I am finding out—and quite happy about it— that new product development is now part of what many newsrooms globally consider a priority.

Good things happen when new products are created that enhance storytelling, bring in new content and offer solutions. We all admire such products as The New York Times’ The Upshot and The Washington Post’s The Lilly. Both products have added a new dimension to the excellent journalism of those iconic and trusted publications.

That is why I decided to devote our Midterm project (due March 5) in my Multiplatform Design & Storytelling class to the creation of a new product. This class is a seminar/production course as part of the Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

The assignment requires the students to create a new product for an existing media company.

Today the students have turned in to me what their topics will be and I am amazed at the innovation and creativity suggested by these topics.

What are some of the new products?

For example, among the “new products” my students are coming up with:

*An app attachment for Facebook users who want to broaden their scope of news and information beyond their personalized FB bubble. This project strives to create a novel mobile news experience in the form of an app or add-on for a publication such as the New York Times, with emphasis on two important components:

1. Design a way to bookmark news stories with one swipe, and to be re-shown that material on another larger device (desktop or iPad) in the appropriate context.

2. To receive geographic relevant news stories. Mobile is one of the only devices that always moves with you, it should be designed to integrate a virtual world with reality.

*An App for Teen Vogue:

In the wake of the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida and the student activism that has subsequently emerged across the country, Teen Vogue is launching an app called MERGE, that targets teenage students and provides the tools to pool their social media accounts and event efforts surrounding a particular issue. It will also be a way for the news organization to communicate accurate information and education about the issue for which students are interested.

*Creating Purple, an app to complement The Washington Post’s The Lily, which aims to try to keep survivors of domestic violence informed – and as safe as possible.

* WhatsApp. The new product is about developing four ideas to improve WhatsApp’s users experience by improving and adding some features that we believe are essential for the next step of WhatsApp.

*Financial news made easier to follow:

We will be creating a website that makes complex financial news stories more readable and understandable to the common reader. We will be basing this off the New York Times’ business section, but we will be adding our own graphics, links, and charts that will make esoteric financial text and reporting both engaging and interesting for the general reader. We think this could really help the average American who reads the news but doesn’t always understand what the terms in financial reporting mean.

There are more to come, and I will plan to share with you the final products after March 5.

Do you have a new product that your newsroom is planning to introduce? Let us know.

Society of News Design New York: Celebrating 40 years

The Society for News Design’s 40th Anniversary Workshop, Creative Conference and Awards Gala will be in New York City, March 22–24.

Workshop chair Tyson Evans, of The New York Times, and an army of volunteers are organizing three packed days of talks, training, networking and inspiration about the future (and past) of storytelling, visual journalism and news products across print and digital.

Speakers announced so far include Scott Stowell, proprietor of Open and winner of the National Design Award for Communication Design; Jennifer Daniel, of Google; John Maeda, of Automattic and visual journalists from The New York Times, Washington Post, Axios, Vice, ProPublica and more.

I am honored to be one of the speakers.

If you would like to attend what promises to be one of the best SND gatherings ever, please go here for more information:

https://nyc.snd.org