web only draft
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Web Only:Taking the Newspaper
Online(Everything I’ve learned in the last 6 months)
Steve Matson, adviser
The Academy Times, Crossings
Charles Wright Academy, Tacoma
Northwest Regional Director, JEA
Why did YOU choose this session?
Welcome & Introductions
The Academy Times has been in print since 1988
Tabloid Newspaper of 8-24 pages (1988–2003)
8 x 10 color News Magazine of 8-48 pages (2004–2009)
Web Only Newspaper (since Jan. 6, 2010)
BACKGROUNDto the CONVERSION my studentsrecently made of their newspaper
The root causes for the following problems is the
subject for another talk, but they are familiar to
advisers: schedule competition for AP and college
prep classes, administrative hostility to a free
student press, the economy and budget cuts, etc.
PROBLEMSthat led to conversion from print
Small staff of six.
Trouble generating enough good stories to meet minimum of 8 pages.
Even if we published 8 paper pages, the result was unsatisfying for staff
and readers. The quality remained good, but the issue was too thin.
If we delayed publication until we had more stories to fill an issue or
make an issue longer, stories became old and stale. We found ourselves
publishing old news or choosing to ignore spot news in favor of non-
timely feature stories.
Then budget cuts eroded our ability to print in color.
Then the school began cutting credits for journalism.
We felt like we were in a death spiral.
Problems Staying in Print
Feb. 2009
December 2010
For years, we considered making a Web site to accompany our print
publication. Didn’t happen. Lately, I advocated becoming a print-only
publication as a way to modernize and cope with difficulties.
But the staff did not want to do this, and the AT editor makes the final
decision on such matters.
Staff liked having the paper publication in their hands and they
believed students did too.
They did not think students would go to their site if it was not on paper.
Even if readers did visit the AT online, the staff would not have the
satisfaction of seeing it read on campus.
The staff liked laying out with InDesign and didn’t want to give it up.
STAFF RESISTANCEto Going Online
As a long-time Adobe shop, we assumed that the
application we should use for a Web site would be whatever
Adobe makes. This turns out to be Dreamweaver, along
with companion products Flash and Fireworks. So we
bought the Dreamweaver CS4. I sent two staff members to
a summer camp in Iowa to learn Dreamweaver. We bought
some extra training manuals, and we watched some
training videos. We decided to build an online-only Web site
in Dreamweaver.
Online ConversionOur initial mistake
My students decided they would do one more semester—Fall, 2009—as a print publication while they built their online site. Then in November I had a momentous conversation with an expert in scholastic journalism Web sites. His name is Aaron Manfull, and he is my colleague on the JEA Board of Directors. He is chair of JEA’s Digital Media Committee.
When I asked him for advice in going online, he asked me about our progress. I said we had just bought Dreamweaver CS4 and were trying to learn how to use it.
He said: “Dang! I’ve got to write and post that article!” I said “What article?” He said, the one entitled,“Don’t Buy Dreamweaver—You’re Making a Huge Mistake!”
Instead, use a
CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Work in the CLOUD!
So, if not Dreamweaver,WHAT?
Content Management System software is used to create and manage the
content for a Web site in a collaborative environment. It provides for the
storage, maintenance and retrieval of HTML and XML documents and all related
image, audio and video files.
A CMS is typically dependent on a database, which stores content, allowing it to
be easily rearranged and reorganized in categories, modules, or pages on a
Web site.
A CMS will usually provide all the programs necessary for Web site
development, but it may also include or accept plug-ins that provide banner
advertising, shopping carts, blogs, wikis, newsletters, opinion polls, chat rooms
and forums. The computer languages used to code a CMS are: PHP, CSS, HTML,
and Javascript.
CMS Defined
Allows for a large number of people to contribute to and
share stored data
Controls access to data, based on user roles.
User roles define what information each user can view or
edit
Aids in easy storage and retrieval of data
Reduces repetitive duplicate input
Improves the ease of analysis/report writing
Improves communication between users
Benefits of a CMS
The following are all free, full-featured CMS systems. Their code can be manually
edited and are also customizable with widgets and plug-ins.
Wordpress: current version 2.9.2, started in 2003 as blogging software [web log].
