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New Ventures in News Libraries: Intranets
Handout: the development of the "SNAP" intranet

Introduction

by Laura Soto-Barra

SNAP is a collaborative project and we, at the Post-Standard, are very proud of it. We want to tell you how we did it and how our success can be repeated.

I decided to request key members of the project to tell us about SNAP, not only the history, the description, but what it was for them to be part of such project.

You may find some repetition in the narratives, but these are their voices and their perspectives, the operation managing editor’s experience and his vision for his newsroom, the systems editor’s day to day view, the IS Director’s technical and global approach, and the researchers’ point of view.

Before SNAP, the researchers had archival and management duties. One day everything changed. An AME/librarian was hired to oversee the library services, a library systems administrator took over the archive, the newsroom got lexis and dow jones at everybody’s desks, and the researchers had to do what they knew best: be a resource in the newsroom, attend planning meetings, work at deadline with editors, help out with research and be creative in infiltrating the newsmaking process.

After 2 years, we have done that and more: we are an indispensable element of our newsroom. SNAP is one sample of our accomplishments.

Laura Soto-Barra

Syracuse, N.Y., June,2002


HISTORY OF SNAP

Syracuse Newspapers Access Page -The Post-Standard’s Intranet

Bart Pollock

Managing Editor for Operations

 

First, some background:

Way back in 1986, The Syracuse Newspapers established the very first SAVE library. (The acronym stands for "Stand Alone Vu/Text Electronic" Library.) Some other newspapers at that time had begun archiving text electronically, mostly in centralized data servers maintained by archive vendors. We were the first Vu/Text customer to create our own local database of archived text. I include this bit of ancient history to make the point that reporters and editors in Syracuse have been accustomed to electronic retrieval of information from computer work stations in the newsroom for 15 years.

In the early 1990s, a few reporters and editors in our newsroom began to dabble in databases, obtaining public information that was available in electronic form and analyzing it for news stories. These early ventures in computer-assisted reporting (CAR) put us on a path that many other newspapers also followed. A small cadre of journalists essentially taught themselves how to use data management software, such as Paradox or FoxPro. These early CAR practitioners developed some interesting and ground-breaking stories. For the most part, the knowledge and skills needed to use computers for data analysis remained concentrated in the small band of CAR experts.

In Syracuse, our CAR efforts evolved in much the same way as at other papers. One expert emerged as the primary leader. A few reporters developed some basic CAR skills. Most depended on the expert to do all the data-related work.

To his great credit, our expert tried to develop ways to integrate CAR skills into the regular workflow of the paper. Specifically, he created Paradox-based applications that enabled reporters to input routine data, such as arrests, judgments, restaurant inspections and sports results into data forms that automatically produced formatted text files for publication in the paper.

Unfortunately, these applications turned out to be an ongoing burden for our lonely expert, who by now had one other self-taught reporter-turned-programmer helping him. Once the newspaper began to depend on the Paradox apps for essential content, our two CAR experts began spending more and more of their time supporting and fixing those apps. Clever as they were, these homemade systems were something less than robust. Frequent deadline crises and chronic glitches led managers in the newsroom and in our Information Systems Department to question the wisdom of having journalists creating and maintaining production-critical systems.

In the end, the newsroom's independent approach to computer-assisted reporting pretty much collapsed. The IS department took over the responsibility of maintaining the Paradox applications. One of the two newsroom CAR experts transferred to IS. The other, the original pioneer, left the company not long thereafter.

The lesson learned was about what happens when we choose NOT to collaborate.

In 1998, I was asked to come up with a new plan for advancing CAR at our newspaper. After several helpful conversations with key people in the newsroom and IS, a new vision for CAR started taking shape. The goal would be to use computers to make useful information readily available to all reporters and editors, not just those who possess advanced computer skills. Instead of creating another cadre of elite newsroom experts, we would strive to level the CAR playing field by making sophisticated data analysis tools easy to use and available to everyone. Teaching traditional CAR skills with spreadsheets and database management programs would be a secondary goal. Our primary objective would be the development of a newsroom intranet.

