Writing for New Media

Rob Curley is widely regarded as one of the most technologically innovative people in the newspaper business. During the last decade, he has been involved in lawrence.com, naplesnews.com and now is at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive. But as much as he lives for technology, he tells Presstime magazine that the best career advice he ever got was

it’s not about the technology ... our industry really is about is connecting with our audience. Technology is nothing more than developing new ways of connecting with our audience and giving them something that they never knew they needed, but love having.

Bill [Snead, of the Lawrence Journal-World] always said we have to give our readers these little gifts and surprises whenever we can. The key is the connection, not the delivery method or the software. With every project, I now ask myself a million times, “How does this connect to our readers and what are they getting out of this?” Taking newspapers into the digital world isn’t about the coolest software; it’s about the coolest connection we can make with our audience.

If you keep that in mind, you'll do a great job in this class.

UPDATE: Rob Curley's work at naplesnews.com recently won FOUR major prizes in the Newspaper Association of America’s Edgies competitions: Best Overall News Site, Most Innovative Multimedia Storytelling, Best Advertising Program and Best Local Shopping & Directory Strategy. His earlier site, lawrence.com, picked up two additional awards: Best Design and Site Architecture and Best Local Guide or Entertainment Site. Check out those and the other winners for lots of great ideas.

And here's a peek at what Rob's up to in his new job.