Internet a force for change at IN

InvestmentNews and its parent company, Crain Communications Inc., have been immersed in a transformation ever since the Internet disrupted the very core of our business.
As many of you are undoubtedly aware from your own business, it hasn’t been easy.
When we started InvestmentNews 15 years ago, the staff reporters spent their time preparing stories for the weekly issue. Stories were advanced in print, as needed, in the weeks ahead. Life was good.
Fast forward to 2013.
A breaking news story might start out as a tweet by a reporter to get the news out as fast as possible. The reporter might write a blog on the news development to attract comment and further leads.
After evaluating reader feedback from various social-media outlets, the editors will run a “webbie” on the subject. A webbie is newsroom slang for a 400-or-so-word story appearing on the InvestmentNews website. That story might be rewritten several times during the week to reflect additional information or developments

INTEGRATING STORIES
InvestmentNews editor Fred Gabriel Jr. says 80% of what appears online will make it into the print edition, which is greatly enhanced and augmented by reader comments. The InvestmentNews team also consolidates Twitter feeds about a particular subject to share with other readers.
No doubt about it, the Internet has truly transformed the news-gathering business.
To that point, Fred says he spends “a good portion of my days [and a few nights] looking at ways to harness its power and making sure we steer clear of its booby traps [speed over accuracy, for example]. It’s an incredible time to be in journalism.”
This new breed of journalism, as practiced by InvestmentNews, requires much closer coordination. About five or six years ago, our editorial staff would meet twice a week to discuss the progress of the news stories. Now, the editors and reporters get together a couple of times a day.
Video is going to play a greater role in enhancing stories. Readers/viewers will come to the InvestmentNews website to view a live video chat between a staff reporter and expert industry panelists. Viewers also are able to post questions on the site, which the reporter and the panelists can answer in a conversational format. Again, it’s all about fostering direct interaction between IN’s editorial team and our readers.

PRINT STILL IMPORTANT
Long-form journalism, special reports and weekly cover stories are important elements of IN’s print edition because they give readers a good reason to keep subscribing, as Fred pointed out.
A recent editorial package in InvestmentNews, “Tick, Tick … Boom!” featured an in-depth interview with Bill Gross, co-founder of Pacific Investment Management Co. LLC. The articles in that report detailed the threat to the bond market from rising interest rates, and included stories on high-yield debt, ETF bond funds, a “bond bomb” survival guide and an online quiz on the bond market.
Unlike the 80% of stories that start on the web, the bond package appeared in print before getting posted online.
The package was handled like this because one of Fred’s major initiatives is to find ways to improve our digital storytelling so we can match the impact of our special print packages.

MULTIMEDIA AMBITIONS
To that end, IN just hired an editor who will be responsible for creating multimedia presentations — including video — for our special reports and cover stories.
There are times that readers respond to and comment about specific stories in greater numbers than could have been predicted. It’s for that reason those stories get greater prominence in print than they would have without input from the page-view numbers.
Other times, however, big play is given to stories that don’t create a lot of page views because the editors think the readers need to know about them, such as regulatory pronouncements that could have widespread implications down the line.
So it’s obviously not simply a mechanical process where higher numbers win out. It’s as much art as it is science. Editorial judgments still take the upper hand, and I’m very glad to point that out.
Ironically, communication in the IN newsroom has resulted in fewer e-mails between reporters and editors. The team uses a closed environment of Google Plus as a message board where the editorial team communicates with each other on such things as the status of their stories, inquiries on new story ideas, reporters in search of source materials, etc.
“It’s like a big water cooler where our reporters and editors can hang out,” is how Fred explained it to me.
The overall effect of our journalistic transformation has been both disruptive and more inclusive for both our readers and reporters.
“The walls are breaking down between our readers and the newsroom just as they’re breaking down in the newsroom itself,” Fred explained. “Our bureaus outside our headquarters in New York feel much more attuned to what’s going on at IN news central.”
We thank you sincerely for your support during our first 15 years and we pledge to continue to work hard to anticipate the increasingly broad scope of your services in the years to come.

Rance Crain is president and editorial director of Crain Communications Inc., the parent company of InvestmentNews.