My internship with Greenspun Media Group has come to an end. I've had my last weekend in Vegas and now I'm preparing for a 2,000 mile journey back across the country to Ohio.
My internship experience was awesome. That's a simple description, but it's an honest one. I could not be happier with the opportunities I had, the people I met, or the fun times in Vegas. I got everything out of this internship that a college kid could want.
I had the freedom to pitch stories (even if they were somewhat out of the box), work in a number of different mediums, and cover some big-time events. In most places, interns are much more restricted and work within a specific program. Not here.
During my ten weeks here, I had my articles, videos and photos published on the website, in the newspaper and air on television. I produced about 30 articles and 15 videos. I wrote two long enterprising stories (that have still yet to run online), and had a significant hand in a project for the UNLV Rebels site.
This wasn't a coffee-fetching internship.
Throughout my time here, I kept many of the media credentials I received for various sporting events. As I was packing up my stuff this weekend, I looked through these credentials and realized how I got to cover some events I would be pumped to cover for a job, let alone an internship.
I covered Major League Baseball spring training, a big-time NASCAR race, UNLV basketball and football, the Mountain West Conference Tournament, one of the biggest bowling tournaments in the world, a rodeo and high school state championships. Vegas has some great sporting events, and I had a hand in covering many of them during this internship.
I'm leaving here with some great clips and videos, but the most valuable part of the internship were the things I learned. The people here at the Las Vegas Sun are all super talented, and watching them work on a daily basis was a great learning tool by itself.
The concept I probably learned the most about during the internship was how to use web to tell good news stories. The Internet offers so many ways to tell a story that traditional mediums can't do, and this internship helped teach me ways to utilize the opportunities available on the Internet. The mentality here is definitely to use the Internet to your advantage. Don't fear it.
Yes, the news industry is in trouble. Veryyy big trouble. But I'm confident the skills I learned at this internship will help me in the future. Probably more than I even know. The mentality people have at the Las Vegas Sun is forward thinking, and in times like these, having that kind of approach is critical.
I loved working at Greenspun Media, and I could definitely see myself coming back here. The people in our office are great, the sports are awesome and the work is fun.
And, of course, Vegas isn't a bad place to live. :)
Monday, March 23, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Meeting a legend
One of the best parts of journalism is getting to attend awesome events, have great access and meet some pretty famous people. This was part of the attraction I had to journalism when I first developed an interest for the profession while in high school. In many ways, the awe factor of meeting and interviewing celebrities or famous athletes has worn off, but not completely.
Last weekend I had one of the most memorable interviews in my experience as a journalist. I got to have lunch with Pete Rose.
I'm a baseball fan. I always have been, and likely always will be, and Pete Rose is a baseball legend. Whether it's the way he played the game, or getting kicked out of the game for betting on it, Rose is name is transcends the sport. When I'm trying to decide if an athlete is really famous, I usually think about if my mom recognizes the name. If she does, then he has a big name. My mom definitely knows Pete Rose.
Anyway, I'm working on a feature story about Rose that is going to run this week. Rose works in Vegas 15 days a month signing autographs at a local sports memorabilia shop, and I thought that made a good story. I set up an interview, thinking I would get 15 minutes in the back room. But when I arrived, Rose said he was about to go to lunch and asked if I would like to join and just do the interview over lunch.
Of course I did!
So we went to lunch for over an hour, and I had a great interview out of it. I had the kind of access journalists hope to get when they do a big feature article, and I loved it. At first, I was somewhat in awe of baseball's hit king, but I quickly had to get into journalist mode and make sure to turn a good opportunity into a good interview, and then that into a good story. I found out that is easier said than done.
As great a time as I had at lunch doing the interview, the highlight for me came right before we sat down to eat. As we were standing at the entrance of Planet Hollywood Restaurant, people are just staring at Rose, asking to get pictures with him and coming by to shake his hand. For the first time during an interview, I really felt like I was talking with someone famous.
Then I felt someone tap me on the arm. I turned around to see a lady, who I assumed would ask, "Is that Pete Rose?"
But she looks at me and says, "are you Garrett from Gridiron Glory?" I couldn't believe it. I was standing next to a baseball legend, and I got recognized for a high school football TV show in Athens, Ohio. Priceless.
They were vacationing in Vegas from the Athens area, and recognized me from Gridiron Glory. It was a great moment, filled with irony, and probably a story I'll remember for the rest of my life!
Last weekend I had one of the most memorable interviews in my experience as a journalist. I got to have lunch with Pete Rose.
I'm a baseball fan. I always have been, and likely always will be, and Pete Rose is a baseball legend. Whether it's the way he played the game, or getting kicked out of the game for betting on it, Rose is name is transcends the sport. When I'm trying to decide if an athlete is really famous, I usually think about if my mom recognizes the name. If she does, then he has a big name. My mom definitely knows Pete Rose.
Anyway, I'm working on a feature story about Rose that is going to run this week. Rose works in Vegas 15 days a month signing autographs at a local sports memorabilia shop, and I thought that made a good story. I set up an interview, thinking I would get 15 minutes in the back room. But when I arrived, Rose said he was about to go to lunch and asked if I would like to join and just do the interview over lunch.
Of course I did!
So we went to lunch for over an hour, and I had a great interview out of it. I had the kind of access journalists hope to get when they do a big feature article, and I loved it. At first, I was somewhat in awe of baseball's hit king, but I quickly had to get into journalist mode and make sure to turn a good opportunity into a good interview, and then that into a good story. I found out that is easier said than done.
As great a time as I had at lunch doing the interview, the highlight for me came right before we sat down to eat. As we were standing at the entrance of Planet Hollywood Restaurant, people are just staring at Rose, asking to get pictures with him and coming by to shake his hand. For the first time during an interview, I really felt like I was talking with someone famous.
Then I felt someone tap me on the arm. I turned around to see a lady, who I assumed would ask, "Is that Pete Rose?"
But she looks at me and says, "are you Garrett from Gridiron Glory?" I couldn't believe it. I was standing next to a baseball legend, and I got recognized for a high school football TV show in Athens, Ohio. Priceless.
They were vacationing in Vegas from the Athens area, and recognized me from Gridiron Glory. It was a great moment, filled with irony, and probably a story I'll remember for the rest of my life!
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Crazy Couple Weeks
The past few weeks out here in Vegas have been everything you expect from life in Las Vegas: fast paced, exciting and full of big events. I've had my hand in a several projects here at the Sun, and they have certainly kept me busy.
Last weekend, the NASCAR Shelby 427 Sprint Cup Series race came to town, and I covered the race on Sunday. We had a number of reporters/ photogs/ video people at the race, and I wrote two stories. Overall, we had about 20 stories, 10 videos, several hundred photos, an timeline of events, several blogs and columns on the race. We like to do things big.
Last weekend, we also had the high school basketball state championships in town, and I covered a number of the games.
Then this Wednesday and Thursday Major League Baseball came to town for Big League Weekend. The Cubs and White Sox played two spring training games at Cashman Field, the minor league field for the Las Vegas 51's. Both games had sold out crowds and great atmospheres. Yeah, it was just spring training, but Cubs and White Sox fans treat every game like it's game 7 of the World Series.
I was one of the two sports reporters from the Sun covering Big League Weekend, and I loved it. Covering major league baseball is a great time, and I think being a beat reporter for a MLB team is one of the coolest jobs to have. I produced a video about the weekend, and also wrote an article about the intensity of the rivalry.
With NASCAR, Big League Weekend and basketball state championships over, now it's time to start wrapping up things here in Vegas. Only two weeks left. I had two big projects during my internship (in addition to the day-to-day work), and I'm getting close to having those ready to go live.
I think those projects are going to be my best work of this internship, and also some of my proudest work as a journalist. I'm pumped for it.
Last weekend, the NASCAR Shelby 427 Sprint Cup Series race came to town, and I covered the race on Sunday. We had a number of reporters/ photogs/ video people at the race, and I wrote two stories. Overall, we had about 20 stories, 10 videos, several hundred photos, an timeline of events, several blogs and columns on the race. We like to do things big.
Last weekend, we also had the high school basketball state championships in town, and I covered a number of the games.
Then this Wednesday and Thursday Major League Baseball came to town for Big League Weekend. The Cubs and White Sox played two spring training games at Cashman Field, the minor league field for the Las Vegas 51's. Both games had sold out crowds and great atmospheres. Yeah, it was just spring training, but Cubs and White Sox fans treat every game like it's game 7 of the World Series.
I was one of the two sports reporters from the Sun covering Big League Weekend, and I loved it. Covering major league baseball is a great time, and I think being a beat reporter for a MLB team is one of the coolest jobs to have. I produced a video about the weekend, and also wrote an article about the intensity of the rivalry.
