Journalists use RSS to track rivals, news, tweets & other info

This post sponsored by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

RSS is an incredibly useful way for journalists to keep track of beats by watching what is being published online, whether on news sites, blogs, Twitter, saved Google search terms, etc.

I spoke to three journalists about how they use RSS for research and reporting. They also each gave one really good tip for diving into RSS.

For those unfamiliar with RSS, Wikipedia has this to say about RSS:

RSS (most commonly expanded as “Really Simple Syndication” but sometimes “Rich Site Summary”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.

Eric Berger

Eric Berger has been a reporter at the Houston Chronicle for 10 years and has been covering science for the last eight years. He has been blogging about science since 2005, creating a community to discuss science at SciGuy.

“When I first started blogging I found science blogs and used RSS as a means to keep track of the flow of information,” Berger said. “It’s too difficult and time-consuming to visit 100 blogs a day.”

Berger uses Bloglines, a popular RSS feed reader, to follow around 80 Web sites and blogs. He estimates seeing 300 new items a day.

“Back in the dark ages (five -six years ago), if I was working on a story I might be solely focused on that and not seeing what else what happening in science,” Berger said. “Now it’s impossible to escape that.”

He follows scientists of various disciplines, so he can keep track of various scientific communities. He also collects news releases via RSS, which sometimes turn into blog entries.

“If that strikes a chord in the community, then you can spin it into a story for the newspaper,” he said.

One Tip:

“Just experiment with it [RSS] and put new feeds in and don’t be afraid to add or delete feeds. Your feed reader shouldn’t be static, your list of feeds should fluctuate with what you’re working on.”

David Brauer

David Brauer covers media and occasionally politics for MinnPost.com.

Using RSS became a critical part of Brauer’s job in March of 2008, when he started writing a aggregated morning briefing for MinnPost.com.

“You have to make sure to pay attention to local news sources,” Brauer said. “The only way to do it is with RSS. RSS makes it very efficient to know what’s going on in the area I cover.”

Brauer no longer does the morning briefing, but RSS has remained vital in more general work. He is subscribed to 138 feeds in Google Reader, primarily local media feeds such as public radio, tv stations, alt weeklies and of course, the local newspapers.

“It’s one of the tools I use most as a reporter. RSS and Twitter,” he said. “RSS is good for checking things I already know to check; Twitter is good for finding things I wouldn’t have known to follow.”

His feeds are organized with 24 tags, categorizing feeds into sections such as sports, tech, big, little and suburban, public radio, local aggregators, local blogs, local papers, college journalists, national and politics.

“I see over 1,000 new items a day, but experienced users know you can just mark all items as read and move on,” Brauer said. “Be somewhat aware of balance so you don’t spend all day in RSS.”

One Tip:

Brauer suggests that journalists look into the sync features offered by many RSS readers, and to make sure that your RSS reader of choice is available for multiple platforms. (Google Reader has Web and mobile versions that sync.)

Sean Blanda

Sean Blanda is an editor at Vital Business Media and a co-founder of Technically Philly.

Blanda started using RSS around 2005, with Bloglines.

“It was coolest thing in the world that I didn’t have to put up with email and could still get content sent to me,” he said. “When I figured out you could get feeds of Google Alerts (and now Twitter mentions) it really spiraled out of control.”

Most of his ideas for stories at Vital come from media news feeds he gathers. He also runs Technically Philly part time and uses RSS to gather information quickly and get a large cross-section of sources.

“Our readership is very active on social media and blogging, so I have alerts for people’s names, companies, locations in Philadelphia, etc.”

Blanda uses Google Reader instead of Bloglines now, attracted by the social tools Google has been adding recently. Users can follow friends, share stories and comment on content together.

“I can see what my friends think is important too,” he said. “Most of my college newsroom was using Google Reader and it became a better way to stay in touch and shoot story ideas back and forth.”

He keeps 377 subscriptions organized by purpose, so for Vital he has folders by industry and for Technically Philly he sorts by beat and general news.

“I check all of the feeds related to my job everyday, every story,” Blanda said. “The other stuff, I get to it when I can, if not, no big deal. And sometimes I declare bankruptcy and mark all as read.”

Blanda can’t estimate how many news items he gets in a day: “It [Google Reader] always says 1000+ (unread items). I’d say I check around 500-600 a day.”

One Tip

“My one tip would either be to get other people on your beat to share on Google Reader or to not forget Yahoo Pipes as a way to filter info…something I haven’t taken enough advantage of. With enough work you could always be sure to get relevant information.”

