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Feb. 7, 2007

Dear APME Sounding Board members,

The year's first survey on multimedia issues got 13 responses, ranging from members just getting into New Media to others with highly developed strategies. Several panelists mentioned a prime need for more video to meet a burgeoning public appetite for visual news.

To illustrate the wealth of local material they're putting online, several panelists included these and other links:

■ Multimedia project:
www.azstarnet.com/secureborder

■ Audio photo galleries:
jordan.fortwayne.com/ns/photo/aram and
lpe.ajc.com/gallery/view/metro/0107/nikki

■ Multimedia directory:
www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/special_reports.html

■ Video feature:
Full Throttle with the Blue Angels:
www.ajc.com/news/mplayer/features/6454

Lou Ferrara, AP's deputy managing editor for multimedia, drew these conclusions from the survey and noted the breadth of AP's online content for members' needs:

The responses demonstrate clearly that newspapers are in the midst of massive change and are looking for the best ways to take advantage of multimedia and online video. The AP provides an array of content in the form of photo slideshows with audio, online video and interactive graphics. Members who use the AP's Hosted news platform receive these as part of that package. Others acquire multimedia features and video from the AP through other services.

It's evident that newspapers need to focus on what exactly their strategy is going to be for online and what role multimedia plays. Multimedia has the potential to create stickiness to newspaper Web sites and increase the amount of time spent on sites. However, editors of newspapers will need to focus on where to put their resources to take advantage of that. The AP can clearly provide lots of material on national, international and regional stories that would free resources at news sites to focus on multimedia that may be of local interest.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and plans with the APME Sounding Board. Your full responses are being shared with AP senior editors and will be posted at the Sounding Board link on the APME Web site.

— Dave Minthorn

John Bolton, online editor, Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

Circulation: 109,748 daily, 168,227 Sunday.

1. What do you find most useful among AP's multimedia offerings? What would you like to see more of?

The interactive web applications and "country profile" type apps are good to have; I like having the background and history on some topics that come up in the news pretty often. We also use the major sports interactives (Triple Crown, etc.) More audio slide shows would be good.

2. Has your organization set specific goals on the number of stories that are to have multimedia each week or month? If so, how many?

No specific goals related just to multimedia; we want some kind of "additional online content" for at least two of our front-page stories daily.

3. Do you have teams dedicated to multimedia in your newsroom, or is it spread throughout the entire newsroom, or both?

Our online employees shoot video regularly, and a few newsroom people are cross-trained for video. Numerous reporters and photographers collect audio, mostly for audio-photo galleries. Very little Flash work is being done here right now.

4. What type of stories are you applying multimedia to the most? Please provide specific examples of recent successes.

We shoot video at press conferences of high-profile sports. We also shoot video for many of our projects. One recent success was the demolition of some historic copper-smelter smokestacks, which gave us not only the "down with a crash" video but also the opportunity for a historical look at a dying industry that was once the backbone of the area's economy. (www.azstarnet.com/special/sanmanuel)

We had extensive multimedia components in a recent project "Sealing Our Border: Why it Won't Work": www.azstarnet.com/secureborder

5. What type of multimedia is showing the greatest demand from your users and readers? (Examples: Video, motion graphics, interactives, audio.)

Audio slide shows get high traffic. Some videos are doing well.

D. Reed Eckhardt, managing editor, Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne

Circulation: 18,000 Sunday, 15,500 daily.

1. Unfortunately, multimedia is barely on our radar screen as our Web site strategy remains mired in conflict between news, advertising and circulation. At this point, we use none of AP's offerings.

2. No.

3. Multimedia is used only on a rare basis with specific projects. Generally handled by one reporter who has the skills.

4. Larger enterprise pieces that lend themselves to this coverage. Big work last year was coverage of a reporter's participation in an Xtreme race in Utah.

5. Not using it enough to really say.

Caleb Cook, wire editor, and Keith Hitchens, New Media and technology manager, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.

Circulation: 25,000-30,000 daily.

1. Online audio reports offered to the papers. Still/audio slide shows of nation/regional events

2. No set number goals.

3. No, done mainly by the photo department.

4. Features: jordan.fortwayne.com/ns/photo/aram

Sports: fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/video/komets and fwnextweb1.fortwayne.com/ns/sports/kometplayers/kometcast.php

5. Audio slideshows

Mike Goheen, online director, Cox Ohio, including Dayton Daily News, Springfield News-Sun, two other community dailies and five weekies in southwest Ohio

We handle online production for all the Cox Ohio papers from Dayton, which gives our smaller papers some "trickle-down" benefits from the metro operation in Dayton. We have some multimedia producers in Dayton whose work filters out to our community papers as appropriate. We also have newsroom staff at the community papers producing multimedia that winds up on the Dayton site.