With NASCAR, Big League Weekend and basketball state championships over, now it's time to start wrapping up things here in Vegas. Only two weeks left. I had two big projects during my internship (in addition to the day-to-day work), and I'm getting close to having those ready to go live.
I think those projects are going to be my best work of this internship, and also some of my proudest work as a journalist. I'm pumped for it.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
That's unfortunate
I learned today that the Columbus Dispatch laid off 45 employees. I guess they started informing people around 7 AM Tuesday morning about whether or not they were going to be around anymore.
I've interned at the Dispatch three times. Once as a "follow-around-the-reporter" intern during my senior year in high school. Then twice as a city desk intern during my long winter break. I've spent a lot of time at the Dispatch, and know a lot of people there, so it was sad to hear about the layoffs. Not sure who made it through the layoffs, but I'd definitely like to know who survived and what areas were hit the hardest.
Like I said in a previous post, times are definitely tough. As journalists, we need to find ways to give people content they want to read and watch. I love what I'm doing here at the Sun, and I'm learning about some ways to do just that.
As hard as it is to believe, my time here is getting close to winding down. I have just over two weeks left. But I'm going to be busy and make the most of that time.
The next two days I'm covering MLB spring training in town. Then we have the West Coast Conference tournament this weekend, high school soccer state championships and the Mountain West conference tournament. Then it's March Madness, which is a big deal in Vegas. So in the Vegas sports scene, I'll be busy.
I also have a couple of big projects that will be rolling out during that time, and I can't wait to see how they look!
I've interned at the Dispatch three times. Once as a "follow-around-the-reporter" intern during my senior year in high school. Then twice as a city desk intern during my long winter break. I've spent a lot of time at the Dispatch, and know a lot of people there, so it was sad to hear about the layoffs. Not sure who made it through the layoffs, but I'd definitely like to know who survived and what areas were hit the hardest.
Like I said in a previous post, times are definitely tough. As journalists, we need to find ways to give people content they want to read and watch. I love what I'm doing here at the Sun, and I'm learning about some ways to do just that.
As hard as it is to believe, my time here is getting close to winding down. I have just over two weeks left. But I'm going to be busy and make the most of that time.
The next two days I'm covering MLB spring training in town. Then we have the West Coast Conference tournament this weekend, high school soccer state championships and the Mountain West conference tournament. Then it's March Madness, which is a big deal in Vegas. So in the Vegas sports scene, I'll be busy.
I also have a couple of big projects that will be rolling out during that time, and I can't wait to see how they look!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Let's go racin'
This weekend I got my first taste of the world of NASCAR at the Shelby 427 Sprint Cup Series at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. For someone who had never been to a NASCAR event, it was an interesting experience. You don't realize how fast 200 MPH really is until you're standing along the fence of the track and watching as the cars wiz by.
Also, you can't really appreciate how big the track is until you're standing there in the middle of it. Standing in the middle of the infield, you can't even see the other side of the track.
NASCAR is an interesting sport because in person, watching the race isn't really that great of a viewing experience. You can't see all of the cars at once, and you spend a couple of hours watching cars drive in a circle. I think it's much better to watch on TV. Still, NASCAR gets huge attendance numbers. HUGE.
ABout 120,000 came out to the race Sunday in Vegas. And one of the big reasons all these people come to the race has more to do with experience rather than the sport. People tailgate all weekend, and the race basically becomes one big party. In our coverage, we tried to capture some of this interest, and I wrote a story about the tailgaters.
Altogether, we blew up our coverage of the race. It seemed like half of our office was out covering the race, and during the week we had about 20 articles, 5 videos, several blogs and about 200 photos. Not bad for a newspaper!
Also, you can't really appreciate how big the track is until you're standing there in the middle of it. Standing in the middle of the infield, you can't even see the other side of the track.
NASCAR is an interesting sport because in person, watching the race isn't really that great of a viewing experience. You can't see all of the cars at once, and you spend a couple of hours watching cars drive in a circle. I think it's much better to watch on TV. Still, NASCAR gets huge attendance numbers. HUGE.
ABout 120,000 came out to the race Sunday in Vegas. And one of the big reasons all these people come to the race has more to do with experience rather than the sport. People tailgate all weekend, and the race basically becomes one big party. In our coverage, we tried to capture some of this interest, and I wrote a story about the tailgaters.
Altogether, we blew up our coverage of the race. It seemed like half of our office was out covering the race, and during the week we had about 20 articles, 5 videos, several blogs and about 200 photos. Not bad for a newspaper!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Have a plan... but write it in pencil
Tonight gave me another example in my career about the danger of going into a story with an exact plan. Sure, you want to have a plan, or an idea about what you want to do with a story when you go to cover an event. But not too much of a plan.
As a journalist, you have to be able to adapt and take in everything going on around you. When you go into a situation with an outline of your story already in your head, then things have a funny way of ruining that outline.
Tonight I had to cover two high school basketball games and write a story for both web and for print. Most of what I do is web based, but this story was going in print also. An editor told me which two teams were expected to win, and let me know what he was looking for with the story.
So I went into the game with a framework of the story already in place. But like I said, those kinds of things never really seem to work out like your expect. In the first game the team that was expected to lose, ended up winning. Surprise, surprise. So much for that story I already had in my head.
That changed everything. Then in the second game, I wanted to do a piece about about the losing team and the good season they had. But they just lost a close game, so the coaches and players weren't too thrilled to talk about this wonderful season. Again, so much for that perfect outline.
In sports reporting, that always seems to be the case. If you want the outcome of the game to change suddenly, then start writing your story with a specific angle. Then something crazy will happen and your original story can get tossed out the window.
I remember a couple years ago covering a swim meet for the local newspaper, and I started to write up the story in my notebook. The meet looked to be pretty well in hand, and when you're sitting inside at a swim meet for several hours, all you can really think about is what is finding a way to get out of there ASAP.
So I started writing up the story, and as the meet went on, the story I had drafted ended up being a complete waste. One team came from nowhere to surprise everyone and win the meet championship. My original story was scrapped and it was back to the drawing board for me.
Just like that swim meet, the basketball games tonight once again provided me with another example of why it is dangerous to go into a situation being overly prepared to take a story in a certain direction. Another good lesson to learn from an internship.
As a journalist, you have to be able to adapt and take in everything going on around you. When you go into a situation with an outline of your story already in your head, then things have a funny way of ruining that outline.
Tonight I had to cover two high school basketball games and write a story for both web and for print. Most of what I do is web based, but this story was going in print also. An editor told me which two teams were expected to win, and let me know what he was looking for with the story.
So I went into the game with a framework of the story already in place. But like I said, those kinds of things never really seem to work out like your expect. In the first game the team that was expected to lose, ended up winning. Surprise, surprise. So much for that story I already had in my head.
That changed everything. Then in the second game, I wanted to do a piece about about the losing team and the good season they had. But they just lost a close game, so the coaches and players weren't too thrilled to talk about this wonderful season. Again, so much for that perfect outline.
In sports reporting, that always seems to be the case. If you want the outcome of the game to change suddenly, then start writing your story with a specific angle. Then something crazy will happen and your original story can get tossed out the window.
I remember a couple years ago covering a swim meet for the local newspaper, and I started to write up the story in my notebook. The meet looked to be pretty well in hand, and when you're sitting inside at a swim meet for several hours, all you can really think about is what is finding a way to get out of there ASAP.
So I started writing up the story, and as the meet went on, the story I had drafted ended up being a complete waste. One team came from nowhere to surprise everyone and win the meet championship. My original story was scrapped and it was back to the drawing board for me.
Just like that swim meet, the basketball games tonight once again provided me with another example of why it is dangerous to go into a situation being overly prepared to take a story in a certain direction. Another good lesson to learn from an internship.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Nobody's immune
Just like everybody else, I get tired of hearing and talking about the recession. It's not good, and everybody knows it. But it is a very real concern, especially for people in the media. Articles like this make it difficult to ignore.
If ESPN is even hurting, that can't be good.
If ESPN is even hurting, that can't be good.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Competition
In many ways Las Vegas is a very interesting town. It's a place built on tourism. A place where people come to spend money, party and basically behave badly. The motto for the town is "What happens in Vegas stay in Vegas," and that should tell you everything about the mentality of people visiting here.
Another characteristic that makes Vegas a unique place is that it is a major city still with two competing daily newspapers. The Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal are published on a daily basis and compete to provide better print content and better online coverage. Most cities only have one major daily newspaper, so coming to a place with two papers is something new for me.
