The role of Flash in a news organization (Part 2)

I think the absence of high-up, home page play for Flash graphics represents a missed opportunity. News organizations could use compelling interactive graphics to make their site a real daily destination — and differentiate themselves from Google News.

The first step in using Flash strategically is to admit that Flash projects take time. The same can be said about video, and sometimes the amount of time would be roughly equal — say three to five hours, or roughly half a day. That’s for a relatively simple Flash project, executed by someone who has some experience.

The second step is to look at who is using Flash as a production tool, and how often, and how much time is spent. For example, if once every three or four months one of the photojournalists goes into seclusion for a week and emerges with a finished Flash package, I would ask how much time that person spends re-learning what was forgotten in the months spent not using Flash. The same principle applies to a jack-of-all-trades programmer — if she spends six months on a data project using three other technologies and no Flash, there’s likely to be some re-learning down time when she finally gets back to Flash.

When you assess who is using Flash, pay attention to compatible skills and expertise. If the Flash expert has a graphic design background, does he or she also have sufficient skill in programming and data integration? Or maybe your Flash expert comes from a programming background and lacks strong design skills. Either way, you should be looking at training a second person or fostering teamwork to close the skills gap.

Finally, there’s the education of the whole editorial staff. Yes, everyone. If everyone is not thinking ahead and brainstorming visuals, data, graphics, then very few of these will ever be executed. The trick is to weigh each idea against the the long-term value of the final product. Something related to a high-profile murder case, for example, is likely to have a long shelf life and also attract a lot of traffic.

Instead of allowing each journalist to push and lobby for pet projects — burying the Web team in too many competing requests — a transparent process could be developed for pitching and evaluating project suggestions.

What criteria should you use?

The first priority is to look at either long shelf life or immediate impact (likely high traffic) — and weigh it against time needed to produce the project. I heard a lot of examples of this kind of thinking from two Chicago Tribune designers last summer. If your Flash producer is doing Flash work day in and day out, she can reasonably estimate how long the work will take. She can even offer options — this much will take three hours, but if you want to also add x, then that will take a day and a half.

Another consideration is coordination with print and other products. If graphics are being produced for print or television, then why isn’t that production optimized for the Web site? Does your Web site lack graphics, maps, etc., because your emphasis for graphics is on the daily print product? It’s past time to refocus and make sure that ALL graphics are Web-ready and Web-optimized.

None of this will be worth anything if you fail to play up the Flash work on the Web site. A lot of newsrooms say no one looks at their graphics, games, interactives, or Flash packages. They say the traffic numbers are low. This might be because the projects were displayed on the home page of the site for, say, two hours — and then buried forever where no one would ever see them. How do you think visitors to your site find stuff? Would you like to get 1 million pageviews for a Flash package in two months? It’s possible — but you have to promo it, play it up, and not bury it.

Keep in mind that Flash is not used only for big honkin’ packages that take months to produce. As I noted yesterday, Flash is ideal for animated data visualizations, interactive maps and diagrams, and other one-off information graphics — many of which can be produced in several hours (if your Flash person’s skills are not rusty).

If you focus on producing Flash graphics that will have relevance to your market, your audience — local, important, high-profile or need-to-know — you could be driving more traffic to your Web site. My favorite example remains the Dallas stadium graphic from two years ago — 42,000 hits in 24 hours. Why? Because it gave Dallas Cowboys fans a first look at plans for a new stadium, with lots of details in a compact, easy-to-use visual package.

Okay, you don’t get color sketches of a new football stadium every week. But I’m suggesting a sea change in the way we think about what we give the public every day. What if you schooled them to expect a graphical explanation of a vital local issue every Tuesday morning? Something that explained visually. Something that made them feel smarter and better informed. This would be in addition to simply using graphics more intelligently throughout the site — and resisting the temptation to waste weeks building an elaborate package that only a thousand or so people will ever look at.

Bottom line: The use of interactive, visual material (so perfect for online) can become a regular part of daily journalism — if you think about it strategically.

Don’t waste your resources — leverage them. Your primary resource for this is the Flash producer(s). Don’t bog them down with work that won’t get results, and don’t dilute their skills by stretching them too thin. Your other resource is editorial judgment, which works best in the aggregate. Elevate awareness of visual storytelling across the entire newsroom, and use that awareness to produce new, compelling ways to connect with your audience.

Related posts:

• Learning Flash is not the answer (Dec. 7, 2007)
• Thinking about learning Flash? (July 30, 2007)
• Learning Flash (March 6, 2007)