Comment
Daily Pilot creates special report sites
By Becky Rehn
What started as simple ideas from the Daily Pilot (Costa Mesa, Calif.) editorial department eventually developed into creative masterpieces for Dewey Quach, multimedia Web producer for the newspaper.
Quach, with the assistance of a few other staff members, created two special report sections for the Daily Pilot, www.dailypilot.com, that increased page views and encouraged reader involvement. The two sections, the weather contest and the City of Lost Children, are prime examples of how a newspaper can creatively utilize the TownNews.com tokens.
Weather Contest
When the editorial department collected drawings from the local elementary schools to be used each day alongside the printed weather forecast, Quach felt that the drawings would make for a good special report section to include on their newspaper’s Web site.
He created a special weather section (www.dailypilot.com/special_reports/weathercontest/) to display the weather drawings. To get readers involved, there was an option to vote for which drawing was the best, or to vote for their “favorite pint-sized artist.”
The weather contest section featured 42 weather drawings, each including the artist’s first name and the school the participant was attending. Rolling over the drawing with the mouse allowed the viewer to see the drawing increase in size for a better view.
“Over the two week period... we had great readers’ response in voting and attracted an audience of a little more than 600 page views... the voting system only allowed a person to vote once per computer,” said Quach.
Using a modified template and the token, Quach designed the page in a little under three days.
Quach added, “The actual rollover was... made using CSS and no java-script. I wanted to limit the amount of scripting to this page since it was temporary, plus I was experimenting with current technology used in new ways.
The weather contest recently ended with the winner receiving a prize package full of art supplies and a featured article in the Daily Pilot’s September issue. With the contest showing so much success, Quach and the rest of the staff have already begun planning another contest in the near future and hope it will spread to the papers that partner with the Daily Pilot.
City of Lost Children
Daily Pilot photographer Kent Treptow spent his two week vacation in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, interviewing and capturing images of children who live in extreme poverty. Since Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in the world, these children live in manholes in order to keep warm and survive.
Quach found these images to be very powerful and, with his co-worker’s assistance, he created the special reports section entitled “City of Lost Children” (www.dailypilot.com/special_reports/mongolia/). When first viewing the Web site, there is one image that seems to stand out and capture the whole story of the children.
“I initially took a look at the photographs and multimedia package. One of the photos, which is the key to the design, stood out... It is very visible and striking, something which catches our viewers,” said Quach.
The section includes stories about different groups of children that include how they eat, work, and stay warm. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the section is the multimedia slideshow, which includes many astonishing images. According to Quach, the section was constructed using TownNews.com tokens in a creative way.
Quach explains, “I wanted to take our readers through a complete journey and did not want to break the mood by suddenly reverting to a defaulted template... I was only able to accomplish the unique video look due to the recent release of the updated [TownNews.com] video token. The rest of the design is pure CSS and HTML.”
How did the Daily Pilot readers react to the special reports section?
“Many of our readers were captivated by what they read and what they saw and thus, we have received nothing but positive responses,” said Quach.
Future Sections
Quach already has plans to showcase his creativity in the near future.
He recently launched a special report section for the Huntington Beach Independent entitled “Huntington Beach: Then & Now” (www.hbindependent.com/thenandnow/).
This section shows images of Huntington Beach many years ago; when the reader scrolls the mouse over the image, a picture taken recently of the exact same spot appears, showing how much the city has changed over the years.
“The ‘Then and Now’ page makes full use of the TownNews.com story importer in the Content Manager, pulling a headline, story content, and two different photos. This made full use of the The type of component requested is unsupported token and multiple photos,” said Quach.
With several special report sections in mind, the future looks bright for Quach and his staff. They have utilized tokens to their full advantage to create special report sections to add to their readers’ enjoyment. Be sure to check out the Daily Pilot in the upcoming months to view their latest special report Web site.
Quach, with the assistance of a few other staff members, created two special report sections for the Daily Pilot, www.dailypilot.com, that increased page views and encouraged reader involvement. The two sections, the weather contest and the City of Lost Children, are prime examples of how a newspaper can creatively utilize the TownNews.com tokens.
Weather Contest
When the editorial department collected drawings from the local elementary schools to be used each day alongside the printed weather forecast, Quach felt that the drawings would make for a good special report section to include on their newspaper’s Web site.
He created a special weather section (www.dailypilot.com/special_reports/weathercontest/) to display the weather drawings. To get readers involved, there was an option to vote for which drawing was the best, or to vote for their “favorite pint-sized artist.”
The weather contest section featured 42 weather drawings, each including the artist’s first name and the school the participant was attending. Rolling over the drawing with the mouse allowed the viewer to see the drawing increase in size for a better view.
“Over the two week period... we had great readers’ response in voting and attracted an audience of a little more than 600 page views... the voting system only allowed a person to vote once per computer,” said Quach.
Using a modified template and the token, Quach designed the page in a little under three days.
Quach added, “The actual rollover was... made using CSS and no java-script. I wanted to limit the amount of scripting to this page since it was temporary, plus I was experimenting with current technology used in new ways.
The weather contest recently ended with the winner receiving a prize package full of art supplies and a featured article in the Daily Pilot’s September issue. With the contest showing so much success, Quach and the rest of the staff have already begun planning another contest in the near future and hope it will spread to the papers that partner with the Daily Pilot.
City of Lost Children
Daily Pilot photographer Kent Treptow spent his two week vacation in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, interviewing and capturing images of children who live in extreme poverty. Since Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in the world, these children live in manholes in order to keep warm and survive.
Quach found these images to be very powerful and, with his co-worker’s assistance, he created the special reports section entitled “City of Lost Children” (www.dailypilot.com/special_reports/mongolia/). When first viewing the Web site, there is one image that seems to stand out and capture the whole story of the children.
“I initially took a look at the photographs and multimedia package. One of the photos, which is the key to the design, stood out... It is very visible and striking, something which catches our viewers,” said Quach.
The section includes stories about different groups of children that include how they eat, work, and stay warm. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the section is the multimedia slideshow, which includes many astonishing images. According to Quach, the section was constructed using TownNews.com tokens in a creative way.
Quach explains, “I wanted to take our readers through a complete journey and did not want to break the mood by suddenly reverting to a defaulted template... I was only able to accomplish the unique video look due to the recent release of the updated [TownNews.com] video token. The rest of the design is pure CSS and HTML.”
How did the Daily Pilot readers react to the special reports section?
“Many of our readers were captivated by what they read and what they saw and thus, we have received nothing but positive responses,” said Quach.
Future Sections
Quach already has plans to showcase his creativity in the near future.
He recently launched a special report section for the Huntington Beach Independent entitled “Huntington Beach: Then & Now” (www.hbindependent.com/thenandnow/).
This section shows images of Huntington Beach many years ago; when the reader scrolls the mouse over the image, a picture taken recently of the exact same spot appears, showing how much the city has changed over the years.
“The ‘Then and Now’ page makes full use of the TownNews.com story importer in the Content Manager, pulling a headline, story content, and two different photos. This made full use of the The type of component requested is unsupported token and multiple photos,” said Quach.
With several special report sections in mind, the future looks bright for Quach and his staff. They have utilized tokens to their full advantage to create special report sections to add to their readers’ enjoyment. Be sure to check out the Daily Pilot in the upcoming months to view their latest special report Web site.
(Becky Rehn is the marketing specialist for TownNews.com. She may be reached at brehn@townnews.com.)
Reader Comments
No comments posted. comments to this story.
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of TownNews.com.
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of TownNews.com.