Do you use RSS to research and report? How do you organize your feeds and fight information overload? What creative uses do you put RSS to? Can you offer other tips?

MinnPost raises $13,190 in micro-sponsorship campaign

The MinnPost and BrauBlog finished strong in their micro-sponsorship campaign, adding 45 additional micro-sponsorships over the last two days.

When I spoke with David Brauer on Monday he thought the MinnPost would probably finish with about $12,000 raised (it was in the $11,000s then), but a late surge easily broke the $13,000 barrier. The campaign had a matching component from the Harnisch Foundation, and MinnPost donors directly contributed $6,595 to support local journalism.

The final amount is substantially higher than Brauer thought they would raise and much more than many cynics thought too. Brauer said he thinks they would have raised even more money if it were a do or die situation, but the outcome of this campaign had no impact on the BrauBlog. This campaign could have raised $0 and the Braublog would still be around.

“We raised at least double what I guessed we would,” Brauer said. “I have a death-to-newspapers pal who guessed it wouldn’t raise a grand — some pal! — so on the whole I’m pretty pleased. Would’ve been nice to ring the 10K bell, but that was a somewhat arbitrary figure set by the matching funder.”

Publisher Joel Kramer noted that more than two-thirds of micro-sponsors choose to donate the higher amount, $25, instead of the lower $10 amount:

Some people have suggested that we should not have capped the micro-sponsorship donations at $25.  One of the goals here was to test out a “low price point,” since we encourage our regular members to donate at least $50 a year. It is interesting that more than two-thirds of the micro-sponsors chose the Highbrau level of $25 rather than the Lowbrau level of $10, so maybe some of you would have given more.

It would be interesting to see how a $10, $25 and $50 campaign would do. Or a name-your-own price with a $10 floor.

In case you missed it, yesterday we had a post about Brauer, the BrauBlog, MinnPost, getting people to pay for journalism and more.

Podcast: Getting people to directly support journalism at MinnPost.com

David Brauer and MinnPost.com are doing something a little crazy: They are trying to get people to pay for journalism. Well, at least donate some money for it.

MinnPost ran a micro-sponsor campaign around one of its most popular blogs, the BrauBlog. The campaign will raise about $12,000 for MinnPost in $10 and $25 increments. Half of that money is a matching grant from Harnisch Foundation.

While this micro-sponsor campaign did raise money to help support journalism at the non-profit MinnPost, it’s larger goal was to get people into the mindset of supporting journalism with money.

“Really, the bigger mission here is that direct support is something that you’ll have to consider,” Brauer said. “I think that this is in large part about retraining the audience.”

MinnPost is supported by large donors and advertising. Recently, Brauer and publisher Joel Kramer had an idea to start a micro-sponsor campaign, to try to expand the donor pool and revenue base.

“I think it as one arrow in the quiver,” Brauer said about small donor fundraising. “There are a number of different ways that people are going to have to raise money. I like the fact that MinnPost now, in the addition to advertising, has not just a big donor program, but also a small donor program.”

Brauer believes, however, that limiting donations to $10 and $25 may have limited the amount of donations. In the future, MinnPost may have a different donating model. But the fundraiser was a success overall, because it accomplished its main goal of increasing MinnPost’s donor base.

“Just like colleges, on some level, are happy to get that initial donation from new graduates, even if it isn’t big money, because hopefully you form a bond that lasts as they make more and reap it down the road,” he said. “It has some short term advantages, but I think the power is really in the longer term.”

And consider this: about 300 people were willing to put down money to help support local journalism without asking for anything additional in return. There are no premium features, or even gifts to say thank you to donors. People donated because they wanted to support local journalism.

Also consider that about two-thirds of donors donated the higher, $25 amount. With a more flexible donation model in the future, MinnPost might be able to get many of these small donors to donate more than $25.

On the blogging front, Brauer is yet another blogger that has noticed that frequency is important to success on the Web. Frequency, however, can have drawbacks. Perhaps the biggest, and not always openly discussed drawback, is burnout.

“What it ended up doing, at its worst for me, is that it contributed to some real burnout that I’m wrestling with,” he said.

Bloggers like Brauer produce copious amounts of copy, much more than they did as print reporters. People prefer more shorter posts to fewer longer posts on the Web.

In the end, Brauer is writing more copy than ever before. He says writing individual blog posts is easier than writing a print story, but he just writes considerably more copy now.

Now, Brauer is not writing more because his editors are requiring him to write so much; Rather, Brauer has access to Web analytics, which can be intoxicating for many bloggers. He knows that the more content he produces, the more page views and unique visitors he gets. Just about every blogger wants more.

