Domino's CEO First To Go Undercover Tonight

The story is about the CEO of Domino’s Pizza, Don Meij’s appearance on the premiere episode of Channel Ten’s Undercover Boss Australia. It is contributed by the ‘Voxy News Engine’, appearing on Voxy.co.nz. The New Zealand-based news aggregator site culls its stories from “its community of bloggers”, “the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA)” and voluntary contributors.

The story begins with a background history of Meij, with a soundbite about what inspired him to start the business. It then goes into his reasons for taking part in the show, as well as his experiences going undercover among his frontline workers. He also shares that the hardest part of the whole experience was keeping his real identity a secret, and the lengths that he had to go to conceal that. The story then ends with a ‘plug-line’ for the launch episode tonight.

The story was serviceable, though it would’ve been more well-rounded if they had interviewed the TV show producer and one of the workers who interacted with Meij while he was undercover.

The main story is neatly isolated in a box with only the relevant text and images. Advertisement, ‘other news’, social networking links, and the comments are all compartmentalized in separate boxes, giving the site the most clean and tidy design aesthetic I’ve seen so far. The colour scheme of grey and a sickly-looking green don’t really appeal to me, but that’s just my personal opinion.

The main image is a simple logo of the company. It could be improved by including a portrait of Meij, or a screenshot from the show. A link to the official site could also possibly be included, though it is not necessary as that would be doing the network a favour beyond usual reporting. On the right sidebar, there is a Facebook group to ‘Like’ Voxy.co.nz. There is also a comment box near the bottom with unrestricted access to post your own opinions.

The feature I really like about this site is the social networking bookmark bar beneath the main story. The amount of compatible sites beyond the usual ‘Facebook’/’Twitter’ combo is impressive; ‘Delicious’ and ‘Digg’ are two great ‘bookmark/story-sharing’ sites that few websites take advantage of. This shows the versatility and knowledge of the site coders/creators to harness the story-promotion capabilities of the Internet.


http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/domino039s-ceo-first-go-undercover-tonight/5/67875

Junior MasterChef out-rates the adult show on debut

This article is a report by The Daily Telegraph on the TV ratings success of the premiere of Junior MasterChef. The cooking reality show by Channel Ten beat its adult predecessors with 2.2 million viewers tuning in, compared to last year’s first season (1.43m), this year’s second season (1.74m) and Celebrity MasterChef (1.36m) It was also the top rating program nationally for Sunday night, beating ABC’s Midsomer Murders (1.43m), Nine’s 60 Minutes (1.15m) and Channel 7’s The X Factor (1.074m) in its 7:30 pm timeslot.

There were several well-chosen subjects who were interviewed. The Ten chief programmer David Mott heaped praise on the show for its stunning performance, while Julie Goodwin, last year’s winner came admitting tearing while watching the show. The soundbites of her three teenage sons was a welcome insight into the opinion of the audience who are in the same age group as the contestants. They were very impressed by their peers’ talent and ability to cook, and humbly joked that they couldn’t cook just as well.

It would’ve been better if they had seeked the opinion of the competing channels, especially Channel 7, whose reality show The X Factor is the closest contender in terms of genre and audience segment.

As an online story, it is very successful in incorporating the various interactive devices that can only be possible on the Internet. The main images are played as a slideshow loop, with buttons to navigate back and forth. There is an ‘Others’ tab which appears to be an online poll which has closed, and has been replaced with a ‘Survey Monkey’ ad, presumably the survey service provider. There is a ‘Recommend’ button for Facebook above the main image, and below, a link to TV Editor Holly Bryne’s blog on the same subject. The results of the online poll and a box of ‘related coverage’ links is left-aligned in a sidebar, halfway down the main story, to invite reader attention while being non-obtrusive. At the bottom is a comments box with the three most recent comments, and below that is an unrestricted post entry box where you can even decide if you want the site to remember your details and an email notification to be sent once the comment is published.

There are a few banner ads, but these are mostly arranged on a far-right column and at the very bottom of the page, so they are not really distracting. Overall, site design can be made less cluttered with the removal of the banner ads (although realistically, this is not possible since it’s a commercial tabloid news outlet), but the site really exploits the exclusive properties of the online medium to full use.


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/original-masterchef-julie-goodwin-a-fan-of-new-recipe/story-e6freuy9-1225919773959

Expensive Ten cop drama pushes all the right buttons

The article is a behind-the-scenes look of the pilot episode of the new season of Rush, a police procedural currently airing on Channel Ten. The reporter is Melinda Houston, a TV critic writing for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Houston begins the article with a dramatic opening, summing up the show’s audacious action stunts with a quote from Adam Todd, the scriptwriter about the explosion sequence she was about to witness. This is one of the many quotes she uses from the various production crew members she meets, including Todd, producer Mimi Butler (the producer), production designer Sally Shepherd, and stunt director Mitch Dean, among others.

She also has found out (or researched) the inspiration behind the episode; the real-life story of a Swedish cash depot heist. Houston describes in fascinating the detail the amount of planning that goes into filming a single scene from the episode, the meticulous preparation of the stunt cars, the choreography of the extras in reaction to the explosion, right down to the timing of the stunt so that it is performed in favourable weather conditions.

Houston concludes the piece with a ‘plug-line’ for the show, but strangely has a side-story beneath which describes the editing process. The story might have been a port from the print version, which may have the editing process described in a side-bar story, but for the purposes of clarity and organization in the online version, the editing side-story should be incorporated into the main article so that is a single piece.

Also, there’s little user interaction or supplementary reading beyond a simple ‘More Related Coverage’ link at the bottom. This leads to a page that only has a review for one episode mid-season and an interview with one of the actors, Rodger Corser. Readers who want to submit a ‘review’ on that page have to sign up as a member first before logging in, which discourages casual commentary.


http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/expensive-ten-cop-drama-pushes-all-the-right-buttons-20100717-10ezp.html