We decided we would play to the strengths within the various departments of our organization. Journalists would lead the project, identify the kind of information that would be useful, and set priorities. We would rely on IS professionals for technical development, infrastructure and programming expertise. Librarians would obtain, organize and update information resources. We would involve our staff artists in designing user interfaces, and our staff development manager to assist with training.

We identified the following objectives for our CAR effort:

Timeliness: To be first with the news by using CAR to obtain information on deadline.

Accuracy: To ensure that information we publish is correct by using CAR to check facts.

Thoroughness: To give readers a complete and contextual news report by using CAR for background news research and source finding.

Precision: To strengthen stories by using CAR to replace vague and general references with exact and definitive information.

Consistency: To establish standards of coverage in all areas by making CAR resources easily available to all reporters and editors.

Access: To make public records more easily available to our reporters by using CAR to obtain and store such records in electronic form.

Enterprise: To break stories by using CAR to obtain and analyze information.

Our implementation plan included these elements:

- Networked PCs on every desktop.

- A suite of programs on each PC that includes modern word processing, spreadsheet, database and web browser applications.

- High-speed Internet access and E-mail from every desktop.

- A sufficient number of laptop PCs equipped with the same basic programs as the desktop PCs.

- All the server-side hardware and software to support browser-based access to multiple databases, documents and other resources through a newsroom intranet.

- A collaborative approach to defining requirements for the content and functionality of intranet pages.

- A commitment from all the departments involved to design, build, test and launch the initial version of the newsroom intranet by September 2000.

The first meetings of the intranet consulting group gathered representatives from all newsroom departments (News, Sports, Features, Business, Copy Desk, etc.), as well as IS, the Library, Art and Photo. These were brainstorming meetings to help identify newsroom needs and surface creative ideas. After two such meetings, a smaller intranet development team took on the real work of gathering information, designing pages, creating text-based resources, building the technical infrastructure, programming and site building.

The development team met regularly for about a year before it was launched. Those meetings included editors, librarians, IS managers and programmers, and occasionally other invited "guests," such as reporters and other newsroom managers from the larger consulting group. Throughout the process, the whole has proven to be more than the sum of the parts. Not only has each individual contributed expertise in his or her own area, but all team members have contributed valuable ideas outside of their defined areas of expertise. Our management model does not allow technically savvy editors or librarians to actually create web pages or applications, but they have plenty of opportunity to offer their ideas about technical issues. Programmers, in turn, are not only expected to seriously consider the editors' or librarians' technical suggestions, but also invited to offer their own ideas about the content and organization of the pages.

Before the SNAP launch, the consulting group took it out for a two-week test drive. Several corrections and improvements resulted from that process before the intranet was made accessible to the whole newsroom.

One more bit of history: In the fall of 1999 when we were just starting our intranet project, I attended the annual convention of the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) in Boston. I learned a lot from the experts and CAR practitioners from other newspapers. But the whole time I felt like I was walking east on a road where all the traffic was headed west. The approach at most papers seemed to be to further build up the CAR expertise among the newsroom elite. IS departments were considered as adversaries; librarians as afterthoughts. Intranets being developed at other papers were either newsroom-controlled collections of data that only the skilled CAR reporters could use, or library-initiated collections of internet links that practically no one used.

The CAR culture in most newsrooms seemed to be more focused on star reporters and big stories than on staff development and overall improvement of the newspaper. Hardly anyone at the NICAR convention was a representative of newsroom management. I saw lots of name-tag titles with "projects editor" or "project reporter" on them, but the only name tag I saw with the title "managing editor" on it was my own. I returned home from Boston convinced that we were on a different track than most other newspapers, and I believed more firmly than ever it was the right one.

