By Alice Main (webdesign@mainhat.com)

The World Wide Web is either a brand-new network, or a point- and-click newspaper, or an interactive information source, or a vast, colorful, entertaining, expensive, and utterly pointless waste of time. Or perhaps it's all of the above, depending on where you point your browser. Local TV stations are following one another onto the Web, but the information quality, timeliness, depth, and presentation they offer are as unique as the stations themselves.

At WFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth, producer Walt Zwirko maintains the station's home page. It began mainly as a repository for scripts and information relating to a weekly Computer Corner news segment, and is still not a "full-service website," Zwirko explains.

The page, accessible at http://rampages.onramp.net/~net [editors' note: site is no longer available], can link the user with weather and lottery information, the Computer Corner files and with two sister stations' home pages. You can send e-mail to the station, or to ABC.

But there's no news . . . yet.

There are ongoing internal discussions about what the future will hold for our place in cyberspace. As the World Wide Web becomes more and more visible (especially with the impetus of the Windows 95 and the Microsoft Network attracting new users), the home page will be seen as something more than the one-person, very part-time operation it is right now at our shop," says Zwirko. The cost for the account with the local server is less than $40 per month. Still, even a part-time operation means commitment. Zwirko says he spends several hours a week maintaining the page and adding new features and answering electronic mail.

In Detroit, investigative reporter Mike Wendland started WDIV's home page about six months ago. Point your browser to http://www.wdiv.com to find live Doppler radar, updated weather checks, news headlines, entertainment links, a virtual tour of the station, and supplementary special reports on some news investigations and consumer segments.

When the two daily newspapers went on strike, we dropped everything and added all sorts of news links and new data to help our viewers find alternate sources of information," says Wendland.

Thanks to Wendland's expertise, the cost invested so far has been under $1,000. He is getting a lot of positive feedback on the page.

I've had a dozen or so other organizations ask me if I'll help them with theirs. Maybe I should start a freelance web consulting biz!"

Also on the Web for the past six months: KPIX TV & radio in San Francisco. Tony Russomanno says its most popular feature is the weather camera shot, automatically updated every five minutes.

A remote-controlled camera on the top of the Fairmont Hotel offers great pictures of San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, downtown and Twin Peaks. Our logs show the page has been accessed by users from every nation on Earth that has Internet connectivity," says Russomanno.

The station recently added a message board, and two weeks ago a live chat area debuted, which is being used to run conferences during radio call-in shows. TV news scripts are due any day now and Russomanno says the scripts will be presented in a very different way. The home page can be accessed at http://www.kpix.com.

KJRH in Tulsa has been on the Web for less than a month at http://www.kjrh.com

You can see live updated pictures of the city, the newsroom and Doppler radar. There is an impressive list of links to other sites of interest to Tulsans. And there is easy access to news scripts. News Director Peggy Phillip says getting it online was a team effort. "We had somebody in every department who was interested in the whole Web phenomenon. So we set up a Web task force. We wanted to make sure it didn't have too many graphics so it wouldn't be too slow, or too few so it wouldn't be too boring." Station engineer Steve Epps put it all together in about 60 hours.

For more on what works well in a home page, see Josh Greene's article below. And Skip Wood writes about the regional network his station uses, instead of the Web.

One last note: KHON in Honolulu is at http://www.khon.com/news/menu.html This website has a fantastic search page.

MORE ABOUT TV STATIONS ON THE WEB

By Josh Greene (JoshGreene@aol.com)

There are two major reasons your viewers will look at your Web site. These reasons are information and curiosity. A viewer will look at the page because they have seen promos on the station or heard about it from someone. If your page consists of pretty pictures of your anchors and some programming information, they'll probably look at it once. They know what the anchors look like, so while on-line pictures are cool, they aren't worth the time it takes to download at 14.4. If they want programming information, and yours is bland, they'll just look in the paper instead.

What will keep bringing viewers back to your page? News, news, news. If every time a viewer looks at your page, there is up-to-the-minute news, they will keep coming back. I've got the ESPN page bookmarked (espnet.sportzone.com), and during the day, I'll occasionally check the page to see developments in sports. It's a lot quicker than waiting 30 minutes during a newscast, which may be on at an inconvenient time or may not be something I have time for. It also lets me stay on top of breaking news.

If you're going to have news on your Web page, make sure you can cover breaking news. The other week, a Binghamton cop got shot. At 6:30, the newscasts went off the air with a live picture of the house where the gunmen was holed up. And, there was no way to find out what happened till 11:00. Four and half hours with no way to find out what was happening in the biggest news story (we're market #133) of the month. A producer typing into a home page could have had updates posted every ten minutes for the next four hours and earned a lot of loyal viewers in the process.

I'd like to make an offer to readers of the newsletter. As a former TV person, I'm willing to answer your questions about the Web and the Internet through e-mail. I'll e-mail you an answer, and also post the questions and answers ( without the name of the questioner) on a web site which will be available starting September 1.

WEB, SCHMEB

By Skip Wood (Skip@pol.org)

Our station only has a mention on the WWW, but better than the Web, we're on a slick regional network. After all, we don't need national reach. The local net has all the local governments, schools, colleges, social service organizations, employment agencies, charities, and many businesses participating as providers of information.

The presentation is almost as slick as the national on-line services. It also supports message boards and e-mail. Best of all, basic service of half an hour a day is free to the public, so participation is blossoming. For about $5 a month, users get 30 hours a month (two hours a day) and Internet e-mail and newsgroups. For our station, the cost as provider is only $100 a month. The size of our area is essentially unlimited. We have countless files that include FAQs, reception problems answered, show information, network addresses and phone numbers, staff profiles, station news, promotions, station history, etc.

We also have message boards on home video and sports talk. We may add an advertisers' club as a "value added" service that gives a spiel about our advertisers. Once all the files are in, maintenance time hasn't been too bad. Best of all is the Internet e-mail—phone and fax expense savings, fewer phone calls, and it gives us the chance for a warm exchange with the public when we're not harried with other matters.

In other words, good PR. If anyone wishes to learn more about this net, they can log in by calling 701-234-0067. This won't be the slick graphical presentation, but it still works, and you can always download the fancier software. You can also e-mail inquiries directly to prairie_online@pol.org.

I think such regional nets will catch on big. The ability to e-mail the police, the city and businesses is really useful.

[4/96]

By Alice Main (webdesign@mainhat.com)

At this very moment, somewhere in the United States, a committee is meeting to sketch out a World Wide Web site for a TV station. The group grapples with difficult questions. What will the site include? Who's going to use it? Will it be a money-maker? Who's going to maintain it? How much time will it take? And (the biggy) what's this thing going to cost? There are no easy answers to any of those questions at this still-early stage in the consumer's use of the Web.

