Nieman Foundation at Harvard
HOME
          
LATEST STORY
What audiences really want: For journalists to connect with them as people
ABOUT                    SUBSCRIBE
Sept. 16, 2013, 1:24 p.m.
LINK: digiday.com  ➚   |   Posted by: Joshua Benton   |   September 16, 2013

At Digiday, Josh Sternberg asked a number of digital publishing types what “mobile first” meant to them. Good answers from a number of them, but the answer from BuzzFeed’s Jon Steinberg (the headline of this post) stood out. (Plus a Vivian Schiller near-haiku!). Gawker CTO Media Thomas Plunkett:

At the high level, mobile-first means build where users are and where technology is going. In practice, we build features mobile-first. We simplify the product. It forces us to think about what is essential; extend features to desktop. We have a ton of work to do on the mobile-optimized payload front, but it comes down to tailoring dependencies (images, javascript, css, etc.) for mobile. It means adaptive design. We’re staying away from mobile specific templates.

Even within this small group of forward-thinking individuals, you can start to see the difference between the ones that are thinking mobile first and the ones who are acting mobile first.

Show tags
 
Join the 60,000 who get the freshest future-of-journalism news in our daily email.
What audiences really want: For journalists to connect with them as people
Plus: How newsrooms are using generative AI, what makes news seem authentic on social media, and how to bridge the divide between academics and journalists.
When the winner’s name isn’t enough: How the AP is leaning into explanatory journalism to call races
“We’ve learned, especially in the last few cycles, that it’s not necessarily possible or a good idea to let [the electoral] process play out in silence.”
Votebeat assembles nearly 100 election experts to answer reporters’ questions (now, and in the weeks ahead)
“The problem with voting stories is that the people who make themselves most available don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.”