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Five more-interesting-than-text ways to cover summer's sights and sounds:
-- An easy thing to do is photo galleries. Consider summer camps, galleries from events rather than articles recapping them, or photos of community hot spots like the public pool, farmer's and flea markets, children's museum and community centers.
-- Profile videos: Talk with farmers and vendors, camp counselors and other organizers at the places just mentioned for short videos on who they are, what they do and why they do it.
-- Food videos: Ask local chefs for tips on grilling, creating summer salads, sides and drinks, or food safety tips for parties and picnics. Film them in their kitchens (at work or at home).
-- Audio: Think of the typical summer events you report on, and close your eyes. What sounds are specific to these? Carnivals have whirs and dings, baseball games have cheers and cracks of the bat, concerts have music. Bring a digital recorder to these events and record some sounds. You can then make it a game on your website -- have readers guess where the sound clips are from.
-- What types of multimedia graphics would help readers spend their summers? Create a Google map of gas stations with the lowest prices (or use an existing one like Gas Buddy's), or restaurants that offer outdoor dining, or readers' favorite hidden gems.
Check out story ideas, interesting ways to use Web tools and any way journalists are reaching out to readers.