I decided to take a critical look at what's really out there, by comparing and contrasting sites within markets. I chose the markets by going to TVNet on the web (http://www.tvnet.com), where there is a comprehensive listing of TV stations with Web sites. I looked for cities in which at least three different stations are on the Web.

NOTE: I decided that all I would care about is local news. So even if these sites have the world's greatest Doppler and sports scores, I don't care and I'm not impressed. I want news, and that's all I'm looking for.

DALLAS-FT WORTH

It's Sunday night, March 3. KDFW (Fox), KXAS (NBC), WFAA (ABC), KTVT (CBS) all have sites. This should be a good place to shop for local news. I begin with KTVT http://www.infi.net/ktvt/, where the homepage gives me eleven choices, the first of which is NEWS HEADLINES. (click). Now, my choices include: PRIEST SEX ABUSE, TEEN ARRESTED, TEEN CURFEW, GRASS FIRES, AND ELLIS COUNTY GRASS FIRE. I try the first one, and get an error message. I try the second one, and get the same error message. TEEN CURFEW gives me a four-line story, about how the teen curfew crackdown this weekend is a success, as 37 kids got citations for violating curfew. GRASS FIRES gives a three-line story, telling me where a brush fire was, the firefighters put it out before it got any houses, and no word on what started it. Positives: The news seems to be current. Negatives: The news is extremely brief, and I had trouble accessing some of it.

KXAS's homepage gives me a LOT of choices. I scroll through them until I find the magic words: "Local News." That takes me to the News Department, in which I see several choices, including Local News Headlines, and Logging on with Scott Gordon.

I click on Local News Headlines, and find four 2-line stories. There's no date on them, but it doesn't take a genius to see that they're old. The first story is "It's on to New Hampshire as the Iowa caucuses leave U.S. Senator Phil Gramm wondering about his fifth-place finish." Remember, this is March 3. The Iowa Caucus was on February 12.

Out of curiosity I decided to log on with Scott Gordon, because I used to work with him in Tulsa and I want to know what he's up to. The page tells me his Logging On feature airs on Wednesday nights at ten, featuring new information on computers and information technology. I am invited to click on one of five subject headings to read his recent reports, but there's no date to tell me how "recent" the reports are. The bottom of this page says, "Revised 30Mar95." Does that mean no one has changed this page in almost a year? I have no way of knowing. I click on the stories but I still can't tell whether they're old or new. I visited the site again on April 1, and found the Logging-On page had not changed. The address is http://kxas.com.

KDFW's homepage, http://www.pic.net/kdfw/ gives you a photo of the anchor team, and two choices: the KDFW News Lineup, and the KDFW Prime-Time Schedule. I click on the news lineup, and get a logo that says "Beyond the X Files, Fridays 9:00pm," with text below that reads "It's strange and bizarre. It's difficult to explain" (which is what I'm thinking at this point). ".Even scientists struggle for an explanation. Real-life mysteries. Strange things falling from the sky landing close to home. What if there's like on other planets? And what if the government is keeping secrets? News 4 Texas goes beyond the X-Files. Fridays on News 4 Texas at Nine." Hmm. The rest of the page tells me when the station has news on the air, which appears to be almost all the time. That's about it.

On to WFAA, http://www.wfaa.com. Nice page, but no local news. I can go to Computer Corner to see the stories archived there. I can go to the Good Morning Texas Viewer Hotline, which "presents information about the latest programs" (click). I'm now invited to click on any day of the week, Monday through Friday. I click on Friday. Now I see phone numbers, addresses, etc. for the guests who appeared on the show Friday morning.

HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA

It's Sunday night, March 10. WHNT (CBS), WAAY (ABC), and WAFF (NBC) in Hunstville all have websites.

First stop, WAFF at http://www.traveller.com/waff/. I got a logo, a "Welcome to the Tennessee Valley News Channel" message, and then two choices: the InterActive Sports Service, and the InterActive Tennessee Valley Weather Center. That's it, so I'm moving on.

WHNT (http://www.whnt19.com/) gives me an attractive welcome page with lots of choices. I can link to CBS, The Late Show Top Ten, the New York Times, or RealAudio. The Channel 19 choices include Internet Info, Tower Cam, Weather, Sports and News! (click).

Now I'm on the news page, which has a logo up at the top that reads: "Where Local News Comes First!" so I'm psyched. I see about nine logos I can click on: including The New York Times, USA Today, and the MIT Business site. The only local news I see is a logo for the local newspapers. (click). Sure enough, I'm now in a newspaper site. That's not what I was looking for. I'm out of here.

Now, I'll try WAAY at http://www.hiwaay.net/waay/waay -tv.html.One of the first choices on the welcome page is NEWS FROM OUR NEWSROOM. That sounds perfect. (click). Okay, this is cool. The first button says LATEST NEWS. Under that is an archive, with other recent dates to choose from, and even a search ability. I click on LATEST NEWS.

Apparently, there isn't much updating done on the weekends, because LATEST NEWS is from Friday. It's a summary of three local stories, including DeKalb County Train Accident, Stolen Guns, and a firefighter sentenced for arson. Printed out, it takes about three-quarters of a page. Positives: it includes the date when the stories were submitted, so if it's old news, we know it. And it includes the name of the person who wrote the stories. It may be a recycled script, but it looks as if it were written just for this site. Negatives: it's pretty short, and two days old.

LOS ANGELES

KABC, KNBC, KCBS, and KCAL all have home pages. It's Monday, April 1, before 8 AM Pacific time, so the content will likely be the same as if I had accessed on a Sunday night. I start at KABC, http://home.earthlink.ne t/~soundjay/kabc1.html It turns out this site is Under Construction, with a promise of pictures and scripts soon.

Next stop, KNBC, http://www.knbc4la.com/home2.html The first thing I notice here is the SeismoCam. That's not "News," but I can't help it. (click) You'll all be happy to hear, the lines were flat. Then, I went to the news section, and found four stories, which were a combination of local and national stories from Friday. A note at the bottom says the news is updated after the 6 o'clock news on weekdays. I like knowing when to expect more news.

On to KCAL, which says its site is "moving," so I won't bother with the http address here. There was nothing much on the page, so the station must be in transition.

Finally, KCBS (http://www.kcbs2.com), which proved to be a pleasant surprise. The welcome page has a hip, compact look. I clicked on 2 Action NewsNet and got some top local stories. Coming soon: SeismoCam!

I toured many more sites than the ones chronicled here. Among the sites that include local news, the two most common forms are headlines and scripts. Once the technology is in place, getting news scripts on the site would have to be the easier choice. I suspect it's a bit awkward for non-TV-types to read, but they probably enjoy seeing the scripts as they aired, and once they've read a few, they figure out the form. I think scripts might be the better choice, because no one has to rework the content of the newscast into a print-news format.

Editors' Note: We asked readers to write about their sites. As it turned out, we didn't really need the information to do the story above, but you may find their descriptions interesting.

from Skip Wood (Skip@pol.org), News Producer & Site Manager, KXJB, Fargo, ND

Our website is: http://www.pol.org/kx4 (KXJB-TV, CBS AFFILIATE, Fargo, ND). Locally, our viewers have free access to the full network (Prairie Online) on a local call, but persons with full-service Internet capability can access from anywhere. One account holder hails from Austrailia! Browser-based Internet services (AOL, Prodigy, etc.) can only access basic information pages, as they can't run the required software.

from Ward Koppel (Ward_Koppel@prodigy.com), KOVR, Sacramento

I invite your readers to check out KOVR-Sacramento's home page on the Web. Among the unique features, complete access to the actual scripts from each newscast. The scripts are available 20 minutes after the show has aired, and remain there for 24 hours. Our Political Reporter publishes a newsletter on our page, with dozens of links to other political sources. And for tomorrow's California Primary election, we plan to have viewers e-mail their questions in for our panel, along with their comments, and their choices for Vice President on the Republican side.

We also have the normal access to News staff bios, Sports and Weather, including links to the latest Doppler Radar, and Satellite photos and CBS sites. Our Web manager recently quit, so currently a group of people are maintaining and updating the site. Check it out at WWW.KOVR.COM

from Jonathan Shelley (jonathan@ktnv.com), EP, KTNV

KTNV-TV (Las Vegas) became active on-line about six months ago. We can be found at http://www.ktnv.com/ktnv

Our page features an overview of our station, biographies on our anchors, daily summaries on our top news and sports stories of the day (updated early evening, Monday through Friday), information on the Las Vegas television market, a weather page featuring forecast and satellite information, and links to a number of other related sites (including the new "ElectionLine" service, provided in part by our network, ABC). We encourage viewers to write to us (at: KTNV@KTNV.COM) and have received a notable response. Most of the feedback poses questions about our community or news stories we have presented on our air. We also get questions from out-of-towners who are planning to visit Las Vegas. Responses are handled usually by myself (if it is a news-related item) or by the appropriate person in other station departments.

WEBSITE CRITIQUES [JUNE '99 UPDATE]
Compiled by Alice Main (webdesign@mainhat.com)

I started this newsletter back in 1995, and one of the first things I did was review some of the TV news web sites. I did another, similar article a few months later. You can find those articles online in The Producer Book, in Chapter 6. As we all know, the webworld has changed a lot since then, so I decided to do things differently this time. I got help. A team of volunteer critics took on the task of checking out all the TV news web sites in a given market. The critics looked at the websites between 8 and 10 p.m. on May 12. I chose the markets, somewhat randomly, then assigned them to the critics, again somewhat randomly. I made sure the critic did not live in the market to which he was being assigned. I say "somewhat random" about the choosing of the markets, because I didn't put them all in a hat and draw. Instead, I looked through a list of markets and every so often I grabbed one. I tried to get a variety of market sizes and geographic locations. The markets covered are: Albuquerque, Baltimore, Chattanooga, Hartford/New Haven, Tucson, Portland (OR), Little Rock, Kansas City, Green Bay/Appleton, Sioux City. The critics were encouraged to write in any style they chose, and according to whatever criteria they chose. The results are a snapshot, a one-time look at the websites in question. So, here they are . . . The Critiques.

TV NEWS WEBSITES OF ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO
By Jason DeRusha, KWQC-TV, Quad Cities, IA/IL

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: This market has three stations with websites:

• KASA (Fox) www.kasa.com
• KOB (NBC) www.kobtv.com
• KRQE (CBS) www.cbssouthwest.com

The ABC affiliate does not have a web address. KOB and KRQE both have local news sections. KOB had the most updated information, KRQE had information that was dated—some appeared to be from the day before. All stations excel at using their web sites as a promotional tool: anchor bios were prominent, as were station histories, program schedules, etc. KASA (which has no local news on the air, nor on the web) does an excellent job of giving community information on upcoming events. KOB and KASA both had entertainment on their sites—KOB had a Hangman game and Tic Tac Toe; KASA had all sorts of trivia contest, and surveys (for Mother's Day, who would be the best mom? Marge Simpson, Peggy Hill...). These web sites had a lot of unrealized potential. The big news story was about a bomb, planted in a garbage can in a local school. That happened Tuesday, the day before I surveyed the sites. There could have been much more information on-line, and updated, in addition to the short news item. KASA did an excellent job of putting weather information online, with up to date current conditions for a number of cities, while KOB provided a link to the National Weather Service. There's great information on the NWS site, but it's the same as getting the weather from your local people. KASA did a great job of putting community events and information online, while the other sites were lacking in that area.

Here's an analysis of each site in detail:

• KASA (Fox) www.kasa.com

NEWS: Doesn't have local news, but its web site has links to national headlines through a service called "Comtex."

OTHER AREAS: This is a clear, well-organized web site. It had a good list of local events and happenings, and has a number of links to other New Mexico web sites. The events area also has links to the organizations that have web addresses. There's a section called "About KASA" that is extremely useful. It has an online satellite waiver form, which is likely quite helpful for some of the rural areas in the Albequerque market; and a nice history section about the station. KASA also has a jobs section, with current station openings.

• KOB (NBC) www.kobtv.com

NEWS: This site follows the typical MSNBC local web formula. There is a good amount of local news, you follow the link to the MSNBC local section, and the story is there. KOB puts still frames of video within the body of the story. On the Wednesday night I checked the web site, the big story was a bomb incident in a local high school. Two were arrested, KOB said the names hadn't been released. That was more updated than the KRQE web site, which only had one arrest. The other story was about an early morning shooting—which appeared to be dated information (although it was still from Wednesday).

WEATHER: There were links to the National Weather Service local site, and an updated, locally produced five-day forecast. Unfortunately, the web site proclaimed the beauties of the Pinpoint WeatherNet (weather stations at local schools), but that information wasn't online. There was a pollen count, but it was one day old.

OTHER AREAS: Station bios were very well laid out, although the typeface was small, and difficult to read. Anchors were included, as was one reporter—the head of the investigative unit. The community calendar was still under construction. There were links to movie reviews from Sara Voorhees, and job listings (does anyone want an executive producer job in a bureau?).

