Leaderboard for week of 5-11-2009: No blog required edition

This week’s Leaderboard features three distinct examples of innovation in beat reporting, because there is no one way to innovate when it comes to reporting.

Our first nominee shows that beat reporters don’t need a blog to be social and interact with people. The comments after news stories provide an excellent place for two-way communication and conversations to happen. While the other two nominees spur conversations through beatblogs, the first nominee is bringing two-way communication to his stories.

It’s important to note that there is no one way to go about beatblogging. Beatblogging can happen on a social network like Twitter or on a blog or in the comments after a news story. The keys to beatblogging are two-way communication, accessibility and transparency.

Robert Schoenberger | The Plain Dealer

• First I need to make it clear that this is a newspaper story, not a blog post. Reporters don’t need a blog to engage in two-way communication. The comments section after their stories will do just fine.
• Schoenberger wrote a story about UAW rallies in downtown Cleveland, where workers called on Washington to protect GM and Chrysler plants in the area. The story drew heated comments on both sides, because of the contentious nature of this issue. Many commenters don’t believe the auto industry should be singled out for a bailout, while other industries sink.
• The Plain Dealer recently called on reporters to interact more, and this story shows why interaction can help make a better product. Schoenberger enters the comments and provides additional facts and figures. His presence helped make the comments less volatile, despite this being a topic with passionate people on both sides. Most of all, however, he helped make better journalism by directly responding to claims made by commenters.
• Some commenters brought up how many foreign cars are actually made in the U.S., including some made in Ohio. Schoenberger stepped in to provide some exact figures, “So far this year, Toyota has imported from Japan about 41 percent of the cars it sells here. Honda imported about 19 percent of its cars (Nissan’s been at about the 20 percent import range for years, but it doesn’t break down its numbers as cleanly).”
• To another commenter, Schoenberger explained why resale values of Big 3 automakers are lowers, “For years, Ford, GM and Chrysler produced more vehicles than they could profitably sell, and they dumped the rest on the rental fleet market. So, 6-18 months after the rental companies got those cheap cars, they would dump them on the used market. That created a huge supply of slightly used Big Three cars, and as an economist can tell you, when supply goes up, prices go down. Honda especially has protected its resale prices by keeping production in line with demand. That’s why their resale values are better than Toyota’s. On the Big Three side, the companies slashed fleet sales about two years ago, and their residual values are climbing. But it’s going to take years (and an improvement in car sales) to undo the damage.”
• When you look at this story, and the subsequent comments, you can see how the comments really forwarded the debate along and created a story of its own. The main story itself was about a few small rallies in the Cleveland area. That’s not exactly big news or something that would usually drive a lot of traffic. However, Schoenberger and commenters turned this story into a a larger debate about domestic automakers. That’s really where this story got interesting, and Schoenberger did a big service to PD readers by weighing in with additional facts and figures.

Andrew C. Revkin | The New York Times

• This is an excellent example of using a blog to tie multiple pieces of content together into a package. In one blog post Revkin links to and embeds content from nytimes.com, NYT blogs, YouTube, books.google.com and Times Topic pages. He takes this disparate content and combines it together to make a post about what happens to garbage and how waste effects rich and poor countries and people differently.
• This post itself doesn’t include original reporting, but it does two things: It gets people thinking of these desperate pieces of content — many from the Times itself — as a package of like-minded stories, and it gets a conversation going about the subject. Blogs excel at conversation and seemingly simple posts like this can be great conversations starters — and traffic creators.
• The other thing this post does is bring attention to older content that is still relevant. Not all this content was created the same day, but it was all relevant at the time of the post. Revkin wrote a nice post that tied all the content together and explained why people should care. In doing so, he brought new life to some older NYT content.
• All the content Revkin linked to told a smaller story, but placed together, it tells a much larger and complete story.

Dave Levinthal | The Dallas Morning News

• Levinthal gets a nod this week not for a singular action, but for his complete coverage of the recent local elections in Dallas.
• As the election day went on, Levinthal began filling reports on the voter turnout, early vote returns, analysis of how the big vote was going on the Dallas Convention Center hotel proposition, live reports from the Vote No Dallas! party and the results of the big vote. Levinthal also had a post on why he believes Major Tom Leppert was able to win the proposition 1 vote.
• Levithal followed up this terrific election day coverage with a live chat a day later to discuss the election results and what they mean. Levinthal showed how local elections can be covered with new depth and fervor with a good beatblog. Not only did he provide great covering as events broke, but he also provided strong analysis. This combination of news and analysis is hard to beat. This is the kind of coverage that shows how journalism can be better on the Web.

