Web-tastic Elements

My first job at KOMU-TV was as a web editor — back in the good old days when the only thing reporters had to do for their web story was walk a brochure over to the web desk and say "Scan this and post it," and they got their 10 points for having a "Web Extra" for their story.  You name it, I probably scanned it:  brochures on MoDOT projects, how-to guides, letters from congressional leaders... All the while, I thought to myself, How does this advance the story?  You're forced to ask yourself that question every time you have a reporter hand you a Post-It note with a URL on it and snarling, "Here's my Web Extra."

Things have changed somewhat since then.  Of course, reporters now have to write their own web story in addition to providing links and extra content, so they are, at minimum, guilted into putting together a halfway decent Web Extra.  But that doesn't mean the cop-out Web Extras don't appear, and I have to admit that when a shift is going poorly, the first thing on my mind is my broadcast story — that's the one that can't wait when 10 o'clock rolls around.

In my final reporting shift before my summer internship/sabbatical, I think I came up with a very effective web extra.  Granted, there are so many extra layers I want to add to this web extra, but it's effective, and it serves a purpose.  I took the raw interview video of my 10-minute sit-down with Columbia's new superintendent, and posted it on KOMU.com.

Now, in a way, I committed my own cardinal sin:  I posted raw interview video.  Often, I find that reporters post their raw video for important things like news conferences that nobody cares about without a human side, or human elements that make no sense without newsworthy content.  But in this situation, I think it's very appropriate to use raw interview video:  There are a lot of people in Columbia, Mo., who really care about how their education system works.  A 50-second mini-pack isn't going to inform them about how their new superintendent sees the world, or what he plans to do on key budget issues.  I think there is a genuinely-interested niche audience out there for this video, and I posted it and teased it heavily in my broadcast versions for this purpose.

Cop-out Web Extras make my skin crawl — and it makes me sick to my stomach every time I have to submit one.  But I think we have to remember that every time we post a Web Extra, we need to have our audience in mind.  Unless we do, then it just looks like we posted a link to fulfill an editorial requirement.  That's not going to drive page views, or increase a news website's interactivity.