With two newspapers in town, one of the main things I've noticed is how competition pushes you to continually provide good stories and deliver them in innovative ways. Unlike cities with just one newspaper, the Las Vegas Sun doesn't have a monopoly on the news here in Vegas, and we're in constant competition with the RJ. If people don't feel like we provide accurate content or don't have enough information, then they can just go to the RJ.
We have to provide the best, most complete coverage of people won't read our newspaper or visit our website. It's that simple.
I'll speak from a sports coverage perspective, because that's what I do. From the start, the RJ has a leg up on us because it has an agreement with Nevada High School Athletics that requires coaches of every sport to call in their scores to the RJ every night. We don't have that kind of agreement, so we have to take a slightly different approach.
With the way things are right now, we're not going to have every single score each night from boy's basketball, girl's basketball, soccer, volleyball, golf, etc. However, we can cover as many games as possible, and give those games great coverage.
For example, the high school basketball playoffs are going on right now, and we covered a big game the other day. Like many of our sports stories, we had an article, a video and a photo gallery. One of our reporters also had an awesome story about on of the kids getting a scholarship offer from UNLV...as a freshman. So that's two stories, a video and photo gallery. The coverage we had was great and I had a good time putting together the video.
Now we don't just cover events this way because we have a competitor here in Vegas. Knowing the people at the Sun, I think the Sun would cover events this way regardless, because that's part of what we're supposed to do as journalists. But having a competitor right there, trying to beat you on every story, can always give you a little extra incentive :)
Another characteristic that makes Vegas a unique place is that it is a major city still with two competing daily newspapers. The Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal are published on a daily basis and compete to provide better print content and better online coverage. Most cities only have one major daily newspaper, so coming to a place with two papers is something new for me.
With two newspapers in town, one of the main things I've noticed is how competition pushes you to continually provide good stories and deliver them in innovative ways. Unlike cities with just one newspaper, the Las Vegas Sun doesn't have a monopoly on the news here in Vegas, and we're in constant competition with the RJ. If people don't feel like we provide accurate content or don't have enough information, then they can just go to the RJ.
We have to provide the best, most complete coverage of people won't read our newspaper or visit our website. It's that simple.
I'll speak from a sports coverage perspective, because that's what I do. From the start, the RJ has a leg up on us because it has an agreement with Nevada High School Athletics that requires coaches of every sport to call in their scores to the RJ every night. We don't have that kind of agreement, so we have to take a slightly different approach.
With the way things are right now, we're not going to have every single score each night from boy's basketball, girl's basketball, soccer, volleyball, golf, etc. However, we can cover as many games as possible, and give those games great coverage.
For example, the high school basketball playoffs are going on right now, and we covered a big game the other day. Like many of our sports stories, we had an article, a video and a photo gallery. One of our reporters also had an awesome story about on of the kids getting a scholarship offer from UNLV...as a freshman. So that's two stories, a video and photo gallery. The coverage we had was great and I had a good time putting together the video.
Now we don't just cover events this way because we have a competitor here in Vegas. Knowing the people at the Sun, I think the Sun would cover events this way regardless, because that's part of what we're supposed to do as journalists. But having a competitor right there, trying to beat you on every story, can always give you a little extra incentive :)
Monday, February 16, 2009
The Lead Image
One of my favorite parts of the design of www.lasvegassun.com is that the main "image" on the site is often a video. This lead image sometimes is a stand-alone video, without much of a print component. Other times, the image is attached to an article, and the video is used as supplement to the article, or vice-versa.
Either way, I like how we can make the video the lead image for a story. With the video as a top image, you can view the video right from the homepage, in small screen or full screen view. Also, you can click on the headline of the article, read that, and then watch the video on the screen with the article. This gives the reader/viewer several options, and hopefully keeps them clicking around on the site for a while.
The other day, a video I did about a local basketball team living together was the lead image on the website. This story was a supplement to an article one of our writers did about the basketball team. The video and article worked well together. They also were fine one their own. You didn't have to see one to understand the other.
Making the video the lead image is a fascinating way to attract some more viewers and liven up the homepage. When I see a video as the main image on a newspaper website, it seems a little more attractive and well done. ESPN.com uses the video as the main image all the time now. ESPN recently rolled out it's new redesigned website, and it made a larger space for the lead image, also making it a video player. Before, the video player was a smaller screen on the right side of the page.
Rarely is the Sun's lead image only a single photo. It is almost always a video or photo gallery, giving people a little more than they anticipate.
Either way, I like how we can make the video the lead image for a story. With the video as a top image, you can view the video right from the homepage, in small screen or full screen view. Also, you can click on the headline of the article, read that, and then watch the video on the screen with the article. This gives the reader/viewer several options, and hopefully keeps them clicking around on the site for a while.
The other day, a video I did about a local basketball team living together was the lead image on the website. This story was a supplement to an article one of our writers did about the basketball team. The video and article worked well together. They also were fine one their own. You didn't have to see one to understand the other.
Making the video the lead image is a fascinating way to attract some more viewers and liven up the homepage. When I see a video as the main image on a newspaper website, it seems a little more attractive and well done. ESPN.com uses the video as the main image all the time now. ESPN recently rolled out it's new redesigned website, and it made a larger space for the lead image, also making it a video player. Before, the video player was a smaller screen on the right side of the page.
Rarely is the Sun's lead image only a single photo. It is almost always a video or photo gallery, giving people a little more than they anticipate.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Interesting Times
Most people wouldn't say this is the most appealing time to go into journalism. Actually, very few people would probably say that. It's no secret ad revenues are declining, circulation numbers are declining, the economy is in a recession, the sky is falling.....
It seems like most conversations about journalism start with something like, "How can we save newspapers? Is journalism dead? Is local TV over? Will we have newspapers is 10 years?" And the list goes on, and on and on...
Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal about the fate of local TV.
Here's one from Time Magazine about how to save newspapers.
I'm not arguing that it's tough. Everybody knows that. My nine-year brother knows that. Prospects for the news industry look bleak.
However, it's pretty darn exciting. Times are tough, but that forces us to work harder. We're forced to find better ways to deliver the news, to see what works and what doesn't, and to figure what people want to see and read.
Maybe I'm just naive, or looking at the glass half-full, but I think this is one of the most exciting times to go into journalism. Maybe not the most promising for everybody in the business, but it is exciting. I'm tired of people saying, "you sure?," when I tell them I'm going into journalism.
The media has never been more aware of viewer's habits and interests, and we're having conversations that would never take place if everything were golden. But since money is an issue, we (the media) are trying to innovate. We don't have the luxury of just sticking with the same old system.
We have to go a completely new direction, and that is part of the reason I like interning at the Las Vegas Sun. I'm surrounded by people who are trying innovative things, and looking for ways to make our website better. Stuff may not always work out perfectly, but we're taking a chance and trying to figure it out.
I like this aspect of being in the media today. Twenty years ago everything was more formulated. People wanted to become a newspaper writer, or a TV anchor, or a photographer. Today the lines have blurred. I just want to be a journalist. I want to tell stories, and I want to figure out cool ways to do so.
And with the ways things are today, I don't really have another choice. :)
It seems like most conversations about journalism start with something like, "How can we save newspapers? Is journalism dead? Is local TV over? Will we have newspapers is 10 years?" And the list goes on, and on and on...
Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal about the fate of local TV.
Here's one from Time Magazine about how to save newspapers.
I'm not arguing that it's tough. Everybody knows that. My nine-year brother knows that. Prospects for the news industry look bleak.
However, it's pretty darn exciting. Times are tough, but that forces us to work harder. We're forced to find better ways to deliver the news, to see what works and what doesn't, and to figure what people want to see and read.
Maybe I'm just naive, or looking at the glass half-full, but I think this is one of the most exciting times to go into journalism. Maybe not the most promising for everybody in the business, but it is exciting. I'm tired of people saying, "you sure?," when I tell them I'm going into journalism.
The media has never been more aware of viewer's habits and interests, and we're having conversations that would never take place if everything were golden. But since money is an issue, we (the media) are trying to innovate. We don't have the luxury of just sticking with the same old system.
We have to go a completely new direction, and that is part of the reason I like interning at the Las Vegas Sun. I'm surrounded by people who are trying innovative things, and looking for ways to make our website better. Stuff may not always work out perfectly, but we're taking a chance and trying to figure it out.
I like this aspect of being in the media today. Twenty years ago everything was more formulated. People wanted to become a newspaper writer, or a TV anchor, or a photographer. Today the lines have blurred. I just want to be a journalist. I want to tell stories, and I want to figure out cool ways to do so.
And with the ways things are today, I don't really have another choice. :)
Friday, February 6, 2009
Funny stuff..
I discovered this the other day when I went to view the HTML code for our website.
