Introduction
Of all the skills a journalist needs in the digital age, reporting for the Web should be the easiest to learn. There aren’t any new concepts or new terminology or new software to master. Just a new way of thinking and working.
The Web site needs breaking news. If you’re a reporter covering a beat, it will produce breaking news from time to time. It’s your job to supply the home page of your Web site with that breaking news so be ready to use the multimedia tools now available to you to report the story immediately. If you’re covering a wreck on the highway, you may only be able to file an audio report. Or you may need to dictate to a rewrite person in your newsroom.
Writing for the Web is similar to wire service reporting, so a newspaper reporter needs to think less in terms of filing one complete story and more in terms of filing in “takes.” The first take may be a headline saying “5 Children Killed in Highway Bus Accident”—with the skeletal facts in the lead. That is good enough to tell people what is going on. It’s more in keeping with the broadcast model and less on the print model. One paragraph and a headline becomes three paragraphs in 20 minutes, and five paragraphs in 45 minutes. As your reporting continues, you’ll flesh out the story. The balancing act comes in avoiding any pressure to write about facts that may be in flux.
Timely and relevant: Time is of the essence online. Stories that don’t even make the newspaper are important online (a bomb threat at a school that eventually turns out to be a false alarm; a wreck on the interstate that temporarily bottles up traffic) but only if readers find the stories on their time, when they’re looking for them. Relevancy is essential, too. If you’re covering an event where news is expected to happen, write about why and what’s expected and publish it online in advance.
Write lively and tight: Readers appreciate writers who do not waste their time. Simple, direct language communicates the information efficiently. Plus, it’s faster to produce than elegant prose. Here are some tips from Jonathan Dube on the Poynter Institute’s Web site1:
- “Writing for the Web should be a cross between broadcast and print—tighter and punchier than print but more literate and detailed than broadcast writing. Write actively, not passively.”
- “Good broadcast writing uses primarily tight, simple declarative sentences and sticks to one idea per sentence. It avoids the long clauses and passive writing of print. Every expressed idea flows logically into the next. Using these concepts in online writing makes the writing easier to understand and better holds readers’ attention.”
- “Strive for lively prose, lean on strong verbs and sharp nouns. Inject your writing with a distinctive voice to help differentiate it from the multitude of content on the Web. Use humor. Try writing in a breezy style or with attitude. Conversational styles work particularly well on the Web. Online audiences are more accepting of unconventional writing styles.”
The last paragraph might surprise you, but it’s good advice. The rules for this game are just now being written. Experimenting and challenging the status quo are encouraged. Even if the news story will appear as a traditional 25-inch thumbsucker in the next day’s paper, the early version online shouldn’t. It needs to be quick, snappy and (if possible) fun.
Still, you have a responsibility to the fundamentals of news reporting. Facts need the same level of checking they get for the print edition. Speed and style are great, but providing the “why” of the story is still critical. Find that “sweet spot” in between the “just the facts, ma’am” reporting delivered on most news sites by the news services and the style-without-substance reporting found on alternative news sites and blogs.
This is where mainstream news sites need to focus: Delivering full reportage in a timely manner with some flair.
Use time stamps: If you have a developing story that will need updating throughout the day, simply tack on new information with a timestamp and keep adding to it. This saves you from having to rewrite the entire thing every hour when new information is dribbling in.
Here’s an example from the Fresno Bee in California:
Standoff over, suspect deceased 12:47 p.m.
Fresno police confirmed the death of a man who held them at bay for seven hours after he shot two officers early Thursday.
Capt. Keith Foster said police do not know how the man died and would not confirm his identity.
Police spokesman Jeff Cardinale said the assailant was found dead in the home.
He also said police did not fire their weapons.
11:08 a.m.
Fresno Deputy Police Chief Roger Enmark reported that a police officer who was shot several times has undergone surgery at University Medical Center and is in stable condition with wounds that are described as not life-threatening.
The other officer, who was shot once, was treated at UMC and has been released, Enmark said.
Police are not yet releasing the officers’ names. Both are patrol officers who have been with the department about two years. Police Chief Jerry Dyer is on his way back to Fresno from a conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Boston and is expected to hold a news conference later today, Enmark said. Enmark did not respond specifically to questions about resident evacuations, other than to say everyone is safe.
Several roads continue to be closed: San Madele Avenue at Brawley Avenue, Corona Avenue at Brawley, Marty Avenue at San Jose Avenue and Brawley between Shaw and Barstow Avenues.
10:25 a.m.
Camp America, the recreation vehicle superstore that took over the former Super Kmart near Brawley Avenue, is closed as police use the parking lot as a command center. Nearby, on N. Reese, Fresno Unified School District put Lawless Elementary on a “rainy day” schedule, which means kids aren’t allowed outside on playgrounds or fields.
The SWAT team continues to surround the apartment.
8:36 a.m.
Shaw Avenue has been reopened to traffic at Brawley Avenue, but a SWAT team is still surrounding a northwest Fresno apartment complex this morning, looking for a man suspected of shooting two Fresno police officers.
Brawley is still blocked off north of Shaw, as is Marty Avenue, and San Jose Avenue is blocked, as well.
The unidentified officers were taken to University Medical Center and were listed in stable condition with non-life-threatening wounds.
Shirl Catrina, assistant manager of the San Jose Villa apartment complex, told reporters that she was awakened by the sound of at least four gunshots at about 3:30 a.m.
