5 tips for broadcasters who need to write web headlines
July 19th, 2011 by Jason Mayoff Tags: headlines, news, radio, Web, writingFiled under: Radio, Web
Writing news for the web is different than writing news for radio. If you are used to writing for radio but haven’t done much of any other type of writing, then you need to know a few things. This is the first in a series on how, as a broadcaster, you can write better web stories.
1. A slug is not a headline
Radio reporters and newscasters slug their stories with a single word or phrase so, at a glance, they know what the story is about. Usually it’s something like “MURDER” or “TAX-SCANDAL”, but may also include other information like the author’s name, the version number of the story and the type of item it is, straight copy, a voicer, a script and clip. So, it might be something like “JONES1 x-Leclerc”. This is not a suitable headline for a web story.
Sometimes the slug may even be more descriptive, “Jones guilty” or “Murder Longueuil”. These are not headlines either. Sometimes you might have written an election update. “Election Update for July 5th” is not a headline.
Grab the readers attention …
Backup your WordPress database automatically
July 17th, 2011 by Jason Mayoff Tags: backup, database, dropbox, email, security, Web, wordpressFiled under: Web
WordPress Database Backup
In my article a few days ago about automatically backing up a WordPress site, I failed to realize that the WordPress Backup to Dropbox plugin backed up your files AND your database, so I came up with an elaborate (but ingenious) way of sending your database to Dropbox, too.
Backup core wordpress tables and choose any others to backup…
No lead story? Go with your gut
July 16th, 2011 by Jason Mayoff Tags: advice, gut, lead, lineup, news, newscast, newscaster, radioFiled under: Radio
This didn’t start out to be advice for young newscasters, but that’s what it turned out to be. In fact, I wish someone had told me this twenty years ago. Actually, maybe someone did and I just ignored them.
When I was starting out in the radio news business, all those many years ago, my biggest challenge was deciding what to lead with, what to make my top story.
It’s a challenge even today, more than twenty years into my career, although experience has made things quite a bit easier.
(more…)Automatically backing up a WordPress site
July 15th, 2011 by Jason Mayoff Tags: backup, dropbox, email, plugin, plugins, security, solution, wordpressFiled under: Web
I was looking around the other day for an automatic backup solution for the WordPress site I spent a couple of weeks building. I spent a lot of time working on the site, so I would hate to have it disappear into the ether thanks to a hacker or because of a server crash.
