The IDS enters the digital age

About a month ago, while most students were worrying about final exams, plane tickets and rides home, the staff at the Indiana Daily Student was planning ways to turn the corner with the paper’s online content.

Our first step was to rename our New Media desk the Multimedia desk. Honestly, there isn’t anything “new” about the things that we were labeling “new media.” The desk had been going by that name for several semesters, even after it had become quite old.

As some of you might have noticed, we also completely re-vamped the Multimedia page on our Web site. Our new design looks better and allows our readers to find specific projects more easily because productions are sorted into columns.

Carrie Ritchie, IDS editor-in-chief, came into this semester with the goal of focusing more on cultivating a greater online presence to better serve our readers. In order to do this, she created the visual/multimedia director position to oversee multimedia productions.

As the first person to hold this position, I’ve spent the first two weeks of the semester holding meetings and developing new programs and ideas.

On the second day of the semester, we launched the first podcast in IDS history. We would have launched it a day earlier, but a power outage at our offices in Ernie Pyle Hall prevented it.

The podcast, “Hoosier Headlines,” is a daily production that informs our readers of the top stories in less than three minutes. As college students, we realize that many of our readers don’t have time to skim every story. The podcast is designed to conveniently package the day’s headlines in a paper-free, portable format.

Tuesday, “Hoosier Headlines” became available on iTunes. To find it, just search “Indiana Daily Student” or “Hoosier Headlines.”Or click here.

We also launched “Conversations,” our second podcast, on Wednesday. “Conversations” is a once-a-week interview program that features notable personalities at IU and in Bloomington.

The first two weeks have been a time of massive change and reorganization for our Web site and the Multimedia desk, but we are only getting started. In the next few weeks, we will be rolling out additional podcast programs for the IDS. We currently have a weekly news wrap-up video and several sports podcasts in the works.

In addition, WEEKEND magazine is preparing to launch an all-new Web site, followed by podcasts and multimedia productions.

We have started off the semester with big changes, and we hope that our readers are taking advantage of our new programs and content. I would love to hear comments, questions or suggestions from our readers. Please feel free to email me.