1. Of AP's multimedia offerings that we have available, we occasionally use national "hard-news" video. Our sites do their best traffic on local offerings, so we tend to keep AP offerings on secondary pages like "nation-world." The most recent thing that we've used on our homepages was video of the Saddam Hussein execution.

What we'd like to see more of: Of the things the AP is best positioned to produce, I think our readers would respond best to offerings on "softer" national events like the Oscars, Super Bowl and celebrity news. Essentially video or multimedia presentations on "talk stories."

2. No. We have begun a process that will lead to such goals by the end of the year, however.

3. Both. We have page designers who build Flash alongside their print pages and we have dedicated video reporters and videographers. Other staff members contribute as well. Again, we are starting a process to make multimedia thinking part of the jobs of everyone in all of our newsrooms.

4. We're currently working most on "evergreen" and "advanceable" topics. Examples: Flash presentations on learning to ski or video on fan reaction the the Ohio State loss in the BCS championship game. Particularly with interactive animations, we prefer to put the work into topics that can have a decent "shelf life" on our site instead of "one shot" news graphics.

5. We've seen no trend and heard nothing from readers on which media types are preferred. Site users are coming for the content – we just try to use a media type that is appropriate to the topic at hand and get on with the production.

Stanley Farrar, executive producer/seattletimes.com

Circulation: weekdays: 232,124.

1. The most useful elements were AP hosted clips of audio or video. (http://play.rbn.com/?url=ap/waset/g2demand/1127dvs_bush_
twins_soccer_SS.rm&proto=rtsp&mode=compact) Not through the AP player, just clips we can directly link to, like MP3s, FLVs, RM, WM, MOV.

Ideally, we'd like non-AP branded Flash pieces. Of course the AP would get the credit, but we'd like to be able to integrate into our site and have it match our style.

2. No, we haven't set any goals and aren't likely to. We expect to choose and prioritize all the content, including multimedia, based on what's best for our readers, regardless of the form it's in.

3. No, we don't have multimedia teams. A couple of producers have taken the lead in developing new skills but almost all of them have been involved in some way in multimedia projects. We've developed skills in reporters and photographers who have an interest in using multimedia with stories where it makes sense but none are assigned as specialists.

4. Breaking news stories: Flooding, shooting, video of important speeches.

The flip side are the non-deadline driven pieces, usually from the features section. Multimedia is perfect for the Super Bowl, Oscars, etc.

5. It depends. We have evergreen packages that through the features will collectively have big impact. Then there are stand alone quick pieces that have impact, without draining our resources. EX. SoundsSlides, video, reader-generated content.

Julie Shirley, news editor, and Laura Sparks, multimedia editor, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison

1. We don't subscribe to AP multimedia. Would like a la cart offerings.

2. No specific quota.

3. Both.

4. Local sports, features and news. UW football Capital One Bowl preview. Audio slideshow on a historic 1960s-era food co-op closing its doors. Video of city Halloween festivities that in recent years have resulted in violence.

5. Audio slideshows and video

Kevin Whitmer, managing editor, enterprise, The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.

1. N/A for my newsroom. NJ.com catches your content directly and they are in a different building.

2. Despite above, we still generate a lot of multimedia content (mostly video and audio slideshows) that feeds NJ.com. We don't have specific goals, but it's getting close to a daily occurrence.

3. We currently have one dedicated team (jn photo) that's multimedia. Everyone else is learning as we go and continue with tradtional responsibilities.

4. We're doing a lot with high school sports and events that offer the best access for video. We've launched an independent Web site so our video efforts and audio slideshows live forever – or at least a lot longer than they would on a traditional news site. This new site, www.tvjersey.com, is in its infancy but we're encouraged by what we're hearing.

5. Video. Video. Video.

Ken Duhe, news editor, and Frieda Yarbrough, new media director, The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.

Circulation: 100,000 daily, 135,000 Sunday.

1. The interactive maps on national and international stories are best. They work well and save on resources we're short on.

