'Immersive storytelling' without more work

E-Media Tidbits carried an encouraging post from Carla Passino Monday. She has begun doing some of what Steve Outing calls “immersive storytelling,” which in most of Michelle Nicolosi’s examples allows readers to explore stories rather than just read them.

Passino reports that “basic [Flash] movies are not that much more time-consuming than standard 500-words-and-a-picture pieces.” Right now, news sites rarely have resources to redevelop stories with a completely different “immersive” style, especially when content management systems make republishing print edition copy so simple. But Passino’s experience reinforces my belief that someday, perhaps when online publishing (on today’s Web or some electronic format yet to come) starts bringing in a decent profit, online storytelling styles will not be the exclusive domain of Web producers. I think, and hope, that eventually people like me will be out of a job. Reporters themselves should have the tools and training to do exactly what Passino is doing — telling stories in a much more compelling way without big new investments of staff time by them or their news organization.