This a screen grab of what the programmers put in the code, which you can view by clicking "view source" on a web browser.
That is funny to me. The programmers at the Sun are unreal, and this is just one funny way of showing it.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
9-5 Job....Nope
I never expected this internship to be a 9-5 job. I never really wanted it to be, either. Part of the reason for that is because I hate waking up at 7:30 every morning. I would much rather work until one or two in the morning than be at work at 9 everyday.
Luckily I'm in the right spot. Also covering sports, I'll be working a lot of nights anyways. I bring this up because yesterday was a day that sums up the 24 hour coverage journalists have to provide in this time.
For college football fanatics, yesterday was National Signing Day, and all the high school studs officially stated where they will go on to play college ball. Here in Vegas a number of kids signed to play some big time college football, and we wanted to capture the excitement of the day.
To do so, we blew up our coverage. We had several reporters on signing day assignments, and we covered it from the angle of local kids signing scholarships and also the players from across the country coming to play at UNLV.
Like a lot of the things done at the Sun, we blew up our coverage of signing day. We had an individual page for the event, which included all of the recruiting articles we have written. All of them. Not just the ones from yesterday, but the entire year.
We also had team pages, with school records and statistics. With the stats page you can compare the individual leaders around the area, and also break down team numbers. That's some good background info.
Then I went out to three high schools yesterday for their signing day festivities. I put together three videos to compliment the articles and also a video to run on the TV show All-In. This made for a long day; one that started at 6:30 and ended around 1:30 when I finally finished the last video.
Even though the hours were long, the coverage was awesome. We have a great product to show, and people in Vegas are starting to realize the kind of coverage we are giving these high school athletes. It's fun to have a part in that effort.
Luckily I'm in the right spot. Also covering sports, I'll be working a lot of nights anyways. I bring this up because yesterday was a day that sums up the 24 hour coverage journalists have to provide in this time.
For college football fanatics, yesterday was National Signing Day, and all the high school studs officially stated where they will go on to play college ball. Here in Vegas a number of kids signed to play some big time college football, and we wanted to capture the excitement of the day.
To do so, we blew up our coverage. We had several reporters on signing day assignments, and we covered it from the angle of local kids signing scholarships and also the players from across the country coming to play at UNLV.
Like a lot of the things done at the Sun, we blew up our coverage of signing day. We had an individual page for the event, which included all of the recruiting articles we have written. All of them. Not just the ones from yesterday, but the entire year.
We also had team pages, with school records and statistics. With the stats page you can compare the individual leaders around the area, and also break down team numbers. That's some good background info.
Then I went out to three high schools yesterday for their signing day festivities. I put together three videos to compliment the articles and also a video to run on the TV show All-In. This made for a long day; one that started at 6:30 and ended around 1:30 when I finally finished the last video.
Even though the hours were long, the coverage was awesome. We have a great product to show, and people in Vegas are starting to realize the kind of coverage we are giving these high school athletes. It's fun to have a part in that effort.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Bro, it's the Internet...
Yesterday I covered the Super Bowl for the Sun. But like most of what we do, I covered it with a local twist. The Super Bowl is a HUGE weekend for Vegas, and we wanted to capture some of that interest.
Outside of actually being at the Super Bowl, Vegas is probably the next most popular city to watch the game. The reason for that is simple--money. In recent years about $90 million is bet on the Super Bowl and all of the ridiculous prop bets, so people have an invested interest in the game.
To cover the Super Bowl, I went to a local bar that is known as a place where Steelers fans watch games. Another reporter went to a sportsbook and the ESPN Zone with a photographer, and one of our bloggers and another videographer watched the game from the Hilton Sportsbook (the biggest sportsbook in town). That's some good local coverage of a Super Bowl!
So I'm at this bar with a bunch of Steelers fans, and I had the privilege of being "that creepy guy with a video camera." I would film people watching the game, getting reactions and trying to keep them from noticing me so that I wouldn't lose the real emotion of the moments. After getting some video of them, I would explain I'm with the Las Vegas Sun.
After explaining to one guy that I worked with the Sun, I got the question of the day... maybe even the year. He looks at me and says, "Now I have to ask this stupid question. How do you take video for a newspaper?"
I looked at him, and just thought, "Bro, it's called the Internet."
A little later a man came up and asked me what network I'm filming for. Again, I explained I'm with the Sun and it's for the Internet. As I was leaving he told me he was going to watch the news on TV to see the video. Ohh boy.
That's part of the challenge for newspapers. Even though everyone knows the Internet is there, people don't necessarily think of a newspaper doing video, or having interactive guides, or texting you with updates from the game. People still think of it as... the newspaper.
I think that is changing, but encounters like yesterday make me wonder.
How do you make people aware of all a website has to offer? I'm not sure I know the answer. But I'd sure that to figure that out :)
Outside of actually being at the Super Bowl, Vegas is probably the next most popular city to watch the game. The reason for that is simple--money. In recent years about $90 million is bet on the Super Bowl and all of the ridiculous prop bets, so people have an invested interest in the game.
To cover the Super Bowl, I went to a local bar that is known as a place where Steelers fans watch games. Another reporter went to a sportsbook and the ESPN Zone with a photographer, and one of our bloggers and another videographer watched the game from the Hilton Sportsbook (the biggest sportsbook in town). That's some good local coverage of a Super Bowl!
So I'm at this bar with a bunch of Steelers fans, and I had the privilege of being "that creepy guy with a video camera." I would film people watching the game, getting reactions and trying to keep them from noticing me so that I wouldn't lose the real emotion of the moments. After getting some video of them, I would explain I'm with the Las Vegas Sun.
After explaining to one guy that I worked with the Sun, I got the question of the day... maybe even the year. He looks at me and says, "Now I have to ask this stupid question. How do you take video for a newspaper?"
I looked at him, and just thought, "Bro, it's called the Internet."
A little later a man came up and asked me what network I'm filming for. Again, I explained I'm with the Sun and it's for the Internet. As I was leaving he told me he was going to watch the news on TV to see the video. Ohh boy.
That's part of the challenge for newspapers. Even though everyone knows the Internet is there, people don't necessarily think of a newspaper doing video, or having interactive guides, or texting you with updates from the game. People still think of it as... the newspaper.
I think that is changing, but encounters like yesterday make me wonder.
How do you make people aware of all a website has to offer? I'm not sure I know the answer. But I'd sure that to figure that out :)
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Shark Bytes
One of my favorite things to consistently read on www.lasvegassun.com is a blog written by somebody who never went to journalism school and probably won't win a Pulitzer for his contribution to the media. But it's entertaining and insightful.
I'm talking about the blog, Shark Bytes, written by legendary UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian. As I've said before, Tark is a legend and fan favorite here in Vegas, and people care about what he has to say. He is also a controversial guy because of his dealings with the NCAA, which makes his posts even more intriguing.
He updates this blog a couple times a week and he simply posts what is on his mind. Sometimes he writes about the current UNLV team. Other times he talks about his relationship with current and former college basketball coaches. The blog is basically just what Tark thinks is important enough to write.
His recent post definitely caught my eye for his brute honesty. In this post Tark goes into detail about two coaches he never liked, and why he feels so strongly about his disdain for them.
That makes good reading material!
In a world where coaches--especially the big-names--shy away from controversy, I really appreciate this kind of writing. Tarkanian often writes about the coaches he like and respects, so some people asked if he has any coaches that he never really liked. Instead of just avoiding the topic, he jumped right into it with this post.
The reason I bring this up is because I think having this feature on a newspaper website is a great idea. It makes sense. People in Vegas are interested by what Tark has to say, and this gives UNLV fans who can't get enough Rebels coverage a way to hear from a coaching legend every week.
Also, because all the stories on the site are comment-enabled, people post comments/questions on the blogs and sometimes Tark will respond directly to those questions in future posts. I'm not sure how many "newspapers" around the country are giving fans the chance to interact with a legendary coach like Tarkanian, but it seems to me like a good thing to try.
I'm talking about the blog, Shark Bytes, written by legendary UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian. As I've said before, Tark is a legend and fan favorite here in Vegas, and people care about what he has to say. He is also a controversial guy because of his dealings with the NCAA, which makes his posts even more intriguing.
He updates this blog a couple times a week and he simply posts what is on his mind. Sometimes he writes about the current UNLV team. Other times he talks about his relationship with current and former college basketball coaches. The blog is basically just what Tark thinks is important enough to write.
His recent post definitely caught my eye for his brute honesty. In this post Tark goes into detail about two coaches he never liked, and why he feels so strongly about his disdain for them.
That makes good reading material!