She said officers have evacuated the complex’s 48 townhouse units and were concentrating on a unit just a few doors away from her apartment.
7:06 a.m.
A small army of law enforcement officers, including a Fresno police SWAT team, had a northwest apartment complex surrounded this morning, looking for a man suspected of shooting two Fresno police officers.
The officers, whose names were not made public, were taken to a local hospital where they were being treated for what were described as not life-threatening injuries.
The shooting was reported shortly after 3:30 a.m. at an apartment complex just north of Shaw and Brawley Avenues.
Police said the officers were responding to a “call for service” when they were met with gunfire when they arrived. The officers retreated to safety on their own after they were shot.
According to media reports, the shooting happened at the San Jose Villa apartments, which is located near San Jose and Brawley Avenues.
Police said the shooter is believed to be confined in an undisclosed location and that a SWAT team was making preparations to try to take him into custody.
Shaw, east and west of Brawley, has been closed to traffic, as well as Brawley, north and south of Shaw.
Check FresnoBee.com for updates throughout the day and read The Fresno Bee tomorrow for further details.
Headlines sell the story: Many newspapers are publishing news without the benefit of a copy desk and headline writer these days, either for speed or because it’s too early for those folks to start their shifts. Stories still need headlines, though, so reporters are writing them, sometimes for the first time in their career. Additionally, blog posts need good headlines and news bloggers are rarely staffers with headline-writing experience.
So what makes a good headline for the Web?
Story about a 9-year-old who stole a car and snuck on a plane from Seattle to San Antonio.‘Hokey Pokey’ or hanky panky?
Story about school cracking down on dirty dancing.
Homeowner gets Punk’d
Story about an ad on craigslist that invited people to take anything they wanted from an unsuspecting victim’s house.
Steaks on a plane
New airline security rules banning the carrying of cold packs on airplanes make it harder for food sellers catering to tourists.
For more examples, tips and resources, visit http://www.copydesk.org/.
Good headlines not only ought to tell the news, but also ought to make the reader want to read the story,” said Rick Arthur, a copy editor at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., and a newspaper consultant. “Good headlines should entice the reader to want to know more. Indeed, if the story matter is appropriate, a good headline should make the reader laugh, make him cry, make him angry—in short, it should engage him emotionally, one way or another.”
Arthur has helped newsrooms from MSNBC to major metro newspapers improve their headline writing. Here are a few more of Rick’s tips:
- Make the reader want to know more.
- Use conversational language.
- Take risks.
John Wesley, who writes a blog called “Pick the Brain,” discovered the power of headline writing in early 2007. On a Friday in January, he wrote a post titled “The Two Types of Cognition” that attracted a grand total of 100 visitors in the next two days.
He then rewrote it: “Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence.” Five days later, the article had attracted 4,930 unique views. “Not bad for a site that normally averages a couple hundred visitors a day,” Wesley wrote.
It’s a good example of how a headline that was essentially a label or description did little to entice readership. But a rewritten headline that engaged the reader and made him or her want to know more really drove readers to the article.
Contextual hyperlinking: The best online narratives allow readers to “branch off” and click through to other, more detailed supporting content depending upon areader’s level of interest. Almost all journalism refers to other sources, but online a writer often has the ability to link readers directly to those supporting sources. Note the URLs of those sources when you report and work them into your piece with contextual hyperlinks.
This is especially helpful when your earlier stories provide background and context. Don’t regurgitate—just link to your past work. Don’t forget art, context, interactivity, multimedia: In the rush to be timely, it’s easy to forget other story elements that will help the reader.
- Is a photo assignment needed?
- How about a locator map?
- Are there past stories to link to?
- What about audio and/or video?
- A message board?
- A live discussion?
- A narrated photo gallery?
- An interactive primer?
Assignment
Since reporting for the Web may be new to you, it might be difficult just to get started. Try this:
- Write a Web story as a pitch to your editor. Include all the pertinent information you have and “sell it” as much as you can. If you are waiting for more information and know when it’s coming, say so. It’s OK to tell readers that you don’t know everything you want to know right now but will be updating the story as soon as you do. In fact, it’s encouraged.Also make sure to check what other news outlets are doing. So if a radio station is reporting that the kids in the bus were not wearing seat belts, you can write it that way. Just make sure to keep checking sources and if that information proves wrong, you have to say later that earlier reports proved to be false.
- Use a “charticle:” Some stories are difficult to write quickly with catchy transitions and fully developed tones. Try listing out the basic facts (who, what, where, when) and then forming a charticle with those categories. Also known as alternative story forms, lead-ins like “what happened?” and “what’s next?” quickly tell readers what they want to know.
- Use taglines: Telling readers that your breaking story is not the definitive work on the subject is important. If a more complete story will appear online or in print (or broadcast) later, say that. It seems like a promotional device, but it’s really more an issue of thoroughness. If you’re still working the story and developing something more complete, readers deserve to know it.
- Browse these newspaper Web sites for examples:
- Minneapolis Star-Tribune:Startribune.com
- The Charlotte Observer:Charlotte.com
- San Francisco Chronicle:SFGate.com
- The Kansas City Star:Kansascity.com
- The Honolulu Advertiser:Honoluluadvertiser.com
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
- JSOnline.com
1. Jonathan Dube, “Writing News Online,” Poynter Online, July 14, 2003. Jonathan Dube is the publisher of CyberJournalist.net as well as the editorial director at CBC.ca and a columnist for Poynter Online.