USAToday and Microblogging Offline

Interesting insight, Chris, and I have to agree. I remember the brouhaha that ensued when USAToday first came onto the market. Now – viewed within the context of the developments that led to microblogging, etc. – it was basically just a harbinger of communicative things to come.

Let’s be glad we didn’t shoot the messenger!

It’s interesting that you point that out because it definitely looks, even on their site, like news blurbs instead of fledged-out articles or half the article on the page that continues on another page. It’s great that they are doing that because it shows that they are paying attention to what is going on around them and adapting.

One of the big concerns is that the Internet and the advancement of technologies are making published newspapers and magazines obsolete. However, if they adapt in the way USA Today seems to be doing, then they might have a fighting chance.

Great article!

I would like to suggest that Chris Pearson and “crew” develop some add-on preconfigured Custom CSS stylesheets for people to choose.

While there remains little doubt that Thesis is the best WordPress “framework” it still remains quite difficult for laypeople (i.e. non CSS designers) to turn their blogs into something visually interesting.

IMHO, that is the missing piece which will take Thesis from the hot advanced blogger framework (theme/template) of choice to one that is adopted by the masses. Despite what coders may think or feel, most people choose a WP theme/template because of the eyecandy. I agree that content is king and that graphics aren’t necessarily…. blah, blah, blah…… BUT it would be great for regular folks to benefit from the amazing work Chris has done with Thesis. In fact, Matt and the folks at Automattic should be looking to Thesis for inspiration on where to take WP.

Chris (Brogan) you are correct in your use of the terminology “skins” rather than what I suggested “Custom CSS style sheets.”

Do you know if there are currently any Thesis skins out there for the rest of us “wanna-be” CSS designers. For an idea how this might work in practice with Thesis, see the YouTube video tutorial for MODx where the narrator explains how to copy your favorite website’s CSS and use it within MODx.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EasmxiU0LsM

Chris (Brogan). In order to create a magazine style layout (you saw Fred Wilson’s Tumbler post on this topic concerning NYT’s prototype website, right?) inside of Thesis I think that the skin developers would also have to create a Custom Function.php file as well.

Perhaps, Chris Pearson could add an Upolad option within the dashboard editor for Thesis which would let non-technical folks upload both the Custom CSS and Custom Functions files without having to use a FTP client.

I, for one, would gladly pay $25+ bucks for a add-on Thesis skin.

Chris,

Nice post per usual. I’d agree that USA Today / Headline News are quasi-micro blogs, but I’d probably take that a step further and argue that lots of the cable news stations (MSN and Fox in particular) devote lots of their airtime to a Vlog style format, with more emphasis being placed on the ‘anchors’ or tv personalities than on the actual content itself. There’s also way more commentary injected into the ‘news’ format (thinking Olberman’s Special Comments, O’Reilly’s Talking Points). Whether that’s a good or bad thing is in up for grabs.

But I do think we need to make sure that we place a premium on Journalism (with a capital J) that devotes its resources to long form fact finding and investigative reporting. There needs to be room on the playground for both formats.

@ryancmiller

I’m with Timothy. I think Mr. Pearson’s perfection is the enemy of his good with regard to a magazine theme. And while I’ve been one of those waiting for the past 6 months for it, I can completely sympathize.

Cosmo is supposed to be the magazine functionality for Thesis.

http://diythemes.com/thesis/about-cosmo/

Bob, in December Chris Pearson decided just to fold magazine functionality into Thesis 1.4, and do away with the name Cosmo (which, incidentally, is the name of an existing WordPress theme when last I checked). The problem is, a week or two ago, out comes Thesis 1.4, and according to one source, the DIYNinja blog ( http://is.gd/hB2J ), it falls short of his promise. (Disclaimer here: I have yet to really open up the package to see its progress toward “magazinehood”.)

I’d like to point-out that Thesis is so well built, specifically the ability to change everything through the use of 2 files, that it could dramatically change the paradigm of WP themes/skins/templates. Basically, Thesis is what the WordPress structure/framework SHOULD look like.

