Must-Read: Vox Voxsplains Vox.com
Must-Read: Vox Voxsplains Vox.com: What http://www.vox.com has had to say about what it thinks it is doing:
On explainer journalism: : Nine Questions About Vox: “The media is excellent at reporting the news and pretty good at adding commentary…
…What’s lacking is an organization genuinely dedicated to explaining the news. That is to say, our end goal isn’t telling you what just happened, or how we feel about what just happened, it’s making sure you understand what just happened. We’re going to deliver a lot of contextual information that traditional news stories aren’t designed to carry, and we’re hiring journalists who really know the topics they cover. There’s no way we’ll be able to help readers understand issues if we haven’t done the work to understand them ourselves…. This article is an example. It tries to identify the main questions you might have about Vox and answer them in a clear, logically structured way. At the beginning is the most obvious, most important thing people might want to know about Vox rather than the latest scoop. This article contains news–we’re announcing our name, Vox…. But the new information isn’t the point. The point is to leave you with a better understanding of what we’re trying to do with Vox.
On the persistent stock: : Refreshing the Evergreen: “No one even seemed to notice that we were flooding the site with previously published content…
…Articles were enthusiastically shared by people who had shared them the first time around, too…. Which is great!… If we can use our archives as a way to deliver more great pieces to today’s audiences, then that’s a huge win…. Lots of important things are… longstanding patterns, structures, or systems…. We think well-executed evergreen journalism is often the very best kind of journalism there is. We want to be doing it regularly, and we also want to be doing it better than traditional formats have allowed…. We’ve asked our whole staff to do at least one refresh per week, and we’re looking forward to seeing how it goes…. Hopefully we’ll get a bit closer to building and surfacing the persistent news resource we’re working towards.
On iteration: : Welcome to Vox: A Work in Progress: “Today marks phase two…. At the core of this phase are the Vox Cards…
…inspired by the highlighters and index cards that some of us used in school to remember important information. You’ll find them attached to articles, where they add crucial context; behind highlighted words, where they allow us to offer deeper explanations of key concepts; and in their stacks…. But we’re just starting to learn how to use them. We have been employees of Vox Media for less than 65 days…. We’re launching this fast for one simple reason: there is no better way to figure out the best way to do explanatory journalism on the web than to do explanatory journalism on the web. We have some exciting ideas about how to do a better job explaining the news. But right now, those ideas are untested…. And that’s the only test that matters…. The quicker we can launch, the quicker we can start learning–and start improving.
On aggregation: : How Vox Aggregates: “[When] I started… everything I wrote… in the hopes that someone else…
…would take it and try to use it… with a link back… a positive-sum endeavor…. [At the] Washington Post… I helped to create Know More… a big ‘Know More’ button that would lead people back to the original source to, well, learn more…. While aggregation has always been a clear service to readers, it can be enormously frustrating to writers…. But aggregation, when done correctly, offers value to the original source…. If you ever feel Vox isn’t using your work in the way you’d want, email me at ezra@vox.com and let me know. Our intention is always to do things in a way that is positive-sum, and if you ever feel we’re failing that ideal, we want to know, and we’ll work with you to change it…
On the homepage: : Vox’s New Homepage, Explained: “If the slots look unusually…
