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Ask Slashdot: How Do News Organizations Keep Track of So Much Information?

Posted by BeauHD on from the too-much-to-handle dept.

dryriver writes: Major news organizations from CNN, BBC, ABC to TIME magazine, the New York Times and the Economist publish a tremendous amount of information, especially now that almost everybody runs a 24/7 updated website alongside their TV channel, magazine or newspaper. Question: How do news organizations actually keep track of what must be 1000s of pieces of incoming information that are processed into news stories every day? If they are using software to manage all this info -- which makes a lot of sense -- is it off-the-shelf software that anybody can buy, or do major news organizations typically commission IT/software contractors to build them a custom "Information Management System" or similar? If there is good off-the-shelf software for managing a lot of information, who makes it and what is it called?

4 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Figure it out on your own, Bezos. by sootman · · Score: 5, Funny

    We're not doing your legwork for you.

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  2. Depends on what you mean by "keep track" by jasonla · · Score: 5, Informative

    There is an industry software that gets used a lot called iNews. There's a reddit thread with comments from people who work at news orgs. Vox Media (The Verge, SBNation, Curbed, Polygon) built its own CMS called Chorus. The NYTimes uses WordPress for some of its blogs. And I assume the Washington Post built their own since, well, Bezos.

  3. Some tech, much brain by BenSullivan3275 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Newsrooms depend on well-informed editors and reporters who are often notoriously paper-based. I've worked in six newspaper and magazine newsrooms and it's generally a central CMS/publishing/workflow system, plus a person-by-person armory of solutions (reporter's notebooks, things like Evernote, spreadsheets, etc.) There are systems used in intelligence that could find use, but journalists are kind of sensitive about doing things their own way -- in my experience. The real lifeblood of a newsroom is the channels of incoming info: wires, cable tv, Google News, etc.

  4. Re:If it's the left, just a narrative will do. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you have ever read a news story where you have first hand knowledge of what is being reported, then you should know that most articles get a lot of facts wrong, and sometimes are wildly inaccurate. So the premise of the questions is wrong.

    Q: How do news organizations keep track of so much info?
    A: They don't.