NPR visuals team blog→ All About The Dailygraphics Rig From NPR (Published At Source (source.opennews.org))

2014-06-03 A Q&A with Alyson Hurt and Christopher Groskopf …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Managing Instagram Photo Call-Outs

2014-05-29 At NPR, we regularly ask our audience to submit photos on a certain theme related to a series or particular story. We wanted a way to streamline these callouts on Instagram using the hashtag we’ve assigned, so we turned to IFTTT. IFTTT is a websit …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Creating And Deploying Small-Scale Projects

2014-05-27 In addition to big, long-term projects, the NPR Visuals team also produces short-turnaround charts and tables for daily stories. Our dailygraphics rig, newly open-sourced, offers a workflow and some automated machinery for creating, deploying and embed …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Responsive Charts With D3 And Pym.js

2014-05-19 Infographics are a challenge to present in a responsive website (or, really, any context where the container could be any width). Left: A chart designed for the website at desktop size, saved as a flat image.Right: The same image scaled down for mobil …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Making Data Tables Responsive

2014-05-09 Left: A data table on a desktop-sized screen.Right: The same table on a small screen, too wide for the viewport. The Problem Data tables with multiple columns are great on desktop screens, but don’t work as well at mobile sizes, where the table …›

NPR visuals team blog→ How We Built Borderland Out Of A Spreadsheet

2014-04-23 Since the NPR News Apps team merged with the Multimedia team, now known as the Visuals team, we’ve been working on different types of projects. Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt was the first real “Visuals” project, and since then, we&rsqu …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Introducing copytext.py: your words are data too

2014-04-21 Most of our work lives outside of NPR’s content management system. This has many upsides, but it complicates the editing process. We can hardly expect every veteran journalist to put aside their beat in order to learn how to do their writing in …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Introducing Pym.js (Published At Source (source.opennews.org))

2014-04-15 NPR’s Visuals team breaks down Pym, a new responsive-iframe library and the first project launched from the OpenNews Code Convening. …›

NPR visuals team blog→ We’re hiring a picture editor

2014-02-20 Love photography? Obsessed with the web? Do you find magic in the mundane? The visuals team is looking for a News Picture Editor to work with us at NPR headquarters in Washington, DC. It’s a new and important role, fit for an experienced edito …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Be our summer intern!

2014-02-18 Why aren’t we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that. (Visuals en route to NICAR 2013.) Hey! Are you a student? Do you design? Develop? Love the web? …or… Do you make pictures? Want to learn to be …›

PBS Ombudsman→ Tensions Over Pensions

2014-02-14 Hold the presses, if there are any of them left operating. Late this afternoon, just after this column was written, member-station WNET in New York and PBS issued a statement resolving the controversy that is discussed below. The joint statement... …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Making Remote Work Work (Published At Source (source.opennews.org))

2014-02-13 Tips and tricks for being an effective remote developer. …›

PBS Ombudsman→ The Mailbag: More on ‘MAKERS’ and Other Stuff

2014-02-12 Today's ombudsman's mailbag is a brief follow-up to the last one that was devoted to what I described as "a pre-emptive strike" by critics of some individuals slated to be profiled in six new one-hour documentaries that will be part... …›

Recording Not By The Book

Tight budgets, technological advances, and the impulse to experiment are leading some producers to record “not by the book.” Does it work?

PBS Ombudsman→ The Mailbag: A Pre-Emptive Strike on More ‘Makers’

2014-01-23 When you make an announcement before a group of reporters at the semi-annual Television Critics Association conference, you are likely to get some publicity. Among the announcements made by PBS at this year's gathering in Pasadena was news that six... …›

PBS Ombudsman→ The Mailbag: A Letter from Bill Moyers

2014-01-22 This edition of the mailbag contains just one letter. It is a response from Bill Moyers to the Ombudsman's Column posted on Jan. 9. That column dealt with a couple of issues surrounding the Jan. 3 presentation of the weekly... …›

PBS Ombudsman→ The Mailbag: A Lot More on Downton; a Little More on Moyers

2014-01-15 As has happened before, when something we think of as sort of contemporary — a gay kiss, a loved one lost to a fatal car accident, a rape — unfolds amid the gentility of Downton Abbey, some viewers object. I... …›

PBS Ombudsman→ The Mailbag: A Downton Downer and Other Things

2014-01-13 Despite on-screen warnings by PBS at the beginning of last Sunday's edition of Downton Abbey that the segment was rated TV-14 and "The following drama contains scenes which may not be suitable for all audiences. Viewer discretion is advised," many... …›

PBS Ombudsman→ Over the Air or Off the Air?

