M.T. Bearington. Photo: Chris March/New Haven Register
The idea was simple. Invite a band to the New Haven Register, let them rip, and record every blissful note.
With the help of CT Indie - we invited one of New England's best indie rock groups M.T. Bearington into the New Haven Register to play a 45 minute set last week which was free and watchable for anyone in the world with a broadband internet connection.
The New Haven Register has hosted live chats with public officials and live streamed press conferences quite regularly for a while now, but we had never done any thing like this before. So we learned some very valuable lessons, and have gathered a wealth of great feedback and ideas on how to improve and further develop this new venue for local music.
Print readers of the New Haven Register know what SOUNDOFF is. In fact, it's probably one of our most consistently read features in the paper.
Basically, we ask a topical question in the paper and readers call in with their comments on the topic, and we run a selection of those comments in the following day's paper.
But the problem is, we're just giving you a little space to vent, to holler, and to praise. And we mold the results into something interesting for our readers. But is it engaging? Is there a real payoff for those sounding off? Are prayers answered? Are your questions being directed to the right people?
With these questions in mind, we decided it's time for an upgrade to Soundoff.
We are expanding the Soundoff idea to include a regular feature where we flip the tables around. Instead of asking our readers to call us and tell us what they think, we're going out into the community and bringing along a guest for you to direct your questions at. We want this to be an engaging and interactive community experience. We want your questions to be answered. It's like a Town Hall meeting -- but those who can't attend, can watch online and submit questions from their computer too. We want everyone to have the opportunity to be able to participate.
But don't worry Soundoff lovers, the original print column remains intact. This is just another way for us to turn up the volume on those wanting to make some noise in their community. Soundoff right here on my blog what you think about this.
Alright, NHRnewsmouse. You've done it. I'm pitting you against the New Haven Register newsroom.
I'm doing this because we're moving our newsroom towards one of transparency and engagement. Meanwhile, you continue to cling to secrets and uh.. droppings of food morsels? I want to see which prevails.
So here's my challenge, News Mouse. How bout this: How bout after every single reporter in the New Haven Register newsroom reaches 300 followers each -- you tell us who you really are. That sound fair?
The identity of this new Twitter identity has caused great debate and speculation in the New Haven Register newsroom as of late. Many of us - including myself - have been accused as being the wizard behind the curtain. But everyone - including myself - continues to deny any involvement. Vote in the poll below on whom you think is the secret identity behind the NHRnewsmouse. And give the newsroom a head start by following all the writers and topics that interest you most.
Here are most of the possible suspects: Read more »
Check out The New Haven Register's updated staff and topics lists at the links below. We now have 41 staffers (reporters, editors, designers, copy editors, and uh, a mouse?) and 16 topics, so you can follow and engage with the writers and content that interests you most. Or just follow the whole list.
And if any body knows who the mysterious @nhrnewsmouse is, please send me a news tip. The secret identity of this anonymous mouse has thus far eluded an ENTIRE room of journalists and copy editors who microscope every detail that crosses their desk.
And no, it isn't me. If you think I'm that sneaky, then we have trust issues.
As I posted last week, we have switched video platforms on nhregister.com. And when we asked for feedback on this new platform - we learned that a common practice of ours for a while now has been ticking off readers. Ticking them off so much that some have stopped clicking on stories with (video) marked in the headline. Ouch.
Admittedly, I'm angry at myself for not realizing how invasive it can be to the reader's experience to call up a story and have a video (preceded by an advertisement) interrupt it. We should have had this conversation long before we switched video players. A video can be a great contextual addition to a story, but it is something that should provide extra depth or color at choice, not force. It should be an opportunity for reader engagement, so we're finally listening, and finally making it so. The rest of the internet is like this, so there's no reason for us to fight it.
So from now on, we are embedding our videos into stories with the auto play feature turned OFF. This means, you have to push play on a video to watch it when coming across one in a story. You know, like this:
The only place on our website where this won't ring true is on our video page, www.nhregister.com/video. Because, let's face it; if you're going to that page, you're probably planning on watching a video.
It's just a small step towards improving the reader's experience here at nhregister.com, but a step in the right direction nonetheless, right? It's a direction we will work hard in 2011 to continue moving in.
If you have other suggestions for how we handle video or our new video player, please leave a comment or email me at cmarch@nhregister.com. There are certainly more changes to come and efficiencies to be made as we go forward.
Christmas came early for the New Haven Register newsroom. On Tuesday afternoon, we (and those other classy CT Central news media outlets) switched over to a new platform to better handle our video capabilities.
See for yourself -- this is the old:
This is the new:
Cool, I know. But what does this mean to you, the reader.
Well for one, MORE video. This new platform (called Syndicaster) takes a lot of the extra production steps out of the equation. Which means our reporters and photographers can spend more time getting video of their community and beat, more time writing stories, more time being a REPORTER, and significantly less time worrying about editing and compressing and finagling, and trying to figure out where their online producer is when they need help. Basically, this new platform makes this newsroom's job easier at generating content.
It also means MORE sharing. See that little icon in the bottom left corner of the (new) video player? The one that looks like two hands molding a ball of cookie dough in their grasp? Click that. .... go ahead, I'll wait. See? It gives you the option to publish this video clip on your own web site, blog, or digital whatever. See also: YouTube, Vimeo, and most every video service on the web sans the one we just switched over from. Taking that a step farther, we now can share and utilize all the video content from our brother and sister papers across the Journal Register Company much, much easier.
The end of the video is not the end of the video. If you'll notice with the new player, a new video begins when the one you're watching ends. So basically -- you bring the popcorn, we'll bring the video. Just push play, and watch some of the the stories of your community come alive.
More changes to come, of course. This is a new engine for the Register's video vehicle, so there are some chinks we'll be working out over the course of the next few days. And there are certainly upgrades and efficiencies we'll be adding to it as we continue to grow with it.
There are some (temporary!) drawbacks. Think of what it'd be like to move the New Haven Library to a new building across town. That's what's kind of happening with our video library right now. We've published more than 1,500 videos on our "news" channel alone this year, not to mention everything from sports and life. That all has to be chauffeured into the new system, and will be, but for now is stored in a special video archive we created for this move: http://www.nhregister.com/video-archive
And older stories with embedded videos from our old platform will eventually have to be updated, as those "codes" will all go dead in a few months once our term with our previous vendor expires. Which means those of us in the online production department are going to need back rubs. A lot of them.
I say it's a win. But how can we improve upon it? UIWhat do you think of the new video player? Spend a little time with it, and tell us what you like and loathe about it. Is it user friendly? What do you want to get out of it? What's it missing?
What about the video content? Are we doing too much? Not enough? What do you think of the quality, what can we do better? Do you like short, snappy one liners -- or 5 minute long features packed with effects and edits? We aren't doing this for fun and flash (no pun intended) - we're doing it to try and tell your stories in a more engaging, and interesting, way.
Your feedback is appreciated -- leave a comment, or email me direct at cmarch@nhregister.com
Chris is the Assistant Managing Editor of Disruption for Journal Register Company - Connecticut Group, a member of the Digital First Media Idea Lab, a music junkie and a Nittany Lion. Email cmarch@journalregister.com.
RSS
