Narrative journalism today is subject to competing forces. Changes in the industry have diminished the space and budget for traditional print narratives, while the Internet has freed storytellers to take advantage of unlimited space and multimedia approaches. Despite the challenges, we believe that the opportunities outweigh the limitations. We think that narrative journalism can do more than survive; it can evolve and expand its ability to immerse readers in the larger world and the experiences of others.
And so the Nieman Foundation is pleased to present Nieman Storyboard, a site with daily updates on all aspects of narrative news. The Storyboard will highlight print pieces, just as the Narrative Digest has done since 2006, but it will also introduce readers to stellar examples of narrative audio, video, and still photography. In addition, we will report on news, awards, conferences, and emerging approaches to journalistic storytelling—such as interactive graphics and role-playing games.
We don’t intend to decrease our coverage of print media; on the contrary, by launching a daily site, we plan to highlight even more print stories and address the realities of reporting for newsrooms that have cut back on space and time for narrative reporting.
This site is meant to provide a home for the conversation on the future of narrative. We will share various, even conflicting, approaches with the goal of helping every reader find something useful. We hope to hear from you about the stories you’d like to see more (or less) of, narrative projects or issues you wish we’d cover, as well as ideas on what would make Nieman Storyboard more helpful to you. You can write to me directly at andrea_pitzer@niemanstoryboard.org.
We will have a wide-ranging group of contributors from a variety of news organizations and, occasionally, academia. If you want to track our posts, you can subscribe to our RSS feed, become a fan on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. We look forward to hearing your suggestions and feedback!
—Andrea Pitzer
