Hudson Valley Collections

4 things to do in a newsroom

(that can get you fired probably, but whatevs).

New Hive in journalism

How to 'snowfall' your stories with no coding and for free

When Kevin Nguyen wrote about 'The future of the feature' over at Nieman Lab last November, I began to think about how small newsrooms could use web tools to produce a similar effect.

Then came the New York Times' 'Snow Fall' and that really got me excited about the possibilities, and I imagine others did too, if this wonder by the Washington Post is any indication. Reading about how 'Snow Fall' came to be (same deal with Wapo's cycling feature) was very enjoyable but — being in a small newsroom and all— it also became a permanent exercise of thinking how I didn't have time, or staff, or developers, or a good content management system. You get the idea.

I had started plotting using different web applications in unconventional ways to reach my goal: Produce an enjoyable web experience that also had responsive design AND for no money AND fast AND with no coding, so it could be replicated when needed and scaled up to other newsrooms.

SO, my first try was a vertical add-on sidebar using New Hive.