…they’re designed not for one headline, but for many…. We’re able to offer both our newest story on the topic, but also the stories leading up to today…. I have no idea if this is going to work. It’ll require a different type of curation and we need to build a robust taxonomy…. There’s a basic latest news display…. There are some new permanent doorways into content we know you like to find… favorite writers… latest videos…. The layout algorithmically generates each time and the system may run through up to 1,000 different options to find the best one. (For more on the technical background, we took inspiration from some of the great work happening at Flipboard.)… There’s been a lot of talk of late about whether or not homepages are dead. We’re certainly not seeing that at Vox…
On first-person voices: : First Person: “We’ve decided to devote a section…
…to thoughtful, in-depth, provocative personal narratives… First Person…. Here are a few pieces… that exemplify the style and range of pieces…. I’m a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race and policing. 9 things I wish I’d known before I became a stay-at-home mom. The internet is full of men who hate feminism. Here’s what they’re like in person. 9 things I wish people understood about anxiety. Confessions of a congressman…
17 DAYS AGO: Is the media becoming a wire service?: Is the golden age of media innovation over before it’s even begun? http://www.vox.com/2015/7/22/9013911/is-the-media-becoming-a-wire-service
ABOUT 2 MONTHS AGO: First Person, Vox’s new section devoted to narrative essays, explained: What is Vox First Person? And how can I write for it? http://www.vox.com/2015/6/12/8767221/vox-first-person-explained
4 MONTHS AGO: How Vox aggregates: A look into how we aggregate, why we aggregate, and what we’re trying to achieve http://www.vox.com/2015/4/13/8405999/how-vox-aggregates
4 MONTHS AGO: Happy Voxiversary!: One year ago today, we started to put web content online all day, every day. Thank you for joining the ride http://www.vox.com/2015/4/7/8353755/happy-voxiversary
7 MONTHS AGO: Refreshing the evergreen: How and why we’re trying to find a better way to use our past work http://www.vox.com/2015/1/15/7546877/evergreen-experiment
7 MONTHS AGO: Thank you for a great 2014!: It was a busy year. We published over 7,000 articles, almost 100 videos, 30 editorial apps, 150 features, and built over 30 storytelling tools. Here are a few of my favorite http://www.vox.com/2015/1/1/7472345/new-years-resolutions/in/5328445
8 MONTHS AGO: Vox shirts are now available: Now you can have your very own Vox t-shirt or sweatshirt http://www.vox.com/2014/12/9/7353725/vox-shirts-are-now-available/in/5328445
11 MONTHS AGO: How we updated our teen birth rate feature: We want the story to the be best single resource for our readers to explore a complex subject http://www.vox.com/2014/9/22/6401753/birth-rate-feature-update/in/5328445
11 MONTHS AGO: Vox’s new homepage, explained: It’s shiny http://www.vox.com/2014/9/5/6109125/why-we-built-a-homepage/in/5328445
ABOUT 1 YEAR AGO: Explore Vox card stacks: We’re at 81 and counting http://www.vox.com/2014/6/10/5797370/explore-vox-card-stacks/in/5328445
ABOUT 1 YEAR AGO: The homepage is dead! We’re building one anyway: Long live the homepage http://www.vox.com/2014/6/9/5792136/the-homepage-is-dead-we-re-building-one-anyway/in/5328445
ABOUT 1 YEAR AGO: Building Vox 1.0 in nine weeks: Launch fast, tweak often http://www.vox.com/2014/6/6/5787326/building-vox-1-0-in-nine-weeks/in/5328445
OVER 1 YEAR AGO: Three weeks of Vox: Where are the comments? And other site conundrums http://www.vox.com/2014/4/28/5659728/three-weeks-of-vox-tell-us-what-you-think/in/5328445
OVER 1 YEAR AGO: Ezra Klein voxsplains Vox in New York magazine http://www.vox.com/2014/4/11/5604242/ezra-klein-talks-about-vox-to-new-york-magazine/in/5328445
OVER 1 YEAR AGO: Correcting and updating card stacks: Rather than mucking up the cards with lots of annotations, each stack should have an updates card at the end http://www.vox.com/2014/4/8/5596086/correcting-and-updating-cardstacks/in/5328445
OVER 1 YEAR AGO: How come the links in charts don’t work?: We had to choose between mobile-friendly charts and interactive charts, and we decided to prioritize mobile http://www.vox.com/2014/4/8/5593258/how-come-the-links-in-charts-dont-work/in/5328445
OVER 1 YEAR AGO: Welcome to Vox: a work in progress http://www.vox.com/2014/3/30/5555690/welcome-to-vox/in/5328445
OVER 1 YEAR AGO: Nine questions about Vox http://www.vox.com/2014/3/28/5559144/nine-questions-about-vox