Columbia Journalism Review’s “Darts and Laurels” has been around for decades, at least. But with Monday’s site redesign, the feature examining what works and what doesn’t in journalism got an update.
Now, it’s called “Hit or Miss.” And like the newly redesigned site, it’s not just a facelift.
In the past, CJR saved the “Darts and Laurels” feature for print. That didn’t work as well in a time when media news moves quickly and seeing something weeks later means there’s likely little context. Now, the goal is to do more “Hit or Miss” online on a regular basis, said Elizabeth Spayd, CJR’s editor-in-chief and publisher. The print version will be a compilation of the best from the site.
“The concept hasn’t been changed,” said Spayd, who formerly worked as managing editor of The Washington Post. “If anything, I think that we put more value on it now.”
A lot of people didn’t know what “Darts and Laurels” meant, she said, and for people who come to CJR’s site, which is where they get the majority of traffic from, the new name offers more clarity.
“People know the expression ‘Hit or Miss’ in a way they don’t know ‘Darts and Laurels,'” Spayd said. “It just doesn’t work as well on the web.”
The purpose of the feature isn’t to be snarky, she said, but to show what’s working and, when something doesn’t work, what the rest of us can learn from it.
Like running that feature online first, CJR has started staggering stories, Spayd said, saving them for when they work or running them early if they’re timely. That was the case with a November story on Bill Cosby and the media that CJR hadn’t yet published in the magazine but chose to publish first online. That practice will increase.
“We’re really trying to move more assertively into the digital space, that’s the overwhelming majority of our audience,” Spayd said. “That’s very important.”
Capital New York’s Jeremy Barr wrote more on the redesign today and the role students have had in the digital transformation.
In particular, Spayd said that she’d consider a suggestion, were it to come from students, about eliminating the bi-monthly magazine’s print run.
“We’re always evaluating what the best strategy is,” she told Capital. “If that’s their recommendation, … I would certainly listen.”
Spayd also wrote about the redesign for CJR, where the “mission will not change as we accelerate toward our digital-first future.” Working with CJR on the redesign was Garcia Media. Mario Garcia is on the board of the Poynter Foundation.
A few other new features, Spayd said, include the newsfeed and a focus on the mobile experience with a “much larger recognition of how much mobile traffic we get. Those people were poorly served before.”
Staff is working now on the first edition of “Hit or Miss,” Spayd said. It should be online in the next few days.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story didn’t note that CJR was redesigned by Garcia Media or that Mario Garcia is on the board of the Poynter Foundation. It has been added.