Basic HTML

The tutorial introduces very basic HTML tags. Although it does give correct instructions and tips on how to write code, the narration is a bit clumsy and it doesn’t seem to follow a prepared structure. The tutorial doesn’t set a task to be accomplished and therefore new concepts are introduced randomly.

Is cross-platform publication of news affecting the way news is being shaped?

In other words, is the delivery influencing the making?

News can be delivered on a multitude of platforms: paper, television, radio, internet, mobile text, sometimes it can even adopt the form of mixtures of traditional platforms such as Podcast, Vodcast, RSS feeds, mobile web etc.

With the most powerful media companies dipping their hands in all of the above markets, how does a newsroom and its journalists approach the writing of news?

Is it necessary to write several drafts of the same story to accommodate different outlets?

In search of answers to my questions, I took under examination one of the largest private media companies in the UK: Sky News.

Aside from being a 24h digital television news channel, operates on other platforms: on its website aside from offering written articles, it streams the live audio feed of its television channel and offers video clips of its top stories on demand for free; it has a YouTube channel; it produces the news bulletins for Five News; it produces bulletins for radio stations across the UK in a manner that resembles the syndication process of the United States; it has a direct SMS Alert service, and it also offers live mobile streaming of its 24h tv channel on 3G networks such as Vodafone, Three and T-Mobile; Sky News also offers an RSS Feeds and Podcast service plus a new Vista Desktop Gadget has been recently introduced.

At this point what I wonder is: with so many delivery options, does Sky News create a brand new and dedicated version of the news for every single outlet?

Let’s start from the Web: the Vista Gadget will look like this.

What you see in the first Gadget Page are the titles of the top stories: the titles are the same ones that will receive through the RSS Feeds service. By clicking on the Gadget title another page will pop up on the side, revealing further details about the story: the text is the same that you will receive through the SMS Alert service. By clicking on “Full Story” on the Gadget, your web browser will be redirected to the full article on the Sky News website: the article is the same one that will be delivered through the RSS.

It is interesting to notice how Sky News manages to use the same article for different purposes: by cutting into three main parts (title, intro and body) they successfully cover four platforms.

But it’s not over yet: the full article will be trimmed down to its most relevant parts, and that will appear on the Sky News Channel interactive teletext (accessible through the red button). The title used for all the above platforms though it’s not the same as the one used in the scrolling banner at the bottom of the screen, as it tends to be changed and updated during the day.

As far as the Vodcast and Podcast services are concerned, we’re talking again about edited material from the Tv channel and Sky News Radio programs. The stories are first organized into section after being aired on the channel and become available through the “red button” menu in the form of 8 simulcast sub channels.

Some of the stories would then become available for download or on-demand watching through the website. The same principal applies for the Audio Programs.

I would have loved to analyze the content that Sky delivers on 3G mobile phones, but unfortunately T-Mobile has not made my phone compatible with the service yet so I’m afraid an answer on that will have to wait a little while.

All in all we can observe this: the way the Sky Newsroom approach the coverage of a story is pretty simple: one video plus one article. They will both be edited and adapted to fit the platform of choice, but there’s no such thing as writing a story for each outlet.

This is one chosen approach, and it seems to work quite well for Sky. I do have some issues with the method though: the fact that Sky News allows its readers/viewers to access the same content from different platforms can be a positive aspect as it doesn’t deprive different users of any type of material, but, along with this, it’s not really adapting itself to the different environments, but doing quite the opposite.

The method adopted by Sky does not take into consideration requirements that different users of different platforms might have: for example a regular television spectator does not fit into the same category as an occasional mobile content user, and their needs will inevitably be different.

If the future of news delivery sees an uncompromising user being offered everything according to its taste and preferences (Web 2.0 and all its desktop and mobile applications for example), an MO like Sky’s would not be able to satisfy it.

Not to waste this small diversion on the future of news delivery and Web 2.0, I would like to conclude by attaching this interview mash up made by PodTech to ScobleShow's Robert Scoble, Google Vice President Marissa Mayer and Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang.

Luca