Publishing Online

1
Publishing Online

• Queensland University of Technology
• Author Graham Cairns. Last revised September 2005

2
Online Publishing

• Wave of the future
• Only major area of growth
• Uses similar skills to traditional reporting
• However, uses many more of them (multiskilling)
• In many cases, is mostly subbing

3
Online vs Offline

• Markets not always the same
• Online arms need to reflect parent organization -
  eg
• The Australian
• The Washington Post
• The Star (Malaysia)

4
Online vs Offline

• Electronic media also use Online news sites -
  with varying success - eg
• ABC News
• CNN
• BBC
• Channel 10

5
Online vs Offline

• Some Online sites seek to create new audiences -
  eg
• Salon
• Slate
• The Onion
• Niche Markets like
• The Blue Ridge Highlander
• A Tamil E-zine

6
Anyone can publish

• The net is the ultimate vanity publisher
• Some achieve notoriety (eg Drudge)
• Cred? Who needs it? Ken Stremsky
• For small operators KrossArts

7
Anyone can publish

• Not necessarily credible Landover Baptist
  Church
• Often anthologized Freerepublic.com
• Convergence the next big thingABC
  BroadbandAnanova

8
Traps for Online players

• The young sometimes eat their parents
• Very difficult to make money directly
• Unusual methods required eg sealed sections
  (Crikey) or more complete articles (Salon)
• Failure rate for E-zines very high

9
What Online publications need

• Easily accessible information (includes issues of
  speed, clutter, cost)
• An alternative to other media (radios are
  ubiquitous, newspapers are portable, TV is
  pre-packaged)
• A fresh, sassy style (although that will change
  as the demographic changes)
• Credibility, credibility, credibility.

10
What YOU need

• Good reporting skills
• Wide general knowledge
• Understanding that speeds important .. but
  accuracys imperative
• Brashness .. but not belligerence
• A basic understanding of the Web, and HTML, and
  layout/design, and ..