Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A new media look at the new Daily

We're finally getting to look at Rupert Murdoch's new Daily, designed for the iPad, and I think it's appropriate to let the first review come from a new media. Guardian technology correspondent Jemima Kiss reviews the Daily via video. Her take? Visuals are good, navigation is clunky, but the big question is content. We still don't know what it will be, what it will be like, or whether it will be strong enough to make us pay for it given the completion is free content. She also quoted several Twitter comments. Let the new media rule.

Gawker redesigns three sites; more to come?

Gawker redesigns three of its sites, stripping out Twitter and Stumble Upon leaving only Facebook. The new designs for io9, Gawker TV, and Jalopnik go"beyond the blog," as Gawker says. On io9, Annalee Newitz says: "If you've stopped by io9 before, you'll notice that the front page looks quite a bit different today. We've got one big story that takes up most of the page, and a list of today's headlines in a column down the right side of the page. The page is a lot simpler and lighter, which means it will load quickly. And at last we have a way to display big, gorgeous images and videos on the front page of our site. That's the point."
More experimentation from one of the Net's more adventurous companies.

Could e-tablets save long-form journalism?

Interesting look at digital venture aimed at promoting long-form journalism on the Web. It's a way of getting around smaller and fewer magazines for articles 10,000+ words but not long enough for a book at publisher's prices. It's another way journalism is evolving.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Students to cover Brewers' spring training

Students from Arizona State University will produce coverage of the Milwaukee Brewers' spring training this year. As part of a class, the seven students will spend two to three days weekly producing multimedia news packages to appear on jsonline.com.