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

By: Mindy McAdams

Mindy McAdams — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:08:07 +0000

I would venture to say that if someone in your company is telling you they “can’t get good stats from Flash,” then they don’t know what they are doing. Maybe it’s a bit demanding to set up initially, but COME ON. This is like your IT guy telling you that you cannot install non-Microsoft software because “it is a security risk.” This is not true in most cases.

IT people like to tell you “we can’t” simply because THEY DON’T KNOW HOW. Call them on it. Do a Google search and present them with the evidence.

Or hire a contractor to get it done — and then fire the IT guy who said it couldn’t be done.

By: Desiree Perry

Desiree Perry — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:48:25 +0000

It is not as easy as you might hope to get that statistical info. We struggle with our statistical software and Flash. In theory, you just add some code to Flash. In practice, it’s been hard to get it to work as promised.

By: Robert Meeks

Robert Meeks — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:25:06 +0000

Companies like Omniture have provided new tools to enable papers to get better stats from Flash interactives. They are not very hard to add to stuff and they do track traffic. Being a novice to all this I am still learning the depth of what statistical info I can get.

By: Desiree Perry

Desiree Perry — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:27:29 +0000

Adobe HAS to make Flash more iPhone,CMS and SEO friendly. It’s very hard to get good statics on Flash (page views, time spent, etc…) I want to do continue to do multimedia using Flash but I keep hearing that we can’t get good stats. If media companies cannot get their content on mobile and get good statics on Flash they will decide to stop to using it.

By: roberto villalpando

roberto villalpando — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:14:20 +0000

one hurdle with flash these days is the absence of flash players on many U.S. mobile devices, namely iphones. without flash players, even video is going unseen (unless it’s posted on youtube), not to mention any flash-based online ads. so my challenge in the area of mobile content is to figure out how to get the visual punch of flash using a platform that doesn’t require a flash player.

By: William Couch

William Couch — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:11:32 +0000

I completely agree with you, Tim, that 90% of what’s done in Flash in journalism these days shouldn’t be done in Flash, because they can be done better and more effectively using HTML, CSS — web standards. However, most newsrooms are trapped in legacy CMS systems that are bloated and inflexible. Replacing them requires a significant commitment of resources from both personnel and budgets. Thus so many news orgs are “trapped” in Flash. This is where Danny’s list of factors, which I also largely agree with, come into play.

Tough times…

By: Tim Barkow

Tim Barkow — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:10:20 +0000

I agree with your assessments and Danny’s as well, but I’m coming to a different conclusion: don’t do Flash.

You’ve got a list of caveats a mile long — if it’s really this hard to evaluate an original Flash project, you shouldn’t be doing it.

90% of the benefits of multimedia presentations can be had with a simple text post with embedded images and video (or other pre-made widgets). No planning or special software needed. Its fast, cheap and plays friendly with the rest of the Web as well (linkable etc).

I think we need to spend more time thinking about what the real reader value is, and whether we’re delivering it in the simplest, most straightforward way possible.

Hint: it’s not the Flash that readers care about, it’s the story. An engaging story is engaging, regardless of the medium.

By: Danny Sanchez

Danny Sanchez — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:01:45 +0000

I’m a strong proponent for measuring results for Flash pieces. The truth of the matter is Flash pieces, even small ones, take large –often huge– amounts of time to produce. And even worst, they’re a pain in the arse to update unless you build it very strategically with XML files or a CMS backend, which also takes more time.

With resources being in an even greater crunch, many news organizations would do well to re-evaluate how they’re using Flash. Some of my guidelines are:

1) What sort of audience impact will this have? Does this have widespread interest? Or is this someone’s pet project that will run on a Sunday and get 300 visitors? Are we doing this in hopes of winning a multimedia award? Are readers going to be interested in this and share it with other readers?

2) What long-term use does the Flash piece have? Is it, say, a tool people can use for a long time? Or is it a one-shot story? Is it something that can be promoted on the site several times without looking like old content?

And after #2 is answered:

3) What are the resources involved in updating the piece? How often will it have to be updated? What can be done to minimize the time it takes to update? Can any online producer update it, or does it require specialized knowledge or editing of the .FLA file on a Flash-enabled computer?

At the end of the day, Flash is a tool that has monster possibilities. News orgs can do better than using it as a pretty packaging tool that often links off to text stories living in the regular CMS. We should be pushing forward on its data handling and visualization capabilities to really create knockout pieces of lasting value. That’s going to take initiative, training and vision.

By: links for 2008-12-12 – Innovation in College Media

links for 2008-12-12 – Innovation in College Media — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:02:01 +0000

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