I think the early success of SNAP bears that out. And its continuing evolution bodes well for the future. It seems we add something new or update something in SNAP every week. Those improvements become part of a permanent resource, not dependent on the privately held knowledge of an elite expert, but the common property of the entire newsroom.

We are proud of what we have built, but aware that it will change, perhaps even beyond our recognition, as the years go on and new information resources are developed to meet the needs of journalists in the future. I like to think that our greatest accomplishment is not what we have created, but what we have started.

 

 

THE STORY OF "SNAP"

Jeff Rea

Systems Editor

 

The Post-Standard's intranet has been a team effort from the word "GO!"

The key ingredients to the success of the Syracuse Post-Standard's intranet for

reporters and editors may sound relatively commonplace, yet the way the recipe

came together provides a nice template for other news organizations that would

like to do a similar project.

Vision

We set out more than two years ago to provide our newsroom with an electronic

toolbox that met these criteria: A simple organizational scheme, an emphasis on

easy-to-use tools with high value for researching local stories, a non-scrolling

home page with a "no-cheese" interface -- all developed with, by and for reporters

and editors.

Teamwork

Newsroom Systems, the Library and the Editorial Art Department worked closely

with Information Systems programmers and management to bring SNAP to life.

The work was done under the advice and consent of a team of reporters and

editors representing each department in the newsroom.

Inspiration

SNAP's development team came up with some terrific new homegrown tools, and

made others electronically accessible: a Fast Fact Finder ("You know 'x', you want

to know 'y' ...); a local stylebook; a searchable directions file; extensive systems

help files including a weekly newsletter of tips and tricks; a monthly critique of our

newsroom's performance; locally developed calculators and much more. It put

users a mouse-click away from local databases, including voter registration rolls,

property assessments, newsroom photo assignments, newsroom staff and more.

And it provided a centralized launch pad for a plethora of other resources: Factiva,

nexis.com, Gale and our own SAVE electronic library, with 15 years' worth of local

stories.

Perspiration

The top builder of SNAP has been and continues to be research librarian Bonnie

Ross. She has defined a personal mission to provide the newsroom with time-saving,

accurate, local research information. Her efforts continually delight, amaze -- and

most of all help -- reporters get their jobs done quickly and much easier than would

otherwise have been possible: a calendar of local, national and international historic

events stretching back more than 200 years; a searchable database of towns, villages,

hamlets and crossroads throughout our readership and all of Upstate New York;

at-your-fingertips, fact-filled listings of fatal fires, earthquakes, colleges, diversity "firsts"

-- even descriptions of each balloon The Post-Standard has sponsored in the past 15

St. Patrick's Day parades in Syracuse. Beyond Bonnie, the key has been to enlist

newsroom help and cooperation in identifying and helping to build needed resources.

The cast and crew is too numerous to list.

Accountability

A founding tenet of SNAP has been to clearly assign responsibility for keeping each

resource up to date. The downfall of many a Web site has been obsolescence by

neglect. All databases are on at least an annual update schedule; all resources

have people who are publicly accountable for currency.

Timeliness

SNAP has only begun to scratch the surface as a tool for helping reporters keep

pace with the hottest stories: 9-11 lists of victims, military personnel, charitable resources

and more; Census databases and scores of local Census charts; Election Night charts

and other resources. The goal is constantly to become nimbler and more creative as a

must-use resource for breaking news.

The future

There are big plans for SNAP, the centerpiece of which is to provide definition, guidance,

sources and research value for each major beat the newspaper covers. The effort has

started with education: There are school profiles, "reports cards" (performance on standardized tests), lists of contacts for each school in all our coverage districts, state and federal sources and resources, and much more.

SNAP AND THE RESEARCHER

Bonnie L. Ross, Research Librarian

(aka Information Goddess)

One stop shopping is the basic tenet behind SNAP.

One place to go to the text archive and the eventual photo archive.

One place to find local voter registration and property assessment databases with an easy to use interfaces.

