The news waves begin to break onshore

OK that's too much punning and metaphorization but hey it's my blog.

Following my last post about how articles are morphing into topics, on Old Media New Tricks, Robert Quigley details his first attempt to use Wave to cover a topic -- Austin News:

I posted a link to the Texas constitutional amendments that are up for a vote, and people immediately began discussing why anyone should care about them, which are the the most important ones and why. I dropped in topics a few times throughout the day, from the election to the launch of the Texas Tribune to some local economic news. I included links to our stories. People discussed each item as they came in.

There is potential here.

The next paradigm shift: From 'article' to topical 'Wave'

We're seeing the rise of the topical page as the atomic unit of content. Journalists will no longer write stories, persay. They're going to write topics, which will have story-like elements, but won't look anything like the articles they focus on today.

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Bay Area media: Don't miss digital news conference deadline

I want to be sure you consider attending ONA09, Oct. 1-3 at the Hilton San Francisco. The early bird deadline to register ends Aug. 28. If you're a Bay Area netizen, you will find ONA09 exciting and useful, for networking, learning and business. Last year every journalism organization's conference was hurting -- but ours was sold out as it has been year-over-year. That's because ONA is at the intersection of technology and journalism. Our members represent the crossover between the two worlds.

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Getting a handle on the 'content ecosystem'

There has been a lot of blather recently about efforts by traditional content creators (read: newspapers) to extract more payment for uses of their articles on the Web. The typical line of thinking on the newspaper side is, "hey, it costs a lot of money to accurately report, write, edit and publish the news that we provide, and we're not getting paid enough for it by the people who read it." Now comes new technology and initiatives to better understand in detail just how the news and information that mainstream reporters publish is used and reused in the virtual world.

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One word for NYT: Innovative

The annual awards that identify the most innnovative digital journalism conferred on The Gray Lady a some big-ticket bling. the Batten Award for Innovation.  NYT scooped up the $10,000 first prize for six "striking entries:"

Represent, which helps city residents keep tabs on their elected officials, culling information from dozens of sources into a Facebook-style activity feed.

Document Reader, which allows documents to be posted online in a clean interface that allows searching, bookmarking, comments and annotations.

Custom Times, a prototype for personalized Times news reports that seamlessly transition across print, Web, mobile, television and even the car.

Debate Analysis Tool, a replicable tool that allowed users to watch the 2008 presidential debates and speeches on demand with a searchable transcript scrolling simultaneously alongside.

Living with Less, engaging audio and video portraits of peoples’ lives that have been upended by the recession.

One Word, a replicable tool that asked users on Election Day to share “What One Word Describes Your Current State of Mind?“

I'm not surprised.  The Times started investing in digital innovators a couple years back and it's been obvious for months that they've hit their stride.  As I noted earlier this year, they figured out how to cut through the technical and bureaucratic limitations that big newspapers are famous for and proved that the MSM can do digital right.

Congratulations.