Jim Iovino, Managing Editor of the website NBC Washington, spoke to our class today about different types of cross-platform journalism.

Iovino began his career in print journalism, but soon switched to online journalism due to the downsizing of newspapers and other print content.

Most of the news content on the NBC Washington wesbite is original, however some stories get picked from TV broadcasts and newspapers. A lot of the news is also instantaneous and gets updated periodically throughout the day.

“Find an angle to a story that you think no one else is going to have,” said Iovino. Pat Collins, a reporter for NBC News 4, does exactly that. Iovino showed us an example of Collins’ reporting style (Sandwich Girl feature), and said that he can get an interesting story out of anyone he is interviewing. This reporting style is about good, basic journalism. You have to tackle the news with a unique point of view to reap in viewers, especially if many local news programs are covering the same stories. You must be able to differentiate your story from the rest!

Another thing Iovino said is important for journalists is their ability to connect with an audience. Collins also does this well in Chat with Pat, where he receives questions online and answers them with one-of-a-kind video responses.

The Feast, a website run by NBC News, works as a content center and incorporates some stories from other news organizations while focusing on entertainment, shopping and food in DC.

Capital Games is a blog run by NBC News, which covers interesting stories about athletes in the Washington DC Metro Area, with lots of video coverage incorporated into the site.

“A good video can speak for itself,” said Iovino. Sometimes, instead of editing video footage, it can be better to post the raw footage to create a higher impact for viewers.