Comments on: Workflow matters: a case for shovelware

By: Bill Dunphy

Bill Dunphy — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:51:18 +0000

Sean,
Increasingly the tools you’re asking for are being built: CCI/Newsgate, a massive European-based editorial CMS does that and soon enough I’ll be able to tell you how well it does it as we’re bringing that system to my chain now.
More importantly though I wonder if there’s another message lying unnoticed here: maybe we just need to aim lower. Simplify our web news sites to something not much more complicated that Tumblr, hand the keys over to the entire newsroom with just a single editor/gatekeeper/style maven to press the “publish” button and BAM! You get immediacy, speed, and – I’m willing to wager – greater newsroom engagement and thus an end to the “print-first” problem.

By: SeanBlanda.com » 14 ways newspapers can make more money

SeanBlanda.com » 14 ways newspapers can make more money — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:50:24 +0000

[...] your shovelware publishing to the Web using XML and InDesign. Free up the Web people to produce content instead [...]

By: Blanda

Blanda — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:56:31 +0000

“Until the Web/mobile leads news operations, news organizations will continue to waste resources on the Web by repurposing old content.”

I think the real statement there is when revenues from those 2 mediums catches up.

“Plus, talented technologists will leave the industry because they are in such demeaning jobs.”

Thats the biggest problem. No matter how idealistic you are about journalism, if you just get stuck putting content up, you are going to jump ship eventually.

Good luck!

By: Pat Thornton

Pat Thornton — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:03:55 +0000

@Sean,

This sounds a lot like my job. I waste a lot of time and skills maintaining someone else’s content because our work flow sucks.

Frankly, it is really wearing me down. I want to create content, not waste time (slowly) repurposing content. And I do get to create content and special features, but I spend so much time just making sure the daily copy is packaged properly on our site that I’m often too wore down (mostly mentally and spiritually) to do anything else.

I think you have the solution wrong. The solution is not better ways to get the content on the Web from print (many system automatically push content from the print system to the Web already), but rather the problem is that print is getting content first.

Online is the medium of immediacy, while print is the medium of permanency. So, why would the medium of permanency get content first? That makes no sense, and that’s the fundamental problem.

The work flow issues requires a complete rethinking of how newspapers are staffed and how they operate. That’s why I support breaking news and current news on the Web site first and then putting analysis pieces and feature stories in the print edition. The real issue is that the print edition is still trying to lead news operations.

Until the Web/mobile leads news operations, news organizations will continue to waste resources on the Web by repurposing old content. Plus, talented technologists will leave the industry because they are in such demeaning jobs.

I just don’t think I’ll be working too much longer in this environment.