This document discusses the Interactive News desk at The New York Times, which consists of 10 journalists and developers who build news-focused, data-driven apps and websites to enable deeper, richer interactives and narratives on the web. The Interactive News desk is based in the newsroom and run by journalists, not a software shop, with the goal of producing journalism through interactivity, engagement, and community while upholding the principles of who, what, where, when, and why.

1. Hacking the News
Aron Pilhofer,
The New York Times

2. Interactive News
• Ten journalists/developers
• News-focused, data-driven apps
• “Web development at newsroom speed”

3. Interactive News
• Based in the newsroom
• Run by (relatively nerdy) journalists
• A news desk; not a software shop
• Focused on journalism

4. Graphics Multimedia
Interactive
News

5. We build websites.

6. We enable deeper,
richer interactives.

11. DHTML
Javascript
CSS
Ruby on Rails
Ruby
Python
MySQL

14. Narrative is possible on the web.
It’s just different.

15. What is web journalism? It’s not...

19. It’s certainly not...

21. Throwing stuff online without context or
analysis is what machines do, not journalists.

22. Interactivity.
Engagement.
Community.

23. Who,
What,
Where,
When,
Why.

24. Web Journalism
• It’s about making editorial decisions
• It’s about telling a story
• It’s about providing context, analysis
• In other words...

25. It’s about journalism.

26. Text

27. Text

28. Text

29. Text

30. Text

31. A Good Interactive Should Be...

32. Steeped in context and analysis

36. Feature data that’s useful, not ubiquitous

40. Invite exploration and discovery

43. Provide a venue for sharing

47. Portable: APIs, RSS everywhere.

49. Usable, intuitive and predictable

50. FAIL

51. BETTER

52. Reinvent known journalism
forms online.

55. Everything is data.

60. Aron Pilhofer,
The New York Times
aron@nytimes.com
(212) 556-5849
AIM: pilhofer
Twitter: pilhofer