A note about weather closings and changing habits
On Wednesday night, the NewsOK WeatherWatch iPhone application was live on the app store. It was perfect timing, too, since Winter Storm 2010 was bearing down on the state.
Now, I don’t use an iPhone on a daily basis. I use my OPUBCO-issued Blackberry Curve (and I like it). My lovely wife Jenny, however, uses her iPhone daily, so I’m handy with the device (and I like iPhones, too).
I asked Jenny to download the app on Wednesday.
In classic skeptical style that only wives can pull off, she said ….
“Why do I need this app when I have weather on my phone already?”
“Just download it,” I replied. (OK … I said “please.”)
We went through the features on the app — the local blog, the local forecast, the daily forecast videos — and it was a good experience.
“Yeah, well … you need school closings and updates when the weather is bad,” she said.
“Click that button,” I said as I pointed.
Then we went through the Severe Weather page on the app, and saw the weather-related closings, the live chat, the Twitter feed and more.
Victory!
My wife now uses NewsOK Weather Watch as her weather app.
Here’s proof. I woke up Thursday morning and was getting ready for the morning routine — getting three kids to day care and getting them ready for school.
Jenny had already said good-bye to the children as she scooted to work, and we didn’t speak about the weather that morning. As I noticed my 9-year-old lolly-gagging around the living room, I ordered him to begin making his PB&J (because he won’t eat anything that the school chef — yes, chef — makes).
“We don’t have school today,” the 9-year-old said.
Interesting. No school means no PB&J. He can eat lunch at the day-care facility.
“How do you know?” I asked like a good journalist should.
“Mom said so. It was on her phone.”
The app!
I checked NewsOK Mobile on my Blackberry as I put on my shoes. There it was — “Edmond Public Schools, closed Thursday.” The story was confirmed.
As I reflect on our weather coverage over the past couple days, I remember the story of Thursday morning most of all. It shows how our media habits are constantly changing. I use my mobile device for NewsOK news updates, for reading NewsOK’s live chat during Oklahoma City Thunder games, for keeping up with the NBA scoreboard on ESPN, for reading Berry Tramel’s blog, for posting on Facebook.
And the habits can change overnight. Jenny used the NewsOK WeatherWatch app and alerted our children that school was canceled (next time, I hope she tells me). I used my mobile device to confirm the news (never trust a 9-year-old about school cancellations).
We never opened a laptop, never turned on a computer and never turned on a television.
Something is going on with Apple
Yesterday, I saw this post on Twitter – only because someone I follow re-tweeted it:
OK, the newborn next door and my dead grandfather have finally released their Apple Tablet Speculation articles. Phew, that’s everyone ever.
This post came from Jason Santa Maria from Brooklyn, N.Y. It was one of many clever posts on Twitter about the impending announcement today at noon. We can expect today’s announcement about the tablet (or whatever it is) to be as exciting as the one more than 25 years ago.
We’ve come a long way.
Screwdrivers, condoms and Penguin Boy — just another NewsOK feature
I read this paragraph last week on NewsOK.com:
Penguin Boy makes the most of it. He moves around the stage, letting people see that he does, in fact, have a common household tool buried in his nasal cavity. Then he pulls the screwdriver out, and the condom remains in his nose.
It’s an interesting excerpt – an excerpt that make it very difficult to not click on the image below to read the entire story.
The story is from reporter Ken Raymond, who spent an evening with a group of self-described freaks. Ken learned a little about what makes the individuals in the traveling group tick, and he shared his insights and their stories with us as part of the ongoing nDepth: People series.
The series on People will grow, as will our entire nDepth series in 2010. Look for more installments as the year goes on.
In the meantime, enjoy the freak show.
Jenni Carlson – Listening to the audience; defending the city
I posted a couple weeks ago about Oklahoma City Thunder reporter Darnell Mayberry’s impact on his audience — Thunder fans and Thunder players.
Today, I’ll post about another star sports reporter that continues to supply our audience with opinions, features and reports on all mediums.
I heard yesterday about how Sports Illustrated was featuring the Thunder’s Kevin Durant in this week’s issue. I heard that the reporter said the same tired tales about our awesome city. I bet we have a take on this tomorrow, I thought to myself.
Then I saw this:
That’s what’s great about Jenni Carlson. She has great instincts about what our community is talking about.
Why?
Simple. Because she listens.
She listens on Twitter – @jennicarlson. She listens on her blog. She listens on her radio show.
And then, just like Darnell, she appears with reports and opinions and features in any way she can reach you – video, blogging, columns, articles, live chats, Twitter, etc.
MLK page, video worth seeing on NewsOK
Photographer Sarah Phipps spent some time last week getting content organized for a special presentation on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
The holiday was yesterday, and we unveiled the project for our typically high audience on Monday morning.
The centerpiece of the project is Sarah’s video of students at Millwood Arts Academy reciting King’s historic speech. That video is worth a click, if nothing else. I’ll guarantee this – it’s impossible to watch that video and not feel happier when it’s over than when it began. Impossible.
Sarah has also put together two slideshows about businesses and people that she found an featured along Martin Luther King Ave. in Oklahoma City. The first slideshow is from Lincoln Senior Center at 4712 N. MLK Ave. The second slideshow is from Carican Flavors at 4701 N. MLK Ave.
She also produced a photo gallery to go along with a series of articles covering the holiday in Oklahoma. You can see it all in one place on our MLK holiday page.
