It finally happened. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a bit of a Gawker groupie and I’ve been waiting for the rollout of Kinja on all of their sites. Not because I am an avid commenter (that requires more dedication than I can give), but because I wanted to see how it was going to work from the sidelines. I have mixed feelings.

 1) Mobile Layouts 

I know that everyone keeps saying that mobile is the future, and it is, of course. Fine. But I still don’t know how I’m supposed to work on a tablet. The old Gawker layout was optimized for a desktop experience, with the main blog post and a scroll down menu of new and trending posts. You could pick and choose, hop around the site before getting back to whatever you were avoiding before you came to Gawker in the first place.

The new Kinja layout is clean, sleek and modern. Everything you want a digital experience to be — except that you have to scroll around too much. I find myself reading many of the blurbs without actually clicking on a story. And when you do click into a story, that’s it. You have to work to browse. 

On a tablet, the Kinja reading experience makes more sense. Video and ads and posts all come together in one, non-annoying, continuous roll. My reaction to reading the new Gawker on my laptop is the first time I ever felt old. And why can’t you Tweet single posts? What’s the deal, Denton?   Read more

These days, carrying around a full video rig is the last thing a journalist wants to do when in the middle of important breaking news. Thankfully, the smartphone is rapidly becoming the go-to option for capturing news as it happens, and the rise of HD quality video in such a small package means that more important and newsworthy moments are being captured and shared throughout the world.

The only caveat is, for better for worse, shooting video on a small, light smartphone has a steep learning curve. To get a compelling, color-balanced shot that isn’t shaky or blurry is a mammoth task — an unknowledgeable shooter can easily end up with muddy, diffuse content that isn’t share-worthy.

Luckily, there are some easy and effective tips to get a great shot. Read more

A big push in journalism right now? Mobile. An important piece of information for knowing how to make a good journalism strategy for mobile? How people actually use mobile.

There are many types of “mobile” out there, of course (mobile phones, yes, but also an increasing amount of tablets and the like). But the Pew Internet and American Life project just compiled much of its research on cell phone usage and demographic statistics into one handy location. And because the cell phone is still the major mobile device, I thought it might prove helpful to highlight some significant stats as they relate to journalism strategy.

Many of these stats may at first seem most helpful to those dabbling in the business of journalism, but knowing them could also benefit to the savvy journalist. Some stats may be promising for your strategy; some may be a reality check. In any case, “knowing your audience” (and source) is always important, as we have blogged about heavily as of late.

The connected world is not quite flat. It’s worthwhile to have a baseline of probability for content success or finding the right social voices in a pinch.

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A report released earlier this week by the United Kingdom’s Professional Publishers Association (PPA) reveals that tablet users are engaging with digital magazines. No surprise, right?

What is interesting about this report, though, is that the PPA also notes that there appears to be a “positive correlation between print and tablet readership.” In fact, according to the report, 96 percent of tablet owners have read a PRINTED magazine in the last year, compared to the 80 percent national average.

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Earlier this week, Instagram announced that it would be bringing its profile pages to the Web. Currently, Instagram has been a mobile-only entity, where users could upload images only through their mobile devices and browse friends’ and brands’ pages only through mobile devices.

Now, this is going to change, according to an Instagram blog post announcing the move:

“Your web profile features a selection of your recently shared photographs just above your profile photo and bio, giving others a snapshot of the photos you share on Instagram. In addition, you can follow users, comment & like photos and edit your profile easily and directly from the web.”

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