• KRQE (CBS) www.cbssouthwest.com

NEWS: The layout followed the typical CBS web site formula. There were more local news on the page than the KOB site, but the stories were all dated. The bomb story didn't have as much information as KOB did, although having the stories from a day or two ago could be helpful to someone who missed yesterday's news. One glaring problem, was a link to information about a special report on "Wrestling Obsession." It was to air May 6 (more than a week prior to the check of this site) and it had no information, telling viewers to look back after the story aired.

WEATHER: This is where this page is superior. It had current conditions, five-day forecasts, links to weather maps—and there was information for a number of different cities in the viewing area. You could get the current conditions in your hometown (very useful, considering the range of weather in that region).

OTHER AREAS: The bios were easy to read, but included anchors only. There was a nice program schedule on this site, and a decent history of the station.

TV NEWS WEBSITES OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
By Kyle McAlister, News Director KTAB-TV

I looked at websites from two major angles: 1) the novice surfer who is just looking around 2) the serious surfer who probably still lives at home, and has already seen the new Star Wars movie 6 times.

Some of the things I was looking for were clutter, aesthetics, local news, weather, national news, links to anchors, links to franchises, interaction and feed back areas. Also, I wanted to see how easy it would be for the "first time" surfer to find the site, whether someone can get everything they want in just one visit, and whether the web site looks like a giant commercial.

Whew.

In a nutshell, here's what I found:

• WJZ, CBS 13

Their site was very easy to find, wjz.com took me there on the first try. Being a CBS station, this website is pretty full of CBS stuff. The local stuff kinda gets lost. There are a lot of sights to grab the eye (as opposed to just text links) but it is very busy. For the novice, it might be a bit intimidating. Front page was mostly National News with a good link to local news, but it took a few clicks to get there. I went to the weather page, but on May 12, the radar was from 10:12 am, May 9. As far as getting to the anchors, once I got there it was a good site, but it was buried, and took a lot of clicks. Hard to find any links to local WJZ franchises. The links to programming were done very well. And there was a lot there, so there's no way I could get it all in one visit. Didn't look like a giant commercial. Overall the site is a nice one, but maybe too much dedication to CBS links.

• WMAR, ABC 2

Again, an easy site to find at wmar.com. This one I feel is too cluttered, and it's mostly text based without images to "break things up." This site would probably overwhelm the "novice" surfer, but give the "surf junkie" hours of entertainment. On first glance it's hard to find exactly what you want, nothing catches the eye. I had a hard time finding any local news. The news archive (on May 12) had one story from May 8, May 7 and then all the way back to April 2. The weather page was nice with a great radar link, but it was cluttered by the "advertisers directory." The anchors link had information, and good feedback opportunities. Franchises were again available, but lost in the clutter and small fonts. Had good links to ABC programming, but fonts were very small. Yes, it would make me want to come back, but only if I really wanted to wade through the material. There was also quite a bit of advertiser space. Overall, for the "junkie" this is heaven. For the novice surfer, it may be just too much.

• WBAL, NBC 11

wbal.com is a radio station, wbaltv is this one. The Front page had a lot to offer, but was organized well. It gave me a good overview when asking "where do I want to go?" Good selection for getting to local news right from the main page. I liked the weather page with the BIG radar page, and associated weblinks. I didn't like all the links to MSNBC. I felt like I had left the "local feel" of WBAL, and was lost in the "network world" of MSNBC. Liked the links for anchors, and this site had a lot of places for interaction. MSNBC provided a lot of video links. There were a lot of "sponsor" links on almost every page. Overall a good site, very concise.

• WNUV, WB 54 and WBFF, Fox 45 (the same link)

wnuv.com and wbff.com not the ones. It was wnuv54.com and wbff45.com. This could be a problem for the first time surfer. I liked the initial look of this one the most. It is clean, simple, and not very cluttered. This had a pleasant look, and offered links to many places. I liked the fact that the anchors are right there in the front, bigger than anything else on the page. This, to me, stresses the "local" aspect. Didn't see many franchise links other than the "question of the day." Couldn't find any place to "feedback" to station. Liked the anchor links and the weather site. Couldn't find any national news links, though. Didn't look like a giant commercial, and didn't "overwhelm me" with information, but still made me want to come back. Overall, I liked this one for its simplicity. But, don't know if "simplicity" is what Fox viewers want. Maybe if this one were renamed "When Good Web Sites Attack?"

TV NEWS WEBSITES OF CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE
By Vidya Srinivas, Former Producer

• WDEF: (CBS)

The CBS affiliate in Chattanooga has the best website of all the television stations in town. The site concentrates on the local news and is connected to some useful websites including some for children.

APPEARANCE: The CBS eye and city skyline background are well defined. There is no clutter. No news pictures merely the anchor pics. They have the ability to scan maps but not pics of the local news. Anchor team looks good but do I have to know everyone’s favorite food and the fact that they can afford to vacation in the Cayman islands while lesser mortals (viewers/readers) can’t afford it?

NEWS CONTENT: Good story on taxes and well written but it seemed editorialized. Water company settlement could have been more detailed. They had a scoop there why didn’t they write about it instead of telling us to download those long documents which they say will take a while. The news was updated this afternoon. Good sports coverage Weather well done ... watch for spelling errors or was it an intentional pun (war weather?)

• WDSI (FOX)

Takes the second place and it is because they are not as well connected as the CBS affiliate and I can’t understand why Programs and KFC have to share the spotlight with the news.

APPEARANCE: They are definitely the best looking site... I’d say they are a bit on the flamboyant side but they are not sore to the eyes. Some great pics. Their news layout is good. The personality site is kind of curious with the anchors/reporters heads sticking out of boxes, you know, like they’ve been guillotined.

NEWS: They did a great job covering the noon news but someone seems to have forgotten the rest of the day altogether. If the news was lined up the way it is shown I do question the producer's news judgment. I was looking for news or a tease for the 10pm show on the site that says 10pm show but all I got were some nice pics of the anchors, so I was disappointed.

• WTVC (ABC)

This one ranks third on my list. Connects you to a bunch of websites but asking me to click on one to win 20 bucks is a bit too much to expect of me. They don’t give you enough information on the stations newscasts. They mention the morning and evening ones but where did the 11pm show go... don’t they have one? Also why would I want to know about Thursday’s show when Wednesday is still alive. There were no promotions for the 11pm show.

APPEARANCE: Reasonably practical but a trifle boring, they could definitely do with some color, I’d say. Their personality site is interesting.

NEWS CONTENT: They stayed local but it is obvious they are the crime station in town. Every bit of news they detailed was related to death and destruction. They just teased the tax story nothing more. WX:The local forecast took too long to download. I don’t suppose they have anyone who loves working on their websites.

WRCB (NBC) The NBC affiliate does not have its web page up as yet. Spoke with them, they said they should be up soon.

