Critical evaluation

I felt that WINOL was very successful as an editorial product this term.  The bulletin was only late once and this was on the first day of WINOL this term; so this is a huge achievement as in previous terms we have been late all the way through the year. I do feel however, that we started very slowly, getting to grips with our new roles; The 2^nd years had to become familiar with the styles, schedule and routine  of WINOL, but this happens at the start of every term, and was no worse this time than any other start. We also had to learn how to use the new equipment such as cameras and editing software which was a massive disadvantage at first as it took a very long time to understand how to use everything once it was installed; however throughout the term this proved to be a massive advantage and all of our packages benefited with sharper shots and better quality sound. We also made the late decision to change the website; this meant that our features did not really have a style to follow and caused them to be delayed at first; however once the transformation of the website was complete it was obvious that it was a very good idea, and it is now easier than ever to add content and the website looks the best it ever has.  We also has three separate WINOL specials this term which was a fantastic achievement as; the BJTC awards; where I was camera man using the fig rig, the HPCC debate, where I was once again a camera man for close up shots of the candidates  and the U.S. Election, where I took up the role of on-screen reporter;  were all fantastic pieces of journalism by the whole team.

WINOL was also successful as a result of the rivalry that we entered with East London Lines; we all put 100% effort in to ensure that we could be the best student journalism in the country according to statistics, and I feel this is now true. As well as our weekly bulletin; throughout the term WINOL also became available on various different mediums including radio; which was very successful to play out a news bulletin and to promote material on the website, but also through our daily news bulletin; WINOL 99 and through the website being updated daily and being easier to navigate on laptops, mobile phones and other portable devices. WINOL 99 brought viewers to our website daily; and was a first for student journalism.  As a result our Alexa ranking by the end of the term, which has been getting better and better throughout the year, was at 10,338 for the UK and 476,793 in the world; making us the most popular student news output in the country and more popular than our nearest rivals ELL by quite a distance in both the UK and in the world. I think this is a fantastic achievement in such a short space of time.

Analysing the news bulletin I feel that it was very good this year. Although we didn't have any fantastic, world class, global stories during this term that we have had previously, I still felt that the news we did have was put together very well. There were always stories available on the spike for the news editor to choose from if stories fell through and the bulletin was the longest it’s ever been;  15 minutes on some weeks. The stories were good local stories that matter to the people of Winchester and Hampshire. The structure of the bulletin was very good and I feel that the news agenda and running order; I feel that the news editor was correct every week with his selection of which stories should go where in the bulletin and which story should be the top story. I felt that we were a bit reluctant to change the structure of the bulletin and change  the running order at first, but as the term went on we experimented with the presenters standing up for the headlines, the bulletin in the newsroom, and oovs dotted around throughout the bulletin, rather than just in a news belt in the middle. We also experimented with graphics and a ‘coming up’ package to keep our viewers watching. All these elements helped to produce good bulletins editorially.

As for the news reporters themselves; they all grew in confidence as the weeks progressed and gradually they began to use sequences, and get closer in with their shots. Interviews and PTCs improved dramatically as did confidence on screen, scripting and writing news stories and headlines for the website.

Sport was also very good this year with a distinct increase and improvement in sports features and news such as wrestling, the polo team feature and the new defibulators at AFC Totton. This makes a change to previous years where there were just sports highlights from the local games. Sport always gets a lot of views as a result of the large number of supporters that want to watch their team’s highlights and this term was no different.  The team was larger this year which helped and I think the sports team did a very good job at maintaining the high standard of sport that has been set over a number of years.

As for the website, I feel that it is the best it has ever looked; I feel that it was a great decision to change to Wordpress and it’s a major factor as to why our circulation has increased this term. It is easier to navigate, it looks visually better as we have put a much greater influence in our pictures, the style and layout of the site mean that new stories and features are easier to find and to look at meaning that our average user time is higher than rival websites; users are coming to look at the news and bulletin but staying to watch the features and sport as they are all so visually pleasing. We have also put much more time into promoting the site, news stories and individual features on twitter and social networking sites as well as on the radio and through the bulletin. By constantly mentioning the website on these platforms we have increased our all round circulation.  The website looks more professional now and less like a student output. It did take us a while to get started with the website and it did continually change in style over the first few weeks; this probably should have happened over summer rather than at the beginning of term, but once the change was made it was the right decision.

