2012.03.19
Breaking news: Is it broken? What’s your fix?
This post is from managing editor, Michael Stowe.
Nothing consistently drives readership on roanoke.com more than breaking news.
For instance, our story on Virginia Tech kicker Cody Journell’s arrest in December got more than 10,000 pageviews within the first few hours it was on the site.
So, one of our primary goals with the site redesign, is figuring out the smartest way to display those stories.
One commenter on an earlier RefreshRT post offered this opinion: “The breaking news box should be more attention grabbing. It’s a bit small and sandwiched between the calendar and “check this out!” box.”
Good point.
That’s where our breaking stories first appear and the headline can get lost up in the header. Then, after about five minutes, the page updates and moves a headline link to those breaking stories to the top of our “Today’s News” story list on the page.
We recognize it’s not the best system, and we’re looking forward to the redesign providing us with multiple new options for quickly posting new content on roanoke.com.
A few questions we are already considering, and we’d love your thoughts on:
– Do we even need to use the red “Breaking news” tag next to the story?
– Should we instead simply time stamp each story when it is posted or updated?
– What are the best ways to more clearly differentiate between a high-interest, important breaking story — a police officer getting shot on Virginia Tech’s campus, for instance — and more routine news that we post multiple times a day. Bigger headlines and larger photos are good options, of course, but there are many ways those can be designed.
– What news sites do you visit frequently for breaking news?
– What do they offer that’s better than what we’re doing now?
I’m eager to hear your thoughts.
Of course, our digital strategy for covering breaking news goes far beyond simply posting stories and waiting for you to come find them. In a post on Wednesday I’ll talk about how we use text messages, Facebook, Twitter and other social tools to connect with you.
I don’t think you need to use “the red “Breaking news” tag next to the story”. A time stamp for the story and updates would be great.
Any “emergency” or emerging situation of “high-interest” could be a blinking title or in a different color font, as opposed to a static one, but “Bigger headlines and larger photos are good options” too.
I check CNN, Huffington Post, WSLS and WDBJ daily as well as Roanoke.com but you are my main and constant daily source. None are “better” than you are once a person gets the hang of the website. Your focus on local items, people, events and situations is great and getting better all the time.
If you give us the option to not see the posts of trolls and evildoers, this site will be even better. If you make people register, even to remain anonymous on the comments section I think you would improve the climate of the whole site and gain some more commenters as well. Certainly enough to make up for those who claim they would leave. For some people, anonymity breeds a kind of offensive contempt that is palpable and ruins many a thread.
If reporters or writers are not comfortable with the idea of conversation/comment threads, maybe we could at least get a Q & A forum for stories of interest?
Most of all, I think that if you are going to put so much time and effort into the site, the forums, the threads and the content, you should not let the degenerates ruin them and turn everything into an insult fest.
Comment by Sandi Saunders — March 19, 2012 @ 11:56 am
Perhaps just the time-stamp itself in red (or some other highlight color)?
Comment by Mark — March 19, 2012 @ 3:21 pm
I think the format for the breaking news articles is fine as is. I also think you have a good handle on what constitutes breaking news. The only thing I would note is that the breaking news alert on the RT website seem to run a bit behind the breaking news for the local TV stations. You might consider a system to provide text alerts for breaking news. I get those from WDBJ7 now and they invariably get breaking news stories out faster than any other news outlet in the area. Channel 10 is pretty good too but they overwhelm the subscriber with a million weather reports a day and even more useless news stories. If you sign up for their alerts you get about a hundred stories a day that aren’t really news. I finally unsubscribed to them because they were driving me nuts with so much junk.
I know that historically newspapers always run behind the electronic media due the nature of the medium, but the internet is an excellent opportunity for newspapers to level the playing field.
Comment by Chuck — March 19, 2012 @ 7:07 pm
I love the breaking news. Don’t change a thing.
Comment by Robin — March 20, 2012 @ 7:40 am
Thanks for the comments. Chuck, we do send out breaking news text alerts. You can sign up here: http://www.roanoke.com/text/wb/112087
We are, however, quite selective in sending out text alerts because we don’t want to overwhelm readers with texts on routine stories. We send out text alerts when there is an issue of public safety (possible gunman on Tech’s campus, for instance), a major traffic delay (I-81 is shut down for hours) or a major news story of widespread interest (Jury ruled Virginia Tech was negligent for not warning campus). We have sent out 11 text alerts since last August. I don’t agree with your assessment that we’re behind the TV stations on reporting breaking news. I believe we routinely break spot news ahead of all of our competition, both on Roanoke.com and on Twitter. We can, of course, always do better. Keep the feedback coming.
Comment by Michael Stowe — March 20, 2012 @ 8:48 am
I like the red breaking news tag next to the story. As I check the RT website multiple times a day, I get a sense of excitement every time I see that red tag, as if it were saying, “read me! read me! read me!” I could see how time stamps for all stories would be beneficial, while reserving the breaking news red tag for those really important and juicy stories! The RT site is my go-to source for news, followed by CNN and the New York Times. But the RT is first, because I enjoy reading local news most. I think it’s great that the Roanoke Times is including readers in the paper’s efforts to improve the website and sharing of information!
Comment by Rebyl — March 21, 2012 @ 3:24 am
I second Rebyl. I check Roanoke.com several times a day – once in the morning to catch the news that came out in the print edition and then I like to see if something is going on throughout the day. So – I like the red “breaking news” to designate the new stories that have been published since first thing in the morning.
I have been doing this for years – so the only thing I have noticed is that sometimes today’s news is actually yesterday’s breaking news. So, it’s kind of boring sometimes first thing in the morning for digital readers. If I find that there isn’t much new news – then I usually focus on the extra/entertainment and features section stories.
Off topic – but I love RTs feature and community reporting. I find the RT often finds awesome human interest stories that highlight a variety of issues in our community (good and bad). Love that. The only other local media that really does this sometimes is WVTF.
Comment by NLee — March 21, 2012 @ 8:32 pm
Michael, today was a good example of what I was talking about. I got the breaking news about Gary Sinese’s car accident form WDBJ7 at 4:39pm but it wasn’t posted here until 5:21. Similarly, I got the update from Channel 7 about the overturned verdict on the VT’s Clery Act fines mid-morning but didn’t see it on roanoke.com until after noon.
Comment by Chuck — March 30, 2012 @ 7:46 pm