Start the Day
The Day is the first thing we publish on the blog each morning. It sets the tone for the rest of the day and offers readers a little bit of information and a little bit of entertainment. It’s also a way for us to speak directly to our audience. Having a morning post is way to communicate with readers, to say, “Here we are!” each morning and to establish personality. It’s a great teaching tool for developing a blogger voice, so we’ve liked having students do it. But, on a blog with a strong editorial presence, a person at the helm who is the voice and guiding force behind the blog with a distinct personality, this should really be their domain.
Basics
- The Day should go up no later than 10 a.m. This may mean you need to write it the night before. And it should be ready for us to give a final look at by 9:30.
- It should be written in a conversational tone — don’t be afraid to push your style a bit here, and be funny or irreverent. Not when your news of the day involves a murder or other heavy news, of course. When appropriate.
- The basic structure goes: several sentence intro, either introducing the theme of the day or being generally conversational, then three to five links covering neighborhood news.
- The intro can talk about general interest topics, like city politics, Coney Island, Lindsay Lohan or Paul, the World Cup Octopus. The links should all directly relate to the neighborhood.
- Set up a google reader or your preferred feed reader system to scan for links.
- Twitter can also be a great source of stories and links, and a way to keep your finger on the pulse of what is happening on the internet and in the news cycle.
Types of Days
- The themed round-up, wherein you have three or four news items that all have to do with say, school, or weekend plans or transportation woes.
- The grab bag. This should have a few more items and just offer a wide array of local stories that are circulating.
- The analysis. Sometimes if there was a big event the day before or something has been ripping up the comments section or we just have something to say, we’ll focus on that instead of doing a linkfest.
