Oct. 9, 2006

By MARK BRIGGS
The (Tacoma) News-Tribune

Gasoline continues to be a front-page story, but rarely (if ever) does the coverage go deep to explore the path from the well to the pump. A recent investigative project launched as a four-day series in print attempted to do just that, but the online presentation is where the story really shines.

Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Salopek and photographer Kuni Takahashi traveled to the distant sources of the gas that customers at a Marathon in South Elgin, Ill., were pumping into their cars. It took "guidance from international energy analysts, oil tanker shipping firms, trucking companies and harbor masters on two continents – not to mention logistical help from African chieftains, Venezuelan dissidents and a British security company" to get the story, according to the project's website.

A Frontline-style documentary introduction sets up the project in just a few minutes. All four chapters also have their own documentary videos, allowing the audience to access the rich reportage through different media.

And the videos are not the amateur, "ain't it cool we can do video" quality found on much of the web. Multi-layered footage weaves through and around interviews with Salopek and other key sources and the writing is crisp and concise.

The icing on the cake is the nifty counter that shows have many barrels of oil the U.S. has consumed since you first came to the site.

Visit Oil: A Travelogue of Addiction

Read about the project with a click here.

Other great multimedia projects recently launched:

• The Battle for 4949 Swiss: This report looks into the case of Mary Ellen Bendtsen to expose the problem of financial exploitation of the elderly.

• The Homestand: "Turning a trip to Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium into a special experience is an around-the-clock job for the club's many employees." This Roanoke Times special project features excellent audio slideshow integration.

•  Tracks to Freedom: An Ottawa Citizen reporter retraces the Underground Railroad from Kentucky to Ontario. A guestbook "signed" by readers is presented with Flash-based page turning.

Does your paper have a cool new multimedia project? Drop Mark Briggs a line at mark.briggs@thenewstribune.com.

An ambitious project at the Washington Post lets you track the mud as it slings. A database breaks down those 30-second spots we'll be seeing more and more of as Election Day nears, noting the tone, the music, the gender of narrator, the issue, the characters and more.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has launched a new Web site aimed at that ever-elusive younger market. It's called www.vita.mn, and, according to Ken Riddick, is "an interesting new twist on reaching new audiences: part publication, part application."

"While we will be utilizing some of our tried-and-true publishing of StarTribune entertainment stories, the true success of the site will be demonstrated by the audience's participation," said Riddick, vice president for Interactive Media. "We invite them to write reviews, create lists, tag stories with their own keywords, even re-write guides. They can save stuff that is relevant to them, like favorite venues, restaurants, etc. And, hopefully, they will communicate among themselves in many valuable ways, too."

Matt Thompson, co-creator of the Epic video that made the rounds a couple years ago, led the development for the site. Thompson, deputy editor for StarTribune.com, described the purpose: "Vita.mn is your ultimate guide to what's going on in the Twin Cities. Here you can connect with other locals to share thoughts and recommendations on Twin Cities hotspots and happenings."

Several reports focusing on the newspaper industry in the age of the Internet were released recently. Here's a glance at three of them:

• Newspaper Next, a yearlong project led by the American Press Institute, sought to "develop tools and processes newspaper companies would need to reverse course from decline to growth." Its report, "Newspaper Next: Blueprint for Transformation," is available as a free electronic file or a printed copy ($50 for corporate API members, $100 for nonmembers).

• Scarborough Research recently released a report with a positive-sounding title: "Newspapers Are Successfully Extending Their Audience Online." Among the key findings: Newspaper websites are contributing significant numbers of readers who do not necessarily read the printed editions, and newspapers across the board are successfully attracting 18-34 year-olds to their websites.

• The Pew Internet and American Life Project released The Future of the Internet II is a compilation of predictions by more than 700 internet "leaders, activists and analysts." Among the findings that jumped out after a quick glance:

— News organizations and publishing were voted most likely to undergo "radical change" during the next 10 year. Religion was voted least likely.

— Only 13 percent of people in a separate survey know what podcasting is and only 9 percent of people "have a good idea" about RSS.

In a sign of the times, the most authoritative source for newspaper blogs has been rendered nearly obsolete with the flood of blogs that papers have launched in 2006. Jon Dube started the list of newspaper blogs a few years ago on his web site, Cyberjournalist.net. Today it lists 189 blogs, which is just the tip of the iceberg on this ever-growing landscape.

"I'm still updating it, but sporadically as time permits, and mostly with people who send in blogs at this point, rather than me hunting them down," Dube said via e-mail. "It's impossible to track all of them. However, while it's not complete, it's still the largest list out there and is a good reflection of the diversity of blogs out there."

Some interesting newspaper blogs that have come on the scene include:

• The Fifth Down: New York Times staff members, along with outside experts, invite readers to join them in exploring fantasy football as a strategic pursuit, a social phenomenon and an all-consuming diversion.

• The Future of the Newsroom: Spokane Spokesman-Review senior editor Carla Savalli is on a 3-month assignment to develop a prototype for a 21st century newsroom.

• Stuck in the 80s: Relive the music, movies and culture of the greatest decade ever with St. Petersburg Times online editor Steve Spears. The blog was recently earned an Online News Association award for online commentary.

Does your paper have an interesting new blog? Drop me a line at mark.briggs@thenewstribune.com.