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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s visit to Salem on Tuesday gave our newsroom a good opportunity to expand how we use social media tools in our reporting.

Six staffers attended the Romney event at Carter Machinery, each armed with a smart phone and, thanks to recent training sessions from online editors Stephanie Ogilvie and Caitlin Saniga, ready to use Twitter to post updates and photos from the scene.  Editors behind the scenes in our downtown Roanoke newsroom worked efficiently to pull tweeted images into Storify and continuously posted updates on roanoke.com.

There were some 200 tweets about the event beginning in the minutes after Romney took the stage. There were many tweets before he appeared too.

Roanoke Times’ staffers snapped and tweeted about 20 photos that were added first to Storify and later to a photo gallery.

Editor Carole Tarrant said today’s coverage was “a new record of getting that many photos on the site that quickly.”

Photography editor Natalee Waters managed the Storify feed of Roanoke Times photos fed to her from Salem, while Stephanie Ogilvie updated the Website with breaking news posts and other information. Thanks to NRV editor Todd Jackson for suggesting Storify during Monday’s planning session.

The staffers on the scene in Salem were:

-         Emily Mosh, a summer intern from Washington & Lee University, live tweeted the play-by-play on the @RkeTimesLive account.

-         City hall and politics reporter Mason Adams wrote a quick speech overview for the Web site and the turned his attention to a write-through for tomorrow’s print edition.

-         Salem reporter Matt Chittum also wrote a scene-setting story about the crowd of more than 1,500 people gathered that was posted online in the late afternoon.

-         Photojournalists Rebecca Barnett and Kyle Green captured visuals, tweeted and transmitted images to the newsroom.

-         Community journalist Miranda Beck also covered the event for So Salem blog.

Roanoke Times staff decided Monday to use the hashtag #romneysalem on Twitter.

“It worked,” Tarrant said.

Today’s approach was noticeably different than 2008 when the Roanoke Times covered then vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s visit to the Roanoke Valley. Two reporters and two photojournalists staffed that event, with one pair at the Roanoke Regional Airport and the other at the Salem Civic Center where Palin spoke.

What do you think of today’s coverage of Romney’s visit? We want to hear from you.

–  Courtney Cutright, reporter and member of the RefreshRT team

Photos like this are now available for purchase at roanoke.mycapture.com.

Looking for a gift? Or maybe you love a photo you’ve seen by a Roanoke Times photographer. We have good news … now you can request and purchase many of the photos that you see in the pages of The Roanoke Times and throughout roanoke.com.

Visit roanoke.mycapture.com and you’ll find some select albums and favorite front pages that are available for purchase as reprints or you can order a mug or magnet with the photo on it.

We just set up the photo store a few weeks ago, so we’re still stocking it, but you’ll already find several photos from our 125^th anniversary photo exhibit and this year’s All Timesland pages. You can also easily request a photo, and as long as it is a Roanoke Times photo (not one that a user has submitted), we will upload it to the system for you to purchase.

Check out the galleries and photo gift options.

To request a photo or front page be added to the gallery for purchase, click “Can’t find a photo” link on the left and complete the form.

Caitlin Saniga

Storify is one of the new ways we’re exploring telling stories on roanoke.com, and it involves you and your social media presence. It’s an online tool that allows users to search for keywords, phrases and hashtags (even taking into account proximity to a specified place) on sites including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr, Google and many others.

Let me give you an example of one of our stories. On April 20, Roanoke was a bubble with runners and supporters who had gathered for the Blue Ridge Marathon. There were lots of little stories unfolding leading up to the marathon, during the race and after the runners crossed the finish line. And many of you were talking about it online. Using Storify, we were able to gather posts, photos, maps, videos and more from the community.

From that, a story very different from the one we ran in the newspaper the next day was told on roanoke.com as it was happening. We followed along as runners laid out their gear the day before the race, as supporters gave their well wishes, as racers progressed along the course, as participants displayed their bloody socks and marathon medals and as some chowed down on cupcakes and beer in the area after the race. What a day! As one person on Twitter put it, “Just reading about the Blue Ridge Marathon makes me exhausted.”

In that Storify feed alone, we heard from more than 75 different sources across platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. We saw 35 photos, 2 maps, 1 chart, 1 video and more tweets and Facebook posts than we can count. It seemed like the Blue Ridge Marathon crowd was a chatty bunch.

So we thought we’d try again with different audiences in different scenarios. So far, we’ve rounded up conversations from the Virginia Tech graduation and several other graduation ceremonies, Festival in the Park, and a severe weather situation that ended with a rainbow — and the dialogue has remained robust.

But there seem to be endless ways Storify can be used in storytelling.

With that in mind, I have a few questions for you:

Do you post to social media sites when you’re at events?

Would you post to social media sites if you were in a newsworthy situation (surveying property damage after a tornado or watching a house fire, for example)?

