Breaking news now: Madrid
Follow how a great online news organization follows a big breaking story, at El País.
Here is an early infographic:
The plane crashed about six hours ago, at 2:45 p.m. local time (GMT +2), while taking off at Madrid’s Barajas airport.
Update (6:40 p.m. EDT): The updated animated graphic makes good use of satellite images.
Update (10:45 p.m. EDT): Notice how they feature their multimedia assets up high, on the right side. I really like the big, uncluttered banner headline. I also like it that the Olympics have been below the fold all day. This major story dominates, as it should. El País/Prisacom is one classy news organization.
Update (Friday, Aug. 22, 9 a.m. EDT): This amazes me. Above the fold, the front page is still ALL about the plane crash. The animated graphic is featured at the TOP of the page! As for all the rest of the news in the world — well, I think El País is thinking the right way — there is no news more important to Spain, and so it’s all below the fold. Even the Olympics — okay, there is a fly-over about the Spanish basketball team in the semi-final! Even the Russian occupation of Georgia falls below the fold.
Also, I love how they keep updating the information graphic as they get additional data, such as the altitude the plane had reached before crashing. This all remains at the same URL, so each time you visit the graphic, you see the latest and most accurate information. All the facts about the plane, number of passengers, etc., are included.
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August 22, 2008 at 9:35 am