Places – exploring interesting spots in Oklahoma
Last week, we launched a project on NewsOK that has a simple name.
It’s called “Places.”
We launched with nine entries on the Places Web site. We’re going to add more each week. The goal is stated on the Places home page: “Accompany The Oklahoman’s writers and photographers as they investigate some of our state’s most intriguing places — seeing what they see, hearing what they hear and feeling what they feel.”
We think it’s pretty cool right now. But we think it will be a really cool site to visit and come back to as we add dozens and dozens of more entries into the site. We’ve already added one more this week - The Architectural Antiques and Dead People’s Stuff.
We’ve had some excellent feedback on the project, as well. Most of it is aimed at the lead writer for the project – Ken Raymond.
How enjoyable it was to read such creative writing being used to tell such a compelling story. Senior staff writer Ken Raymond did an excellent job of pulling a sad and dirty story together into a very intense word picture which read so well that I felt as though I was looking through a camera lens.
And there’s this thought from a very appreciative reader:
Your writing is appreciated. Thank you!! Your style reminds me of Rick Braggs “All over but the shoutin”—one of my favorites.
And this one – another person who read some of the entries in the newspaper:
I enjoyed your piece in yesterday’s paper, “Folks of all stations ride the bus.” It was well-written and interesting. I’ll watch for your by-line again.
We also had one who found us on NewsOK.
I am very excited about this new series, Explore at Places.NewsOK.com. There is so much to see and learn about in Oklahoma. I applaud your efforts to make it easier.
The last person said it perfectly … “Explore.”
That’s exactly what we are aiming for with this series and this site. We want to explore Oklahoma, and we want to take you with us. We’re not going to write traditional articles on the places we visit. We’re going to channel the story-teller in us. We’re going to use our imagination and tell you what it feels like to be in that place at that time — what we see, what we smell, what we think.
We’ll add audio, slideshows and panoramic images as available to help capture the essence of that place.
So even if you’ve never been locked up at the county jail, you can say you’ve been there – thanks to Places.
Story Wall No. 2: Another fair in another state
A few weeks ago, I shared a page we produced as a test. It was our first Story Wall – a collection of photos, videos, quotes and text from the Oklahoma State Fair 2009.
I was so inspired that I assigned another wall to be produced for the OU-Texas game 2009. I thought it would be a great way for OU football fans to re-live the biggest game of the year.
Of course, when I made the assignment and helped coordinate the specifics, I expected fans would be re-living and celebration a Sooner victory. Instead, it was a close loss in a demoralizing way (losing Sam Bradford …. again). It might be a game that nobody wants to talk about ever again, let alone re-live.
Alas, we did it anyway. And now that you are a full 48 hours removed from the end of the game, it might be a good time to experience our OU-Texas Story Wall. It truly is a fun experience.
The birth of the NewsOK Storywall
Web editor Nick Tankersley had an idea a few weeks back. He thought it would be nifty if we told a story in a completely non-linear way — allowing users to click on a number of different elements and get a different experience each time.
They might get a photo if they click on one block of content.
They might get a video if they click on another block of content.
They might get a bit of text if they choose yet another block.
And moments after that idea, the ‘NewsOK Storywall‘ was born.
Nick began working on the database that would feed our first storywall, learning more about the Django framework to feed the application. Multimedia reporters John Estus and Ken Raymond began developing content that would go into the wall, and photographer John Clanton began getting a variety of photos to feed the page.
After some hard work and unforseen obstacles, we launched the first ‘NewsOK Storywall’ this weekend as the Oklahoma State Fair came to a close.
Check it out. Let me know what you think.
Personally, I kind of like it. I think it would be interesting to add wall for OU and OSU football games, perhaps the OU-Texas game or the Bedlam battle later this year.
But I’d like to see if our users think it’s as nifty as I think it is. Just comment below, send me an e-mail or post a message on Twitter. I’ll listen any way I can.
Horoscope arrives to NewsOK Life and A&E pages
You read your horoscope.
You don’t have to lie. We already know you read your horoscope. When you see it in the paper, you read it. When you see it in a magazine, you read it. When you see it online, you read it.
I read it. How can I not? Fortune cookies can only tell me so much. That’s why today, I will not be buying that ocean-front property in Arizona that I’ve thinking about.
CANCER (June 21 to July 22): Do not make any important decisions about finances today. Similarly, do not make any important purchases. You might be deceived; or you might not have all the facts. Use caution!
Thanks to NewsOK, I might have avoided a potential property-buying misstep.
Horoscopes are now available on NewsOK. You can get to them every day by clicking on the HOROSCOPES link in the sub-navigation under LIFE or A&E. It can be just one more click in your NewsOK browsing every morning as you get all the information you need for that day.
As a matter of fact, it should be one more click. It needs to be one more click.
We made it easy to see your horoscope on NewsOK. Now you can’t say that you made mistakes because you didn’t read your horoscope that day.
I’ll by the ocean-front property in Arizona tomorrow. Thanks, NewsOK horoscope!
Searching on NewsOK just got a lot better
Search for something on NewsOK.
No … really. We really want you to search for something on NewsOK.
OK. I’ll try it. I searched “Landry Jones.” You know – he’s the quarterback at OU now that Sam Bradford is injured early in the season.
Anyway, take a look at what I saw when I searched “Landry Jones.”
I ended up spending a couple minutes watching a highlights video of Landry Jones as a high school star in Artesia, N.M. We posted that video on Feb. 3, 2008 when he signed to play at OU. I would have watched the entire video, but the music was hurting my ears.
Try your own search on NewsOK. You’ll find that we …. (prepare for the understatement of the year) …. have improved the search process on NewsOK.
