Instant News Editors: Managing Priorities

Miami Herald Instant News Editor Shelley Acoca visited our Online Journalism class Tuesday to showcase the MiamiHerald.com website and discuss choices she and fellow online producers make daily to generate reader traffic. For the past week, the MiamiHerald.com homepage has featured Links Packages on Early Voting to help readers locate (via interactive maps) early voting sites and times. I think this story-which is updated daily-is very informative, and strengthens the Herald's sense of community and political awareness. Ms. Acoca mentioned on Tuesday that she and online producers had created a document entitled, "The Miami Herald Recommends," which includes voting recommendations generated by its Editorial Board for president, constitutional amendments, etc. Ms. Acoca noted that regrettably, this document had not been posted as the homepage has limited space for links, and the online producers therefore had to feature only the most pertinent information. I'm glad that this document finally made the homepage later in the week, as it is useful for undecided voters.

Ms. Acoca also mentioned that when creating a Links Package, online producers need to feature the most important links at the top of the list, as readers/scanners generally tend to click only the first few. Therfore, I was a little surprised to see nearly twenty links on the "print plus" Early Voting story page. Though the majority of the links were interesting and captured my attention, I could understand how some readers may find it overwhelming.