Leaderboard for week of 5-4-2009: Timing matters

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: timing matters.

When an event happens, a good beat reporter should cover it ASAP. This also might mean retooling plans and launching a new feature sooner than expected. It could mean scheduling an impromptu live chat to discuss a major news event or crisis.

Great timing requires flexibility. The best beatbloggers have it.

Timing, however, goes beyond just flexibility. Two of the beatbloggers below have timely and modern beats that really speak to the times. Would these beats have been possible 20 years ago, before the Web? No.

And even 10 years ago these beats might not have been very popular, but they are today. Beats need to change with the times, and with the Web and cheap and easy-to-deploy technology like blogs, journalists and news orgs can launch new beats in minutes.

Eric Berger | The Houston Chronicle

• Has there been a bigger story lately than swine flu? Berger is a very flexible reporter, and he scheduled an impromptu live chat to discuss swine flu and answer reader questions.
• Berger answered readers questions on a variety of topics. He provided insightful answers, often linking to official government documents and other Chronicle content on the subject.
• Berger did an excellent job of A) answering reader questions B) calming people down with his measured advice (unlike many others in the media) and C) doing all of this in a timely manner. A good beatblogger knows when to push other work aside and schedule an impromptu chat about a major story like this. Swine flu may not become the pandemic that some predicted, but Berger’s timely advice was much appreciated by readers.
• Berger’s ability to be flexible and cover big stories in a variety of formats as they come in is a major reason why he helped the Chronicle be a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Berger is always up to covering major events with new, innovative techniques. Flexibility is key.

Jebediah Reed | The Infrastructurist

• This is an overall excellence in beatblogging nod. It’s a mixture of good content with good link journalism on a very timely beat. The Infrastructurist is a beatblog about American’s infrastructure and transportation and how politics intersects each.
• In this blog post, Reed asks a thought provoking question, “Why Doesn’t The Stimulus Include Money For Painting Roofs And Roads White?” Painting black surfaces like rooftops and parking lots white could save at least $1 trillion dollars in CO2 emissions worldwide. A white rooftop, for instance, reflects light back into space, leaving the building below cooler. A white road means that less heat is absorbed into the Earth than with a black road.
• This post links to good sources and provides hard facts, but it’s really intended to be a jumping off point. The post is ultimately about how something simple like whitening roads and roofs could greatly reduce CO2 emissions for a fraction of the cost of most climate change initiatives. His post also ends with a few concerns about this idea, which help propel the conversation.
• Many people who read The Infrastructurist are very knowledgeable about infrastructure projects, government and science (several of the commentors on this post are engineers). Users are talking about the different albedo’s of different kinds of asphalt and concrete (how much light would be reflected off of surfaces, instead of absorbed). Other users are talking about what politicians in their areas are proposing and how those ideas could help cut CO2 emissions.
• Reed is active in the comments, mixing it up with users, spurring additional comments from users. The Infrastructurist is a blog that largely focuses on proposals and future projects, which makes it a prime candidate for community building and two-way communication. Reed has done a good job of building a community around a topic that wouldn’t seem that sexy to traditional news organizations, but makes perfect sense in 2009.

Andrew C. Revkin | The New York Times

• Dot Earth blogger Revkin also gets this recognition for overall excellence in beatblogging. Dot Earth is a beatblog that “examines efforts to balance human affairs with the planet’s limits.” It’s a blog centered around sustainability that touches on related science topics.
• Like the Infrastructurist, Dot Earth is another very timely and modern beat. 50 years ago this beatblog would have had no chance at serious success, but with concerns about climate change and a rapidly growing population, Dot Earth is a beatblog that makes perfect sense in 2009.
• The blog also ties in really well with other NY Times content, which is important. In the right rail users will find links to relevant energy, climate, biology and society stories from nytimes.com. Users will also find embedded science videos from nytimes.com and audio slideshows from Revkin in the right rail.
• The Times already has a lot of good environment-related content, but Dot Earth does a nice job of tying all of this related content together with its own unique sub-community. Plus, Dot Earth mixes in original content and lots of linking to take the whole package to another level.
• Dot Earth demonstrates why community matters. It’s a sub-community within nytimes.com and a community that appeals to a niche audience. The comments left after posts on Dot Earth are quite strong (it doesn’t hurt that the Times, unlike many publications, actually moderates comments and cares about their quality). Many people commenting on Dot Earth stories are academics, PhDs, energy workers and other knowledgeable people about sustainability, climate change and science topics.