On Assignment

I’m the guest on the latest episode of “On Assignment”, the weekly interview show from the Reuters newsroom.

Jonah Green and I discuss the deadly heatwave crippling Europe, and how we’re using the new Reuters Climate Monitor to deliver scientific context in real time.

Since we launched the monitor two weeks ago, I’ve been busy adapting it to cover the summer storylines here in the Northern Hemisphere. Tailored takes have appeared on our homepage, in our stories, and on social media. The analysis generated by our database is bubbling up into the nut grafs and headlines shot out on the wire.

We haven’t perfected the playbook yet, but this enterprise approach to data journalism shows how trackers and databases can contribute to coverage of major storylines and reach more readers. Offering a searchable resource tucked away somewhere on your site is good. Feeding “the top of the file” and leading the site is better.

And watch this space. Casey Miller and I have plenty more in the works. We’re far from done.