The Digital Desk

Everything you ever wanted to know about NewsOK.com

Another brick in the NewsOK Story Wall December 01, 2009 | Comment on this article

We’re actually up to Story Wall No. 4 now. And the latest example of the NewsOK Story Wall technique comes from the Bedlam football game in Norman on Saturday. We started with a Story Wall from the Oklahoma State Fair. That was fun. Then we did a Story Wall on the OU-Texas football game. That was even more... Read More

An outstanding series: A close look at the state of the adult day health services

November 30, 2009 We began an important series over the long Thansksgiving weekend, shedding light on the state of adult care services in Oklahoma. It appeared in The Oklahoman and on NewsOK in three parts from Friday through Sunday. And while we know The Oklahoman is widely used on long holiday weekends, the traffic on NewsOK... Read More

It’s not a holiday unless NewsOK has a page for it – Happy Thanksgiving

November 24, 2009 Happy Thanksgiving! - Sincerely, NewsOK.com. P.S. – for all the articles, recipes, event listings and volunteer opportunities, visit the NewsOK Thanksgiving page. It’s a nice page to begin your Thanksgiving knowledge, but we’re getting a lot of information from our friends at wimgo and the know it... Read More

Foggy day in Oklahoma City November 23, 2009 Whenever I’m in need of a blog post and just don’t know what to write about, I visit the NewsOK Video page. There’s always something cool going on there, and today is no different. It was foggy this morning. I saw it. So did videographer Tanner Herriot. But this short video made the fog seem much more... Read More

MAPS 3 coverage detailed on NewsOK

November 20, 2009 Talk about the MAPS 3 initiative has taken over the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. Every MAPS votes seems to do that. Some people love the idea. Some people are opposed. And rarely to people with such strong opinions change their minds about a subject they are so passionate about. But these issues are decided... Read More

A twitter list for NewsOK staff members November 19, 2009 Creating lists is always fun. So we thought we’d go ahead and jump into the list creation business and start with a list of NewsOK staff members from our News and Information Center. We’ll create more lists in the near future. We won’t always have a list that’s so self-serving. I expect that we’ll... Read More

Places – exploring interesting spots in Oklahoma November 11, 2009 Last week, we launched a project on NewsOK that has a simple name. It’s called “Places.” We launched with nine entries on the Places Web site. We’re going to add more each week. The goal is stated on the Places home page: “Accompany The Oklahoman’s writers and photographers as they investigate... Read More

College Bound set for future students

November 09, 2009 The Oklahoman unveiled a special section with its Sunday newspaper yesterday. It’s the annual “College Bound” section – and it’s full of information for high school students and their parents who are looking at going to college in the next few years. It’s all about choosing the right college, finding... Read More

NewsOK … Innovator of the Year

November 06, 2009 A week ago, at about this very time (11 a.m. or so), NewsOK was being honored with a national award by The Associated Press Managing Editors (APME). We were a finalist in the prestigious category of “Innovator of the Year.” As our awards czar (unofficial title) Joe Hight pointed out before and after the... Read More

One happy NewsOK visitor November 05, 2009 I received this message in my inbox this morning – a forward from sports editor Mike Sherman: I just wanted to say that this website is looking amazing, and the functionality is great! I especially enjoy the sports team specific pages, as I look at the OSU page everyday, and it is set up great! Thank you for... Read More

Reporting on Sam Bradford and the ‘know it’ curse

October 26, 2009 Sam Bradford made his decision public yesterday, ending a week of speculation, debate, cancellations and breaking news turned breaking predictions. (Yes, that last part is a friendly shot at ESPN and their coverage on Thursday and Friday.) In the end, everybody reported the truth at about the same time. Sam... Read More

Story Wall No. 2: Another fair in another state

October 19, 2009 A few weeks ago, I shared a page we produced as a test. It was our first Story Wall – a collection of photos, videos, quotes and text from the Oklahoma State Fair 2009. I was so inspired that I assigned another wall to be produced for the OU-Texas game 2009. I thought it would be a great way for OU football... Read More

NewsOK TV is on the air October 14, 2009 NewsOK is officially on television now. Check out Dave Morris’ blog post for more details on how our stellar video team produced this show (and will continue to do so on a weekly basis). Read More

Looking back at September in the middle of October October 13, 2009 September was a record-breaking traffic month for NewsOK.com. It was so outstanding that I had to stay far away from my blog for two weeks just to let the servers cool down. But now I’m back (we’re looking for a strong October, as well). Breaking traffic records isn’t new. Our audience continues to grow... Read More

The birth of the NewsOK Storywall

September 29, 2009 Web editor Nick Tankersley had an idea a few weeks back. He thought it would be nifty if we told a story in a completely non-linear way — allowing users to click on a number of different elements and get a different experience each time. They might get a photo if they click on one block of content. They might... Read More

It’s like I’m right there in the wrestling ring

September 22, 2009 I spent a day at the Golden Goose Flea Market in Midwest City a few weeks back when the Mid South Wrestling Alliance held one of its events. Welll … I think I spent the day there. Frankly, I can’t remember if I was actually there or not. I can visualize being there. I feel like I had some conversations... Read More

The final word on the mustache September 16, 2009 There not really anything I can add to this post, except this: Our sports department is creative. Read More

Burning through money: A multimedia experiment September 15, 2009 Local Editor Michael Baker and a few members of his reporting team – John Estus and Bryan Dean – pulled off a nice multimedia package last week. They enlisted the help of web editor Nick Tankersley, art director Todd Pendleton and graphic artist Brian Mays to effectively tell the story about the ... Read More

Horoscope arrives to NewsOK Life and A&E pages September 14, 2009 You read your horoscope. You don’t have to lie. We already know you read your horoscope. When you see it in the paper, you read it. When you see it in a magazine, you read it. When you see it online, you read it. I read it. How can I not? Fortune cookies can only tell me so much. That’s why today, I will not... Read More

Searching on NewsOK just got a lot better September 11, 2009 Search for something on NewsOK. No … really. We really want you to search for something on NewsOK. OK. I’ll try it. I searched “Landry Jones.” You know – he’s the quarterback at OU now that Sam Bradford is injured early in the season. Anyway, take a look at what I saw when I searched “Landry... Read More