News doesn't sleep

A little after midnight Friday morning, slot desk editor Jim Wright was making a final check of Associated Press  headlines to update The Mercury’s website when he saw a brief story that a police officer at MIT near Boston had been shot. He posted the story to our website, too late to make the print editions.
About the same time, reporter Frank Otto was getting home to West Chester after working late covering the evening’s Phoenixville Area School Board meeting and stopping at the McDonald’s drive-through to pick up dinner. As he ate, he scanned Twitter on his phone, noticing some posts about a police shooting and some grenades or bombs being part of a shootout.
In Conshohocken, assistant sports editor Steve Moore was off for the night and had returned home after going to a Phillies game with his wife and young son. A Boston University alum, Moore was checking for news on TV out of his adopted home city around midnight when he saw some footage from Watertown, Mass.
And then headlines started to roll.
“I saw on Twitter something about two people were armed with grenades, so I searched and started listening to the Boston police scanner,” recalled Otto. “There was a lot of talk about gunfire. About then, I started fully listening.
“A friend from Wisconsin going in to law enforcement was listening too, and we were talking back and forth. It was like listening to a baseball game.
“At one point, they talked about the ‘suspect on the ground,’ and an officer said, ‘This may be a stupid question, but do you think we should turn off our phones?’”
Moore’s focus was on the people of Watertown more than the police. “I have friends who live in Watertown and a friend who works at MIT. My first reaction was to check on Facebook and Twitter and make sure they were OK,” he said.
About that time, Otto and Moore noticed each other’s tweets and starting “talking” through direct messages and email. “Steve helped me out because I couldn’t remember The Mercury’s Twitter password,” recalled Otto. “I figured I might as well start posting some stuff to the website, too,” said Moore.
“Frank and I decided on what to tweet and retweet,” said Moore. “The Boston Globe and The Associated Press are trusted sources; anything else, use caution.  We’re not trying to break anything,” Moore said. “We just thought, ‘Hey maybe if somebody wakes up and has no idea what happened, at least they will know what’s going on.”
From 1:30 to 4:30 a.m., Moore updated the top story on The Mercury website six or seven times. The final version at 4:38 a.m. reported that one of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings was dead after a police shootout and the second was on the run, a massive manhunt under way.
During the same time frame and continuing until about 7:30 a.m., Otto posted @MercuryX, unfolding the story for our readers from news accounts, the police scanner, and other reporting sources.
“It kinda rolls out like a mosaic — you have to sort through it all, and you need context,” Otto said.
Responsibility and accuracy are critical.
“I stayed away from specific addresses or anything that might hurt what was going on,” Otto said.
Both Otto and Moore were careful to avoid rumor and unattributed information. “We’re all about confirming,” Otto said. He sought out known reliable sources, including a reporter on the scene for Digital First Media, The Mercury’s parent company.
The tweets provided both witness and reporting information:
“Just had presser w/Col Alben of MSP — confirmed one suspect one loose — another briefing in an hour.”
“State Police to Greater Boston — basically stay home today. Especially you, Watertown, where no traffic can go in/out.”
 “Police, still searching, to each other: ‘Make sure we’re identifying each other and avoiding crossfire situations.’”
The story went on for about 60 tweets, some with photos, and a half-dozen stories, gathered and published in the middle of the night by two Mercury staffers while most of the region’s readers slept.
It was breaking news in every sense, delivered from the streets where it was unfolding in Watertown, Mass., to the phone by your bedside or the laptop on your desk.
Otto said sometime early Friday morning he noticed one guy on Twitter posted a proclamation, “Traditional media is dead.” 
The same person spent the night following and retweeting reporters. These two Mercury reporters proved we’re not dead.
We’re not even sleeping.

Your newspaper? Now, it's your multi-platform news source

As the news business changes and evolves from print to web to mobile publishing, we are changing, too.
One of the changes in recent years has been opening our doors to the public and sharing with readers the insights and analysis of our own work.
That's a two-way street. We also now solicit feedback on issues of interest on Facebook and in other ways to bring the voices of the audience into our reporting.
We've come a long way from "call 323-3000 with your news tips" to "like us on Facebook."
As we continue on that path, we want to share more of the work that goes on behind the scenes in reporting and editing the stories of your community.
Beginning Monday, we're going to make available our reporters to answer questions about the story behind a photo, or the background of a story or the thinking behind an editorial opinion.
You can ask the SoundOff editor why a comment wasn't used or the Opinion page editor how to get a letter printed.
You can ask a reporter how they learned that a car was in the creek or a photographer how he got that amazing sports action photo.
Although we accept criticism, we want this to be more than a gripe session. We hope to let you, as our loyal readers, see what goes on behind the scenes in our reporting. We want to turn back the curtain, so to speak, particularly on the evolution in our industry that is pushing us daily toward new frontiers.  
We'll take questions via Facebook, Twitter, email, Google+, or our website, and we'll answer via  video posted on our website and Facebook.
Our plan is to expand the answer sessions into conversations through Google hangouts or Skype.

We also are making some changes in our Community Media Lab, which is currently open to the public during certain hours every day.
The Community Media Lab is a resource we make available to the public for small group meetings, free Wifi, use of three computer labs for blogging or research and a newspaper archives to view past issues of The Mercury going back to 1931.
Instead of limited hours, we are now making the lab available to the public when you need it. To use our lab for research or for a small group meeting, call and schedule a time, or stop in at our front desk.
In addition, we will be open for anyone to walk in one day a week, every Wednesday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Just stop by, and our computers and our resources will be available for your use.


Diane Hoffman, community engagement editor, will be happy to assist you in using our archives or arranging a time for a meeting. You can also meet with Diane about how to start a blog or what you can do to get news of your group's events published on any of the platforms we offer, including the newspaper.
We have a library of books you can borrow, for free, and coffee for $1. It's a good space to come in out of the cold.
We want the Community Media Lab to be a resource for Pottstown and the surrounding area to use as a way to interact with us.
Your newspaper is now your website, your Facebook page, your Twitter feed, and your source of breaking news on your phone or tablet.
Times are changing, but what hasn't changed is our commitment to you, our audience.
Keep in touch.



 

Thank goodness it's not Friday

"Thank goodness it's not Friday" is my new motto.
Fridays in the newspaper business were busy; Fridays in the new news ecology business are over the top. In the newspaper business, reporters spend Friday putting the finishing touches on stories due for the weekend editions. But, when weeks are busy which is all the time, that means starting to write their weekend stories on Friday. Those stories need to be edited.
In addition, editorials have to be written or selected from The Associated Press or Journal Register News Service.
Page editors have extra pages to do -- Sunday advance, three Opinion pages, Art Matters, church for Saturday -- with a reduced staff. In a seven-day operation on a five-day schedule, some people are off on Fridays, others on Mondays.
These factors add up to busy Fridays --- add in a road rage incident, arson at a local armory, follow to the police search and suicide of road-rage suspect, car into the Rocket Car Wash, press conference for motel murders -- and you see what the past few Fridays have been like at my desk.
For all these news events, we have been posting news online as quickly as we can, including Facebook and Twitter alerts.
Now, I have a question: What do you think of how we're doing, and can we do it better?
Call this Monday morning feedback after crazy Fridays.
How do you use our Twitter alerts and our Facebook postings? What times of day do you check pottsmerc.com? How do you find out about breaking news?
Please comment and tell me how you use The Mercury's online tools.
Especially on Fridays.