In a world where coaches--especially the big-names--shy away from controversy, I really appreciate this kind of writing. Tarkanian often writes about the coaches he like and respects, so some people asked if he has any coaches that he never really liked. Instead of just avoiding the topic, he jumped right into it with this post.
The reason I bring this up is because I think having this feature on a newspaper website is a great idea. It makes sense. People in Vegas are interested by what Tark has to say, and this gives UNLV fans who can't get enough Rebels coverage a way to hear from a coaching legend every week.
Also, because all the stories on the site are comment-enabled, people post comments/questions on the blogs and sometimes Tark will respond directly to those questions in future posts. I'm not sure how many "newspapers" around the country are giving fans the chance to interact with a legendary coach like Tarkanian, but it seems to me like a good thing to try.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
I'll send you a link...
I'll start off this post with a little background...
The Las Vegas Sun is in a unique situation, separate from most newspapers around the country. As I have mentioned before, the print version of the Sun comes as an insert inside the of the much-bigger Las Vegas Review-Journal. For this reason, many people naturally think of the Sun as the second newspaper in town.
That has nothing to do with the quality of the paper, but just the nature of how it's delivered.
Also, until about a year ago, the website for the Sun was ancient. It basically only put up articles that had already run in the print edition. Rob, my boss, wrote in his blog about the old website for the Sun by saying, "Newspaper websites typically aren’t killer, and the Las Vegas Sun’s site was about 10 years behind the rest of the industry."
The reason I bring all that up, is to explain what the Sun is up against in terms of attracting viewers to the website. For the past couple of years the people in Vegas who wanted to get news online didn't really considered going to the Sun's website. They developed a habit, and people are creatures of habit. We're trying to change that.
How do you do that?
I can't speak for what's going on at the upper levels within Greenspun Media, but the obvious focus starts with providing content that is better than the competitor. It's a simple idea: provide better stuff and more people will want to come to your site.
Within the last year and a half, the website operation at the Sun has changed tremendously...like in a reallly big way. Now the Sun has a ton of web-only content, and a lot of it is cool stuff that you could never get in a newspaper. Stuff like the history of Las Vegas, information about the water crisis and stories about construction workers who have died building all these billion dollar hotels.
All of this content comes in addition to the daily news operation, which includes breaking news stories, photo galleries, entertaining video, practical community guides, etc. It doesn't take long to go on the Sun's website and see that the content is top-notch, much better than many local newspapers around the country.
Now this brings me back to the original point... we're attracting people to a website that is relatively "new." The new site launched about a year ago, and since then the traffic numbers have gone way up. I have no idea of specific numbers, just that the audience to the site has grown significantly, and it's still growing.
To keep that upward trend, we have to continue spreading the word about the site. This can be done in big and small ways. And as an intern, I think my efforts classify in the "small ways" category. This is something as simple as sending a source a link to a story I write about them.
I have been out on a couple of video shoots the past week and in both cases the people I talked with were super excited about being on camera and having a video on them. They wanted to see the video ASAP. So i give them a business card and then e-mail them the link when I post the story.
No, that's not a revolutionary idea. But it's simple. And smart.
That is a way to get people involved in the process. It gives people a means distribute the news that is important to them. One high school kid told me that he couldn't wait for me to finish the video about his team so he could put it on his Myspace and Facebook page.
In most situations the best way for something like this to grow is by word of mouth, and the simple things like sending along the links to a story are an effective way to do that. As journalists we're not really the people in the office out "selling"our product. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do our best to get the word out about what we're doing.
We want people to read and watch our stuff, and we should make it easy for them to do. But like I said before, all of this starts with putting out a good product, and if you don't have quality content then nobody will read or watch your stuff no matter how many people you send links.
The Las Vegas Sun is in a unique situation, separate from most newspapers around the country. As I have mentioned before, the print version of the Sun comes as an insert inside the of the much-bigger Las Vegas Review-Journal. For this reason, many people naturally think of the Sun as the second newspaper in town.
That has nothing to do with the quality of the paper, but just the nature of how it's delivered.
Also, until about a year ago, the website for the Sun was ancient. It basically only put up articles that had already run in the print edition. Rob, my boss, wrote in his blog about the old website for the Sun by saying, "Newspaper websites typically aren’t killer, and the Las Vegas Sun’s site was about 10 years behind the rest of the industry."
The reason I bring all that up, is to explain what the Sun is up against in terms of attracting viewers to the website. For the past couple of years the people in Vegas who wanted to get news online didn't really considered going to the Sun's website. They developed a habit, and people are creatures of habit. We're trying to change that.
How do you do that?
I can't speak for what's going on at the upper levels within Greenspun Media, but the obvious focus starts with providing content that is better than the competitor. It's a simple idea: provide better stuff and more people will want to come to your site.
Within the last year and a half, the website operation at the Sun has changed tremendously...like in a reallly big way. Now the Sun has a ton of web-only content, and a lot of it is cool stuff that you could never get in a newspaper. Stuff like the history of Las Vegas, information about the water crisis and stories about construction workers who have died building all these billion dollar hotels.
All of this content comes in addition to the daily news operation, which includes breaking news stories, photo galleries, entertaining video, practical community guides, etc. It doesn't take long to go on the Sun's website and see that the content is top-notch, much better than many local newspapers around the country.
Now this brings me back to the original point... we're attracting people to a website that is relatively "new." The new site launched about a year ago, and since then the traffic numbers have gone way up. I have no idea of specific numbers, just that the audience to the site has grown significantly, and it's still growing.
To keep that upward trend, we have to continue spreading the word about the site. This can be done in big and small ways. And as an intern, I think my efforts classify in the "small ways" category. This is something as simple as sending a source a link to a story I write about them.
I have been out on a couple of video shoots the past week and in both cases the people I talked with were super excited about being on camera and having a video on them. They wanted to see the video ASAP. So i give them a business card and then e-mail them the link when I post the story.
No, that's not a revolutionary idea. But it's simple. And smart.
That is a way to get people involved in the process. It gives people a means distribute the news that is important to them. One high school kid told me that he couldn't wait for me to finish the video about his team so he could put it on his Myspace and Facebook page.
In most situations the best way for something like this to grow is by word of mouth, and the simple things like sending along the links to a story are an effective way to do that. As journalists we're not really the people in the office out "selling"our product. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do our best to get the word out about what we're doing.
We want people to read and watch our stuff, and we should make it easy for them to do. But like I said before, all of this starts with putting out a good product, and if you don't have quality content then nobody will read or watch your stuff no matter how many people you send links.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Know your community
As journalists we're expected to know the communities where we live and work. We're supposed to find the good stories, keep people in power accountable for their actions and give people information that pertains to their lives.
Sometimes that information is movie times. Sometimes it is score updates to your local college/professional/high school team. Sometimes it is a story about a politician abusing power or a series of crimes in a certain neighborhood. There's no secret formula on what classifies a story as a good one, but I think it starts with the basic idea of knowing your community and what's important to it.
Here in Vegas one of the people adored by the community is former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. The "Shark" led UNLV to four Final Four appearances and one national title and he was, and still is a legend in Vegas. Tark writes a blog for our website, and it's good stuff. (I'll talk more about that in another post.)
Any kind of news about Tark gets people's attention. It's not much different than a story about Jim Tressel in Columbus. People read that stuff. One of the Home News (suburban arm of the Las Vegas Sun) reporters found a story about Tarkanian's grandaughter, Dannielle Diamant, who is one of the top girl's basketball players in Vegas. She's on one of the best teams and is headed to Northwestern to play basketball next year. That's an interesting story!
The reporter wrote a good article on Dannielle, a photographer put together a photo gallery and I produced a video with game/practice footage plus interviews from her and her coach. All of this stuff is viewable from the article page. It's the total package for a high school sports story. I'm not sure how many newspapers in the country are giving a high school girl's basketball story that type of coverage.
This story went online Thursday evening and ran in the paper Friday. On Saturday it was one of the top ten most read stories on the Las Vegas Sun. I think the headline, Jerry Tarkanian's granddaughter continues hoops legacy, helped with that. Like I said, people in the community love to read and watch stuff about Tark, and this story grabbed some of that audience.
This story was ultimately hatched from the idea that it is imperative to know your community as a journalist. When you have someone like Tarkanian in the community who is an absolute icon, it's critical for a news agency to capture that and make sure
they jump at the chance to share that kind of story in the best possible way.
Sometimes that information is movie times. Sometimes it is score updates to your local college/professional/high school team. Sometimes it is a story about a politician abusing power or a series of crimes in a certain neighborhood. There's no secret formula on what classifies a story as a good one, but I think it starts with the basic idea of knowing your community and what's important to it.
