Dave Morris » NewsOK

Using the green screen

David Morris — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:22:27 +0000

Sometimes on NewsOK you’ll see various advertising that is beyond the usual tile or banner. You may have seen the Oklahoma City Philharmonic or a choir “walk out” on the screen of your browser.

We use a green screen in the 7th floor studio, similar to what you see on the local TV stations’ weather segments. You can see in the above picture (click for larger image) Brad Belyeu with a cut-out basketball (yes, basketball) on his head. The newest walk-out ad is more of a “peel-away” ad that you’ll see at the top right corner of your browser.

The Thunder basketball bought this form of advertising on NewsOK and we’ll have it online soon.

Brad is a season ticket holder to the Thunder. We spent about an hour in the studio earlier this week working on this shot. Todd Fraser used C-stands usually meant for lights or shades to work as a window that pushes down; then draped it in green to keep the green screen effect.

NewsOK video gets a facelift

David Morris — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:36:05 +0000

Why the redesign? We produce 10-15 videos most days. They quickly rotate off the NewsOK home page. So the video landing page needed updating to better showcase the video library we’re growing.

Highlights:
- Featured videos up top. We have four of them.
- Latest or most recent videos are listed in order beneath the featured videos.
- Programming grid. On the right side of the video page you’ll find today’s programming. All of the videos on this page are taped, so the times you see are when we expect the videos to be posted online.

Clicking on the navigation will take you to specific video topics: news, business, sports, etc. On those pages, you’ll find (what else?) videos about news or sports or business, starting with the most recent up top in the play area and continuing with more videos down below. In the middle are the most popular videos as clicked on by you the user.

We also gave the video templates a new look. It’s much more like a YouTube video page. On the right side of each individual video, you’ll find related articles and related videos for more browsing.

Billy Sims apologizes

David Morris — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:29:40 +0000

Angi Bruss and I knocked up some quick Sooner headlines today. It’s a “format” you’ll be seeing more soon.

The video page on NewsOK will receive a new look, likely later this week. Angi and I will showcase various videos you should pay attention to, watch, know about, laugh at, or whatever.

We churn out about 10-15 videos a day. Unfortunately some good stuff rotates off the home page pretty quickly sometimes. The redesign aims to present video in an easy to use manner, but also to showcase our better stuff.

Learn what’s new at NewsOK

David Morris — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:22:15 +0000

Oklahoma’s largest Web site just launched its 10th redesign.

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The man behind NewsOK’s design

David Morris — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:24:27 +0000

It’s Scott Horton…

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NewsOK officially goes CleanSkies

David Morris — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:59:24 +0000

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Drudge Report linking to NewsOK’s storm coverage

David Morris — Sun, 25 May 2008 16:56:30 +0000

Ethan Cairns, one of OPUBCO’s ace programmers notes today:

The following article (http://newsok.com/article/3248344) about yesterday’s storms is linked to us from drudge. It’s already the number 1 story for the week with around 19k hits and about 23700 photo views in less than 24 hours.

The story looks great with the new article layout.

You’ll notice we have redesigned the article templates on NewsOK to showcase related multimedia elements like video and photos. We usually have video and photos that are related to articles, but sometimes haven’t been able to showcase them effectively. This new design will help.

NewsOK wins EPPY award

David Morris — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:19:39 +0000

Today NewsOK won another Editor and Publisher award. This time in the category of:

Best Special Feature in a Web Site — News or Event, with fewer than one million unique monthly visitors.

NewsOK won for Oklahoma Centennial.

The 2008 EPpy Awards — one of the nation’s most prized and long-running honors for online content — were presented today during a gala luncheon sponsored by the Knight Foundation, during the Editor & Publisher/Mediaweek Interactive Media Conference and Trade Show at the Rio in Las Vegas.

Here’s a full list of winners.

NewsOK nominated for EPpy award

David Morris — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 03:16:08 +0000

NewsOK has won numerous national awards. And it’s amazing to be nominated for national awards, to get that recognition. It’s even better to win, which we have been very fortunate to do.

This year, we’re up for another EPpy award, which is Editor and Publisher’s big online award.

NewsOK has been nominated for the Centennial site and coverage.

Best Special Feature in a Web Site – News or Event, with fewer than 1 million unique monthly visitors

* Arizona Daily Star’s iWait
* CaptureCincinnati.com, The Enquirer & Cincinnati.Com
* Oklahoma Centennial, NewsOK.com

Sean Sutton not fired over losses

David Morris — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:16:26 +0000

Lack of victories didn’t cost Sean Sutton his job. Lack of leadership did.

Good morning, I’m Dave Morris with a NewsOK.com update from The Oklahoman.

That was the headline on the front page of today’s Oklahoman. Berry Tramel
wrote OSU athletic director Mike Holder removed Sean not so much because of
two straight mediocre seasons, but because Holder didn’t believe things
would improve.

Read more online at NewsOK and in today’s Oklahoman.

Last night at the Ford Center, Tennessee beat Texas A&M 53-45 to advance to
the Women’s Final Four basketball tournament. Candace Parker led the Lady
Vols despite separating her shoulder. Twice.

Other news being reported by The Oklahoman this morning, Oklahoma County
locks people up at a higher rate than all but eight counties in the United
States despite chronic overcrowding at its jail, a study released Tuesday
shows.

Chances for thunderstorms return to Oklahoma today, but it should be another
day before severe weather is in the state.
In OKC today, Highs in the mid-50s. 40 percent chance of storms. Tomorrow,
highs in the 70s, 60 percent chance of storms.

Stay with NewsOK

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