My ideaLab colleagues and I were given 30 days to address a need in our newsrooms. After considering several possible projects, I settled on something in my arsenal of favorite tools: Google maps.
So, the plan was to teach my fellow reporters how to plot sites on a Google map so there always would be someone in the newsroom with that skill, even on nights and weekends when we often have breaking crime, fire, accident and other stories that lend well to using maps.
Simultaneously, I was data mining for a separate ideaLab project and planned on doing an enterprise story about 27 brownfields in New Haven County. These locations are targeted by the state and several municipalities as priority sites for economic development, among dozens of eyesores that are languishing.
As part of the ideaLab, we have semi-monthly teleconferences as a group. On one of these calls my mentor Jon Cooper, vice president of content for our parent company, Journal Register Co. and supervisor of the ideaLab, urged us to work harder at getting the knowledge and skills we're learning into the daily workflow at our newsrooms.
That got me thinkin': Why don't we work as a group to map the brownfields and craft the enterprise story?
It seemed the perfect way to foster skills learning and meet Jon's challenge.
I pitched it to my colleagues who cover the towns on the brownfields list I was working off of and they not only participated in the Google maps training, they did reporting leg work, shot videos and built this map:
View New Haven County Brownfields in a larger map
I'm talking about shoe-leather reporters Amanda Pinto, Abbe Smith, Michelle Tuccitto Sullo, Mark Zaretsky and Ann DeMatteo. I invited reporters who did not have an affected town, as well, so here's a shout out to Alexandra Sanders, who came to the training and subsequently made this map, using satellite view, to go with a daily story about neighborhood reaction to a controversial excavation site:
View Horse Pond Rd & Dairy Hill Rd in a larger map
City Editor Helen Bennett Harvey and Managing Editor Mark Brackenbury came to the training and project planning meeting as well. Everyone made this project better than I envisioned with their feedback and questions.
We've had great conversations about the fact that maps don't apply to everything we file, but we all have more open minds now to new applications. Alexandra had a great idea about using them to map polling places and here's an example of how I now use them to tell people what's happening in New Haven on weekends or upcoming civic events during the week.
View Elm City Happenings in a larger map
A nice feature is that Google tells people how to get there by car, foot, bike or public transportation. It's just an amazing tool.
And participating in the ideaLab has been an amazing process of personal and professional growth for which I am grateful.
I hope this encourages you to think about using Google maps in new and different ways and engaging your colleagues in what can be a fun project for your team and an interactive, informative package for consumers.
Our package went live on Sunday morning, May 8 (Mother's Day) and ranked among "Most Popular" all day on the New Haven Register's website.
Sunday evening Pam McLoughlin and Jordan Fenster got a Google Form loaded into the package, using the story itself as an engagement tool. It was posted later than the full package, so I'm still collecting data on that for a separate post.
Hold the faith that people will read content other than crime, accidents and news of the weird if it is engaging, interactive and speaks to their quality of life (Digital First). Thanks, again, everybody!
So, let's keep the ideas flowing - how are you using Google or other mapping programs in your news organization?
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