Here in Vegas one of the people adored by the community is former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. The "Shark" led UNLV to four Final Four appearances and one national title and he was, and still is a legend in Vegas. Tark writes a blog for our website, and it's good stuff. (I'll talk more about that in another post.)
Any kind of news about Tark gets people's attention. It's not much different than a story about Jim Tressel in Columbus. People read that stuff. One of the Home News (suburban arm of the Las Vegas Sun) reporters found a story about Tarkanian's grandaughter, Dannielle Diamant, who is one of the top girl's basketball players in Vegas. She's on one of the best teams and is headed to Northwestern to play basketball next year. That's an interesting story!
The reporter wrote a good article on Dannielle, a photographer put together a photo gallery and I produced a video with game/practice footage plus interviews from her and her coach. All of this stuff is viewable from the article page. It's the total package for a high school sports story. I'm not sure how many newspapers in the country are giving a high school girl's basketball story that type of coverage.
This story went online Thursday evening and ran in the paper Friday. On Saturday it was one of the top ten most read stories on the Las Vegas Sun. I think the headline, Jerry Tarkanian's granddaughter continues hoops legacy, helped with that. Like I said, people in the community love to read and watch stuff about Tark, and this story grabbed some of that audience.
This story was ultimately hatched from the idea that it is imperative to know your community as a journalist. When you have someone like Tarkanian in the community who is an absolute icon, it's critical for a news agency to capture that and make sure
they jump at the chance to share that kind of story in the best possible way.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Super Bowl
The game of all games. Every year the Super Bowl brings in the biggest TV audiences, highest ticket prices and generates the most talk around the office. It's the one game of the year that everybody watches, regardless of whether they even care about football.
The Super Bowl is less of a game and more of an event. It seems like more people watch for the commercials and the extravagant halftime show rather than the game itself.
With the game two weeks away, people in Vegas have another reason to watch: money. People in Vegas love to bet, and Super Bowl wagers bring in more money to sports books than any single sporting event. (The NCAA tourney is bigger overall...but for single games the Super Bowl is king).
People come to Vegas specifically for Super Bowl weekend, and these bettors put down big money on the game. But just like people don't watch the Super Bowl for the game itself, they don't gamble only on the game either. Sportsbooks in Vegas give people all kinds of bets to wager.
Some of these prop bets are closely tied to the game, like will a team score in the final two minutes of the first half. The gambling columnist of the Las Vegas Sun recently wrote a column about some of these prop bets.
Other bets have little to do with the game and more to do with the event. For example, some sportsbooks take bets on the coin flip, or the over/under on the length of the national anthem. This stuff is interesting. It makes people laugh.
To capture this excitement surrounding the Super Bowl, I went to a number of local sportsbooks on the strip to see what kind of prop bets they are offering. The Hilton is is the book that is known for its prop bets, and they put out a 22-page listing of over 400 props for the game. I then put these bets together in a blog for our site.
Is this good journalism? I think so. It may not be gritty investigative reporting or uncovering some grave problem in society, but it's interesting and it gets people talking. Also, this kind of story is local, timely and relevant. The story tells readers about some of the bets they can make, which is very practical.
Las Vegas is a gambling town, and people love to talk about betting. I found out how true this is when a blog I posted about some odd-ball bets being taken on the Presidential Inauguration through online gambling sites. This blog went up Monday night, and Wednesday it was one of the top-10 most read stories on the site.
Just like the blog about Inaugural bets, the story on the prop bets of the Super Bowl is interesting. It's local and national, and it gets people talking. To me, that is journalism!
The Super Bowl is less of a game and more of an event. It seems like more people watch for the commercials and the extravagant halftime show rather than the game itself.
With the game two weeks away, people in Vegas have another reason to watch: money. People in Vegas love to bet, and Super Bowl wagers bring in more money to sports books than any single sporting event. (The NCAA tourney is bigger overall...but for single games the Super Bowl is king).
People come to Vegas specifically for Super Bowl weekend, and these bettors put down big money on the game. But just like people don't watch the Super Bowl for the game itself, they don't gamble only on the game either. Sportsbooks in Vegas give people all kinds of bets to wager.
Some of these prop bets are closely tied to the game, like will a team score in the final two minutes of the first half. The gambling columnist of the Las Vegas Sun recently wrote a column about some of these prop bets.
Other bets have little to do with the game and more to do with the event. For example, some sportsbooks take bets on the coin flip, or the over/under on the length of the national anthem. This stuff is interesting. It makes people laugh.
To capture this excitement surrounding the Super Bowl, I went to a number of local sportsbooks on the strip to see what kind of prop bets they are offering. The Hilton is is the book that is known for its prop bets, and they put out a 22-page listing of over 400 props for the game. I then put these bets together in a blog for our site.
Is this good journalism? I think so. It may not be gritty investigative reporting or uncovering some grave problem in society, but it's interesting and it gets people talking. Also, this kind of story is local, timely and relevant. The story tells readers about some of the bets they can make, which is very practical.
Las Vegas is a gambling town, and people love to talk about betting. I found out how true this is when a blog I posted about some odd-ball bets being taken on the Presidential Inauguration through online gambling sites. This blog went up Monday night, and Wednesday it was one of the top-10 most read stories on the site.
Just like the blog about Inaugural bets, the story on the prop bets of the Super Bowl is interesting. It's local and national, and it gets people talking. To me, that is journalism!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Obama everywhere
With the Inauguration tomorrow it seems like Obama is all people are talking about these days. And rightfully so. We really are watching history in the making.
It's not often that we can recognize that what is unfolding right in front of us is going to end up in history books somedays. Most of the time we simply look at events with a day-to-day microscope, sometimes missing the big-picture. But with all of the news coverage surrounding the election of Barack Obama, I've realized that we're witnessing something special, something historic. When you think about it in those terms, it's pretty cool.
I can't tell you I remember watching any other Presidential Inauguration in my life, even though I'm sure I have. But I know I'm going to watch the Inauguration tomorrow because I recognize what it means as a whole, regardless of people's political leanings.
Usually it takes years for us to look back on a time and realize that what was happening had historic value. I'm not sure if the people who watched and listened to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream speech" in 1963 realized the place that speech would have in history. Maybe some of them did, but I would guess that not many people could have known right then, that King's speech would stand the test of time and go down as some of the greatest words even spoken.
Similarly, I'm not sure what place in history Obama's election and Inauguration will hold. Who knows if his speech tomorrow will be the kind of thing that ends up etched in the walls of a monument? But I do understand that tomorrow could likely be a day people will be talking about and reading about long down the road.
With all of that said, the documentation of this election and Inauguration has to be greater than any Presidential race before. I'm not sure exactly how to quantify that statement, but it seems like it just has to be true. The amount of 24-hour in-depth coverage has given people an information overload, but the coverage also creates a valuable archive for the writers of history books to use 100-years down the road.
Some of the news coverage has blown my mind. One of the coolest things I've seen is what CNN is doing in terms of user-generated content. CNN wants to get people involved and give them "ownership" of the coverage, so they are having people send in photos they take during the Inauguration. The photos can be of any angle of the Inauguration ceremony tomorrow from D.C.
Once people send in these photos, then CNN compiles these crazy graphics of hundreds of images to give a panorama type view of the Inauguration scene, and it is all generated from images submitted by viewers. I saw a demonstration of this yesterday on CNN during the coverage of the "We Are One" event. Very cool.
Also, ireport.com is allowing people to share their stories of the Inauguration on the user-generated, unfiltered news site.
Even though the coverage CNN is doing has nothing to do with me and this internship, I thought it was worth mentioning because of the national interest appeal.
As far as how the Las Vegas Sun is covering the Inauguration... The Sun has a blog that has been updated several times a day starting over the weekend. Most of the posts have been done by a reporter who is in D.C. covering the event.
She has provided some unique story angles about the atmosphere around D.C., to the Inauguration party scene and old Harvard classmates talking about Obama.
I contributed to this blog today with an interesting post about people betting on the Inauguration. Some websites are taking bets on everything from how long Obama's speech will last, to what color tie he will wear. (A pink is bringing in 25-1 odds).
It's Vegas, so of course people love to talk about gambling, which made this an interesting and pertinent topic.
In addition to this blog from D.C., we're also covering the event and the reactions taking place here in Vegas. How are people going to watch the event on the strip? What are they saying about it?
One of my favorite videos is one of people at a local barber shop talking about the election of Obama. To me, that is local journalism.
Well that's it for now. I'll be watching tomorrow, as I get to see history in the making!
It's not often that we can recognize that what is unfolding right in front of us is going to end up in history books somedays. Most of the time we simply look at events with a day-to-day microscope, sometimes missing the big-picture. But with all of the news coverage surrounding the election of Barack Obama, I've realized that we're witnessing something special, something historic. When you think about it in those terms, it's pretty cool.