Do you use hashtags on social media sites like Twitter and Instagram to make your posts more searchable?

What types of stories or events would you like to see us cover with Storify?

Thanks for your input! And let’s keep the conversations going.

This post is from reporter Mason Adams.

Since going to work for the Roanoke Times I’ve become a collector of the various books the newspaper has published over the years.

Visit a Timesland used bookstore or antique mall on the right day and you can find books of Ben Beagle’s columns or commemorative reprints of the Roanoke Times’ front page over the years.

These days, the Roanoke Times is not likely to publish a book for sale.

Admittedly, I’ve been a little slow to jump on the eBook train. I still like haunting used bookstores and looking for bargain finds there, and although I love turning pages, I have little desire to read my favorite tomes on a Kindle, Nook or iPad.

But I recognize the technology’s potential. EBooks have removed much of the cost and materials associated with publishing books, making it easier for unknown authors to publish their work.

Newspapers have already started to jump on board. The Los Angeles Times published its first eBook last fall, and the New York Times reports that other publications – Politico, the New Yorker and Huffington Post, among others – are doing the same.

I think that one of the Times’ greatest assets is its archives. Librarian Belinda Harris looks after files on a variety of subjects and individuals, plus an archive that dates back to the 1890s. She uses that to collect and write each week’s “Looking Back” feature.

So I wonder: Is there an audience for eBooks collecting past material from the Roanoke Times?

You could collect stories recounting the rise and fall of Victory Stadium, the Flood of ‘85 or even the best collected columns of Dan Casey from 2008 to the present (though that would make for a very, very short book).

I’ve got plenty of other ideas for Roanoke Times eBooks I’d like to see:

–The rise of Republicans in Virginia’s General Assembly.

– A collection of Beth Macy’s best stories and columns (which could be timed in conjunction with her upcoming book about John Bassett III and Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co.)

– An annual collection of Virginia Tech football reporting.

– The life and times of former Roanoke Mayor Noel Taylor.

– The wild and wooliest true crime tales of Timesland.

Those ideas deal just with existing material and don’t even begin to scrape the surface of the potential for long-form writing on news that’s breaking now. ProPublica published a gripping story last month that also spawned a radio show (and subsequent podcast) on This American Life and also an eBook. It’s clearly a rare story that merits that treatment, but to my mind that ProPublica story and the way it was published indicates a brave new world for enterprise journalism.

Would you read Roanoke Times eBooks? If so, what collections would you like to see?

And by way of background, incidentally, here’s a short video with one of the past books published by The Roanoke Times. This is the newspaper’s 100th anniversary publication, which I borrowed from education reporter Courtney Cutright’s desk.

Hey RefreshRT readers,

I’m Chris OBrion, and I’ve drawn editorial cartoons for the Roanoke Times and roanoke.com since 2007. As roanoke.com prepares to be leveled by the tide and rebuilt as an entirely new digital sand castle, I’m wondering if you have any ideas for how editorial cartoons might be used in new ways. (And no, I’m sorry. I don’t know how to use them as digital birdcage liners for “Angry Birds.” But thank you.)

Right now I do a (usually) weekly color cartoon on a (usually) local or state topic. The cartoon appears in the print edition of the paper, on roanoke.com’s opinion page, on the Roanoke Times’ Facebook page (www.facebook.com/roanoketimes) and more recently, on the RoundTable blog. (I also post it on my fridge and mail a copy to my mom.)

Are there other formats or platforms you’d like to see for the editorial cartoons, or additional features we’re missing?

… that we have an archives database where you can search for stories published in The Roanoke Times dating back to 1990.

Today we present the first of an occasional feature highlighting Roanoke Times resources that readers may not know about. We know there is always a strong interest in past stories, so this digital archives database is an easy way to find an old story — as long you have some good keywords.

Some things to know before searching:
- Searching The Roanoke Times Archives is free; viewing the full article costs $1.95.
- You’ll need a password to retrieve stories: simply perform your search and click on the link to ”view the full text of the article.” A window will open with a link to register as a new user.
-  Services will be billed to a Visa or Mastercard account only. Checks, cash or money orders cannot be accepted. Roanoke Times newspaper subscription accounts cannot be credited.

David Oyler, his wife Kristen, and daughter Kathryn, 2, watch fireworks with his mother Audrey Oyler in 1989.

Also, for those who like old photos, we’ve started a board on The Roanoke Times Pinterest page featuring just that. Currently, we’re highlighting photos from July 4 celebrations past (see photo at left).

What other Pinterest boards would you like to see from The Roanoke Times?

And what other kinds of resources would you like from The Roanoke Times?

As of last week, we had 55 respondents to our poll on features content. Thanks for the responses!

