MSU’s Standard shows the glory of the Web

I love to read all things higher ed.

Like the Missouri State president’s State of the University Address, for instance. It happened today. The Standard did some live tweets (more on that in a minute) and promised to have the story up this afternoon. They do.

That is the power of not only the Internet, but also a reportorial attitude more should have. Cover that story and file it NOW. And how did I know to look for it? Updates to my Facebook news feed. Well done, Standard.

Gone are the days when you could take your recorder and notebook back to the newsroom and (pet peeve) transcribe. At a speech like this, you should be recording it and taking notes on a laptop with Internet access. As you type the quotes from the speaker, look for the good soundbites that you can cut and paste into your open Twitter account and post from the scene.

Aside: The Standard had a great idea, but it was executed much better when the reporter gave my Twitter feed bullet points and quick quotes. It was less successful when I got “So and so just took the stage.”

If you are lucky enough to have a photographer with you, carry a card reader so you can also upload pics. If not, let your recorder take over and take some quick ones yourself. Just plan out what shots you might later need and take them when appropriate. Your tweets will fall a little behind, but if you have a reporter’s memory, you should be able to catch up with a few choice paraphrases.

This workflow really isn’t more work. It is just working more efficiently and under a different deadline/delivery dynamic. By the time you get back to the newsroom, your print copy is practically already written. And you’ve already published to the Web. Flesh out the story for the hard copy, look for depth and put it to bed.