Web & Social Media
Getting Our Message Out
Getting Our Message Out
Publishing on Web and social media requires a somewhat different kind of editorial judgment — this one is shaped by immediacy, audience behavior and the constraints of a given platform. I approach these formats with the same priorities that guide my writing and editing: clarity, accuracy and purposeful structure. Headlines, captions, and visual pairings must be treated as extensions of the journalism itself.
My goal is to ensure posts attract readers through precision and relevance, rather than distortion, while preserving the integrity of the reporting and adapting to platform dynamics.
Me presenting our January analytics to the Midway team!
These are screenshots from three of the Midway's "News You Should Know" videos — which we post to Instagram as reels (a very awkward but worthwhile medium) — that I've participated in!
In these videos, I contributed both on-camera and behind the scenes, helping shape scripts, refine pacing, and ensure clarity. The format challenged me to translate traditional reporting into something concise, visually engaging, and accessible within seconds.
In digital spaces like Instagram, attention is (very) limited, and context can be fragile. An editor must think carefully about how a story is framed for readers who may first encounter it through a feed, a thumbnail or a push notification rather than a print page. This means writing social copy that is concise without being reductive, engaging without slipping into exaggeration (or "clickbait") and informative without assuming too much prior knowledge.
I’m particularly attentive to the relationship between credibility and presentation. Choices about wording, emphasis and imagery can subtly influence how a piece is perceived, especially in environments where sensationalism is so common.
Web publishing also requires technical and visual awareness. Layout, spacing, image selection and hyperlinking can largely shape how readers move through a piece and how long they stay engaged. I consider these elements part of the editorial process and recognize that digital readability depends as much on design and structure as on the writing itself.
Social media, however, functions as both a distribution channel and a forum for dialogue. It creates opportunities to gauge audience response, observe which framing choices resonate and refine how complex topics are introduced to readers. I treat these interactions as a feedback loop — informing future editorial decisions without allowing metrics alone to dictate judgment.
Across web and social platforms, my approach emphasizes restraint and coherence. Rather than chasing visibility through novelty or provocation, I always focus on consistency, clarity and trust — just like my approach to writing, reporting and page design.
As Editor-in-Chief, I actively monitor and interpret our social media analytics to better understand how readers engage with our work. By tracking patterns in reach, impressions, and interactions, I seek insights into which stories, headlines and posting strategies resonated with our audience. I periodically share these findings with the team, framing metrics not as a scoreboard (or a competition, which it can be easy to see them as) but as a tool for reflection. Analytics help us think more critically about timing, presentation, and how effectively we are connecting readers to our journalism.
Some Instagram analytics from while I was working on this portfolio :)