Fall 2005 PDF - Milton Academy

puter) and read a piece. Bored? Procrastinating?Click over and read. Follow thehyperlinks. Computers are in most everyone’sgeneral environment.12. Length of articles: In spite of theopen-endedness of Web (length or articlescan be unlimited), editors are very consciousof attention span. Short (800words, about the length of a New YorkTimes op-ed piece) is the goal. Does thepiece need to be longer? It can be brokeninto two installments (the Web is notbound by a print schedule), or brokenapart in subsections, linked by hyperlinks.13. You always hear from readers.Readers write a blogpost or send an email.The friction level between them and aresponse is so low, they’ll click and comment.“You have no idea what you’re talkingabout, and here’s why.” Web writersare not different from print writers: theyenjoy heady satisfaction in having theirwriting stimulate response. And—theinteraction is often valuable.14. Where are the female bloggers orop-ed writers? Because the currency of theInternet is the hyperlink, and writers areconnecting to one another in what aredeveloping as groups and networks, arewe witnessing the emergence of a new“old boys club”?15. The promise of the Internet was thatit was a democratic medium; as establishedthus far, there’s a clear hierarchy.If your blog is linked from MSN, it getsmultiples of the highest level of connectionyou typically experience on your site.If you’re linked often, you’re big-time.Writers see numbers of click-throughs totheir articles. Those, plus numerousresponses, feed the journalistic ego.Cathleen EverettWeb Touring with Alice Dubois ’95Alice DuBois ’95 is a senior producer atthe New York Times Travel Web Site.Until this point, our job has been to presentthe Times’ stories in ways that breakthrough the constraints of the print versionand exploit the Web’s capabilities. We useaudio (often interviews of the author, orinterviews of the people the author has featuredin his piece) and video—slide showsthat expand the reader’s sense of place andexperience. Each of the stories that we featureon the Web site has previously beenprinted in the paper, vetted by the paper’seditors. We maintain archives of the NewYork Times articles and we license venueinformation from Fodor’s and want peopleto be able to use the site as a planning center.Along those lines we are also developingmultimedia destination guides: insider’sguides to cities. The Paris guide is done; theBeijing guide is nearly done; one on NewYork is in the works.The Web site has been a “take it or leave it”proposition for many of the Times departmentheads, but we all received a messagefrom Bill Keller, editor in chief, that beginningnow, the Web and the paper will beworking much more closely together.The initiative to link the two strategicallyhas been assigned to John Landman,deputy managing editor in charge of digitaljournalism.The drop in readership experienced by allmajor city newspapers makes other revenuesources, like the Web, important. TheTimes’ Travel Web site always has moreads available than we do page views, andthere’s great potential. I can see plenty ofopportunities that would open up if thepaper and the Web site approached storyideas together and planned joint coverage.The ways in which the paper and the Website are integrated remains to be seen. Thestaffs are in two different buildings now,and the plan is for us to be in the samenew building by 2007. Being in the samespace will change things.I never worked in journalism when I was astudent, but I’ve worked for the Travel Website for five years. It’s stimulating and fun;I work with interesting, smart people andcan combine a number of skills I enjoy—writing and photography—and gain technicalproficiency as well. At this point, thesite’s potential to grow seems guaranteed.Alice DuBois ’956 Milton Magazine