Rather than really criticizing Chris Pearson, I am suggesting that there is a huge opportunity for him, and others intimately involved, to develop a 3rd party developer ecosystem around Thesis.

I suspect (I’m not a developer so it’s a bit of a guess) that the Cosmos addition to Thesis will focus on a way to incorporate the Thesis OpenHook plug-in directly into the framework of Thesis and allow users to create what other CMS systems call “Modules” within Thesis. This is what I think is needed to create a magazine theme.

I would suggest that Chris P. take a look at the Joomla framework called Versatility4 by RocketTheme for some creative inspiration. V4 offers over 45 module positions and lots of flexibility.

I do think we should separate the magazine request (i.e. Cosmos) from what Chris B. called Thesis “Skins.” Without more options for aesthetic design, Thesis basically looks like a good looking body-builder in his bathing suit. Someone needs to design some “Brioni suits” and other clothes for Thesis.

Again, many will argue that blogs should be minimal and focus on content but I would like to point-out that WP now has thousands and thousands of Themes directly as a result of people unending desire to express themselves through their blogs.

Custom CSS = design
Custom Functions.php = layout (i.e. structure)

I’d love to hear Chris P.’s thoughts on this topic.

Thinking. Thinking. Thinking. Chris, this blog entry has me thinking more than any I’ve read from your blog (not that others aren’t interesting, they are). I have so many thoughts on your comments but no solid solutions pop to mind. They will though. Thinking. Thinking. Thinking.

Keith Parnell
CEO, JASE Group
http://twitter.com/parnellk63
http://blog.keithparnell.com/

I guess you’re saying that here in America, we have short attention spans. So much competes for our attention every day that most of us don’t have time to digest a lot of information at once. So the things that are going to get noticed will be those that come in short blurbs. We can read as many of these as we want to, but because of their nature we can stop at any time if more important things come up. Food for thought: Maybe that’s why Twitter has been so successful: short posts, less than 140 characters…simple and to-the-point tidbits, just the way we like our communication here.

Chris – I have to disagree with you on this one, especially after just having put down this morning’s USA. I rarely read the entire paper for that very reason; the articles are lengthy.

If any paper emulates the micro-blog format it is the Wall Street Journal. I just get the online version these days because they have yanked their print price to more than double that of USA Today. Nevertheless, for years WSJ has had columns of short new bits on the front page. Recently, the commentary has become more conversational. I don’t see that in with USA Today. Their commentary is buried to the back, and feel more like overworked essays.

Your point is well taken. Give us the news in a we are now used to receiving it if you plan to survive as a medium.

Now that you mention it, i do recall being more drawn to that newspaper rather than another (if i had a choice). All of the little bits of information on the cover makes it more interesting.

I found out a staggering fact today: Britain’s daily and Sunday newspapers contain a staggering 5,800 pages. Almost ten million words. Each week.

Over here in the UK we’ve had a funky print-based weekly publication called “The Week” for, well, at least a decade – it must be much longer – it is a totally cool unique digest in a sort of offline micro-blogging-esque kinda style. It’s great that social media is latching onto this kind of innovation huh ;)

Surely we’ve all been drawn to the “In Brief” columns in newspapers for years rather than relentlessly ploughing through entire articles – for sure it’s why Twitter has become successful, but so much of what’s “new” in social media has genuinely been tested as a principle a long while ago offline. Are these papers emulating the online, or is online just emulating how we’ve communicated for centuries… Communication, it’s all just getting to the core ways in which we humans communicate.

Is this similar to what the NY Times are doing with this – http://prototype.nytimes.com/gst/articleSkimmer/ – their article skimmer.. Also an interesting approach.

It seems like the layout of information is not only being dictated by the “bite sized” format in print pages, but also because they are more easily translated to handheld devices like the iPhone. I was amazed at how good the NYTimes interface is on the iPhone. The format of print, desktop and handheld are all merging – and making everything better in the mix.