“My boss has not been on my butt about this at all,” he said. “I know for myself that the flip side of creativity is mania. I’ve discovered new levels of obsessive compulsion that I never thought I had. There is a certain, ‘I get on the treadmill and I feel like I can’t get off’”

Brauer said he is trying to seek a better balance and has cut down on how much copy he has been producing lately.

Brauer has found himself reporting stories in a serial manner. Instead of waiting for a story to be finished or for a big moment to occur, Brauer reports as the story unfolds. Often several blog posts will come together to tell the complete story.

“Instead, I can sort of tell people, ‘here is what I know now; it’s not complete,’” he said. “I find people really like that. It’s easier to digest.”

Not only do readers enjoy this different take on reporting, but it’s easier on Brauer too. He doesn’t have to write big stories all the time. He can just write what he knows at the time.

This is also a good way to get users involved. Reporting stories as they unfold gives users a chance to contact Brauer with tips and additional information.

Brauer also actively asks his readers to help out, and enjoys the crowdsourcing that beatblogging allows. “Inviting people to help, not just getting it when they offer” leads to better stories and journalism, Brauer said.

We also discuss in this podcast:

• Why and how did he get into blogging?
• How has blogging improved his journalism?
• What kind of community has sprung up around BrauBlog and how has that changed his reporting?
• How does mixing reporting with opinion make journalists more transparent?
• How does being open and honest about mistakes boost credibility?

Click here to stream the interview. Or download the MP3.

Leaderboard for week of 3-16-2009: Three pillars of new media journalism

This week’s Leaderboard is a potpourri of different skills and examples.

That’s just the way I like it. We have strong link journalism, strong live blogging and strong community building. Each of those are important to journalism moving forward.

I apologize for the tardiness of the Leaderboard this week. We’ve been taking on a lot of new endeavors at BeatBlogging.Org and bringing students up to speed on the project.

David Brauer | MinnPost.com

• Brauer was nominated for this nifty bit of link-journalism. Curation is a big part of the future of journalism. Even if you’re not breaking every story, you can still act as a trusted source and filter for users.
• There is too much information to read on the Internet. It’s overwhelming at times. That’s what makes link journalism so powerful. Brauer combines great original reporting, with strong curation. His users get the best of his original work, plus the best work from around the Web.
• MinnPost.com is a non-profit journalism outfit that you should be following. They are experimenting with some interesting revenue models.
• Braublog is a kickass beatblog by them that covers local media and politics, and it’s a piece of new media journalism worth keeping tabs on.

Dave Levinthal | The Dallas Morning News

• This week features more CoveritLive goodness from a beatblogger. Levinthal used the live blogging tool to live blog / live chat during a contentious debate about a proposed Dallas Convention Center hotel. The debate featured Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and real estate executive Anne Raymond.
• This is a particularly strong example of live blogging. Before the debate started, Levinthal answered questions that were e-mailed to him about the proposed project. He also took questions from people on CoveritLive before the debate started.
• His analysis and links before the debate started helped give users background and answered many of their questions. They were then better able to understand what was happening during the debate.
• Live blogging is a tool that can benefit just about any beatblogger, and CoveritLive is one of the premier live blogging tools. Live blogging gives journalists, particularly print journalists a new ability to immediately inform users and connect with them during live events. A debate like this is an excellent example of when a live blog makes a lot of sense. This is one of the best examples we have ever seen of live blogging.

Monica Guzman | Seattle Post-Intelligencer

• This is an honorary nod to Guzman because her role at the new P-I will be changing. The Big Blog has existed as a conversations starter, linking heavily to the P-I’s content and great content from around the Web. Guzman has also pulled out interesting comments on other P-I stories and elevated them to their own posts. But the thing is, the P-I is radically changing. Most of the newsroom is gone, and so Guzman’s role will be changing.
• The Big Blog was an exemplary example of how a newspaper could use the Web for two-way communication and community building. Guzman engaged in gathering, moderating and analyzing conversations. That was the heart of what she did. Most news organization do not have someone like her on board. They need to fix that.
• The Big Blog was also a blog that worked well with traditional print content. This is the style of blog that every newspaper should look into. You can find our past coverage of the old Big Blog here.
• Now that the P-I no longer has print content, it’s clear that The Big Blog will be changing. What the new Big Blog and P-I will be like is still to be determined. Regardless of what the new Big Blog looks like, the old Big Blog was a beatblog worth emulating by other news organizations.