Saturday, May 5, 2007

The Four-Letter Word The World-Herald Avoids

It's beginning to become almost comical how the Omaha World-Herald rarely takes advantage its online component (read: "website") affords to produce timely updates as an event is in progress (read: "blog").

We won't fault business reporter Joe Ruff for the ridiculous headline, "Berkshire Live: Updates from Q&A session," Saturday on Omaha.com. After all, he was only responsible for the content. However, exactly a year after the newspaper first trumpeted the concept of blog updates - without using the word "blog" and about five years after everyone else became familiar with the term - the World-Herald continues to resist use of the word "blog."

You would have thought the decision-makers on the seventh floor of the former Qwest building would have learned from their mistake during the trial of Christopher Edwards. Then, reporters Lynn Safranek and Todd Cooper filed a number of "live" reports (read: "blogging") from outside the courtroom, which were subsequently posted under the heading of "trial briefs."

The style of those entries - far removed from the staunch, matter-of-fact writing by reporters that is found daily in the news section of the newspaper - almost made an otherwise life-or-death matter seem comical at times.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

World-Herald = Going Out Of Business

Anonymous said...

It seems like there has been a rumor going around in media circles that TWH intentionally avoids building its web-presence (and making its website a horror to actually use and navigate) in an attempt to ensure its print circulation remains as high as it is.

This may not be true, but I like to think that it is. Nothing is funnier than watching an institution get pulled kicking and screaming into the present.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if that's true, as evidenced by its recent redesign.

Why would they pump money into a site redesign if they were "intentionally avoid[ing] building its web-presence?"

Anonymous said...

You're absolutely correct (I live out of town and quit reading Omaha.com about a year ago because it was so horribly designed/maintained). Still, it seems odd that it would take until 2007 before the company admitted to itself that, yes, the internet isn't a fad.