2. No. Cost is the only real factor right now. Multimedia requires more broadband use and more broadband use means more money spent. Right now, we're spending an extra $2,000 a month on broadband use which we have determined is partially caused by multimedia use by visitors.

3. I'm not sure what the Advocate newsroom will eventually do, but the entire Online team (which is separate from the newsroom) works on multimedia offerings for both ads and news. Since our Web site is converged with WBRZ, the Online team is a separate entity from either newsroom. Online has the authority to decide on what to post from both print and television sources.

The newsroom is taking baby steps in developing our own multimedia stories. Our first few attempts have been hampered by a lack of time, people and training. A recently appointed assistant managing editor has been assigned to explore the multimedia possibilities, so I expect we will be more aggressively pursuing multimedia projects in 2007.

4. Right now, more sports and national stories than local ones. LSU and Saints football flashbacks top the list of most viewed.

5. Our video system needs updating, so viewership is slipping there on local video. AP interactive maps are well visited. Local morning audio podcasts are received well.

Steve Brody, wire editor, Lancaster (Pa.) New Era

Circulation: about 41,000.

1. Online, we now use photos with only some AP stories. We would like to incorporate video and other graphic elements as stories warrant.

2. Not that I am aware of.

3. We have an online producer who works with editors in placing local news and photos on our Web site, Lancasteronline. We are working toward adding video shot by our reporters. In this sense it is spreading through the newsroom. (Even though I am the wire editor, I am not involved in posting AP material on our Web site.)

4. The top local news stories. Our series on the Amish school shootings here was an online success, drawing readers from all over.

5. Video.

Tim Burke, deputy managing editor, The Palm Beach Post

1. We've been using mostly the interactives, audio slide shows and video to supplement coverage of major national stories such. In recent weeks we've linked into AP's multimedia for Gerald Ford's death, Super Bowl and Barbaro's death. We'd like to see more interactive graphics to enhance national stories. An example may be an interactive explainer about a space shuttle mission that shows different tests the astronauts would be performing.

2. No.

3. All of our 10 newsroom Web producers have basic skills, including four that have varying degrees of advanced skills such as Flash and video training. Dozens within the newsroom have participated in workshops on capturing audio and our aim is to train more print employees on specific multimedia tasks such as video and Flash.

4. Anything from major stories such as the BCS title game in which we did three audio slides shows and video to daily features that lend themselves to be told with audio and video.

Two of our biggest projects recently were Triumph Through Tragedy, which followed an area high school football team through its season and was told in 20 audio slideshows, video interviews and hundreds of photos, and a special presentation on Central American immigrants who were jumping trains in hopes of reaching the United States, which was produced in English and Spanish. See both along with all of our multimedia features here:

www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/special_reports.html

5. The visual-driven projects such as audio slideshows and original video do well for us, however, we're hoping to build our talents and interest in more local video and graphics.

Traci Bauer, managing editor/multimedia and innovation, Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y.

Circulation: 167,000 daily, 225,000 Sunday.

1. Most useful: Charts and graphics quickly with breaking news. More of: Video with enterprise.

2. No.

3. We have a dedicated team that specializes in multimedia but updating with photos/news stories is spread throughout the operation.

4. We're providing more databases with enterprise, storytelling through photos and audio slide shows, standalone video stories and interactive graphics. Recent successes: A database of police salaries with a project on overtime; hundreds of photos in galleries following the dance and cheerleading competition, a Flash interactive featuring victims of all Rochester homicides in 2007, an interactive graphic for the new Health section on botox procedures.

5. Video numbers are climbing rapidly and photo galleries (including user-submitted galleries) bring in most traffic. In some cases, documents attached to stories (PDFs) are getting very good traffic. Interactive graphics and audio are very low still.

Dave Butler, editor and publisher, and Nancy Hanus, director of New Media, The Detroit News

1. The multimedia pieces that are not specific to one story are more useful, and we'd like to see more of them. Ones that live for only one day or have a very short shelf life just aren't as useful.

2. We do not have specific requirements; we ask that each story's reporter or team consider multimedia in the same way they consider whether a story needs photo, graphics, fact boxes. As a result, we have increased, steadily, the number of videos, audio slideshows, photo galleries, interactive graphics and multimedia packages over the past year, so that almost without fail we have had more in any particular month than we have the previous month.

3. We have certain people in each department who specialize in audio, video, flash, interactive graphics. But we are trying to spread this capability as far and wide as possible, and have made it clear that if a reporter or editor wants to learn how to edit video or do an audio slideshow, we will teach them.

