Without a doubt, the most fascinating part of what I do today does not have much to do with actual design, in the traditional definition of the term (the visuals),nor with the traditional definition of editing (as in the writing and pacing of stories).
Instead, what truly gets participants in seminars and workshops into attention mode is how we design, write and edit for today’s journalism of interruptions, at a glance, and, yet, the type of journalism that requires us to move and to perform in those two tempos: lean forward, lean back.
WE still don’t know enough about the total dynamics of moving within these two tempos simultaneously, but we are learning fast, and we need all the help and encouragement we can get.
This is why I so enjoyed reading a Nieman Reports interview with The New York Times’ Amy O’Leary on Putting Multimedia Stories to the Test at the world’s most prestigious title and one where innovation is not just a much-discussed document.
My three takeaways from the Amy O’Leary interview:
1. Mobile must be infused throughout the newsroom.
Amen, Amy. I tell my clients that before they worry about the platforms themselves, or their visual branding across them, it is important to have an overall philosophy for storytelling through the various platforms.
Normally this is achieved in a two day workshop, and it sets the foundation for the rest. We do it all the time with our clients, and it works. Amy O’Leary considers it essential too:
“…. I think mobile has to be infused throughout the newsroom. More than half of our digital readership is on mobile. It always makes me crazy how we write stories differently for the front page. The editors and the apparatus have all this work they do to deal with the printed jump off of A1. We don’t have any thinking that goes into how we write stories for mobile. I think these technologies will fundamentally change the basic structures.
2. You need to create story structures, story palettes that are specifically created for mobile storytelling.
We emphasize this and do it with our clients. We sit down with the editorial team (a select group and not separated by print versus digital) and work on creating a storytelling palette that applies to the world of “at a glance” journalism and mobile consumption of news.
From Amy O’Leary:
‘If you’re teaching the inverted pyramid at some journalism school, how does that connect to mobile? All those structures and formats that we learned in school were developed for an earlier era. I think there’s going to be a lot of innovation in this area but I don’t think we have the luxury of time of siloing it in little teams yet. I think everybody’s got to figure it out pretty quickly.’
3. Test your concepts
In my view, readers are always more ready to accept new storytelling formats than the editors. That is why road tests are essential, and Amy O’Leary agrees.
“Road test it. One of the things that journalists don’t typically do is use testing. If you look at any Silicon Valley start-up, they’re testing shit constantly. They’re testing it all the time. We try new stuff, and we still rely on gut editorial judgment, which can be great for covering the news, but it’s not great when you’re building a new product.”