Sentinel.com blog

The iPad is becoming a bigger part of everything we do in the news world.

More people are using it to consume news. More people are using it for social sharing. More people are using it for web browsing, and if you want to show anyone photos of your kids, there’s nothing better.

More people are finding the iPad takes the place of a desktop computer, or a laptop computer. And the iPad’s productivity tools continue to get better.

When the Sentinel offered a plan for employees to buy iPads through a payroll deduction, we wound up with a stack of 26 of them that were handed out last month.

How are reporters using them?

Well, they’re learning. They’re working on typing stories into Google docs and sending them back to the desk (pro tip – work through the Google search app, rather than the browser). They’re working on photo sharing on Twitter and Instagram through the iPad. They’re exploring apps like Evernote (for note taking with multimedia) and Dragon Dictation. They’re looking at photo editing tools through Photoshop Express, video editing with iMovie.
They’re getting their own news through Flipboard and Zite.
They’re looking at Storify as a way of gathering social reaction to events.
They’re looking at AP news.
They’re checking out Cloud On (for accessing excel and Word files).

Sentinel reporters Shanna McCord and Jason Hoppin browse through app stores for iPad and iPhone and talk about productivity tools for journalists.

My advice for journalists – be curious. Imagine how your audience is getting your work and try to shorten the distance between you and the reader. Imagine how the audience of the future will receive your work, and meet them there. I think a lot of reporters are thinking they report, write, send to an editor, who sends to page designer, the story prints and somehow winds up on our website. There are a million ways for reporters and editors to improve you own brand, improve your own digital skills, improve the information you receive about your beat, and serve the audience. With regard to the iPad, it contains all the tools needed to perform your daily work in the journalism world. Consider taking a day to cover your beat using only that tool – progress on the learning curve will be worth the effort.

Make a point of seeing what’s possible for readers, and of thinking about how you can help create that experience for your own readers.

Here are a few of the apps you may find helpful:

• Twitter, a must for being informed and breaking news
• Storify – for collecting and re-sharing social media and other links
• Evernote – multimedia note taking in the cloud
• Dragon Dictation
• Photoshop Express – photo editing
• Instagram- social photo sharing
• iMovie – video editing
• AP mobile – breaking news from Associated press
• iA Writer – simple writing template
• Zite, Flipboard, Feedly – readers
• Google – if you’ve been a gmailer and fan of google’s productivity tools, use the app, where applications and services are optimized

Other suggestions: Here’s a discussion in Quora (thanks @ivanlajara): What are the best iPad apps for journalists?

We all welcome your tips.

On late notice, we invited the Santa Cruz Community Media Lab bloggers to stop by our out-of-the-way office in Scotts Valley and have a discussion about blogging with anyone from the newsroom interested in attending.

It was a cool meeting. We occupied some space on the white board. We had coffee and one of our favorite bloggers brought cookies for us all. The publisher, Michael Turpin, whose new blog will be up and running next week, stopped in.

Reporters Jason Hoppin, Shanna McCord and Vidur Malik joined us. Digital Producer Christina Gullickson organized the whole thing.

And we had a great bunch of CML bloggers:

• Jim Coffis from SLVnews.net
• Christine Candelaria from The Aums
• Elizabeth from Motherhood: A Descent Into Madness
• Mary Andersen from the SLV Chamber
• Angus McMahan from Angus-Land
• Vicki Wees from History Discussions: Santa Cruz Mountains and San Lorenzo Valley

After talking about community connections, possibilities for the CML, the Sentinel and its website, technical advice, parenting, and business models in the digital world, there was unanimous agreement that we would have more gatherings with more members of the Community Media Lab.

I like where this is going, and I have no idea where that is.

Thanks to all the 130 bloggers who are participating!
- Tom

Here’s a short collection of tweets about Thursday’s meeting: