Earlier this week, the New York Post and Page Six debuted new, cleaner redesigns.
The latest from Alley’s team of experts.
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In a piece for NiemanLab about Digital First Media, Ken Doctor argues that spending on technology and development is vital to being “digital first.” But I wonder if Doctor has the correct definition of that term. A journalism operation can be “digital first” and receive very little assistance from technology teams. At its core, “digital first” is…
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Alley Interactive was at the Online News Association’s 2014 conference (ONA14) this year — the premier gathering of digital journalists shaping the future of media. We were the only agency sponsor among a lineup of large companies, startups and universities on The Midway. Director of Product Development, Josh Kadis, took to the Bullring on The Midway to discuss how Alley Interactive has worked to build and…
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Many colleges have hefty syllabi for computer science courses, but software developer Dustin Younse believes that there are still a few key lessons missing. In his NERD (New England Regional Developers) Summit talk, “Top 10 Development Lessons They Didn’t Teach You in School,” he’ll be discussing what you’ll need to know as a developer on the job.
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How annoying is that title? If you answered “pretty annoying” or “super annoying,” you are correct. Using more words than necessary or using a ten-dollar word when a five-cent word would suffice is not a new problem. This scourge on humanity predates the written word. When coupled with corporate buzzwords, language loses meaning and one’s…
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I understand the value of a certification to Acquia in their ecosystem, and I appreciate that they named it after their company rather than Drupal itself. It’s a play from Oracle’s book that could conceivably make the Acquia-verse larger and more integrated. It’s still disappointing, though, and not something that resonates with my opinion on where our…
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At Alley Interactive, we work with a lot of media product startups. We build big websites for content publishers such as NYPost.com, NewRepublic.com, and KFF.org, to mention a few. We’re the team that takes all the inputs — designs, integrations, CMS backend, hosting platform — and turns it into a live site. This is a fun (and sometimes scary) position to be…
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When reporters go the extra mile to expose an issue, how do news organizations ensure that the content and coverage will have the most impact? For Chalkbeat, an exciting new nonprofit news network reporting on educational change, its editorial team needed a site that highlights important stories in the moment, connects readers to sharp reporting and encourages…
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We were very sad to learn of Peter Kaplan’s death last Friday. Peter meant a lot to us at Alley, and to me in particular. As a programmer, I certainly can’t claim to know Peter as an editor or a mentor, like so many influential journalists can, but he had a huge impact on our…
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Felix Salmon sounded off today, at some length, about one of my favorite topics—choice of CMS for news organizations. One of his central points is that Vox Media has a distinct advantage because of its über-CMS. I admit, what I’ve read about Chorus makes it sound pretty awesome. But there’s a broader question here about…
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Responsive design is a hot topic in 2013 — and for good reason. How do you architect a website that allows for the management of a multitude of content, while making sure the design can fit to any screen or browser? It’s not a simple feat.
