Chris Snider

It’s difficult to remember every possible tool you can use when news breaks, which is why we have a breaking new checklist to follow at DesMoinesRegister.com.

We don’t do everything on the list in every situation, but it’s a good reminder of the many tools that are available, both to promote the news and to enhance the reader experience around the news.

Here’s a list to help you start your own breaking news checklist Download as PDF.:

Promote the news

• Post to Twitter (and have staffers post to their Twitter accounts)
• Post to Facebook
• Send breaking news text alert
• Send breaking news e-mail alert
• Send a message to MySpace friends
• Create a widget so others can add news to their site
• Buy keywords on Google/Yahoo/Facebook
• Send to Drudge, Reddit, Digg, Fark
• Send info to bloggers/sites who cover that topic
• Post info in forums related to that topic
• Put together a print promotion plan

Tools to use on your site

• Use an alternative home page design
• Create a poll
• Start a breaking news blog
• Should any of your staff bloggers promote on their blog?
• Are there community members who can blog about this topic?
• Link to blogs outside your site
• Start a discussion forum
• Ask readers to submit photos
• Create a live chat
• Create a hastag for Twitter/Flickr/etc.
• Ask readers for YouTube videos
• Ask readers what questions they have/what info they know
• Add a Google locator map
• Create a Google map that allows readers to add content
• Create a searchable database
• Q&A with reporter or editor or source
• Ask Twitter followers for feedback or help
• Add links to more coverage elsewhere on the web
• Create a site that captures social media conversation on the topic
• Aggregate content from other sites onto our site
• Create an RSS feed for continuing content
• Allow readers to subscribe to that RSS via e-mail
• Post large photos online (in a blog or story)
• Offer print pages for sale
• Highlight the best comments from readers

Don’t forget

• Take screengrabs
• Alert advertising department so they can sell ads around the news/content

Download this list as a PDF document.

What other tools should be on this list? Please share them in the comments area.

Photo credit: hyperscholar on Flickr

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Have you been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for someone to grab your hand and pull you into the new digital world of journalism? Well, wait no more. Here are 15 ways you can jump in right now.

1. Read Chris Brogan’s blog.

2. Read this one post by Rob Curley.

3. Read Mashable. You don’t have to read every post, but skim the headlines and see if anything catches your eye.

4. Stop talking about why you’re not going to join Twitter. And join Twitter.

5. Go to WordPress or Blogger and start a blog. About anything – your family, your love of puppies, how much you hate blogs (just make sure you are passionate about the topic).

6. Start using an RSS reader. Here are feeds from Chris Brogan, Rob Curley and Mashable to get you started.

7. Start clicking around the SND toolkit page. Any of those seem useful?

8. Buy a URL (try GoDaddy or FatCow). Use the free sitebuilding tools to get your site up and running. Or better yet, use a program such as Dreamweaver or iWeb to create your site.

9. Start doing these tutorials.

10. Shoot a movie with your digital camera, edit it in whatever free movie editing program came with your computer (iMovie or Movie Maker, perhaps), and post to YouTube.

11. Go through this HTML tutorial.

12. Start following these new media blogs:

• Old Media New Tricks
• BeatBlogging
• Poynter E-media tidbits
• Journalistopia
• OJR

13. Set up a Google alert so that you are e-mailed anytime someone posts your name (or your companys name) online.

14. Create a Google map of everywhere you ever lived (click on “My Maps” and “Create new map.”)

15. Create a delicious account and start saving interesting stories you find online. Start following other feeds as well. (Here’s mine.)

Photo by the_tahoe_guy on Flickr.

Hopefully this video makes you want to dive headfirst into some new technology.

And good news, there was still a newspaper in this video! But I don’t think it required a printing press to make.

Here’s a fun little interactive that the Indy Star put together for the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament.

It’s a good idea for any city that hosts some sort of post-season basketball tournament.

I’m sure you’ve heard stories about Twitter beating traditional news media on breaking news. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that traditional news media have certain standards for verifying news.

But another factor is that we still feel the need to post a full story. Instead, we should get in the habit of posting just a headline quickly – and adding more details as they develop. Here’s a good example from chicagobreakingnews.com. Notice they started with the most basic of info and grew from there.