 2007, which found a different news agenda on UGC sites than mainstream platforms (e.g the agenda decided by journalists).

Users’ online agendas are different (and that’s not to say news organisations should completely adhere to UGC inspired schedules – that’s a debate for another day) and influenced by a plethora of different online sources. As such their expectations of newspaper sites will be shaped by the other tools and information websites they use. Ranking newspaper websites against each other won’t deliver the kind of comparisons that these sites can take away and use.

WaPo wiki site to focus on US politicians and government officials

The Washington Post has launched a new beta site Whorunsgov.com to build profiles of US politicians, law makers and government officials using a specially created Post editorial team.

The site and its news blog will also feature contributions from external experts, a release from the paper said, and will be expanded into a moderated wiki later this year.

At this stage users will be encouraged to edit and add to profiles on the site with submissions moderated by the editorial team.

Interactivity – in particular allowing users to discuss profiles on the site – is a key part of the project:

“This is the first phase of a new venture to create a uniquely collaborative and rich information resource that demystifies the individuals behind Washington’s policy-making process,” said Rachel Van Dongen, editor of WhoRunsGov.com, in the release, adding that the site is intended as a free-for-all resource.

Those featured on the site will also grow to include think tank members and state officials.

Editor&Publisher: Tribune Co. outsourcing not finalised, says reporter on blog

“It’s true that Tribune Co. is talking about outsourcing its national and international news coverage to The Washington Post Co.,” comments Editor&Publisher, but warns that ‘big sticking points remain and the two are not close to a deal,’ as Chicago Tribune media reporter Phil Rosenthal reported in his blog Thursday afternoon. Full story…

Washingtonpost.com: First ever female managing editor at Washington Post

Two new managing editors have been named at the Washington Post: one of them is a the first woman in the role in the paper’s history. Full story…

WashingtonCityPaper.com: ‘An advance copy of the Washington Post’s reorganization plan’

The WashingtonCityPaper shares ‘an advance copy of the Washington Post’s reorganization plan’.

The site, ‘forever a friend to local media institutions’, has announced it is ‘hereby stepping in and taking charge’.

“We’ve taken the time to interview key media strategists, examine the Post’s assets, and knit together a strategic plan for the ages.

“It’s all written up in corporatese, sans copyright, so the Post can just cut, paste, send to ALL, and gauge the reaction on FishBowlDC.

“It’s even in memo format, and it comes with ‘off the record’ boxes that will help Post employees sort through the mumbo-jumbo.”

Read, and enjoy.

Washington Post using Apture for article links

The Washington Post has teamed up with Apture to add embedded links into its news articles. Washington Post articles, video content and Google maps will be linked to using the technology, which, according to a press release, requires only a single line of code to make the links appear.

Information from WaPo’s Congressional Votes Database will be linked to congress and senate members’ names when they appear in articles, as part of the new design.

WaPo content will now be available to other media and political sites that sign up to Apture. Articles already allow readers to view who’s linking to that content in the blogosphere.

Apture’s technology has previously been used by BBC News as part of its inline links trial and its use by WaPo follows the launch of the New York Times’ link aggregation service TimesExtra last week.

Election traffic: WashingtonPost sees biggest jump but CNN leads

Beet TV’s Andy Plesser, writes that the Washington Post was long a pioneer in online content,

“[and] … registered the biggest percentage jump on Election Day, compared to the previous Tuesday, Nielsen Online reported last night.  Although far from the newly crowned traffic leader, CNN.com, the Post jumped 113 percent to 2.3 million unique visitors”

So, CNN were the real winners of the day with a 400 per cent traffic spike for the site.

Here, CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien speaks to Beet TV about reporting from the exit polls, and the changes she has witnessed in web reporting over the past 12 years.