The Digital Desk

Everything you ever wanted to know about NewsOK.com

Oklahoma Matters to NewsOK video September 29, 2010 | Comment on this article

Today seems like a good day to post a video. We do so much video here at NewsOK that it’s sometimes easy to forget how difficult it was to transform our newspaper operation into a full-scale multimedia company. It’s sometimes easy to forget how difficult it was for hundreds of journalists to become multimedia... Read More

A dusty trip through Mongolia

September 28, 2010 The Dusty Globe is something worth checking out. It’s a blog written by an interesting young woman from New York named Katya Kruglak. We first started hosting Katya’s blog last year as she spent months abroad in various locations like India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and New Zealand. I highly recommend a trip... Read More

Column written for a chuckle leads to perplexing responses September 27, 2010 I ran across Carrie Coppernoll’s blog post today. (I found it via my Facebook feed, since I follow her content stream from my Facebook profile). Her post provided excellent insight into the world of a news columnist. She was talking about the response she has gotten fron readers of her Saturday column, “Las... Read More

Today in History shows us windows to the past

September 24, 2010 The Oklahoman Archives is a product we’ve had for a long time. It serves our customers that see a great value in more than 100 years of history stored nicely away in a searchable vault. You can sign up for one day ($8.95), one month ($33.00), three months ($78.00), six months ($140.00) or one year ($248.00).... Read More

State Fair StoryWall page is growing and growing and growing

September 22, 2010 There are just a few more weekdays and a full weekend remaining for the 2010 State Fair. And about a week and a half ago, I wrote about how our State Fair StoryWall was going to make a triumphant return. And it absolutely has. The StoryWall is the primary way we are telling the story about the 2010 State Fair... Read More

The Food Dude and tailgating … it’s a tough job

September 17, 2010 Dave Cathey has a tough job on Saturdays this fall. His job on Saturdays is to tailgate. Yes, that’s tailgate … as a verb. But here’s what makes it even better for Dave (a.k.a. – The Food Dude): He doesn’t have to set up a tailgate location; he doesn’t have to put stakes in the ground for the... Read More

Fan happy with NewsOK service for U Pick ‘Em contest September 16, 2010 Dane Beavers is a web editor on my staff. He specializes in special content projects for sports and entertainment topics. He also handles many things on NewsOK, like our Topics pages, our social media efforts and our live chats. He’s an all-around swell guy. That’s something one of our users learned last... Read More

Celebrating a year on the StoryWall with a date at the Oklahoma State Fair

September 13, 2010 The Oklahoma State Fair begins this week. That’s big news. It’s something that everyone (in the western two-thirds of Oklahoma, at least) is aware of. It’s also big news for NewsOK. It’s big for NewsOK not only because we have a page devoted to the fair every year, as we do every year. It’s big for... Read More

Giving a voice back to a blacklisted user September 09, 2010 I spoke with a NewsOK user today who wondered why he could no longer leave comments on NewsOK. We had blacklisted him. He wasn’t sure why he was blacklisted, but he was hoping I would change his fate. I’m a reasonable man, so I made the change. He was able to post comments on NewsOK again. We actually... Read More

Depositing checks my app can’t cash … or something like that September 07, 2010 Since I have a new iPhone, I’ve been downloading a lot of apps. I’ve downloaded lots of news apps and lots of sports apps. I guess the apps you download say a lot about what’s important to you. In my case, the apps I’ve downloaded say that I like to know who’s winning the game and what’s happening in... Read More

A story for the ages — an nDepth look at Murray Humphreys

September 03, 2010 Al Capone’s right-hand man lived in Norman? Who knew? It was a fact. And many locals knews that bit of history. Bit it wasn’t common knowledge. And that’s the kind of story we love to tell on NewsOK.com. I’ve written about our nDepth series in the past. It’s a type of story-telling that is... Read More

Another commenting discussion — a NewsOK reader weighs in August 27, 2010 I spoke with a NewsOK user yesterday. He called to express his concern about an article we had on the site the day before. He questioned our decision to allow comments on this story: Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper wrecks motorcycle on I-40, flown to hospital He knew our site well. He knew our commenting and... Read More

New ‘know it’ communities launched on NewsOK

August 26, 2010 We launched a series of new ‘know it‘ comunities this week, bringing our total number of know its to 41. But there is something quite different about these ‘know it’ communities. The ones we launched this week are centered around geographic communities in and around central Oklahoma: EdmondNormanMidwest... Read More

‘The Gunny’ writes my blogs for me August 23, 2010 I’m always giving people reasons to visit NewsOK.com on a regular basis, but I rarely take the approach of “The Gunny” R. Lee Ermey, the quintessential drill sergeant from the movie Full Metal Jacket. You better be watching NewsOK! I might just have to come out and knock on your door and adjust that... Read More

A happy winner of a MOOD giveaway August 20, 2010 We have a MOOD giveaway each week. It can be found on our MOOD website, which contains lots of great information about fashion, culture and cuisine. It’s a site that works in conjunction with our weekly MOOD print section on Thursdays in The Oklahoman. After a recent giveaway, I received this message from the... Read More

Two hidden gems on NewsOK.com today August 18, 2010 I look at virtually every page on NewsOK, just so I always know what every page looks like. I work on a schedule, looking at a handful (actually, more than a handful) of pages every day. It only takes a few minutes a day that way, and the process of evaluating every page on NewsOK.com’s massive site never seems... Read More

High school district previews available on NewsOK

August 16, 2010 The high school football season is getting close. I know because I’ve been following the daily district previews produced by our hard-working Varsity reporters in the past few weeks. It all began on July 17 with District c-4 (look out for Maud). District 3A-2 was released today (the coaches like Madill).... Read More

It’s official – I’m an iPhone 4 user August 13, 2010 I should note, for the record, that I am officially (finally) an iPhone 4 owner. After much deliberation, I chose to go with the iPhone over the HTC Evo. It was not an easy decision – and it became more difficult because it was a decision I needed to make four separate times after complications with AT&T... Read More

Reviewing the week I lost — the week of Taco Tuesday August 12, 2010 I was vacationing during the first week of August, so I missed the ‘Taco Debacle.’ Food Dude Dave Cathey reported on the fight between Taco John and the Iguana Mexican Lounge on his blog. OKC Central star Steve Lackmeyer reported on the controversy in a NewsOK article. Then he wrapped it up nicely with a... Read More

Store is open for the NewsOK iPhone app

July 21, 2010 We launched an iPhone application about a month ago. There wasn’t a lot of fanfare. There was no ticker-tape parade. We didn’t shout it from the mountain tops. But we did launch the product. It happened right before the iPhone 4 was released. The new iPhone operating system gave us a few hiccups. Frankly,... Read More