You guys have made some excellent points regarding Thesis “skins,” which are going to be a critical part of DIYthemes development efforts over the next few months. Essentially, these skins will be design modifications (think colors, graphics, and element positions) that will exist separately from your custom_functions.php and custom.css files. This way, you’ll still be able to make even more modifications—like skinning a skin!

As a former freelance designer, the unique expression of design is an extremely important topic to me, and I am anxious to bring this level of differentiation to Thesis. The community has already latched onto the “skin” idea, as you can see on the following sites:

• DIYninjas
• WP Bandit
• The Template Blog

This aspect of Thesis is still in its infancy, but I am confident that it will end up becoming the most well-liked and appreciated feature of all over the coming months.

Also, regarding the “magazine” discussion, Thesis 1.4+ contains a new home page layout option called Features & Teasers. In comment #16, Nigel mentioned the NYtimes prototype, and I wanted to point out that you can present your content in a very similar manner by using Features & Teasers. Check out Kristarella for an example of teasers, and see this screenshot for an example of teasers that use the post image and post thumbnail options (also new in Thesis 1.4).

And hey, now that I think about it, maybe I can help Mr. Brogan implement Features & Teasers on his site, as that would be a pretty poignant example of this great new feature :D

Also, the teaser functionality (and more specifically, the new post image and thumbnail functionality from Thesis 1.4) is the core development piece for creating different home page presentation styles with Thesis. With this foundation in place, I’m going to be able to create home page widgets (for displaying recent posts from different categories) and also add impressive functionality to the Feature Box.

Anyway, great discussion in this thread, and I hope this comment was somewhat informative regarding the new features and layout possibilities with Thesis 1.4!

Chris,
I had the same thing in mind (magazine-style layout) when I set up my blog. I have a big fancy picture and headline for the articles I want to feature, then smaller headlines with snipits, organized by subject beneath. Of course my latest reel, Twitter posts, and links to all my SoMe location, and subscription box all in one column. I’ve gotten nothing but good feedback on the layout and I think it’s been helpful for visitors ingesting my content in a non-linear fashion, like a magazine.

I never noticed this before. Very clever. Now that I’ve engaged in business travel, I’ve discovered that USAToday is the wall paper of airports. I’ve never really took much notice to their layout – or any other newspapers for that matter. When I fly out Monday I’ll be sure to take a closer look.

Seeing the discussion between long vs. short posts – my perspective is that when I have a physical object in my hand to read, length is not an issue (as long as the article is written well and its a subject I’m interested in). Its funny that the web dictates “short” due to our attentions spans.

Why is that?

even the grey lady herself recognizes the different ways people respond to information. they recognize that a story can be delivered at warp 10 through twitter, shuttle craft into a blog post and issued authoritatively through starfleet academy in a thoughtful, well researched article that you can read in the sunday new york times with a second cup of coffee.

in a blog? i like the thinking behind http://www.urbanomnibus.net. they present an intriguing balance of indepth articles and shorter stuff in a divergent way.

It’s a great point Chris – don’t ignore offline media. I think what is really interesting is the connection between on-and offline media. I think CNN is doing the best job right now of integrating the web with TV. This is the future – seemless connection among various media to provide information, connection and community that meets the needs of a varied audience.

Best.
William
http://www.williamarruda.com

I have always enjoyed USA Today for the reason that you mentioned. I can briefly flip through it and get the information quickly. If I need or want to get more info, I know where to go for that.

One project that has start to do maybe some of this is the Sweetcron lifestreaming system. Not to get into a discussion on blogging vs lifestreaming, but that particular systems sort of gives you an idea of a dashboard type system like you might have on personal web start pages, but related to a particular person.

Don’t think that the guys at WordPress aren’t also paying a lot of attention to people’s tastes for shorter content as well.

For an excellent example of a new type of layout, check-out Russia Today at http://russiatoday.com/

I like how they have made each module dynamic with slow scroll of content.