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October 23, 2005

Online journalism ... done right

With Hurricane Wilma heading head-on for the Florida Gulf Coast, Rob Curley's team is hitting on all cylinders.

Curley, you might remember, is the genius behind Lawrence.com. He now works for us in Naples and has been doing incredible things there. I'd strongly advise you to stop by the site and check it out this week. The video they're doing is phenomenal and they're doing a good mix of hard-hitting journalism and fun/interesting stuff as Naples battens down the hatches.

Here are a few lighlights:

  • On the main page, notice how they're keeping prominent how far away the storm is and when it's expected to hit. Also, you'll notice a little image of Wilma Flintstone in the URL window of your browser if you're using Firefox.
  • Submit your photos of funny hurricane signs. Nice way to let the community contribute and lighten things up a bit.
  • Video galleries. Notice how high the production value is on these videos. Very professional.
  • Look around the site yourself. If you find something cool (on the Naples site or any of the sites covering Wilma), post it in the comments so we can all take a look.

Posted by Bob Benz at October 23, 2005 03:21 PM

Comments

The videos were really interesting. I think it is nice for people to be able to watch those clips and see things that are familiar to them and know how those things are doing. Something I noticed which I thought was interesting is on the view this video page that pops up before watching the video. There is an option that allows people to download it for their ipod player. I thought that was kind of cool because the video ipods are the newest product to the ipod family and they are already offering services for individuals with these products.

Something else I noticed that I had mixed feelings about was on the home page. At the top there is a a bar which has a large photo and is titled Helping Hands or something along those lines. At first I dismissed this bar thinking it was an ad. The bright purple lettering kind of made me subconsiouly ignore it, thinking it was just another advertising after my money or my click. I later noticed it was a link to a story. While the idea is neat, it almost made the story get lost.

Posted by: Ellen Cox at October 27, 2005 10:35 AM