Charlie Rogers

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How to Write One Great Post Every Week

I’m working on a digital strategy project and was asked (told) by the client: “We need more content on the blog. How do we get the team to write more?” My first suggestion — draconian punishments and extravagant rewards — was rejected, but I remembered a wonderful piece by Pamela Wilson of Copyblogger that laid out […]

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The 7 Types of Data Stories

How do you parse large chunks of data looking for sharable insights? Martha Kang, editorial manager of Tableau Software (a maker of visualization software), writing in Mediashift, says that you should try to display information so the user can explore the data in at least one of these seven ways:     The Seven Basic […]

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Key Principles Behind the Guardian’s New Site

The Guardian just performed a major redesign based on new data from their home-grown analytics program. Abigail Edge (great name) from Journalism.co.uk interviewed Wolfgang Blau (great name too), director of digital strategy for the Guardian. Here are the bullet-points: Every Article Should be a Homepage You hear this a lot, because virtually all traffic comes […]

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Adaptive vs. Responsive Design: What They Are, Why They Matter

Another topic trending on my personal buzzword watch is “adaptive design vs. responsive design.” The difference is a bit confusing, but at the highest level, responsive design means building one design that works on all devices, “responding” to the device with design and layout changes. Adaptive design means “adapting” a single design to the conventions […]

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Sources for Free and Cheap Images

Generally, when I’m looking for blog post art I search Flickr first (check the Creative Commons “commercial use” box) and Google next (select “usage rights:free to use or share, even commercially”). If they don’t have what I need, here are my backup sites. EveryStockPhoto Wikimedia Commons morgueFile stockvault FreeDigitalPhotos.net Plus! Image shutterstock Stock.XCHNG Deviant Art […]

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“When discussing media, if someone says, ‘let’s take the case of the New York Times,’ say ‘Let’s not.'”

“When discussing media, if someone says, ‘let’s take the case of the New York Times,’ say ‘Let’s not.’” Someone (David Carr?) recently reminded readers that the Times is sui generis. Almost nothing that applies to the Times can be generalized to the newspaper business as a whole. It is bigger, more national, has a stronger […]

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How the New York Times Made Snowfall

Source is the name of the Knight-Mozilla OpenNews project, dedicated to encouraging the community of journalists and coders that make up new media. On New Year’s day, they published an analysis of the New York Times’ Snowfall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek, a ground-breaking piece of multimedia web journalism. I’ve gone back to both again […]