I found out about the crash through a text message alert from the San Diego Union Tribune. (That was progress in itself because most of their previous text alerts in the last year had been sports related.) If I had been logged into Twitter, I would have known about the crash through a KPBS tweet.
Within an hour after the crash, however, the Union Tribune's Web site, SignonSanDiego, had little more than a paragraph of information. Meantime, the local ABC affiliate, KGTV, was providing the best live coverage online, streaming video and interviews from the crash site.
When one of my students emailed an online editor at the Union Tribune telling him about KGTV's live coverage, the Union Tribune responded by linking to the KGTV video! Gone are the days when convergence meant a formal agreement had to be signed for media outlets to share resources.
This past year's State of the Media report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism made it clear: news is a service, not a product. Consumers are looking for the most reliable information when they log onto a media Web site. And at that critical time, KGTV was providing the best coverage - kudos to SignOn for recognizing that and not being afraid to merge!
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4 comments:
People expect crediable websites that they depend on to have the information.
It is of little importance how it got there but that it is there when they need it.
Partnership among media to break news will certainly be interesting to watch as journalism continues to evolve.
There will unlikely be room for competition that sacrifices the ability to have the story when the audience depends on it.
Well done.
I'd like to take your phrase "news is a service, not a product" and have T-shirts made for all my Union-Tribune colleagues.
It is this principle which should guide all of us today, print and online.
While Channel 10 was showing live streaming video of the horrible jet crash, we (the U-T/SignOn) were still running a stale blog item that said a jet had "apparently" crashed into a University City neighborhood.
That is why we decided to link to KGTV's video page.
I am reminded, especially at this time of year of the scene in the movie "Miracle on 34th Street" when RH Macy had his ah-ha moment, "If they can't find it at Macy's, send them to Gimbles."
A revolutionary thought then, and still one today. Bu as you said, if you are providing a service, linking to the competition is a no brainer.
Ultimately the readers will care only that they got the information they needed, when they needed it.
We win, KGTV wins, the readers win. Who can argue with that?
Bob Hawkins, news editor, SignOnSanDiego.com
Great job Bob and kudos to Katia for being the student who emailed Bob.
I love the Miracle on 34th Street reference! I just watched it with my daughter again and thought it was the perfect analogy for what is (or should) be the attitude of journalists online. Thanks for bringing it up - maybe I'll devote another post to it.
Hi
I am Sunesh from India
I am interested in the developments happening in the Online Media.
can u give me the links for the latest write ups abt the online media ?
mail me at suneshkrishnan@gmail.com
Regards
Sunesh
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