How Bloomberg incorporates visuals and interactives

Lauren Shaw of American Journalism Review interviewed Bloomberg Digital editor in chief Josh Topolsky.

Here is an excerpt:

AJR: How do you incorporate visuals and interactive elements when dealing with breaking news?

Topolsky: That is an area where we’re still experimenting.  The graphics team meets with editorial at our daily meetings, so there’s an information transfer there, and when there’s breaking news, they sit right next to us on the editorial floor.  It’s very easy to walk over – or scream sometimes – and ask, “Hey! Are we doing X, Y or Z on this thing?”  The key is that no matter what aspect you’re looking at – text, images, video, graphics, interactives – we’re all making the same stuff.  We have to be thinking about these teams as part of the same team.  We’re all editorial, and we’re creating editorial products.  It’s important to keep those lines of communication open for everybody.

AJR: So would you say your newsroom is very synthesized with separate teams and departments often working together?

Topolsky: Absolutely.  One of the things that I’ve really tried to do since I’ve been at Bloomberg with the digital team is constantly looking at workflows and tools and figuring out how we can make these things more connected.  Ultimately, on the web you really can’t have a satellite story that lives on its own.  There’s always another component – maybe a companion piece or a sidebar –…  that have to connect.

Read more here.