Time keeps on tickin’ chicken lickin’ . . .

I gotta stop writing these things when I’m hungry.

Smaller online newspaper websites try to mess with the time-space continuum, but it’s nothing more than a cut-rate magic show with an arthritic bunny with loose bowels and a drunk guy with a bent wand.

Here’s what I mean. The Pipestone Flyer in central Alberta, for example, doesn’t put dates on its stories. KARMA. It has formatting problems. It’s misleading not to inform readers when something has been posted and updated, or give context when an event or interview happened.

I reluctantly give Pipestone credit for its upcoming events, even though it might be an accidental attempt at being an aggregator.

Others date stamp their web page when it’s visited which makes it look like it’s freshly updated. Many smaller papers only update the day they publish their print product. Social media is immediate, yet I’m finding some news sites only update Twitter and Facebook when they publish.

The Chestermere Anchor uses its website to promote its ad deadlines. Maybe they know something I don’t.

I started this blog because I felt left behind journalism’s digital trend. Is it wrong to feel smug about working in a newsroom that isn’t as archaic as I first thought? Almost as wrong as feeling smug about winning second-last place in a beauty pageant. Both need a makeover.

The Hyper Journalist

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