Blog #2: Design Exploration of Web-based journalism

Blog #2 (Design Exploration of Web-based journalism)
At a time when the newspaper industry is struggling due to economic factors and competition from the internet, the Christian Science Monitor, a century old, globally circulated newspaper, is planning a transition from it’s daily printed version to a more robust website, a daily emailed PDF version and a weekly print version. The Monitor will continue its current level of international and domestic coverage, with correspondents world wide. In this transition the Monitor hopes to achieve three goals: produce news that can be accessed and updated 24/7, focus resources on fast-growing web audience to increase reach and impact, and eliminate the major production and distribution costs of a daily newspaper. A look at the current on-line Monitor we find an exceptional example of multi-media journalism: use of webcasts, audio reports, photo journalism (Somialis in exile), daily pod-casts from reporters around the world, integration of blogs by multiple reporters on breaking news (e.g. Global Credit Crisis blog and Vote blog), regular blogs from experts, links to related stories, archives of past stories, and award winning story-telling narratives (Little Bill Clinton Hadam, the story of a 9 year old Tanzanian refugee), creation of virtual community with blogs from relevant and diverse community voices (Patchwork Nation Blog), photo galleries, and RSS feeds. Facebook provides the Monitor with an excellent opportunity to introduce its unique content to a younger audience, while Twitter, the Monitor’s experiment with social media, provides a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected. Like the printed version, CSMonitor.com contains content that is straightforward, intelligent, unbiased, and non-“sensational”.