1. 001110110110110110110110110011
Online Journalism
Wayne MacPhail
wmacphail@gmail.com

2. n
ow
O ur ve News
ry
of the
World

7. Writing for
Online
Online

8. Overview
• A History Lesson
• Inverted Pyramid Revisited
• MicroContent
• What Eye Scans Teach Us
• Writing for Navigation
• Writing Links

9. A History Lesson
Or, why you should
never draw a pig in clay.

10. From Oral to Written

11. Token Gestures

12. Early Egyptian Writing

13. Early Media

17. Inverted Pyramid
Most Important
Least Important

18. Write Tight
Say what you want to say.
Cut it in half.
Cut it in half again.
Write it.
Cut it in half, twice.
Write. Cut. Twice.

19. Microcontent
• Heads
• Subheads
• Marginalia
• Grabber Quotes
• Captions

23. Structure

24. Writing Microcontent

25. Heads and Blurbs

26. RSS Feeds on cellphones

30. Writing for Twitter
Active, concise, condensed

31. Writing for Twitter
Active, concise, condensed

32. Writing for Twitter
News, action, brand

33. I hate my Presto card. The tap on tap off
system is inconsistent, and I get constant
card errors. Plus, there are no Presto boxes
at some TTC stations. I’m going back to
using tickets.
Hate my Presto card. Tap on, tap off?
Sometimes. Card errors. No Presto boxes
in some TTC stations. Back to tickets.
Hate Presto card. Tap on, tap off? Really?
Card errors. Presto boxes in TTC stations?
Maybe. Tickets FTW.

34. Writing for Twitter
140 Characters - Doing the math
Okay, I officially am in hate my
Presto card. Tap on, tap off, TTC
station with no interfaces, Card
124 characters
errors. Back to tickets.
+ @hamont 131
RT wmacphail - 10 characters 13 characters
RT wmacphail Okay, I officially am
in hate my Presto card. Tap on,
tap off, TTC station with no
interfaces, Card errors. Back to
tickets.

35. Questions?
Questions?

36. Wayne MacPhail
wmacphail@gmail.com
wmacphail
wmacphail
wmacphail