Thanks so much for the added insight. Trust me, I understand and can empathise about the sometimes ’strained’ nature of the conversation. I haven’t worked anywhere that doesn’t have some friction between online and the print or broadcast side.

But the more places that have success stories to tell, the easier it will be to move forward cooperatively.

Thanks for sharing your success story.

best,
Kevin Anderson
speaking for myself but working for Guardian.co.uk

As an editor at SignOnSanDiego.com, the website that enables the Union-Tribune newspaper to publish news at the speed of events, I’d like to add a little more insight to this new propensity to publish post haste.

During our recent and devastating wildfires, the Union-Tribune staff did an amazing job of rapidly publishing news online — mainly to a group of content-specific news blogs (breaking news, evacuations, assistance/shelters, anecdotal events, etc.) that SignOn set up specifically to report the fires.

One of our best reporting tools was a fire maps that pinpointed evacuation areas, burn areas, shelters and eventually block-by-block burned structures. Union-Tribune and SignOn graphic & tech artists worked together to update the information constantly.

Readership response was proportional — rocketing from a million page views to well over 10 million within hours.

It wasn’t always so.

In 2003 we had similar wildfires and the tiny staff at SignOn — out of desperation, really — created a blog to handle the deluge of information. None of it, however, came from the newspaper. Like all print shops, back then, the newspaper little-understood and greatly mistrusted the website.

After the fires, some editors saw the wisdom of instant publishing and the Breaking News Team was formed. We have since had a wonderful, if at times strained, relationship. (We’re constantly sorting out just who should do what — a healthy conversation.)

The key is, when disaster struck again this fall, the breaking news team was in place and other print editors and reporters were already comfortable contributing to breaking news.

No committees were formed in the creation and dissemination of this news. Sleeves were rolled up and people went to work. All actors knew their parts.

And we’ll be even more-ready in the future: The newspaper has opened up physical space in the heart of the newsroom for the online editorial staff to occupy.

By the next disaster, I’ll wager there won’t be a Union-Tribune and a SignOn — it will be one rapid-response team.

Thanks for listening,

Bob Hawkins
SignOnSanDiego.com
bob.hawkins@uniontrib.com