Replay the breaking news chat about morning earthquakes
Earthquakes in Oklahoma startled much of the Oklahoma City area this morning. I was pulled out of a meeting to discuss how to cover the updated news we were getting on NewsOK.
After discussing with News Director Robby Trammell and reporters on our breaking news team, we quickly started a live chat to share the information we were confirming and speak with our audience about their experiences.
You can replay the chat below. Web editor Dane Beavers moderated while taking information from reporters Robert Medley, Johnny Johnson and weather blogger Bryan Painter.
I’m a C student of NewsOK
I took the weekly NewsOK quiz this morning. I thought I was doing pretty well. I knew a bunch of answers.
Then I finished and received the news.
Your score is 72 out of 100
I’m average.
It’s kind of embarrassing. I spend my days looking at the news and responsible for the news on NewsOK. But when I’m asked about specifics in the news the following Monday, I can only get about 3 out of 4 questions.
I’ll try again next week. In the meantime, take today’s quiz and see if you can do better than 72 percent.
Some great thoughts on remembering Jim Chastain
On Dec. 23, 2009, Jim Chastain died.
From the NewsOK obit:
Jim Chastain, whose fight for survival was chronicled in The Oklahoman and on NewsOK.com, died Wednesday night after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 46.
You can read much more on our “Life is Real” page on NewsOK, which we began in early of 2009. Poetically, it ended near the end of 2009.
When I first met Jim, he stated that if he can accomplish anything with his blog about living with terminal cancer, he can remind people that ‘life is real.’ Unfortunately, I have to summarize the quote because I didn’t write it word for word, but his way of saying it was much more eloquent. All I know is that it struck me as a simple and powerful statement and a noble objective.
Here are some excerpts from the “Life is Real” page after Jim’s death.
From Charlotte Lankard’s story about Jim:
Just once more, I’d like to sit across from him having a cup of coffee. Just once more, I’d like to hear him read poetry to me. Just once more I’d like to hear him brag on LeAnn, Maddye and Ford. Just once more I’d like to share a hug.
From JJ in OKC on Jim’s online Guestbook:
I never knew Jim but followed his blog religiously. His approach to fighting this terrible disease with honesty and humor was truly amazing. After recently going through the same thing with my Mom, I could empathize every step of the way. Even though some of his entries were hard to read (I laughed and cried with each), the way he dealt with his cancer helped me deal with my grief. Thanks Jim! You will be missed.
From Charlotte Lankard’s blog post, which showcases the farewell poem from Jim:
I’d been wanting to write a poem that says goodbye, but spares readers from the melodrama of poems that say goodbye.
This resulted in writer’s block, for the thought that these might be the actual words that would someday be read at my funeral made me creatively constipated.
And my personal favorite, a comment from on Jim’s blog, where we shared the information about the memorial service:
Jim Chastain’s courage and humor in sharing his and his family’s journey with cancer have brought me stamina and admiration. I take exception with the posting titled “Jim Chastain has died.” Instead I say, now Jim begins to really live. He is truly free of all pain of his disease and the worries of this life. True he leaves his family, his many friends, and his readers small in his wake, but as for me, I am much richer for having read his words, his poetry, his news stories. I say, here was a hero in our midst who demonstrated to us all what it is like to live like each day might be your last. Fly away, sweet Jim! May God’s angels wing thee to thy rest.
Review 2009 before January is over
It’s not too late to take a close look at the news that shaped our coverage in 2009.
At NewsOK, we took a close look at the stories that our audience read and the news that we think made an impact. We voted within our newsroom and we tallied the votes (via page views) from our audience. We ended with 40 stories of 2009 in a variety of categories.
It’s fun to cycle through all the stories. And as far as pages with 40 pieces of content go, this one is pretty easy to sift through.
Enjoy the 2009 page. We’re starting to shift our focus to how we’ll handle the 2010 page now.
Learning things on the Twitter neighborhood
I use Twitter.
And when I say use, I mean use.
I probably don’t interact enough to be a real part of the Twitter community. So the way I interact with my Twitter community is kind of like the way I interact with my real-life neighborhood — I’m there and seem nice enough, but what do they really know about me?
That said, I love using Twitter. I’ve said out loud that you can learn things (sometimes true; sometimes not so true) faster on the Twitter stream than you can anywhere else, and I don’t think that’s going to change.
That said, who you follow says a lot about you. And knowing it fast and knowing it right are sometimes – sometimes - the same things.
But when you follow reporters like our own NBA beat reporter Darnell Mayberry, “Fast” and “Right” are always the same things.
Take today, for example. I learned from Darnell that Kevin Durant was honored as the conference player of the week. 
Kevin Durant has been named Western Conference Player of the Week for Dec. 28 through Jan. 3. #OKCTHUNDER
That’s nifty and all. But what was really cool was that Kevin Durant himself appeared to learn the same thing at the same time I did.
@DarnellMayberry forreal?
And with that public exchange, we learn that Kevin Durant is not the first person the NBA calls when it names a player of the week.
Darnell is doing his job, which he does as well as anyone in the country. He’s letting the world know what he knows about the Oklahoma City Thunder. He does it in The Oklahoman, on NewsOK, on his twitter account, on NewsOK videos, on NewsOK podcasts and on his Thunder Rumblings blog. He’s everywhere.
Kevin Durant is doing what he does. He’s scoring lots of points and connecting with his fans in Oklahoma City and around the world.
I did what I do. I use Twitter and learn from the community, which includes the experts on NewsOK.
And then I wave and politely smile to those passing by in my neighborhood.