TV NEWS WEBSITES OF HARTFORD/NEW HAVEN
By Tad Davis, Producer, WHOtv Des Moines, tadman5@home.com

Overview: All four major network stations have comprehensive websites that are updated every couple of hours. Each site uses professional graphics, good basic layouts, and includes some special unique features. It's clear each station in this market has put a lot of time and effort into developing their sites. Each site is packed with information and links..sometimes too many. The UPN station in this market also has news as well as two low power spanish stations: Telemundo and Univision (no local websites).

• WTNH ABC (www.wtnh.com)

SITE LAYOUT: simple design=fast download.

OPENING PAGE: local news headlines at top, ABC national news scrolling on side.

NEWS: large number of current headlines, ABC8 or ap symbol at top shows source.

WEATHER: live superdoppler, school closing information.

SPORTS: long complete stories and scores

SPECIAL FEATURES: weather forecast clips available on real audio player, also ride along on chopper cam with real audio..actual flights or promo introducing chopper. access to investigations and special reports material from opening page website question of the day, topical notes from news director explaining coverage and issues.

• WTIC FOX (www.fox61.com)

SITE LAYOUT: simple graphics and background=fast download

OPENING PAGE: simple menu bar gives instant access to news, programming...

NEWS: only four or five local stories, special assignment info

WEATHER: current conditions, comprehensive maps and animations

SPORTS: local games scores, major league teams scores, and headlines

SPECIAL FEATURES: feedback—you can submit story ideas online, also "be part of a story"...station asks for help finding people work stories they're working on. "student news" partner ship with local school, students present stories important to them or their schools. online coupon area, online fox61 merchandise store, star wars update link

• WFSB CBS (www.wfsb.com)

SITE LAYOUT: graphic intensive site=slow download, CBS content mix.

OPENING PAGE: easy navigation. Bar at top of page, current wx conditions.

NEWS: Looks like cut and pasted AP Newsagenda, but it's up to date.

WEATHER: 5day forecast, comprehensive maps, school closings -Sports: national headlines only, limited local content, no local scores.

SPECIAL FEATURES: link to sex offender registry, online polls, editorials, access to stations special franchises

• WVIT NBC (www.nbc30.com)

SITE LAYOUT: graphics intensive=slow. One word: confusing.Cluttered layout: big ads at top of page, small navigation bars at top hard to see, especially for first time user.

OPENING PAGE: big ads at top make this look like a cheap sponsored site, they load before the station logo does.

NEWS: moving headlines roll up on screen ... hope you read fast, you can stop them by moving your cursor over them, but it's confusing for first time user. There are also two news pages: one hotlinked from the menu bar takes you to the local news pages with rolling headlines. The other takes you to msnbc were there are local pictures to go with the stories. Why are there two pages??

WEATHER: forecast page graphics very poor, looks like built with crayons.

SPORTS: links and schedules...no headlines.

SPECIAL FEATURES: community calendar online, extensive local web links to government and schools.

TV NEWS WEBSITES OF TUCSON, ARIZONA
By Anthony Reed, Producer, KOMU-TV, Columbia/Jefferson City, MO

I really found all of the websites in Tucson to be pretty disappointing. I've seen much better websites in much smaller markets. In general, each of the websites was very simple and seemingly low-maintenance for the stations (as if someone just kind of slopped together the site and checks it every week or so). I strongly suspect all of them are done in-house.

• KGUN

I'll start with KGUN. It loaded pretty quickly, with its station logo at the top, followed by a franchise logo ("Crime Trackers") and way down at the bottom of the page is where the good stuff appears to be (note the word "appears"). The news link take you to a page with an ABC News link; no local news. The weather link? A link to the Weather Channel. Sports link? Links to ABC Sports, Monday Night Football, etc. The site basically had no substance. It was links to other places essentially. The anchor page was not surprisingly the best part of the site, but nothing to brag about. Definitely not a stand-out site. A presence on the web, but just barely.

• KOLD

KOLD-TV 13 doesn't have the usual CBS clutter that most CBS station websites have. While it had a few more goodies than KGUN (like a virtual tour of the station, a pic of the new Chopper 13, and still pics of the station), it still fell decidedly short. "News" gives you news *links* (sound familiar?), "weather" gives you an NWS link, etc., etc. The site also has an on-line program schedule and a "still being updated" events page. Once again, I just can't see a viewer getting much use out of this site. The look of KOLD was slightly better than KGUN, though.

• KVOA

KVOA 4 had the traditional NBC Interactive Neighborhood stuff on the left, about five news headlines/links on the right and wx currents next to them. It also had all of the other links on the top (news, programs, etc.) and a banner ad below it. The first headline was for Star Wars (a story I can't wait to be overhyped by us even more next week.. ahem... anyway...). I clicked on it, where I got what looked like copy from something off of NewsChannel—what appeared to an average viewer to maybe be local, but what I thought looked like it was made to be that way by the station. There was no reference to Tucson, but also no reference to any other locale, so I think the average viewer/surfer would presume it's local. The story was also written pretty poorly, too. Below it were all international MSNBC headline links. Once again, it appears there was no local news. And once again also, the look of the site was pretty amateurish.

Overall, all of the stations' sites pretty much sucked (to be honest!). I got the impression that the GMs knew they had to get on the Internet bandwagon, bought a domain, got someone in promos or creative services to get a page up and running, and then they thought they were done and that there was no need to actually do anything with it afterwards.

TV NEWS WEBSITES OF PORTLAND, OREGON
By Deborah Stanley, Denver, Colorado

I had four local news stations with websites to explore: UPN (KPTV), ABC (KATU), NBC (KGW) and CBS (KOIN). I decided to check out the web sites before I left work Wednesday, figuring I could see what changed when I visited again at 8:45 their time. Glad I did it from work with our ISDN line, KOIN and KGW were quite slow on my home computer, even with a 36.6 modem. I'll go station by station.

• KPTV (UPN)

This web site is more about promotion than getting local news. They had three stories on their main page, they didn't change in the 3.5 half hours between my visits. I searched to see if there was more news, I clicked on the 10pm news place and 6pm news and I got promo's for the anchor teams and shows. No more news. No news pictures or graphics, just copy.