One place to quickly find useful information about a variety of topics, thus making the reporters' and editors' jobs easier. (And making the librarians' jobs easier as well.)

SNAP was born and continues to grow due to a group of dedicated people with different visions to solve different needs. While many cooks may spoil the broth, representatives of newsroom systems people (former journalists and editors themselves), information systems (one a former reporter) and librarians managed to create a tool that satisfies the many needs of each department. We even tapped into the Newsroom Graphics Department for design help.

In 1999, Bart Pollock, then Managing Editor of Newsroom Systems (and the library), now Managing Editor of Operations, had the vision and the talent to take the library's little Intranet proposal, expand on it and make it a reality. Key was selling the Intranet as a training tool to an executive editor who feels that training is essential in a newsroom.

SNAP was conceived at the most opportune time. The merger of two newsrooms was still fresh in everyone's minds. We needed a way to share the resources formerly only available to one newsroom. We had PCs on the desktop and were eager to use the network we had available. We had added four suburban bureaus to our four regional bureaus and needed a way for them to access information as quickly as those in the newsroom. The Post-Standard has a newsroom systems department, which has a positive working relationship with the company Information Systems Department. The Information Systems Department has a former reporter on its staff who understands both worlds. Each department representative could see the benefit for their department to have a newsroom Intranet, that could eventually be the prototype for a company wide Intranet.

The library was also in a favorable position. With two full-time researchers available and located in the newsroom we were prime to be the go-to people. For a newspaper library our size having two full-time researchers is unusual but it is what allows SNAP to grow and react quickly to requests for information.

Being a full-time researcher in the newsroom isn't what I thought would happen to me when I decided management wasn't my style. Getting away from the endless meetings and the responsibility for the in-house database freed me up to do things I had always wanted to do for the newsroom.

Think of all the times you have answered the same question or provided the same tip on how to find that bit of information and think of doing it once and putting it where everyone has access.

While I get suggestions from the newsroom for items they would like, I get to work on projects I conceive, research, design, and announce.

The editor in charge of obits needed a list of villages and hamlet in our circulation area so the clerks taking the obits could find out quickly if the deceased fit our geographic area restrictions. I found such a list and listed the towns for each as an added benefit. Thinking of alternative uses for the same information and ways to make this information even more helpful is key to keeping SNAP useful.

Readers tell us they want updates of early stories. Our newsroom has gone through several variations of planning calendars trying to keep track of those news event anniversaries. I tackled this project on my own. SNAP's On This Date is an ongoing calendar of past historic events: world, national, state and local. It lists events that I know the newspaper would want to acknowledge. (Think job security keeping this project updated.)

While our in-house database is still the most used source for editors and reporters, it is big and growing. SNAP is a way to pull together the most relevant information on ongoing topics for easy retrieval.

SNAP was and continues to be the place to find newly announced Census figures.

SNAP began as a team effort and continues to thrive as a team effort. At any given time at least one person is working on something SNAP related. The ideas for content are endless and each addition makes SNAP ever more useful. Many of the content areas are under the library's control so we can add new items quickly and provide updates easily.

SNAP's goal is to be the first place a reporter or editor looks for information and it is certainly making great strides in attaining that goal.

"What Will You Do All Day?"

Jan Dempsey, News Researcher

 

I don't know how many times I heard that question after our newsroom folks got Internet access at their desktops. They were all so concerned that I wouldn't have enough to do. Well, after having worked closely with every person in the newsroom for 10 years, I wasn't at all concerned!

I discovered that the information explosion also created an information awareness that has kept me busy every day since our reporters first learned to Yahoo! In the past, reporters and editors were not as tuned in to information as librarians. They didn't know what was out there so they didn't ask. They really didn't value information. And librarians were still viewed as glorified enhancers who did research on the side. We were rarely invited to planning meetings or asked for our input early on in story development.

