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.
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.
Additions to multimedia navigation
We’ve added a few more items to the sub-navigation under the Multimedia page on NewsOK.
The reason is very simple: We have some cool pages we’ve built in past few months, and we needed a place to call home. Since they are all ‘multimedia’ projects, the Multimedia tab seems like a nice place to park them.
The projects in question?
- Places – investigating some of our state’s most intriguing places
- People – exploring the world through someone else’s eyes.
- Story Wall – showing what it was to “be” somewhere through an ever changing kaleidoscope of pictures, videos, audio and text.
We’ve also added a couple of pages to the sub-navigation, but they aren’t so new. I think it’s worth mentioning them anyway.
- nDepth — a deeper look at the stories that shape our world
- ‘know it’ — helping Oklahomans navigate a given topic from beginning to end
- Ongoing coverage — following stories and events that have broken the mold of normal news activity
These pages are added to our already expansive Multimedia offerings.
Please, spend your down time during the holidays enjoying some of our new story-telling experiments. And let me know what you like the best.
Life page looks alive with quick face lift
We updated our outlook on Life this week.
You can check it out on our main Life page – a main navigation item on NewsOK.
What problem were we trying to solve? Actually, we were trying to solve the same basic problem we’re always trying to solve — how can we properly showcase the depth of content that we have in an organized and aesthetically pleasing way.
In our “Life” channel, that problem has become apparent in recent months with the growth of our ‘know it‘ series and the digital direction of our OKC N Style brand.
- The ‘know it’ series is our way of defining an important topic as it relates to Oklahoma. We’ve built more than 30 ‘know it’ topics in the past 18 months, and we have a big 2010 planned.
- The OKC N Style brand has been a slick magazine devoted to stylish living. We’ve been publishing it monthly within OPUBCO Communications Group in the past few years. I spent a year as the managing editor on that magazine, so I’ve long been a big fan. We are now moving that brand into a stronger digital space, and Dillard’s is serving as the presenting sponsor.
These two content brands strengthen our Life channel on NewsOK. We will continually update it and you can expect greater variety each day on that section.
Come and visit often and get a new perspective on NewsOK Life.
An outstanding series: A close look at the state of the adult day health services
We began an important series over the long Thansksgiving weekend, shedding light on the state of adult care services in Oklahoma.
It appeared in The Oklahoman and on NewsOK in three parts from Friday through Sunday. And while we know The Oklahoman is widely used on long holiday weekends, the traffic on NewsOK .com is about half as much as normal.
That’s why we want you to take the time today to take a closer look at this series.
I know what you’re thinking. “It sounds like a heavy subject,” you say. “Do you have anything about Tiger Woods missing a tooth or Bob Stoops changing jobs?”
(I know you’re saying that, because I said something similar in the weeks leading up to this series as we discussed how we would showcase this content on NewsOK.com … I was merely playing the role of the skeptic.)
I promise one thing: You won’t regret the time investment to educate yourself on this topic. Reporter Ron Jackson and photographer/videographer John Clanton practiced some serious journalism in telling the stories that make up this complex topic.
As quality journalists often do, Ron and John told the stories in a way that made me become quickly engaged and infinitely interested in the plight of the caregivers, the patients, the lawmakers, the lobbyists and the entire adult-care industry.
And if you need any more reason to click on the page and digest every word, just take two minutes to watch the slideshow below:
Now …. on to the series: The state of adult day health services in Oklahoma.
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.
