The Mark of the Beast
I remember seeing this charming British lady (Tina Brown) on the Stephen Colbert Report a few years ago. She was touting a news website called the Daily Beast. She said it would be a single site where readers could get the best news from around the web.
It didn’t seem like that new of a concept to me.
But a few months later, when I got bored of jumping back and forth between the New York Times and the Tuscaloosa News websites, I gave it a shot. I was thrilled to see articles from people like Andrew Sullivan, P. J. O’Rourke and Fareed Zakaria. Some of my favorites from Real Time with Bill Maher. Sadly, I have yet to see an article from brother Cornel West, but one can still dream.
As it turns out, the site not only sifted through the web for the best national stories, but it also provided articles from leading figures in politics and various experts regarding the latest topics in the news. The Beast also provides links to some of the better sites for political, general and entertainment news. It also provides clips with highlights of television news and talk shows.
More than a great national news website, I think the Beast has many innovations that could easily translate to community news organizations. They are as follows:
- It’s “cheatsheet,” which is a list of the top ten news stories of the day. Each story on the list has a short summary of the article. If you want to read more, you can click to link to the actual story on say the Times web site. I think small newspapers should do that with their wire news on their websites. I don’t need to read 30 inches on Iranian nuclear talks. A paragraph will do just fine for that.
- It’s format for displaying the stories written by the actual Beast staff. It’s basically a running slide show of photos with a large headline and a subhead underneath. So often, you see newspaper websites just listing their stories on the site with one photo for the main story. I think it would be a way to attract more readers to stories with minimal effort.
- The “cheatsheet worthy” polls. Readers can vote on each of the stories as to whether they’re worthy of the top ten “cheatsheet.” Each story shows the percentage of votes. This seems like a great way to get instant feedback about the tastes of readers, allowing the Beast to better tailor their news. In addition, readers can offer links to news sites they feel are better-suited for the top-ten list.
- The “Buzzboard,” where the experts recommend books, films, art and music etc. Small newspapers could have the same things with experts in the area.
From what I hear, the Beast also offers great content in regards to fashion and the culinary world. I’m kinda low-brow in those areas, so I’m probably not the best judge. Regardless, I think community journalists can utilize certain aspects of this web site to better reach their readers.
I have never been to this site but I’m really liking it — especially the Cheat Sheet. I always get tired of going to different websites for my news every day. And having all the top news in one spot with brief summarizing paragraphs makes life easier.
Viewing this site and the Newser site in class the other day was eye-opening. It’s amazing how sophisticated these automated “news sites” have become. They don’t produce news, but they’re masters at aggregating it and at soliciting commentary. I do like the fact that they try to set an agenda of sorts. They don’t just take the approach that FoxNews claims to take — we report, you decide. Well, of course Daily Beast does not report, but they do let you know what they decided (i.e., they tell you what they think the important news is at any given point), AND they’re up front in telling you it’s their decision.