MONDAY BUZZ: Stephenville Empire-Tribune displays good use of ASFs

Example of an ASF from the sports page of the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.
(Click to enlarge)

Hats off to the news staff of the Stephenville (Texas) Empire-Tribune on their use of alternative story formats (ASFs) in their news and sports pages.

Earlier this summer, I paid a visit to the staff of Stephenville for a training session on best practices for both print and online, as part of ACM's 2011 content strategy, "Web First… Print Best."

A focus of that training discusses best practices for the use of alternative story formats, and how they can make something as mundane as a press release or submitted photo into something of good news value.

An example of a good use of an ASF can be found on this sports page from the Stephenville newspaper. E-T Sports Editor Brad Keith took a submitted photo and information and instead of running a stand-alone photo with a long cutline, or a short story with the photo, he turned that information into a unique read using an ASF.

Good job Brad! You will be seeing more information and discussion of best practices when it comes to ASFs in the coming weeks and months on this website.