One of the most stimuating aspects about online journalism is that there is no proven way of doing things. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for editors.
One constantly evolving area is website design, as news organisations try to improve how to present and convey information over the internet. The approaches of three leading US newspapers, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and USA Today, are explored in an article in Editor and Publisher.
Ken Wilson of USAToday.com is bang on target when he says that the main challenge for news organizations is “to figure out how those tools can improve the presentation and delivery of the news.”
This means news organisations should adopt what business schools call “discovery-driven planning“.
What this means is that editors are dealing with a great deal of uncertainty when it comes to planning future strategy. The Internet is a disruptive technology so no one can be sure about how it is going to develop.
In this context, news organisations have to adopt a model where they can learn by experimenting and learning from mistakes, such as in website design.
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