Seven tips in digital storytelling from the New York Times and CNN

Journalism.co.uk reporting:
"We are in a golden age of storytelling" was the message shared by the New York Times's assistant managing editor Jim Roberts early on in a session at the News World Summit today named 'Obituary: The death of the traditional news story".
For Roberts, this "death" was not something he is particularly worried about - as opposed to the risks being faced by foreign correspondents and issues relating to press freedom. When it comes to the evolution of the news story he said journalists have an "infinitely flexible" and "limitless" toolbox they can use "to employ their craft" on digital platforms.
Roberts was joined in the session by CNN International's vice president of digital Peter Bale, who also spoke about the opportunities in digital storytelling to help journalists witness, create, curate, experiment, monetise and feed curiosity - although he made it clear there are no certainties in this at the moment.
Here are seven of the key takeaways from this session, based on the advice and examples shared by Roberts and Bale:

• 1. Consider everything as a possible story lead

Roberts spoke about how editors must be open to considering everything from a Lady Gaga tweet, to a collection of uploaded footage showing a massacre, as "at least being part of the story if not the story itself".

• 2. Be comfortable across publishing formats

Journalists must be just as comfortable communicating to their audience within the confines of a 140 character tweet as they are through a 4,000 word article, Roberts added.

• 3. Incorporate live feeds into main narratives

Roberts said the New York Times, along with other news outlets (such as ITV News), have worked to find ways to pull together, often in live formats, the mass of information available in breaking news situations, to "filter to an extent to get rid of noise and find best signals".

But the challenge is then how to incorporate these feeds into the main narratives online, he added.

"It's clear to me that even at their best these live news blogs or feeds … are lucky to come close to matching the speed Twitter is able to react to events", with social media platforms becoming the news homepage for many people.
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http://www.journalism.co.uk/news-features/seven-tips-in-digital-storytelling-opportunities-from-new-york-times-and-cnn/s5/a549448/