Advice

From Reid Forgrave at the Des Moines Register: In our newsroom, we’re having discussions about what are the best ways to do storytelling online. Some have argued that there’s no place for “narrative” storytelling online, that people won’t take the time to sit down and read true “stories” online, that storytelling must take a different (and presumably less time-intensive) form when it’s done online. I, of course, demurred. I think there’s surely a place for long-form narrative storytelling online – perhaps not in the “one big block o’ text” format, but maybe in other formats: short chapters readers can click through, or a few paragraphs of text that are broken up by explanatory photos or art (like ESPN’s eTicket), or video documentaries, or ???

Wondering if you could have people send in examples of online storytelling that’s been successful. I’m not talking about online components to what would be a regular newspaper narrative (like photo galleries, or a short interview with the subject of a story), but instead an online storytelling format that can stand on its own.