• KOIN (CBS)

Hey, found out Christopher Reeve is starting to walk, cool. This web site is very easy to read. They have 5 headlines on the front page (just a headline, no copy) and a button to click for more news. Inside there were 17 stories. Not sure how the web system works here, but quite a few stories credited the AP, not the local news team. Some did credit channel 6000 staff. After doing some surfing I found channel 6000 has some tie to KOIN, because there were links to humor pages and other things that came up with channel 6000 in the web site address. While some of the news stories were a couple days old, each one has a time on it at the top so you know when it was filed or updated, nice idea. There's an area to get information on their special reports. Not a lot of pictures, but that makes it faster to load on my computer. KOIN offers a place for email discussions, one topic had 28 responses, another had 4. One interesting note, you can sign up for an email with the headlines. (I should mention that between my visits 3 of the 5 stories on the front page changed)

• KGW (NBC)

Dial up this home page and you'll find lots of graphics. (bad on my computer, but they look good) This web page offers tons! I found a link to many of the recent special reports (ie series, investigative, etc), school closings, cancelled events, links mentioneon newscasts, ski reports, weekend events, flight schedules and Y2K resources. It was very impressive. But.. where's the news? When you click on the links under news, you get those special reports scripts/info. I finally tried clicking on the sat truck and helicopter logos and VOILA, NEWS! Difficult to find, but once you figure it out, there are 41 stories. It appears 1 changed in the 3.5 hours between my visits, it was the lead. Not sure how old stories 38-41 were, they didn't seem too dated. But there was an explanation about what Cinco de Mayo is and I was reading the site on May 12th. Couple things I liked... lots of city and mountain cams to check out. (One said it was under maintenance, it looked like a picture from inside a bar) You can buy KGW caps and shirts and stuff on line. (I've worked at TV stations that didn't even offer the stuff to employees!) The web site says it updates Doppler radar on line every 3 minutes, good selling point. And I got to watch their news. Well I thought I was getting their news, it actually appears I got a copy of their local cable channel's newscast. The audio was good, it wasn't 32 frames per second, but I was able to see enough pictures to figure out the news, BUT! I could only watch the online newscast in a very small box. On a smaller computer screen, it would have been even tougher. Overall, good web site, tons of information, just hard to figure out where the news link is on the site.

• KATU (ABC)

Another station that allowed me to watch their newscast. For both this one and KGW, you need to install Real Player. Here I got to watch the newscast on a Real Player screen that was about 25% of the size of my computer screen. You can pick any show from the last week and the people in my newsroom ended up watching a couple. One warning, this system does not catch the anchors looking their best. You get some pretty strange faces when you only get a few frames per second. The forecast information is right on the front page, I like knowing the weather right away. The front page offered headlines to 11 stories, no text, but lots of news. Also noticed that most of the stories were credited to AP, not KATU. One confusing thing. Top of the page features the station's logo with 2 male anchors. I wonder who they are. No names, no info about what they anchor, if they do weather or sports, just 2 guys.

Overall, I enjoyed being able to watch 2 newscasts on line (KGW, KATU). I like the idea that one of the TV stations is willing to email you headlines, hopefully included is a plug of why they should watch the next newscast (KOIN). If it was snowing, I'd be on KGW's web site for the school closures, cancelled events and the radar. But I wouldn't know how to find any other news on their site. One other drawback, not sure I could tell you what the lead story was tonight in Portland. Maybe it's good that the stations appeared to have different news, not too many of the stories were the same.

As for ads, KGW's & KATU'S ad banner were ads for their station, that's nice. KOIN had ads for other businesses, but it wasn't obnoxious.

Last but not least, if you're going to visit Portland, check out KATU's web site. They have a place at the very top of their home page where you can get information on restaurants, arts & entertainment, careers, etc.

TV NEWS WEBSITES OF LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS
By Brian Shrader, Assignment Desk Assistant, WRAL-TV, Raleigh

In the world of the web, the online offerings from the TV stations in Little Rock, Arkansas—market 57—are a little disappointing.

Stations in smaller markets have taken a great interest in a quality online product—KXAN in Austin, TX, WIS in Columbia, SC, KTUL in Tulsa, OK, are just a few. But, Little Rock stations seem to embrace the Internet half-heartedly as the next frontier in journalism. In some cases, it looks like stations are just going through the motions.

I looked at Little Rock TV websites, and here are my impressions—from worst to best. (I like to end on a happy note, whenever I can.)

• KTHV

Let's start with the non-existent. KTHV, Little Rock's CBS station, has nothing on the web. Come on. At least register the domain "kthv.com," and give the impression that you're working on something.

• KKYK

The big surprise in Little Rock is the WB affiliate—KKYK, Channel 22. KKYK has carved a niche online by offering webcasts of their 9PM news. If you don't want to watch the herky-jerky video stream, you can look at the scripts from the past week. The stories are slugged, and some non-news folks may difficulty getting through it, but it's an interesting way of archiving. They also have the generic national and world headlines from ISyndicate.

The weather section isn't the greatest. Images from Earth Watch and The Weather Channel are coupled with a video capture of the station's extended forecast. There's a link to The Weather Channel's Little Rock weather page.

The sports section is basically a collection of links to teams' official site. The links section includes links to sites mentioned on KKYK's newscasts. There's no real context for the links (airdate, what the story was about, etc.). The programming schedule is nicely done. And, if you're interested, you can read all about the KKYK newsteam.

Bottom Line: KKYK's site is impressive. The webcasting is the big hook, but they need to focus on the textual content a little more. Also, the weather and sports sections need some more attention.

• KARK (www.kark.com)

NBC affiliate KARK has a decent web site. Page design is the biggest problem for KARK. The homepage is huge in size. There's lots of empty space in huge columns.

The homepage has its good points, though. The news headlines and a brief weather forecast share the top of the page (they aren't updated on the weekends, either). They have included a link to a live image from their 4WARN doppler radar (cute name). The image is updated every three minutes. They have a nice evening-through-prime-time programming schedule on the homepage, but it's not updated on weekends.

One of the most obtrusive design blunders is the garish banner graphic at the top of every page in the site. The style is nice, and tastefully sized, the elements are there to make for very attractive banner graphics. However, these are HUGE graphics. The homepage banner graphic is 41K! They take up over half of the screen. They're just plain garish.

The news story pages are well designed. A video still is included with stories, as well as what appears to be transcriptions of packages, VO's and VOB's. The stories don't appear to be very in-depth, and we don't know how often the stories are updated. But, for a brief, no-frills overview of the day's top stories, it's not too bad. I couldn't find an story archive.

The weather page is all right. Links to live doppler radar, the extended forecast, and the towercam are included. There are also external links to forecasts for individual towns in Arkansas from a company called WeatherLabs.

The "Features" page is a mess. All of the content appears to be in a table, taking up only the left half of the screen. It looks awful. The page consists primarily of links to items mentioned on earlier newscasts.

The community calendar page in bad shape. Whereas the features page content takes up half of the screen, the community calendar page takes up twice the width of the screen. You have to scroll left and right, in order to see the whole page. Not good.

The "Links" page consists of three links—one to the AP, one to NBC, and one to CNN. And, the sports page is fairly neglected.