It's still a struggle in some cases but librarians/news researchers (the name change is important) have come a long way in our organization. And that's largely due to the Internet and now the Intranet. Instead of eliminating our jobs, the Internet has transformed our jobs, in some very interesting and unforeseen ways.

A vital (and I can't stress this enough) component is getting the researchers out into the newsroom. On February 24, 1999, I experienced my first day out in the newsroom, conveniently seated in the middle of the newsroom near the Metro desk. At the time, I was the lone researcher in the newsroom. It was an experiment, said the executive editor, and he let me know he would move me back to the library if it didn't work out. Well, it's been over three years and I'm still here, now joined by our other researcher, Bonnie Ross. It's been very successful and I can't imagine ever moving back to the library. Honestly, the most difficult aspect was the noise level. Trying to ignore the ringing telephones and the constant chatter was a challenge. Now I sit next to the scanner and have learned to selectively listen. My workload increased, but not unbearably, since people would remember what they needed when they walked past my desk. It was no longer "out of sight, out of mind." I was asked to attend more long-range planning meetings and daily meetings and this helped to make me feel a part of the newsroom.

Training has always been an extremely important function of the library. Since that very first training session on the spanking new SAVE system back in 1987, the library has continued to offer training, and not only for new hires. We have had training programs, new and refresher classes, for SAVE, the Internet, Dow Jones Interactive, and our Intranet, SNAP. And, of course, one of our primary roles is to be the daily consultant on questions concerning these resources.

The library was instrumental in the creation and maintenance of our Intranet, SNAP. Our first ideas five years ago about having a library presence online were realized, and expanded upon, after a remarkable team effort. And I believe, there will never be a day when we won't have any projects to work on for SNAP. The ideas are limitless. However, SNAP will only survive if news librarians are given the opportunity to work on it. Create it, make it indispensable, and your value will increase in the organization.

In 1999, I was given my first opportunity to directly contribute content to the newspaper through a year-long Y2K column where I was asked to contribute a weekly Y2K Web Site of the Week. In 2000, with the advent of a special weekly Technology section in the paper, I was again asked to contribute. Only this time, they wanted me to write a weekly Internet ("In search of...") column. I was horrified. Research is one thing, writing is scary! But I accepted the challenge and am coming up on two years. Many of you could do this at your organizations. Think outside the box - and you may find personal fulfillment as well as becoming a more visible presence in the community. I even get asked to meet and greet folks at the State Fair along with other members of the news staff.

Our jobs as news researchers have continued to expand. Bonnie and I have contributed content for graphics and sidebars, including compiling and writing timelines and backgrounders. We have done research for other departments, such as Accounting and Advertising. Our editorial board welcomes our input. I have spoken to Information Studies classes at Syracuse University about our Intranet and the work that we do. Last fall I was asked to speak to a class of journalism students at Syracuse University about research and the Internet.

It's an exciting job. But, yes, I still feel frustrated at times. I still feel overlooked at times. There are some, including some management people, that still need to be convinced about what we offer. But I know how far the job has come in the 15 years I've been here and I consider myself very lucky to be able to do work that's exciting, challenging and very rewarding.

SNAP AND THE SYSTEMS FOLKS

Chris Becker

Director, Information Systems Department

Fundamentally, SNAP, is the web-server based core of the The Post-Standard's Editorial Intranet. It’s the starting point of access for databases, both home-grown, and WWW-based, the entry point for access to all sorts of reference tools like the AP Style book and our local style book, things like interest and wind chill calculators , and all sorts of information resources. Another fundamentally important thing about SNAP is that it was a collaborative effort from that start. It was a combined-arms approach with technical folks from IS, reporters and editors from the newsroom, and professional librarians from our Library staff. Most importantly, it is a smashing success.