I can't tell you I remember watching any other Presidential Inauguration in my life, even though I'm sure I have. But I know I'm going to watch the Inauguration tomorrow because I recognize what it means as a whole, regardless of people's political leanings.
Usually it takes years for us to look back on a time and realize that what was happening had historic value. I'm not sure if the people who watched and listened to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream speech" in 1963 realized the place that speech would have in history. Maybe some of them did, but I would guess that not many people could have known right then, that King's speech would stand the test of time and go down as some of the greatest words even spoken.
Similarly, I'm not sure what place in history Obama's election and Inauguration will hold. Who knows if his speech tomorrow will be the kind of thing that ends up etched in the walls of a monument? But I do understand that tomorrow could likely be a day people will be talking about and reading about long down the road.
With all of that said, the documentation of this election and Inauguration has to be greater than any Presidential race before. I'm not sure exactly how to quantify that statement, but it seems like it just has to be true. The amount of 24-hour in-depth coverage has given people an information overload, but the coverage also creates a valuable archive for the writers of history books to use 100-years down the road.
Some of the news coverage has blown my mind. One of the coolest things I've seen is what CNN is doing in terms of user-generated content. CNN wants to get people involved and give them "ownership" of the coverage, so they are having people send in photos they take during the Inauguration. The photos can be of any angle of the Inauguration ceremony tomorrow from D.C.
Once people send in these photos, then CNN compiles these crazy graphics of hundreds of images to give a panorama type view of the Inauguration scene, and it is all generated from images submitted by viewers. I saw a demonstration of this yesterday on CNN during the coverage of the "We Are One" event. Very cool.
Also, ireport.com is allowing people to share their stories of the Inauguration on the user-generated, unfiltered news site.
Even though the coverage CNN is doing has nothing to do with me and this internship, I thought it was worth mentioning because of the national interest appeal.
As far as how the Las Vegas Sun is covering the Inauguration... The Sun has a blog that has been updated several times a day starting over the weekend. Most of the posts have been done by a reporter who is in D.C. covering the event.
She has provided some unique story angles about the atmosphere around D.C., to the Inauguration party scene and old Harvard classmates talking about Obama.
I contributed to this blog today with an interesting post about people betting on the Inauguration. Some websites are taking bets on everything from how long Obama's speech will last, to what color tie he will wear. (A pink is bringing in 25-1 odds).
It's Vegas, so of course people love to talk about gambling, which made this an interesting and pertinent topic.
In addition to this blog from D.C., we're also covering the event and the reactions taking place here in Vegas. How are people going to watch the event on the strip? What are they saying about it?
One of my favorite videos is one of people at a local barber shop talking about the election of Obama. To me, that is local journalism.
Well that's it for now. I'll be watching tomorrow, as I get to see history in the making!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The Video World
Since starting as an intern at the Las Vegas Sun one of my main jobs has been to provide video content for the website. I love shooting and editing video, so this job is right up my alley.
Web-based video is not a new idea and many newspapers around the country have some form of video on their websites. Each newspaper has a different goal with their online video content, and an approach that works for a company in one market may not translate to newspapers around the country.
Before starting this internship, I was well aware that the Sun had made a commitment to producing high quality video. One look through the multimedia section of the site tells you that. But what I didn't completely realize was the scope of the video operation at Greenspun Interactive.
This is some advanced stuff. You hear "web video for a newspaper site" and the first thing that comes to mind is watching a 30-second clip on a tiny screen. Not the most appealing thing in the world. Here it's a different story.
The video team at Greenspun Interactive uses high definition cameras and FInal Cut Pro editing software to produce videos with tremendous quality. You can blow up these videos to view on a full screen and the quality still looks good.
Also, Greenspun Interactive has the manpower in place to produce these top-notch videos. GMG has a team of about ten people who work specifically on the video side of things. I have only spent time in about a half dozen newsrooms in my young career, but it seems like having this many people dedicated to video content is a much larger commitment than most "newspapers" have made.
The staff of video producers are great with cameras and know Final Cut top to bottom. The attention to detail blows my mind. I feel like I better be on my A-game just to make sure I keep up.
This commitment to web video is no accident, and my boss, Rob Curley, wrote a very detailed blog about the approach Greenspun Interactive takes when providing online video.
Many of these videos could go on local television and be on par with the quality of local news. In fact, some of the video does go on television. Much of the sports video ends up on the local sports show, All In, which airs weekly on the station VegasTV.
Many of our videos can stand alone, without people needing to read an article to understand the video. Some of the videos are used to supplement articles, and it's not unusual to find articles on LasVegasSun.com with two or three videos linked to it.
The videos I'm working on are going to be supplements to some of the high school print stories our staff is working on. These stories could easily run without a video piece, but like I've said before, there's something valuable in providing a complete package. I have no idea about the traffic these videos generate, but I naturally think the videos draw people to the website because viewers get something more than they can in the newspaper.
When people know they can watch themselves in a video, they want to. Everybody likes to watch themselves. So they jump online and watch the video attached to the story. Then mom and dad e-mail the link to friends, aunts, uncles, etc. Suddenly everybody gets to see Johnny getting interviewed.
It seems like news websites are still trying to figure out how to use online video, and there is a debate about the value it has. But the one thing everybody can agree on is that these visual elements have an appeal.
For now, I'll just focus on putting out some good videos and hope I can keep up with the talent around me.
Web-based video is not a new idea and many newspapers around the country have some form of video on their websites. Each newspaper has a different goal with their online video content, and an approach that works for a company in one market may not translate to newspapers around the country.
Before starting this internship, I was well aware that the Sun had made a commitment to producing high quality video. One look through the multimedia section of the site tells you that. But what I didn't completely realize was the scope of the video operation at Greenspun Interactive.
This is some advanced stuff. You hear "web video for a newspaper site" and the first thing that comes to mind is watching a 30-second clip on a tiny screen. Not the most appealing thing in the world. Here it's a different story.
The video team at Greenspun Interactive uses high definition cameras and FInal Cut Pro editing software to produce videos with tremendous quality. You can blow up these videos to view on a full screen and the quality still looks good.
Also, Greenspun Interactive has the manpower in place to produce these top-notch videos. GMG has a team of about ten people who work specifically on the video side of things. I have only spent time in about a half dozen newsrooms in my young career, but it seems like having this many people dedicated to video content is a much larger commitment than most "newspapers" have made.
The staff of video producers are great with cameras and know Final Cut top to bottom. The attention to detail blows my mind. I feel like I better be on my A-game just to make sure I keep up.
This commitment to web video is no accident, and my boss, Rob Curley, wrote a very detailed blog about the approach Greenspun Interactive takes when providing online video.
Many of these videos could go on local television and be on par with the quality of local news. In fact, some of the video does go on television. Much of the sports video ends up on the local sports show, All In, which airs weekly on the station VegasTV.
Many of our videos can stand alone, without people needing to read an article to understand the video. Some of the videos are used to supplement articles, and it's not unusual to find articles on LasVegasSun.com with two or three videos linked to it.
The videos I'm working on are going to be supplements to some of the high school print stories our staff is working on. These stories could easily run without a video piece, but like I've said before, there's something valuable in providing a complete package. I have no idea about the traffic these videos generate, but I naturally think the videos draw people to the website because viewers get something more than they can in the newspaper.
When people know they can watch themselves in a video, they want to. Everybody likes to watch themselves. So they jump online and watch the video attached to the story. Then mom and dad e-mail the link to friends, aunts, uncles, etc. Suddenly everybody gets to see Johnny getting interviewed.
It seems like news websites are still trying to figure out how to use online video, and there is a debate about the value it has. But the one thing everybody can agree on is that these visual elements have an appeal.
For now, I'll just focus on putting out some good videos and hope I can keep up with the talent around me.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Newspapers and Porn Conventions?
So in the first week of my internship with Greenspun Interactive, I quickly discovered that what classifies as news in Vegas might be something I would have never considered as newsworthy in Columbus or Athens.
For example, two big time conventions made their way to Vegas this week....the AVN and AEE. These "adult-film" conventions are hot topic around town and have sparked some very interesting conversations around the office--conversations I can easily say I've never heard in another newsroom.
With these events in town, several members of the Greenspun team headed to conventions to provide all encompassing coverage--articles, videos, photos and live blogging. All of this for a porn convention. Welcome to Vegas!
Las Vegas Weekly, the magazine owned by the Greenspuns, handled the majority of the coverage because it has an adult audience and publishes more risque stuff. LasVegasSun.com mentioned the porn conventions, but did not go to the lengths the Weekly did.