Bottom Line: The elements are there for a good local TV website. The content appears to be there, but the presentation is in critical condition. Streamline the pages. Make them smaller. Clean up (and shrink) the graphics.

• KATV (www.katv.com)

KATV, the ABC station, has the best-designed website of all Little Rock stations. The homepage has a graphic navigation map on the left-hand side. Some text teases for the site's content are on the right-hand side. I can't get over the animated satellite truck graphic at the bottom. I love it. It's rich.

The news section is nicely designed, but there are some problems.

No headlines are given for stories—only what appear to be story slugs ("5MURDER," "5ESCAPEE," etc.). That's a big problem. Another problem is the scant number of stories. There aren't that many—only five or six—and they're just scripts.

In VOSOT's and PKG's, the bites aren't labeled, so we don't know who's talking. A lot of people don't like TO READ ALL CAPITAL LETTERS ... EITHER. Some folks may not realize that broadcast journalists see no difference between a comma and ellipses. Oh, there's no story archive, either.

The news page is clean and easy to navigate. News stories are updated daily, which is nice. Also on the main news page is a listing of links mentioned on newscasts.

The weather section is also nicely designed. On the main page is a video capture from their live doppler radar. From the page, you can also sign up for their pager/e-mail weather warning notification service. They also have a towercam image. It wasn't working the night I checked. But, I visited later in the week, finding a nice shot of some bridges in Little Rock. There are links for severe weather safety tips, current conditions, and information about the station's weather equipment.

The local sports section is fairly skimpy, but the link to ESPN's SportsZone website gives you what you need nationally.

There's a nice program schedule, which is updated daily. The station's morning program, "Daybreak," has an informative page, with more information about stories done on their show.

The "7 On Your Side" page is well-done. There is a kind of archive, as well as consumer links, and a place where you can send your consumer problem. One problem—the "Ripoff of the Week" hasn't been updated in two months.

KATV has a nice job openings page, and an easy-to-use e-mail page.

Bottom Line: KATV has the nicest TV website in Little Rock. The page is very cleanly designed. The content is fresh. They need to clean up the news section a little bit.

TV NEWS WEBSITES OF KANSAS CITY
By Sharon Downey, Medill News Service, Washington, D.C.

I surfed the net in Kansas City on May 12th. None of the Kansas City TV stations updated its content for the internet audience. Only one of the sites offered video and that was from the May 3rd tornados.

• KCTV

KCTV, the CBS affiliate, offers a five-day weather forecast—and tips to survive a tornado. But the only news was through the CBS network, where Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's resignation was the lead story.

• KMBC-TV

KMBC-TV, the ABC affiliate, offered the same top local stories it ran during the afternoon.

• KSHB

KSHB offered the best content in the market. The NBC affiliate is owned by Scripps Howard. Its home page is cluttered, but it has links to news, headshots and promos of the talent, and Mr. Food's recipes. The local news stories about expensive stucco repairs and a body found in a car were not updated from earlier in the day. KSHB was the most interactive. It asked the audience whether people planned to see the new Star Wars film and where to shop for the city's best tacos.

• WDAF FOX 4

WDAF FOX 4 believes in branding. The home page said FOX four times. FOX NEWS. FOX SPORTS. FOX TV. FOX offered very little else in the way of content.

TV NEWS WEBSITES OF GREENBAY/APPLETON, WI
By Paige Gallagher, Producer, KXAS-TV, Dallas/Fort Worth

The Wisconsin market has six local television stations with a website. Four of them have news: WBAY (ABC), WFRV (CBS), WGBA (NBC) and WLUK (FOX). Each has its own value, depending on your personal preferences. Each also has its own drawbacks. It just depends on what you want to find, and how long you want to wait.

• WBAY (www.wbay.com)

Click on wbay.com and this web page downloads quickly. News, weather and sports departments each have their own page. Local news headlines are updated after early evening news and after late news. Writing is similar to AP wire copy, with headlines listed on the front page. If you want to see pictures or streaming/downloadable video, you won't find it here. But you will find scrolling headlines and national headlines from abc.com. Bonuses: Allergy and severe weather information along with viewer feedback.

• WFRV (www.wfrv.com)

At wfrv.com news online seems to be important, yet an afterthought. This homepage downloads quickly for a basic reason: it's simple. The news headlines are updated after both the early and late newscasts. There's not much to see, no still pictures or video clips online. A limited amount of graphics yet it does provide links to news, weather and sports. The news copy seems to have been copied straight from the newscast into the website.

• WGBA (www.wgba.com)

If you know anything about news and the internet, you'll understand what's available at wgba.com simply by knowing this website is MSNBC format. The site does have its drawbacks, but many amenities. There are scrolling news headlines, lots of graphics and links to everything. With so much to choose from, you might expect confusion, but this website is organized. If you enter the local news page, you'll find all the bells and whistles. If you don't figure out that's where you need to be, you'll end up finding the scripts online straight from the shows. The local news page obviously has its own webmaster. There are still pictures with links to video clips you can download and play. The local news is the most up to date in the market. It updates after the early news, late news and includes breaking news. Weather and sports are also just a click away.

• WLUK (www.wluk.com)

This Fox affiliate's website has links to every department in the station. You'll also find still pictures of the news team, but none from the news of the day. It takes quite some time for this homepage to download. The last time the news was updated this day was 9:54 am. You'd be lost if you depended on this website for your local news.

By far, the best website in this market is www.wgba.com. You need Windows Media player to watch any video you download, but if you're a news junkie it's for you. There were two other stations in the market which did not appear to have local news programming. This station appears to have its finger on the future of television news—the internet.

TV NEWS WEBSITES OF SIOUX CITY, IOWA
By Rehan Hyder, KDKA TV News

KTIV's web site has its competitors beat hands down. Of course, the NBC affiliate kinda has it too easy, since KCAU (ABC) doesn't even have a local website. You have to get to KCAU's "site" courtesy of ABC's new on-line partner the go.com network [abc.go.com/localstations/kcau]. It's just a page go.com has set up for the station pimping ABC's primetime.

• KMEG

Even better for what would seem a dominant NBC affiliate in this Midwestern market, the CBS station, KMEG, doesn't even appear to offer local news. According the schedule listed on its website, KMEG CBS 14 only does six weather cut-ins during its broadcast day. The website [kmeg.cbsnow.com] uses CBS network's on-line template from CBSNOW. Instead of allocating its resources for news, the station promotes 'Club KMEG' on its site and a big weather banner you can click on for a local 6-day forecast. The only other highlights of KMEG's site: a still picture from the local Quiz Bowl competition and upcoming contest dates (I think the station may even broadcast the competitions.) And KMEG must be the local sci-fi fans' station, cuz they've got a page teasing what's on Saturday night's Voyager, DS9, and Stargate. Ooh.

