MediaShift
Scott Rosenberg wonders how an iPad-only publication like News Corp.’s Daily, will handle story corrections. Fixing and explaining errors are problems that still vex many Web publishers, and tablet editions bring new challenges to the process. Rosenberg writes:
“How do you let the public talk back to you and tell you when you’ve made a mistake? How do you show them when you’ve decided to fix something? Do you wait for your next ‘daily’ update or do you revise on the fly?”
Pursuing innovation in a traditional newsroom is often a challenge because of the roadblocks caused by cultural inertia. But Murdoch is bringing in a new staff to work on a new publication on a new platform. This is one reason so much attention has been paid to the announcement of new hires at the Daily. It is the culture this team develops internally that will be a determining factor in the Daily’s success.
And, as Rosenberg points out, one of the keys will be how the newsroom develops best practices for a tablet publication based on the lessons of both print and Web journalism:
“If you’re publishing a single ‘daily’ edition, but delivering it via a two-way digital network, what do you do when news breaks? How do you serve your readers in the 23 hours in between ‘dailies’? When your production cycle’s demands and your users’ needs conflict, which wins out?”
Rosenberg reports he will be watching the launch of the Daily in January to see how staff handle corrections and other routine newsroom tasks. I look forward to his follow-up. As he implies, even the best new ideas depend on people and processes executing on the basics to make them successful.
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