A worthy trend is original reporting by some newspaper websites.
SignOnSanDiego.com, the site of the
San Diego Union-Tribune, is one of the leaders in this area. Content manager
Ron James forwarded me a description of how the web staff covered a school-bus crash this morning:
"Our first alert came in from our [emergency-alert] pager; after confirming with other sources we put up a breaking news alert. We used our news chopper (we have an agreement with the provider of the television news chopper to capture video anytime it is in the air) video to grab a frame for the upper photo [on this page], and the lower photo by Greg Magnus was sent by wire from his photo cell phone which he also used to report from the scene. Jeff Dillon wrote the story using TiVo to review the details as a press officer talked to a local TV station as one of our news sources." [Principal content producer Steve Perez also accompanied Magnus to the scene and shot video, which was integrated into the coverage later.]
How refreshing that newspaper websites are doing more original reporting. There's an example of not just relying on print-side reporters but utilizing website reporting resources.
CORRECTION: This item was changed from its original form to correct an error about the timing of the site's video coverage of the bus accident.