2014-01-09 The powers that be at PBS were dancing in the aisles earlier this week (I didn't really see this but it was undoubtedly in the minimum-physical-contact, please; we're British style) when it was reported that the season four debut of... …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Animation With Filmstrips

2014-01-08 This post is cross-posted with our friends at Source. Animated gifs have immediate visual impact — from space cats to artistic cinemagraphs. For NPR’s “Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt” project, we wanted to experiment with using l …›

NPR visuals team blog→ We’re hiring a web developer

2014-01-06 Love to code? Want to use your skills to make the world a better place? The visuals team (formerly known as news applications) is a crew of developers, designers, photojournalists and videographers in the newsroom at NPR headquarters in sunny Washing …›

NPR visuals team blog→ How And Why Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Rocks (Published At Source (source.opennews.org))

2014-01-02 Case Study: The UX process behind the 'Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt' project, written for Source. …›

PBS Ombudsman→ Different Strokes From Different Folks

2013-12-19 It is still sort of holiday-quiet in the ombudsman's mailbox, but one critical letter from a viewer in Miami raises an editorial issue that I seldom get asked about — a comparison between NPR (radio) and PBS (television) coverage of... …›

RadioSutton→ Does Public Radio Have a Leadership Inferiority Complex?

2013-12-13 One of the more perplexing situations in public radio is the failure of NPR to find and develop strong executive leadership from within the public radio system. It appears that that is unlikely to change as the NPR Board selects its next CEO.  N …›

PBS Ombudsman→ The Mailbag: The Holiday Spirit Is on Hold

2013-12-13 The leader of North Korea had his uncle executed and a mentally-unbalanced sign-language fraud managed to stand next to President Obama in South Africa, but it's been relatively quiet these past two weeks for the ombudsman; no big controversies and... …›

NPR visuals team blog→ The Book Concierge: Bringing Together Two Teams, Nine Reporters, And Over 200 Books

2013-12-10 This post is cross-posted with our friends at Source. We started the Book Concierge with the NPR Books team about four weeks back in early November. I worked alongside Danny Debelius, Jeremy Bowers and Chris Groskopf. The project centered on Books’ …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Collaborating On The T-Shirt Project (Published At Source (source.opennews.org))

2013-12-02 Interview: Brian Boyer talks with Source about the Planet Money / NPR Visuals project 'Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt.' …›

PBS Ombudsman→ The Mailbag: Bye-Bye Bobbleheads and Lots of Other Stuff

2013-11-21 The ombudsman's mailbag has become quite stuffed in the past week or two, and in the past few days in particular, because of lots of email from people upset about a short video offering from PBS Digital Studios that was... …›

PBS Ombudsman→ ‘It’s (Not) Okay to be (Not) Smart’

2013-11-19 The headline above is my edited version of the title of a PBS Digital Studios production of "A Very Special Thanksgiving Special/It's Okay to be Smart." The idea, its webpage states, is to "be thankful for everything science has given... …›

NPR visuals team blog→ How We Made Lobbying Missouri (Published At Source (source.opennews.org))

2013-11-12 The design process and code behind the NPR / St. Louis Public Radio campaign finance project. …›

PBS Ombudsman→ More Words About ‘War of the Worlds’

2013-11-08 Last week's column dealt with a documentary aired on Oct. 29 as part of the PBS "American Experience" series. The hour-long program marked the 75th anniversary of the famous 1938 CBS radio broadcast of the Orson Welles dramatization of a... …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Network Diagrams Are Hard (Published At Source (source.opennews.org))

2013-11-03 It's a challenge to make legible, useful, responsive network diagrams. …›

PBS Ombudsman→ War of the Words

2013-10-31 Sometimes, when journalists talk among themselves about stories they have read, the phrase "burying the lead" comes into the discussion. What is meant by that is a story that has important information way down inside the text, rather than at... …›

PBS Ombudsman→ Muhammad on PBS: Was It Good for the Jews?

2013-10-29 The question in the headline on this column is not meant to be frivolous. For Jews and their families in America in the 1930s, '40s and '50s — and even to some extent today — events from time to time... …›

PBS Ombudsman→ The Mailbag: Some Viewers Want to Give PBS a ‘Pop’

2013-10-23 The ombudsman's mailbox continues to receive a modest but steady stream of complaints from viewers about those small but obvious promotional blurbs that "pop up" on your TV screen every once in a while during a favorite program to remind... …›

RadioSutton→ Transition for NPR Highlights Major Industry Issues – Part 2: The NPR-Member Station Relationship

2013-10-04 A recent article at Current.org highlighted some of the financial and membership issues facing NPR as it looks for its next leader.  Our last post considered the financial side.  This post considers the membership issues.Curren …›

RadioSutton→ Transition for NPR Highlights Major Industry Issues – Part 1: Financial

2013-10-03 Current.org has a good read on some of the financial and membership issues facing NPR as it looks for its next leader.  On the financial side, Current reports that NPR had its best fundraising year ever in 2013, yet ended the year with a …›

RadioSutton→ Keep Hitting Listeners Right Between the Ears

2013-10-01 Below is the original text from John Sutton’s acceptance speech after receiving the Don Otto Award from Audience Research Analysis and the Public Radio Program Directors association.  You can hear the speech here.  Just like live radio, wha …›

NPR visuals team blog→ Complex But Not Dynamic: Using A Static Site To Crowdsource Playgrounds

2013-09-13 This post is cross-posted with our friends at Source. We usually build relatively simple sites with our app template. Our accessible playgrounds project needed to be more complex. We needed to deal with moderated, user-generated data. But we didn&rs …›