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Screenshot, text.bpr.org

When power, internet and cell towers went down in western North Carolina, a group of journalists from different organizations came together quickly to make text-only versions of news websites to reach people with low bandwidth.
It’s an idea that Melody Kramer has been thinking about for a while. In 2017, she wrote for Poynter about why text-only sites were making a comeback ([link removed]) . She wrote:
“These text-only sites — which used to be more popular in the early days of the Internet, when networks were slower and bandwidth was at a premium – are incredibly useful, and not just during natural disasters. They load much faster, don’t contain any pop-ups or ads or autoplay videos, and help people with low bandwidth or limited Internet access. They’re also beneficial for people with visual impairments who use screen readers to navigate the Internet.”
The sites serving North Carolina include Blue Ridge Public Radio ([link removed]) , Enlace Latino NC ([link removed]) , Asheville Watchdog ([link removed]) and WFDD ([link removed]) .
Via email, I spoke with Shannan Bowen from the NC Local News Workshop about the project.
Kristen Hare: How did it come together?
Shannan Bowen: The NC Local News Workshop has been developing the model for a statewide news hub for the past year, so we were able to quickly operationalize some components of our strategic plan to launch a Western NC hub that supports journalists, information providers and communities in our mountain region.
We have two initial aims: 1) Connect communities with critical information that is supplemental and not duplicative of what's being done; and 2) Support our WNC-based journalists, newsrooms, information providers and community leaders by building their capacity, providing resources and supporting their work in the most important ways.
Mel Kramer signed on as our project lead, managing three workstreams we created around editorial needs, product and tech services and other capacity-building support.
Catherine Komp, who leads the workshop’s engagement and our weekly ecosystem newsletter, lives in Asheville and mentioned to me in the early days after the hurricane that it would be so helpful for people there to have access to a text-only site with news and information updates.
Even with some cell and internet service returning across the region, people still have limited signal and cannot load webpages that have images or ads. Daniel Williams, leader of BlueLena (a digital marketing and revenue management platform), joined our hub effort and I asked him if he knew who could help us with these. He sent a note last weekend to Kinsey Wilson of Newspack, who offered their help getting these sites up and running.
Mel also had experience with text-only sites from a former role at NPR, so she worked with Newspack’s Joe Boydston, Daniel, McClatchy’s Tyler Dukes and the workshop’s Melanie Sill on getting the first site up for Blue Ridge Public Radio.
We then launched three additional text-only sites for Enlace Latino NC, WFDD and Asheville Watchdog. We’re accepting requests to launch more this week. Each site is hosted on a subdomain of each news organization’s site.
Hare: What have you heard so far about how these sites are being used?
Bowen: Our hub partners helped socialize information about these text sites so that people in various WNC communities were aware. This included sending the site information to leaders of community Facebook groups and Reddit.
We heard from Asheville residents who told us they discovered the text-only site from friends or their own message boards, indicating word was getting out about the utility of this site.
Hare: What can/should other newsrooms do to prepare for future events like this? And what’s next?
Bowen: We’ve learned a lot about our reliance on the internet and social media for communication and how fragile our infrastructure really is. We need to think more about how to prepare and reach people during disasters when cell, internet and power are not available or are limited.
A text-only site is one way to help people with limited bandwidth, but radio, print products and in-person convenings (when safe to do so) help keep people informed, too.
We have heard from so many people who say that Blue Ridge Public Radio and other local stations have been a lifeline. We also saw photos of neighborhood newsletters that were printed and posted in public locations, including one that was actually handwritten with the latest information about resources and recovery.
Our hub will continue to be active to respond to our news and information partners’ needs. We’ll also create a toolkit in the weeks to come with insights we’ve learned and tips for how other newsrooms or support organizations can prepare and respond during events like this.
That’s it for me. We’re hunkered down in Tampa Bay. My home is not in a flood or evacuation zone, we have plenty of supplies and a generator if we need it. I’m so grateful to all the Florida journalists who are gearing up to cover another unimaginable disaster. Thank you.
See you on the other side.
Kristen
Kristen Hare
Faculty
The Poynter Institute
@kristenhare ([link removed])

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