It is the most popular CMS, and probably the most author-friendly and reader
friendly.
Drupal: is particularly customizable, adaptable, and powerful if you know how to
write and edit computer code languages, such as PHP (hypertext processor), CSS
(cascading style sheets) , Javascript, and HTML (hypertext markup language).
Drupal is probably the least user-friendly of the big three.
Joomla: also gives code editors the ability to flexibly customize a Web site by
manually entering code; it is more user-friendly than Drupal; it is less user-friendly
than Wordpress.
Examples of Open Source CMS
Others:
Movable Type, Typepad, Vox, Blogger, Tumblr, Silverstripe,
Clear Content, SquareSpace
Commercial CMS: are more technical and specific CMS; sold
and serviced by a company to other companies.
Proprietary CMS: When a company commissions experts to
create a CMS specifically for its own company, who then owns
and controls everything about it.
High School Journalism. Org: The CMS system, domain
name, and host site are all arranged for you—for free! This is a
public service of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
Examples (continued)
Tentatively choose a CMS (but don’t download it right away).
Some of the next steps may be influenced by what CMS you choose.
Get a Domain Name. Ours was obtained through our site provider.
See next step.
Determine a SITE to host your site: a computer in your classroom, a
school server, a remote computer at a commercial site? We chose a
third-party, commercial remote site called SiteGround: $48 per year,
includes domain name, installation of Wordpress, some tutorials and
support. Many other good ones exist.
Steps for Going Online
Choose a theme, template, or skin: Free or Premium?
Many templates are absolutely free. Premium themes sold by third-party
vendors cost from $30 to $100. Our premium Wordpress theme cost $60 from
an online company (in Belgium!). Some vendors that sell premium themes
will also arrange hosting, domain names, and various levels of technical
support in a deluxe package price. They will give you tutorials, email support,
phone support, or do it for you. The more you want, the more expensive the
package will cost.
Install your CMS on your site. SiteGround installed ours for us when we
signed up for site hosting. Other host sites will do the same.
Install your theme, template, or skin. After paying, we downloaded the
theme we purchased to our computer, then uploaded it to our site on
SiteGround. Not hard. Follow directions. We used Fetch (an FTP application
free to schools) to do this.
Steps (continued)
Post content right away.
*THIS MAY BE THE BEST TIP OF THIS TALK*
We made the mistake of trying to customize an empty site, and we wasted a lot of
time. We tried to make Wordpress do things it wasn’t designed to do, and it seemed
to us that things “didn’t work.” This was not the case. You will be more able to
change settings, customize the theme, and “design” the site if you FIRST
post lots of stories, photos, and ads into the database of the CMS.
THEN start to personalize the site.
To help us, we read FAQs and tutorials on the Wordpress site, watched video
tutorials, emailed questions to our premium theme provider, and read information
on JEADigitalMedia.org. We also read tech books from the local bookstore.
Keep Posting! Several posts per week, some short, some long.
Every post should have a graphic.
Keep Tinkering with design and setting. Trial and Error. After the creation of your
site, set a goal of doing two or three new things per month.
Steps (continued)
The Good More spot news
More news the readers can use
You will take and publish more photos
Greater timeliness. Publish every week, sometimes many times
Immediate gratification for an author motivates staff to be more productive
Publishing new kinds of content: Polls. Videos and podcasts to come soon. Possible links
with Facebook and Twitter
Immediate feedback in the form of blog comments
Automated measuring of the site’s traffic with Google Analytics (and others)
Parents and alumni have found our publication and like seeing it
Staff are learning 21st Century Technology and Journalism
Going Web Only Will Change theWay You Practice Journalism
The Not-So-Good
Staff do miss seeing students read a paper publication.
Some former readers haven’t crossed over to reading online.
Less control over graphics. You have to size and edit photos to fit a
specific size or pixel density.
Students are doing less design than when they used InDesign to make
a print publication.
It takes a concerted, deliberate promotional campaign to get readers to
view your work. And this never really ends. Must continue.
Not everyone has Internet access, or they don’t “carry” it around with
them.
“Old-Fashioned People” don’t know how to read us.
Posters around school
Announcements at assemblies
Contests!
Links from/to other sites
Facebook and Twitter
Publicize Your Web Site