To Mike Hudack Regarding News in The Digital Age

The largest missing ingredient to current news publications is that these brands are not leveraging their audience properly. The way I see it, covering the news in the Digital Age means taking advantage of the fact that not only can the audience engage with the author, but they can also engage with each other. Meaning, when a story is published, rather than it being a means to an end (as it currently is), it should be viewed as the beginning of a conversation. Users can subscribe to any story or any parts of a story they find compelling and even potentially be called upon in certain stories where their experience/knowledge is valued. This publication will be a one stop shop for any news story which provides information above and beyond the standard.

Features:

• Wikipedia-like layout?
• Ability to comment on any word/sentence/paragraph
• Quartz has this right, but misses the mark on design of such a feature. I think what makes most sense is putting an underline under anything that is commented on. The more it gets commented on, the bolder the underline.
• Ability to comment on any and all pictures/videos
• Highlight news information when returning to a story
• Polls
• On certain stories, only specific audiences can answer certain polls.
• Cliffs notes & "… For Dummies"
• Some stories are long/foreign so a summary would be needed.
• Subscribe to a story (as a whole or individual parts)
• "Level of Subscription"
•  3 options: passive, moderate, & active.
• Passive: only receive message when big events occur
• Moderate: receive messages when moderate level updates happen
• Active: receive message when any and all information is updated
• Titles
• examples: Teacher, CEO, Product Manager @ Facebook, Mother of Autistic Child, Freshman @ USC, etc.
• This is important. I believe the audience is the most important part of the equation, and being able to leverage your audience is vital. If there's a story about autism & the author wants input from mothers of autistic children, what better to ask your audience by sending a push notification to those mothers?
• Real names & pseudonyms
• example: ebay cyber attack. Ebay silent? Maybe an insider wants to give some insight on the story without revealing who (s)he is
• Pictures of faces associated with a name mandatory. When I read comments, I need to associate faces with names.
• Photoshop tool that cuts out background and only shows faces
• "Jump to…" at top
• When you jump to x, back arrow to return to top
• Comments/Suggestions/Concerns/Criticisms Box
• input from users on content of article
• Reputation?
• Reddit style "karma" points?
• ability to take away or give certain features to users who are 
• Live discussion
• maybe there is an event going on (TechCrunch disrupt) and people want to talk about it in real time. 
• Ending the article with asking the audience a question to facilitate discussion
• either yes/no or open ended, but a user should be able to choose a "side" which will appear with their comments if they comment 
• also, the "sides" are split into two categories: on one side is the "yes" audience with their reasoning and on the other side is "no" audience with their reasoning
• example: your talk about the state of news (which gave me incentive to write this post), begs the question: Is it fair to blame Facebook for all of the various click bait offenses committed by media outlets? (Taken from a paragraph in GigaOM)
• 2 Polls: One is for the general public and the other is for journalists/media types
• Conversation layout
• Basically, the more engagement a comment gets, the higher it is
• comments to a comment more valuable than a "like"
• any response author makes bumps to top
• ability to quote person/persons
• User submitted content
• This is a big one. Sometimes users are the story. There needs to be a place where someone knows they can submit content relevant to a story and know they will be heard. The problem with Twitter on this front is that there is no specific place/handle to post your content to that you know will be heard. Being known as the place to "send your photo/video to" can offer an incredible competitive advantage.

As I said, this news publication should be viewed as a "one stop shop" for a news story. Lets take a look at the Donald Sterling case. There are still a lot of questions that remain answered and that no news site has bothered to look into.

The Tape

- The tapes contents

- Was it legal to record? (Ask the audience (Privacy Lawyers)?)

- Written dialogue of the tape

     - Ability to comment on any/all aspects of the dialogue

Reactions

- Public reactions

- Reactions from sports figures 

People

Donald Sterling

Shelly Sterling

V. Stiviano

   - History/Behaviors/Live Updates of all individuals

Legal

- Call on the (sports) lawyers to have a discussion regarding this story. Sometimes it's best to know when to shut up and listen.

Creating a Better NFL Draft Experience

The NFL Draft is gaining popularity, at least on television, but it is still in the early stages of taking advantage of the mobile environment. Here are some suggestions to connect further with the audience:

• NFL Prospects For Dummies

Many viewers aren't hardcore college football analysts, and thus don't know every thing about every player in the draft. There needs to be some type of "overview" for each prospect where one can get a good idea of a player in a multi-senstence synopsis. Whoever does this needs to be honest about the player (give both the good and the bad) instead of just hyping someone up. Here is one example:

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Derek Carr, QB, Fresno St.

So this Derek Carr fellow has received quite a bit of love. There have been rumors that he's the #1 or #2 QB on a lot of teams' boards, and that he may very well be a top 10 pick. His arm is no doubt megaelite, and is probably the strongest in the draft. His deep ball accuracy is great and he runs quite well. However, at Fresno St. he ran the spread offense and rarely needed to make more than one read. He almost never took snaps under center and essentially looked at one receiver each play. He threw a ton of screen passes and faced very little pressure. When he was under pressure, he looked fairly SHOOK and his mechanics tended to break down. He was also somewhat erratic in a couple games, namely in the bowl game vs. USC. So yes he does have an elite arm, but as far as his ability to go through his progressions and feel pressure, he is as raw as they come.

Player comparison: Matthew Stafford/Jay Cutler

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(source: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=43172167&postcount=1)

• Reactions

One of the most exciting parts of the NFL Draft are the reactions to a draft pick; especially the early ones. Reactions are everywhere: at physical locations and on the internet (included but not limited to social media) . These reactions come from everybody: fans, pundits, and fellow professionals. BUT, there is no place that compiles the reactions to a draft pick. I would love to see a service that compiles a complete list of reactions, in which includes a general polling of fans to see whether they liked a pick or not. Reactions can include tweets, videos, pictures, camerawork, etc.

Say the Vikings made a horrible pick (in the viewers minds), and users were polled on whether they liked a pick or not. (NOTE: When logging onto this theoretical service, one could pick their team of choice.) America is then polled about the pick and you could see not only the reaction from Viking fans, but NFC North fans and all other conference fans as well.

• Last Longer

Before the draft starts, users are encouraged to submit their entry as to which team will pick what player and when. Separate the pundits from the rest of the field to see how they fare. As each pick goes by, obviously a % of the total pool would get it wrong and be eliminated. The only goal of this is to see if anyone can correctly guess the 1st round of the draft.

• Camerawork

There are obviously a ton of cameras in whatever venue the draft is held in. It would be phenomenal to be able to choose your own camera and theoretically switch between cameras to see whatever you'd like. I bet people would even pay for this option.