• KTIV-4

Which brings us back to KTIV-4 (NBC). The webmaster(s) working this site certainly seem to know how to take advantage of the template MSNBC provides its affiliates. If you click on [http://www.ktiv.com/] you can choose "local news." And you get a good low-down on the latest in Sioux City news.

On this particular night

* Lead Story: 'Convicted Sex Offender Plea's [yeah, one of many grammatical errors rife throughout the site] Guilty to Trespassing Charges' (with titled mug shot)

* Second Story: Siouxland deligation [deli—hmm, may have been lunchtime; or we didn't use spell check] is in Washington D.C. looking for support.

* 3rd Story: Siouxland woman chosen MS Mother of Year—Dole visits Siouxland looking for support (w/ nice picture of Elizabeth & Co. credited to KTIV and the photog who shot it)

That's just a sample. There are also lists of 'News Briefs,' some special reports, 'Sports Briefs,' and a link to road condition numbers. And at the bottom: a credit to the cyber-journalist who did all this work. That's great. I can send him an e-mail offering kudos for this example of his fine work (and a suggestion to proofread). The site's updated fairly often. I logged in the next morning and a new lead story had been added.

All in all, KTIV does a great job of extending their on-air news product to its web site. I'm teased. If I were in town, I'd turn on Channel 4. I'm not a trekkie, so I'm not really wooed over to watch that CBS station. And the ABC station just wants me to watch their primetime, I suppose.

[2/98]

RODUCER

There's a new breed of producer you'll find in many television stations around the country. It's the Internet Producer, the person responsible for organizing content on a station's news site on the Internet. That's my role at WVTM-TV (http://www.msnbc.com/local/wvtm/ default.asp) in Birmingham, Alabama. In addition to deciding which stories will appear on our site, and in what order, I'm also responsible for re-writing them from our broadcast reports. But I don't just re-write them, I add details, history and other useful bits of information that adds depth to what we have on the air.

In my role at NBC13, I also serve as Webmaster, meaning I'm responsible for the design and maintenance of our overall website. This combined role means I work some very long hours, but I tell people every day I can't believe I get paid to do the work I'm doing. This is definitely my niche.

My typical day starts at about 9:00 AM. My official hours are 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM, but I find I need to get a jump on things if I'm going to make the most out of my day. I start my day by reading any e-mail delivered to the station. I answer viewer e-mail personally, making sure every viewer gets thanked for writing to and watching NBC13. I answer their questions and invite them to call me directly with more questions. I originally thought this would be a bad idea because I'd be answering questions all day, but I only get about 2 calls each week!

Once viewer e-mail is out of the way, I read the e-mail from the MSNBC National Producer to see what kind of stories he's looking for that day. If I see we're doing a hook to a national story, I'll call him in Redmond, Washington and pitch it to him in person. I'll also look for local stories that may play big to a national audience. On average, I talk to or e-mail that producer 2-3 times each day.

After e-mail, I peruse the MSNBC site, CNN Interactive, ABCNews.com, USA Today and a few of my sister sites to see what others are doing. I usually check in with our competition's site once each day. But (without being degrading) there's not much content to check. That's good for me.

By this time it's 9:45 or so, and I check to see what kind of stories I'll have on my first update of the day. We have an 11:00 AM newscast, so it lets me get stories on the web by noon, when our competition is going on the air with their 12:00 PM news. I'll check the rundown, talk with producers and reporters and begin to write my stories.

As information trickles in, I add it to the story. If there's no information, I'll take care of other tasks, including finding new or file video and audio. MSNBC's setup makes it easy to grab a frame of video and turn it into a relatively high-quality picture. This will either be one of my cover photos, or a larger story-level photo.

Audio clips can be "dumped" into our computer systems as well, and we have some "scripts" that turns these audio clips into Real Audio, meaning the end-user doesn't have to wait for the clip to download. Instead they receive streaming audio.

Video clips on the web, at this time, are a different story. Right now we have the ability to add video to our stories, but the clips are very large, meaning a long download. I've talked with many of my fellow MSNBC producers around the country and we agree that because of this long download time, there's not very much video that warrants publication on the web. However, there are always exceptions. Recently, fellow producer Bob Ponting at KNSD (http://www.msnbc.com/local/knsd/default.asp) in San Diego had a great clip of a firefighter getting ready to light a boat on fire when the boat exploded. It threw the firefighter on his back, and he eventually bailed out of the boat and into the water. It was truly a great clip for the web, allowing anybody in the world to see the video that happened locally in San Diego. MSNBC's national site uses a streaming video program called Netshow. Hopefully, the affiliate program will be rolling this out to the 80+ affiliates involved in the MSNBC program soon, enabling us to publish entire stories on the web.

Once the newscast hits the air, I get any remaining facts I need. If something's not clear, I make calls to clear things up and then go with the story. One of the nice things about the MSNBC system is the ease of updating stories, so if I need to add more information, I can simply update the story throughout the day and keep publishing.

The early afternoon in my shop lends itself to taking care of maintenance issues with the http://www.nbc13.com website. I usually make these adjustments over lunch at my desk. Then it's time for the 1:30 editorial meeting.

At this meeting, I meet with the dayside and nightside crews to see what everyone's working on and what we will be working on throughout the day. Then I start the whole process again for the evening update, which usually is posted on our site sometime between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM.

EXAMPLES OF SUCCESS

The Internet has given us a clear advantage over our competition on breaking news stories. In the middle of the day when something big happens, we're able to post a story almost immediately, giving viewers information they need now. It also enables users to digest the information and read it as often as they want, or they can even print it.

One example of our site really shining came late last year. A bus full of kids was headed from Birmingham to Montgomery when it was involved in an accident on one of our major highways. Several kids were taken to area hospitals with injuries. In addition to breaking into programming to report this news, parents were able to visit our website and get detailed information about the accident, including where it happened, what school was involved, what hospital the kids were taken, etc. Many parents sent e-mails saying they were at work when they heard about the accident and found it difficult to find information. But once they found our website, they had most, if not all, the information they needed to know their children were safe, or where their children were being taken.

Another example was coverage of one of the largest warehouse fires in Birmingham history. Our website allowed people to get detailed traffic information so they could get home from work without sitting on area roads for hours. We also have our "Ham-Cam" on the Internet. The image is updated every two minutes. This allowed people to actually see the fire from NBC13 even though they didn't have a television in front of them.

There are clear advantages to having an often-updated website. You get to extend your brand, and you get to give users a new level of news coverage they've never seen. If your station doesn't have an Internet Producer, you may want to consider investing in one. They can help you succeed in the online world . . . the way of the future.

Todd Mazza is the NBC13 Webmaster/Internet News Producer.