LasVegasWeekly.com even had a full page on the website dedicated to the porn convention. This page included stories and videos that I never expected to find their way onto news website.
But again, I'm learning that Vegas has a different set of rules--in many ways. (Quick sidenote... I walked into the CVS by my house the other day and found that they have slot machines and a 24-hour liquor store. I don't think you'll find either of those in the CVS on Court St.)
I was not one of the reporters sent to cover the porn conventions this week, but believe it or not, there was plenty of other stuff going on in Vegas to keep me busy.
Last night I covered a boxing match, which was my first time attending a live boxing event. I had to learn on the fly, and couldn't help laughing at some of the wild characters you find at a boxing fight.
As a reporter for this fight, which was a relatively minor event, I wrote the article and took photos for the web. The story and corresponding photo gallery were on the web by midnight.
One of the things I love about the Sun is that we're expected to produce the complete package when we cover an event. A print story is really not enough, and if I wanted photos to accompany the story, then it was up to me to take them.
And while I recognize I'm no expert in the world of photo journalism, I'm glad I get the chance to develop that skill. I hope someday it makes me more marketable.
For example, two big time conventions made their way to Vegas this week....the AVN and AEE. These "adult-film" conventions are hot topic around town and have sparked some very interesting conversations around the office--conversations I can easily say I've never heard in another newsroom.
With these events in town, several members of the Greenspun team headed to conventions to provide all encompassing coverage--articles, videos, photos and live blogging. All of this for a porn convention. Welcome to Vegas!
Las Vegas Weekly, the magazine owned by the Greenspuns, handled the majority of the coverage because it has an adult audience and publishes more risque stuff. LasVegasSun.com mentioned the porn conventions, but did not go to the lengths the Weekly did.
LasVegasWeekly.com even had a full page on the website dedicated to the porn convention. This page included stories and videos that I never expected to find their way onto news website.
But again, I'm learning that Vegas has a different set of rules--in many ways. (Quick sidenote... I walked into the CVS by my house the other day and found that they have slot machines and a 24-hour liquor store. I don't think you'll find either of those in the CVS on Court St.)
I was not one of the reporters sent to cover the porn conventions this week, but believe it or not, there was plenty of other stuff going on in Vegas to keep me busy.
Last night I covered a boxing match, which was my first time attending a live boxing event. I had to learn on the fly, and couldn't help laughing at some of the wild characters you find at a boxing fight.
As a reporter for this fight, which was a relatively minor event, I wrote the article and took photos for the web. The story and corresponding photo gallery were on the web by midnight.
One of the things I love about the Sun is that we're expected to produce the complete package when we cover an event. A print story is really not enough, and if I wanted photos to accompany the story, then it was up to me to take them.
And while I recognize I'm no expert in the world of photo journalism, I'm glad I get the chance to develop that skill. I hope someday it makes me more marketable.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Just a little bit more
Tonight I went out with another sports videographer to shoot video for a high school basketball game featuring the second best team in the nation, according USA Today. After the game the print reporter who covered it wrote up a quick blog entry on a certain player.
We then took the video, and found an impressive dunk the kid had, and cut up that clip to throw on the web with the blog. It was short, only about 15-20 seconds, but it added another element to the blog.
Here's a link: http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/high-school-sports-scene/2009/jan/08/findlay-rolls-15-0-rudd-liked-visit-unlv/
Could the blog have been fine without it? Sure. But there's something valuable in giving the reader/viewer a little bit more than he or she expects.
I'm learning that doing those little things, like including a 15 second video with a blog entry, can definitely add some value.
We then took the video, and found an impressive dunk the kid had, and cut up that clip to throw on the web with the blog. It was short, only about 15-20 seconds, but it added another element to the blog.
Here's a link: http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/high-school-sports-scene/2009/jan/08/findlay-rolls-15-0-rudd-liked-visit-unlv/
Could the blog have been fine without it? Sure. But there's something valuable in giving the reader/viewer a little bit more than he or she expects.
I'm learning that doing those little things, like including a 15 second video with a blog entry, can definitely add some value.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Viva Las Vegas!
This week I started my internship as a member of Greenspun Interactive in Las Vegas. Coming to this city from Ohio is quite a change, and I had a lot to learn about the Greenspun Media Group when I arrived in Vegas this week.
It's a little complicated to understand what all falls under the umbrella of Greenspun Media. This group encompasses the LasVegasSun.com and LasVegasWeekly.com, and also closely interacts with the print side of both publications as well as the suburban papers called the Home News. Also, Greenspun Interactive has a sports show that airs on a basic cable station each week and additional television programming on the website 702.tv.
And all of this emerged from traditional print operations. Talk about new media.
First, here’s a little background about the Las Vegas Sun…. Due to a strange Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) with the other newspaper in town, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the print edition of the Sun runs as an insert side of the Review Journal. The print version of the paper is much shorter than big-city dailies, only running about eight pages in length.
The paper doesn’t include many of the things that you find in traditional dailies around the country, and it places a larger emphasis on columns and investigative pieces rather than covering every breaking news event. For example, the print version of the Sun has no sports section, and for a person like me interested in sports journalism, that sounds a little sobering at first
But that is where the website comes in to play.
The “newspaper” has shifted the breaking news coverage to the online world, specifically producing web-only content that will never see the print version.
While the print edition has no sports page, the website has individual pages for UNLV and prep sports, and also covers Vegas events like UFC and boxing like crazy.
It’s pretty cool, innovative stuff.
So what will I be doing during this quarter-long internship? A little bit of everything.
It seems like everybody in the office is very versatile in what they can do.
Reporters who would normally just be writers also bring cameras and take photos at events. The television reporters shoot their video, go on air and then come back and edit everything. Videographers shoot and edit video, and also write stories to go along with the videos.
For me, I’m primarily going to cover the Las Vegas sports scene by writing stories and shooting/editing video for the web. There’s a lot going on in Vegas, so I’ll have no shortage of things to cover.
Some of my assignments this week include writing an article on a high school basketball game, attending a UNLV basketball practice with the TV crew, shooting video for another high school basketball game and writing on a boxing event covered by ESPN2.
Like I said, a little bit of everything.
Throughout the quarter I’ll update this blog about what I’m doing and try to bring some perspective of the new-media world based on my experiences. I’ll focus some of my attention on the interaction between the publication and the audience, specifically user generated content.
I’m excited to see how this internship unfolds. The people I work under are flexible on what sports I cover, and they mostly just want to know I’m busy and putting out good work. And I like that.
It's a little complicated to understand what all falls under the umbrella of Greenspun Media. This group encompasses the LasVegasSun.com and LasVegasWeekly.com, and also closely interacts with the print side of both publications as well as the suburban papers called the Home News. Also, Greenspun Interactive has a sports show that airs on a basic cable station each week and additional television programming on the website 702.tv.
And all of this emerged from traditional print operations. Talk about new media.
First, here’s a little background about the Las Vegas Sun…. Due to a strange Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) with the other newspaper in town, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the print edition of the Sun runs as an insert side of the Review Journal. The print version of the paper is much shorter than big-city dailies, only running about eight pages in length.
The paper doesn’t include many of the things that you find in traditional dailies around the country, and it places a larger emphasis on columns and investigative pieces rather than covering every breaking news event. For example, the print version of the Sun has no sports section, and for a person like me interested in sports journalism, that sounds a little sobering at first
But that is where the website comes in to play.
The “newspaper” has shifted the breaking news coverage to the online world, specifically producing web-only content that will never see the print version.
While the print edition has no sports page, the website has individual pages for UNLV and prep sports, and also covers Vegas events like UFC and boxing like crazy.
It’s pretty cool, innovative stuff.
So what will I be doing during this quarter-long internship? A little bit of everything.
It seems like everybody in the office is very versatile in what they can do.
Reporters who would normally just be writers also bring cameras and take photos at events. The television reporters shoot their video, go on air and then come back and edit everything. Videographers shoot and edit video, and also write stories to go along with the videos.
For me, I’m primarily going to cover the Las Vegas sports scene by writing stories and shooting/editing video for the web. There’s a lot going on in Vegas, so I’ll have no shortage of things to cover.
Some of my assignments this week include writing an article on a high school basketball game, attending a UNLV basketball practice with the TV crew, shooting video for another high school basketball game and writing on a boxing event covered by ESPN2.
Like I said, a little bit of everything.
Throughout the quarter I’ll update this blog about what I’m doing and try to bring some perspective of the new-media world based on my experiences. I’ll focus some of my attention on the interaction between the publication and the audience, specifically user generated content.
I’m excited to see how this internship unfolds. The people I work under are flexible on what sports I cover, and they mostly just want to know I’m busy and putting out good work. And I like that.
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