The three WINOL specials were also fantastic and stretched our team, but I think we came out of them stronger as a result and helped the team to increase their ability. The BJTC awards were a chance to show other universities how good our journalism is and we did not make a single mistake which I felt was very impressive. The HPCC debate once again showed how good our journalism is but also increased our circulation; once again not making a single mistake and the evening passed without any problems. Finally the U.S. election went very well and I personally thoroughly enjoyed being in London alongside some of the world’s media at the U.S. Embassy; showing how high we aim at WINOL.

My personal role on WINOL was  Features Editor. I feel that I did a good job as the editor of features and by the end of the year we had an extensive features section on the website, with a mix of content for both males and females and  for both young and older viewers.  By the end of the term we had gone from the original idea of one magazine to one main male orientated features section, to a comprehensive female fashion magazine and an arts review magazine. This meant that we covered the interests of our entire viewership.

Features did start very slow however due to the constant changing of the website style, meaning that there wasn’t a style for features to follow and therefore they could not be created. This meant that for the first few weeks it looked as though we had very little content despite having lots waiting to be created. As the majority of the team were new to WINOL , it took everyone a little while to get used to their role and how features worked. Once we figured out a style and the sections that we wanted, how to create features and use different software, the features that were created were of a very high standard. Features were constantly being updated during the week and the features writers were creating their features to a deadline.

I feel the features section looks the best it ever has done with a good mix of harder and softer features. We had a series of different categories that had to be filled for one re-make of the features once a month; this gave the features section structure and allowed everyone to know what they were doing and to avoid any confusion. As time went on the team became familiar with the style and what was required from them, as a result the features themselves also improved. 

We put a big emphasis on pictures; which was a very good ideas as it has been one of the biggest improvements about the features and the website in general. We out an emphasis on faces and showing peoples features. We made the images on the website a lot bigger than they have ever been before meaning that they were more visually pleasing and therefore the number of views each feature got was more than ever before as people were more likely to click on more visual features. For once features became a focus point of WINOL and the website rather than being hidden. This is a result of the quality produced by the features writers and the pictures that accompanied them.

We made sure on features that we plugged our work as much as possible on social networking sites, getting influential people to tweet our features. I also set up a WINOL features twitter for viewers to keep up to date with what was coming up and what was already on the website. By the end of term this twitter account had almost 100 followers.

Some of the features that we created include an interview with Paul Blackburn which Tom arranged and set up and then I filmed. I think this was a fantastic feature and was highly popular due to the nature of the story being told. I also had an interview with Edgar Feuchtwagner who was Hitler’s neighbour. This is another example of one of our harder feature and confessional interviews that haven’t been seen on the features section before. I was very happy with both these interviews as they received lots of traffic and were both really well put together; receiving lots of praise from guest editors.

We did also have softer gonzo features such as my ‘Great Transport Race’; which was another very popular feature, and interview with celebrities such as Mark Watson and Dani King.  As well as this we created the fashion section of the website for our female audience, which included some of our best features such as ‘Dr Fashion’, ‘WINOL Merch’ as well as hair, make-up and beauty features. Some features did fall through however; such as the Nitrogen gonzo piece; I feel this was due to lack of confidence and experience using cameras and going to film.

During the U.S. Election I also took up the role of on screen reporter. A team of four of us went to London as spent the entire night recording from the U.S Embassy on the night of the election which we then turned into a ‘behind the scenes’ feature. I felt that the entire London team did a fantastic job to film and upload over 30 videos over the night to be used the next day. I felt I did my personal role very well, interviewing as many of the important guest at the event as I could, including Andrew Marr, then upload the videos and live tweet from the event as well. As well as this I had to ensure that I was up to date with information about the election so that I could do a PTC and send back the information to the newsroom.

Overall I feel that I had a good term on WINOL. The role on WINOL went very well and the features look very good. I made sure that my team were constantly updated with what was going on so that they knew what they were doing; I also staggered deadlines to ensure that we were updating features throughout the weeks. We managed to completely change the feature on the website by our November and December deadlines and have at least one feature on each of the sections on the board per month. The board itself was constantly updated, and we had a mix of different features for the main site and for the fashion magazine for all of our viewers. I feel that the WINOL website and in particular the features look very visually pleasing and therefore looks better than it ever has done before.