4-26-09: The never-ending deadline
By: Andrew Bruner
Issue date: 4/24/09 Section: Editor's blog
Thanks to The DePauw e-mail alerts (which you can sign up for under "Register" on the left side of the page) the audio of the media conference wasn't just sitting on the site for people to stumble across; I was able to alert our registered online followers that breaking news was available for them to hear.
After posting the audio around 6 p.m., I started writing a story on the budget announcement and other trustee activities, and got that posted around 8 p.m.
The conference went from a small room in the Union Building to the ears and eyes of DePauw news junkies in four hours. Given the costliness of setting up to broadcast the media conference on TV or radio, that's as close to live as we can get for the time being.
The obvious difficulty with the never-ending deadline is that it makes it harder to coordinate the editing process. When the reporter, section editor, copy editor, managing editor and editor in chief are all in a room together, it's pretty easy to move a story through the editing process in a couple hours. But when the reporter is on the scene with a laptop while the copy editor is potentially off-campus and the tired editor in chief is sleeping (ha!), things get tougher.
The answer I hope The DePauw shuns in the future is simply letting things go online without editing. But I confess that in both the cases mentioned above - Little 5 and the trustee media conference - that's exactly what happened.
The DePauw owes its online audience the same attention to accuracy that our print readers get, and accomplishing that is something the staff will still be working on well after I graduate in a few weeks.
There may be bumps along the way, but the goal is that news about this small university in Greencastle, Ind. will no longer be published on Tuesdays and Fridays, but will be available online as events happen.
Consider it an adventure, and you're along for the ride.
After posting the audio around 6 p.m., I started writing a story on the budget announcement and other trustee activities, and got that posted around 8 p.m.
The conference went from a small room in the Union Building to the ears and eyes of DePauw news junkies in four hours. Given the costliness of setting up to broadcast the media conference on TV or radio, that's as close to live as we can get for the time being.
The obvious difficulty with the never-ending deadline is that it makes it harder to coordinate the editing process. When the reporter, section editor, copy editor, managing editor and editor in chief are all in a room together, it's pretty easy to move a story through the editing process in a couple hours. But when the reporter is on the scene with a laptop while the copy editor is potentially off-campus and the tired editor in chief is sleeping (ha!), things get tougher.
The answer I hope The DePauw shuns in the future is simply letting things go online without editing. But I confess that in both the cases mentioned above - Little 5 and the trustee media conference - that's exactly what happened.
The DePauw owes its online audience the same attention to accuracy that our print readers get, and accomplishing that is something the staff will still be working on well after I graduate in a few weeks.
There may be bumps along the way, but the goal is that news about this small university in Greencastle, Ind. will no longer be published on Tuesdays and Fridays, but will be available online as events happen.
Consider it an adventure, and you're along for the ride.
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