A core group of developers and programmers in our Audience Development department spent a lot of time this summer working with other search experts to finally get the types of results our audience has always wanted on NewsOK. Simply put, when you execute a search on NewsOK, you will now get comprehensive and relevant results — every time. And quite frankly, we couldn’t always say that.
We can now.
After executing a search, you can refine the search by type of content, dates, author, topics and more. If you’re looking for a video on NewsOK from 2008, it’s not hard to find (even if it’s an obscure highlights video from New Mexico).
We’re still working out some of the kinks. The launch of our new search is actually a soft launch this week. But we’re pretty proud of the results so far. That’s why I’m singing about it from The Digital Desk.
Let me know what you think about it? Just go to NewsOK and search.
Celebrity Watch page grows in content and popularity
I was in a meeting the other day with an OPUBCO Communications Group executive and a couple of others. We were discussing a few items about the way we treat and present content on a variety of our pages.
The Celebrity Watch page on NewsOK came up as an example.
Katherine Heigl is seen in this image taken from a daily photo gallery on NewsOK.com's Celebrity Watch page.
‘That’s my favorite page on NewsOK,” said the executive. He was referring to the layout of the page and the content within.
I can’t disagree much, either. The truth is, for a sub-section page deep inside NewsOK.com, The Celebrity watch page is loaded with great content.
We have articles from NewsOK and from content partners at the Associated Press, Entertainment Tonight and Parade. We have many new stories every day from those providers.
We also have our our Celebrity blogger, focusing on bringing new information every day to our local audience. That blog consistently ranks among the top 5 is daily traffic among those in the NewsOK blog network.
We’ve just recently added a daily slideshow through our partnership with Parade. It’s a new photo gallery every day full of celebrity fashion or sightings.
New photos, new articles, new slideshows, new blogs and new videos every day …. it’s no wonder it’s a favorite destination for many NewsOK users.
Plus, no where else can you see headlines like this:
Quentin Tarantino: Brad Pitt Is My Robert Redford
or this:
Rachel McAdams: Nudity Shouldn’t Be A Big Deal
You just can’t get these headlines on the Technology page in the Business section.
Share it Live on the Fourth of July
During this past weekend’s Club H.O.G. rally in Bricktown, we launched our partnership with Share it Live, a photo-sharing application developed by visionaries working the OPUBCO Communications Group Audience Development department.
It’s an iPhone application with a unique slogan – “a new era in citizen journalism.”
The partnership last week was a success. Developers who focus on NewsOK built used the Share it Live API to build a customized area on the NewsOK hog rally coverage page. We received dozens of photos from the event.
Now we’re going to try the same thing on a wider scale – the Fourth of July.
Here’s our thinking. The Club H.O.G. rally was in specific locations in Oklahoma City. But the Fourth of July happens everywhere.
It doesn’t matter how you are celebrating.
A cookout at home? Share it Live.
A parade? Share it Live.
Going to a fireworks show? Share it Live.
If it’s happening on July 4 (or July 3, for that matter …. oh, heck, we’ll take photos from July 1 and 2, as well), please share it on NewsOK. You can upload through the iPhone application or you can simply upload through NewsOK’s Fourth of July page.
I wasn’t at the Club H.O.G. rally, so I couldn’t Share it live. But come Saturday, I have no excuse. I will be Sharing it Live – I promise.
Shotgun approach – browse new things on NewsOK
I used to write a weekly column that appeared in The Oklahoman. I would communicate with my readers (dozens and dozens of them) about things that were happening on NewsOK.com.
But there were some days when I just didn’t have something new and innovative to write about. On those days, I wrote about just about everything.
I called it the “shotgun approach.”
So … in honor of my former column, which is now a blog (welcome dozens of readers), here is the blog version of the shotgun column:
- Check out our Ongoing Coverage page. We launched it last week when we realized we had some great ongoing coverage pages that get lost in the shuffle.
- Check out our new Trooper-Paramedic scuffle page. We have all the stories, videos, documents and more to follow this story. We can’t seem to get enough of it.
- Bryan Painter’s weather blog is great stuff for people who want to know something unique about the weather every single day.
- Perhaps you missed our Scholar-Athletes page that we launched last Saturday. Jenni Carlson led the coverage, and we packaged all the nominees together in one spot.
- We also started a news quiz each Monday for the news consumers who love to test their knowledge. I get a perfect score every week.
Now, I’m off to vacation in Des Moines, IA. I will return to active posting for my dozens of readers on Monday.
The interns are in the building (and out covering the news)
It’s early summer, and the interns – the future of journalism – are in the building.
Check out all of their work on our Interns page on NewsOK, where you can see the bios of the young people that are working for us this summer. You can also see a map from where they are coming to us from, plus links to their blogs and their Twitter accounts.
I had a chance to speak with these young journalists last week, and they are truly a sharp bunch. They have lots of ideas about NewsOK — how to make it better and how to make our social media efforts better.
We’re all ears. I’ll be keeping an eye on this page to see what they are covering,, and how they are covering it.
Coupon Queen series begins on NewsOK and in The Oklahoman
Jill Cataldo is The Coupon Queen.
And she’s starting her reign on NewsOK’s Life page. It’s a weekly column that is appearing every Wednesday in The Oklahoman’s Life section and simultaneously online at NewsOK.com.
We’re packaging it all together nicely on a page so readers can always go back and get the queen’s advice.
We also have links to other coupon royalty, including wimgo deals, the coupon princess and the Consumer Queen. We will continue to add to those links as we find them, pulling in as much information as we can find about saving money the old-fashioned way.
