Its poignant, powerful multimedia piece, ‘Snow fall’ has already won a Pulitzer Prize. Some say it is the future of journalism.
At the INMA world congress in New York this week, Jill Abramson – executive editor of The New York Times – explained the importance of “show-not-tell” journalism for the newspaper’s audience.
Media should “go behind the news”, “take the readers by the hand” and explain with facts why something happened with vivid detail and narrative drive.
She says the news and what happened are only a small part of any story.
The ‘Snow fall’ piece was created in 2012 following an avalanche in which a group of skiers died. Videos are queued upon scrolling to a certain point of the page, photos pop up when scrolling over details, and it is supported by maps and graphics.
But Abramson (right) takes issue with the ‘future of journalism’ tag: “It has become a verb in media, (but it) isn’t the only form of the future,” she said.
She sees subscribers as well as other news sources as the paper’s competitors: “They’re out tweeting and collecting facts and, you know, a lot of times they’re onto a nugget that’s really useful,” she said.
With INMA congress blog