Find out the important details about writing for online when it comes to newspapers and magazines. This lecture was originally written for second year students at the Lincoln School of Journalism.

1. Writing for online
Charlotte Reid | creid@lincoln.ac.uk

2. Homepages
• Welcome page for websites
• Contains main points of website/brand
• Should encourage people to stay on the site

3. Homepages
• Not as popular as used to be – readers are
coming in the side door
• Every page now acts like a homepage
• Homepage still important to attract readers
and keep them interested
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/08/coming-in-the-side-door-the-value-of-
homepages-is-shifting-from-traffic-driver-to-brand/

4. Homepages
• Important for advertisers – Mullet strategy
• “Business up front, party in the back”
http://www.businessinsider.com/jonah-perettis-awesome-viral-media-presentation-
explained-2010-8?op=1

5. What makes a good website?
• Clear to read and use
• Most important part of website – make it big
and obvious
• What do readers want?
• How will you show that to them?
• Sharing content
• Technical – website need to cope with traffic
for big stories

7. Easy to read
• Hard to keep people’s attention online
• Some visitors will read articles properly
• Others scan to what they want to read
http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-
blog/2012/mar/19/attention-span-internet-consumer

8. Easy to read
• Keep people interested
• Good writing – short and
punchy
• Subheadings, pictures,
videos, audio
• Audience – Buzzfeed use
images and gifs
• Best way to cover story

9. Easy to read - experimentation
• New York Times – Snowfall

10. Easy to read - experimentation
• http://martinbelam.com/2013/hacks_hackers_usvsth3m/

11. Mobile websites
• One in five UK digital news readers access
news exclusively on mobiles
• Mobile websites are optimised to look good
on smaller screens
• Mobile apps – tend to be downloaded if you
are already loyal to that site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/bbc-sport-handheld.html

12. Mobile websites
Mobile website Smartphone app

13. SEO
• Help people find your website
– Tagging
– Strong headlines
– Useful links
– Good content
– Updated regularly

14. Registration
• Needed for comments, email newsletters and
paywalls
• Consider how you will protect this information
• Privacy issues and legal issues
• Learn information from visitors to your site
• Cookies – files on the user side which is
helpful for advertisement

15. Interactivity
• Reader comments
• Voter polls
• Social media
Helps get readers talking on your site and allows
them to contribute to your coverage

16. Interactivity

17. Interactivity
Polls
• Invite reader to respond to stories
• Wordpress plugins, Google forms, Facebook
polls
• Think about question – make sure not taken
advantage of
• Results can be written into a new story

18. Interactivity

19. Interactivity
Comments
• Invite readers to have their say
• Get reaction/more information
• Emotive subject – are comments worth it?
• Upset people
• Legal complications

20. Interactivity

21. Interactivity
Social media
• Use to promote stories
• Use to get reaction and comments
http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/01/if-a-tweet-worked-once-send-it-again-and-other-
lessons-from-the-new-york-times-social-media-desk/

22. Interactivity
Social media
•Useful to source stories
•Contacts
•Fact check and accuracy
•Have permission
Verification handbook
http://verificationhandbook.com/

23. News is consumed differently
• Need to be able to write your story in different
ways
– Short article and longer articles
– Tweet/Facebook
– Audio and video
• Be able to make them all strong and make
people want to read

24. News is consumed differently
Also competing with
• Facebook and social media
• Blogs
• Hyperlocal websites
• Radio stations
• Local TV
All are very different but will have an online
profile