4. Sports has been a huge area for photo galleries, and in big sports stories we try to do video as much as possible. Specifically, we did video of big prep football games last fall, and during the World Series we did a string of fan-related videos (although we were restricted from videotaping inside the stadium itself). We also have done a great deal of audio, especially of auto industry executives, sports figures and personalities such as Bob Seger or Kid Rock or Ernie Harwell.

5. Audio gets the most clicks of any of the things mentioned, but video demand continues to grow at a fast rate. Interactive graphics are relatively new as a regular part of our site, but are showing great response when the material they represent is in a key topic area such as commuting. For example, we did an flash graphic showing alternate ways to travel after the shutdown of a major freeway in Detroit. That continues to get great traffic.

Emily Murphy, multimedia director, ajc.com. The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Ga.

1. We use your graphics to cover topics we do not have the time and resources to cover – topics our users have a vested interest in. In particular, the AP graphics and data from election night 2006 were vital for our national coverage.

2. No, we do not have a set number that we aim for each week or month. Each week, we meet to discuss the stories and events that are going to take place, determine which ones will work best online, assess the time and resources we have and then determine which ones we will assign and commit to producing.

3. Both. We have a small multimedia department for ajc.com, dedicated to producing video and multimedia pieces for the site. I work closely with the ajc.com design manager and a flash developer for many of our interactives for special projects. I have been working with our online photo editor to train our photographers to gather and edit audio, produce audio slideshows using Soundslides and shoot and edit video. Our NewsArt (graphics) department is also working on Flash presentations. Some reporters gather audio and edit it for use on the web, while others gather audio and I edit it. We have one reporter who is now producing his own audio slideshows for his beat. The key is educating the newsroom about the right times to use audio, video and multimedia online.

4. We are using multimedia for everything from breaking news to more invovled projects. We tend to do more features and sports packaging because the traffic they receive warrants that time investment.

1) Features – In September 2006, a panda was born at Zoo Atlanta and weekly video of the cub has been very popular. We also have a blog and photo galleries and the coverage has been well received.

Links:
http://www.ajc.com/news/mplayer/panda cub /7118
www.ajc.com/living/content/shared-blogs/ajc/pandas/entries/
2007/02/01/mei_lan_another_winter_storm.html

2) News events – James Brown's funeral service in Augusta, Ga., continues to drive traffic, even a month after his death.

Link: lpe.ajc.com/gallery/view/living/1206/jamesbrownfinalfarewell

3) Features – We find that our video does best when it is amusing and light. These are three examples:

Features – 2007 Swimsuit Shoot:
http://www.ajc.com/news/mplayer/features/7226

Features – Full Throttle with the Blue Angel:
http://www.ajc.com/news/mplayer/features/6454

Sports – Video we receive from users – high football rap video:
http://www.ajc.com/news/mplayer/sports/6239

5. Our goal is prioritize the stories and projects we take on, assess the elements we will have and package them in the most logical way – so we provide the best possible user experience that will engage our audience. We look closely at the traffic our multimedia pieces generate and that helpsus determine the best way to approach different stories.

Photo galleries drive the most page views on the site. But we are seeing a growing appetite for multimedia.

Video is quite popular. We have just launched an embedded Flash video player and we are beginning to create more of our own video and that is paying off.

Interactive games and quizzes: These perform well on ajc.com. We have templates for quizzes that allow producers to update xml and generate a new quiz. This was a celebrity pets match game that received a lot of traffic:

www.ajc.com/living/content/living/stories/celebritypetsmatch.html and www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/falcons/stories/
2007/01/11/petrinosong.html

Audio photo galleries: These are also very successful and we are producing a couple a week with Soundslides. This is a recent example from one of our photographers who wrote the story, shot the photos, gathered the audio and produced the audio photo gallery.

http://lpe.ajc.com/gallery/view/metro/0107/nikki

Audio: When we use audio tied to news events, it is successful. We used audio when audio was the story with Falcons' former coach Jim Mora and with his replacement, Bobby Petrino.

www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/falcons/stories/
2006/12/15/1215moraradio.html

Motion graphics are time consuming and they do not always warrant the time investment.

Dave Minthorn, manager, AP News Administration, coordinates the questions and answers. Newspaper editors wishing to suggest a topic can send an e-mail to Minthorn at dminthorn@ap.org.

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