SNAP really began before we thought about an Intranet. It started in some ways with our replacement of our aging CSI Editorial front-end system with Harris Publishing's NME system and the decision to equip newsroom staffers with a suite of tools to help them do their jobs in an increasingly complicated environment. These tools included a networked PC that had e-mail, access to the Internet, data analysis capabilities with Microsoft Excel and Access. Training had to go along with these tools to effectively use them. In other ways, it began with a management decision to move all editorial database development and programming efforts out of the newsroom and into IS. Whether the databases were in support of story development or standing research tools like an arrest database, voter registration database or a high school sports agate input and statistical tabulation database, we made the decision to team develop these applications, with the hardcore programming done in IS, and the ideas and design being a team effort between IS and the newsroom. Those decisions set in motion the capability to build a successful Intranet. We, at The Post-Standard, finally had a technical infrastructure and a development team in IS dedicated to helping our newsroom develop a long term, sustainable set of tools that would be a "one-stop" shopping tour of all kinds of research tools, in-house database, FAQ pages, and helpful programs designed to put news in the paper, more accurately and quicker then ever before. SNAP was about to be born.

The key to the success of SNAP was to form a team that represented both the wants and needs of the newsroom and the technical assets to design a solution to those wants and needs. This team was composed of newsroom, library and IS folks. It included reporters, editors, newsroom people from all sub-departments, library staff, an IS project manager and IS development programmers. The goal was far reaching: Develop a central place for all research, fact checking, training, and other tools that the newsroom folks use to do their jobs, and make it fast and easy to use. The obvious technical solution would be a web server that formed the basis of our Intranet. Many questions arose after the initial discussion. What would this look like? What technology would be used? Would all the databases be accessible from this one place? What about training guides? These and hundreds of other questions were answered by the large committee and teams spun off of that larger group. We forged smaller teams to break each of the problems and issues into smaller, more easily managed parts. Representatives from the newsroom, the library, and IS were either on each team or checked in periodically with each of them.

There was an equal partnership among all departments involved. That was the key. No single force dominated the project. When we moved into a highly technical area, IS took the lead. But we did not vanish and re-appear with a solution. We worked closely with the other departments involved, and broke things down into laymen's terms. The other members of the project team honed their technical understanding the same time. When we got deep into organizational design for research areas, the librarians took the lead, and the rest of us learned new things. We used this method to tackle each issue. In so many ways, it was a combined skills approach. We learned from each other. Each department brought is bread and butter skills to bear. While the folks in editorial and the library brought great ideas, a clear goal, and a thoroughly researched and well thought out look and feel, IS brought the ability to identify and implement new technologies to solve business needs, and a sense of planning.

From a purely technical standpoint, we in IS, had to evaluate, test and ultimately choose a development platform that we could rapidly design and deploy browser-based database applications. It also needed be optimized for use on the newsroom backbone network and also over the WAN links to our seven suburban and regional news bureaus. It would have been no good to give our in-house newsroom folks an incredibly useful tool and treat our bureau staffers as second class citizens. We then had to take the creative ideas for content, ease of use, ease of document creation and deployment, and begin the development itself. We faced a steep challenge.

The two developers and the project manager had little experience in web applications, HTML, and Web Server setup, design and maintenance. We took a structured approach to evaluation. We looked at and evaluated HTML authoring tools, browser programs, programming design tools, Web Server technology, and a backend database that would support medium sized applications development. As with other projects, the entire team set and agreed upon a project timeline that included all phases, from evaluation to training to final development and launch. We chose Microsoft from an ease of training, experience, and total cost of ownership perspective. The Intranet is made up of Microsoft IIS, using ASP, HTML, javascript, all connected to SQL Server in the background, running on top of NT. We also created some in-house developed solutions to have content contributors (primarily the library staffers) be able to use Word to create pages and then send them to the server as HTML. Site design and layout was a team effort as well.

By combining staffers with different backgrounds, technical abilities, and experiences, we were able to build a highly useful suite of tools, databases, and information that helps our newsroom put the best product together that they can. This was so successful because of the team approach that we used.

June, 2002

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