1. Thinking Outside the
Search Box
Aron Pilhofer,
The New York Times

2. Interactive News
• Ten journalists
• News-focused, data-driven apps
• “Web development at newsroom speed”

3. Interactive News
Where we’re a little different:
• Based in the newsroom
• Run by (relatively nerdy) journalists
• A news desk; not a software shop
• Focused on journalism, not news products

4. What is web journalism?

5. “I just want to get data on the web.
So what?”

6. Data Vomit

9. Data Vomit
• Sometimes works quite well.
• What am I to understand from this?
• What is the context of this?
• Why should I care?

10. Throwing data online without context or
analysis is what machines do, not journalists.

11. We can (and must) do more.

12. Interactivity.
Engagement.
Community.

13. Who,
What,
Where,
When,
Why.

14. Web Journalism
• It’s about making editorial decisions
• It’s about telling a story
• It’s about providing context, analysis
• In other words...

15. It’s about journalism.

17. A Good Interactive Should Be...

18. Steeped in context and analysis

22. Feature data that’s useful, not ubiquitous

25. Invite exploration and discovery

28. Provide a venue for sharing

32. Portable: APIs, RSS everywhere.

34. Usable, intuitive and predictable

35. Fail

36. Bottom line: We need to start
thinking like a startup.

37. Bottom line: This is about survival now.

38. Where to begin?

39. Bring known journalism
forms to the web.

41. Start asking: “Why?”

42. Think broadly about what
constitutes data.

44. If you don’t get it, find the
people who do.

45. Pick up a book and learn it.

46. Aron Pilhofer,
The New York Times
aron@nytimes.com
(212) 556-5849
AIM: pilhofer