Hannah Hayesmore - Editor for WINOL

That’s something I’m going to have to get used to writing and saying pretty quickly…

As WINOL’s Editor this semester, I am also going to have to make sure I stick to the points I laid out in my manifesto. As such, I thought it would be a good idea if I wrote a brief post on my aims for this semester so that we can get straight back into working on WINOL on Monday. Whilst not all of what I will be writing will be relevant to everyone, I feel it is a good idea to have a quick read of everything anyway to get a sense of both how each section should operate and how they should work together. (It may also give you ideas on how things could be further improved or other ways to make our work more efficient which would be great!)

News & Sports

·         Arguably the most important change that needs to be made is the way the news board & spike are used. There needs to be enough additional packages or longer versions on the spike ready in case one or more packages aren’t ready or legal by their deadline. Therefore, people will need to film enough material for a full package & probably edit it together even if they are only expected to make an OOV so that there is something to fill any gaps if they appear. Reporters should try as much as possible to make their packages fit the length the News or Feature Editor requires rather than them changing the bulletin to suit the package

·         Subeditors need to carefully check spelling & grammar, style & formatting and facts & sources before making it live on the site

·         News & sport text stories should be uploaded quickly rather than waiting until after the bulletin has come out as it makes the text stories look out of date quickly. We also need to update the site over the weekend to keep it looking fresh and relevant and helps drive more people to the site

·         Live news events need to have multiple OB equipment tests and practice runs ahead of time to ensure smooth live coverage

·         To bring our work more in line with other local news sites, we should aim to use more contact-lead stories

·         The sports bulletin should be uploaded on a different day to the news bulletin to spread out the workload and try to get a better spread with hits on the website

Features

·         Also need to use a similar spike system to the news in order to keep the various features sites up to date on a regular basis

·         Need to decide on a system for when they update their site and stick to it – probably either a couple of articles daily or a complete update every fortnight/month – to help build a regular audience

·         Keep deadlines realistic but appropriate for the type of article – reviews need to be turned over quickly after the event as they quickly become irrelevant whilst organising a bungee jump with a go pro takes a lot more planning and editing and is relatively timeless

Website & Social Media

·         Social media editor needs to work alongside news and features team to ensure tweets are relevant to stories and that others are also tweeting and re-tweeting stories.

·         Keep the website modern and user friendly

·         Over the holidays, redesign the web page to highlight the best features so as not to lose our audience

Meetings & Editors

·         Editors need to be clear and decisive when ordering stories in the bulletin and giving instruction to their team  as well as giving detailed and relevant feedback as much as possible

·         Meetings need to be pitches for your articles rather than idea discussions which, if needed, should be held before hand

·         Writers should try to have more than one idea so that editors can chose between stories or when to run them; this will make it easier for editors to use the spike properly too

·         After the news and features meetings, I will introduce Editors meetings to help ensure that everyone knows what is happening in each of the sections and that people are working together as much as possible

Packages & Write-ups

·         Packages need to include ‘camera stare’ top and tailing them to make it easier for the production team during recording

·         To improve still image quality, I feel everyone should participate in still camera training and try to improve photoshop use as better images will benefit both the site and social media output

·         Packages need to be edited to the time given on the board rather than adjusting the times to the packages & must be finished by the deadline given

·         The script needs to be finished earlier in order to have a lot of time to practice and adjust the show as necessary. This will also make it easier for the production team as it will minimise the amount of postproduction editing needed and makes it more likely that the bulletin will be up on time

·         Articles and packages should follow the style guide to ensure consistency across the site & on social media platforms

Whilst my aim is to enforce these points, I want to ensure I am around to help editors, reporters & the production team alike and want everyone to remember that I am open to any suggestions to improve things further.