Here are some of the highlights of the results:

1. The three most important topics to readers are: Features bloggers, features stories, and upcoming shows & concerts. This pretty much aligned with what we on the features team want to highlight in the redesign. It’s helpful to know that upcoming shows and concerts ranked so high — that’s something we’ll keep in mind as we move forward.

2. Coming in after these top 3 were restaurant reviews/news and comics/puzzles. You can currently find reviews here, and leave your own.

3. National celebrity news ranked last, and that’s understandable. You want local feature stories, and that’s what we aim to provide.

Some readers also left comments, and here are some we can help with:

- Some asked for local arts reporting: Please visit Mike Allen’s “Arts & Extras” blog, where he extends his arts coverage beyond what he writes for the paper. He also writes a weekly column for the Sunday Extra section that’s full of local arts news.

- For upcoming local music shows, visit music reporter Tad Dickens’ blog “Cut ‘n Scratch.” He’s constantly posting show news and updates throughout the week.

- Some mentioned they like the weekly Retail Roundup column and business news: You can currently get your business fix at the Ticker blog and retail fix at Amanda Codispoti’s blog, “Storefront.”

- It was also good to see several of you mention you like local news, traffic news, and hard news. That’s what we highlight on roanoke.com every day.

- Finally, for the person who said “I love it when the spotlight is on local musicians, crafters, or places, . . . . . things that make our region so unique and special!” — that is definitely our newsroom’s goal: to bring to light the stories that make our place in the world special.

So that leads me to the question: Share one story idea that you have for the features team. And if you’d like to vote in our features poll, please do so!

From Mason Adams, the Roanoke City and politics reporter.

Thanks to all the readers who responded to my series of questions about podcasts and how you spend your time while commuting.

We heard that some of you regularly listen to radio – whether through your car’s stereo or streaming through a smartphone – but haven’t delved too deeply into the wide world of audio podcasts.

Some readers are interested in a potential Roanoke Times podcast – but you’re less interested in a regurgitated version of what ran in the paper that day than you are in shows that would work in concert with what you can already read online or in the print
edition.

Others said they’d be interested in hearing a local news podcast as an addition to their audio diet that already includes NPR or other podcasts.

Laura listens to a lot of podcasts but worries that a Roanoke Times show would lack a vital piece of what she enjoys on roanoke.com – reader engagement. (I owe some thanks to Laura too for mentioning that “Mountain Stage” is available as a podcast. As a Drive-By Truckers fan, I downloaded the Patterson Hood episode the other night.)

I asked whether commuters would be interested in hearing an audio version of the Roanoke Times as an alternative to the print and online editions, but no one expressed any enthusiasm for that idea.

And a couple of readers disliked the entire premise of my post and questions. I appreciate the time you put into reading and responding to me, even if the feedback was negative.

One nice thing about the online world is that post will continue to live on for the time being.

If you’ve got more thoughts, please continue to weigh in. I appreciate everyone who posted.

Thanks!

Mason Adams

Hi RefreshRT readers. I’m Mason Adams, the Roanoke city hall and politics reporter, and you can usually find me over at the Blue Ridge Caucus blog — but today I’m interested in your thoughts on podcasts.

Podcasts are essentially radio shows you can load on an iPod or other MP3 player. At one time the Roanoke Times regularly produced news-related podcasts in which senior editor Dwayne Yancey or another editor would interview reporters about upcoming stories.

Today, the only Roanoke Times writer regularly recording podcasts is music reporter Tad Dickens, who uses them on his cutNscratch music blog to interview and play songs from bands with upcoming gigs in our area.

Tad tells me those podcasts — especially ones featuring well-known artists — might draw up to several hundred listens over time. Two of his recent podcasts, featuring Roger McGuinn and Mother’s Finest, each drew more than 1,000 listens.

I’ve been thinking a lot more about these recordings since I moved to Check last fall. My commute grew from 10 minutes to 45, so I spend a lot of time in the car each day. I fill that time by loading up my iPod with a variety of shows — everything from BBC audio documentaries to a whole slew of comedy podcasts.

I listen regularly to The Economist’s weekly “Money Talks”, CBS’ “Face the Nation” and Slate’s Political Gabfest.

So that’s got me wondering:
– Do you listen to any podcasts? Which ones?
– Would you listen to Roanoke Times-produced podcasts? What would you like to hear – a round-up of the daily news, beat reporters discussing what’s happening in their worlds or a mixture of both?
– For commuters, how do you spend time on your daily drive? Do you listen to music, to the radio or to something else?
– Particularly for those who don’t always have time to read the paper or stories on roanoke.com, would you listen to an audio version of the day’s news stories?

Follow me on Twitter, @masonadamsRT or friend me on Facebook. I’m looking forward to your feedback.

While we’re glad our “mad” features team photo got attention, we actually didn’t hear from many folks about their features needs/experiences.

So today, we present this quick poll in an effort to get a read on what you like to read!