USAGE.md

Introduction

Superdesk is an end-to-end news creation, production, curation, distribution and publishing platform. It is the pipeline that ideas and scoops go through to become published articles. The Triangle uses it as our production software, so all production processes are accomplished through Superdesk. It allows us to stay organized, automate things, and keep stuff clean on the technical side as well.

To learn about the basics of Superdesk, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ09P2Fz4Io&list=PLYCg0jl6TA9fuXCb2OIEQmFlVxCEXFY0S

Production process

• Writers submit articles to their editors before production night
• Section editors do a first pass of edit suggestions
• Each article is sent to a baby copy editor
• Chief copy editor checks baby copys' edit suggestions and makes more
• Section editors do a second pass of edit suggestions
• Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor split sections and do final edits

Photography has a separate process that the Media department documents itself. The Chief Visual Editor(s) upload photos at any point during the production process.

Translating this to Desks and Stages

Each desk's members can create and edit content on that desk. However, anyone from any desk can peer in to see what is going on. Having different members in different desks helps enforce some of the rules of the production process.

Example desk view:

Article flow

Once an article is sent to Wordpress, it needs to be scheduled manually by someone. This can be the IT Director(s), or the Visual Editor(s) since they have to put in photos at some point anyways.

An article can be sent back to a previous stage or desk, if needed. E.g. if the EIC or ME needs a fact verified, they can state that in a comment or annotation and send the article back to the copy editing desk.

Note: writers don't have permissions to send content to a different desk, only a different stage

Pre-production

Section editors should add a stub (title but no body) for each article in a publication the Monday or Tuesday night before that publication, then add it to the highlight list for that publication.

If an article is cut, make sure to remove the highlight, and add it to the next cycle's highlight when you're preparing for it.

The Highlight List

Highlight lists allow us to group certain articles together, in this case the articles in the same pubication. When the publication calendar for a term is finalized, all the highlight lists for that term should be created. When editors are adding stubs, they should add to the appropriate highlight list. Highlight lists can be viewed using the star icon on the left sidebar menu.

Editing content

Watch the following video (which is set to timestamp 3:22) to learn the basics of the Superdesk content editor: https://youtu.be/-X9F6cFS0g8?t=212&si=eUBB40oq1zyzUDk4

Standard article

Here are the fields in a standard text article.

• Header fields
  • Mostly just for internal purposes while the article is still in Superdesk, and will not show up after it's published.
  • The category (i.e. section) should be autofilled to the correct one if you created your item in the correct desk.
  • Editor's note gets added onto body after everything else.
  • You can add relevant keywords so the article shows up better in search engines.

• Content fields

  • Headlines are the actual title
  • You can put any author name you want in byline, it won't check against any list like Wordpress used to
  • Body HTML is the main text of the article.
  • Use the suggestions feature in the text editor (not on the right sidebar) to suggest edits
  • 

• Moving

  • To move content to another desk or to publish it, press the purple Send To button:
  • 
  • Make sure to correctly select both the Desk and Stage you want to move to
  • NEVER move to a stage named ☠. Your article will be LOST FOREVER (not actually but it'll be a PITA)
  • 
  • When publishing, just add the Triangle Website to Target Subscribers. You shouldn't need to change anything else.
  • 

Tip: Open the editor in a new window for a less crowded screen. You might have to close the editor first if it's already open.

Media (WIP)

• Image(s) can be placed anywhere in body, using the media button in the text editor
• If a single image, it shows up as featured. idk with multiple
• Image description is put under the image, use it for usual credit/copyright line

Correcting Published Articles

If an article was published with incorrect or inaccurate information, you can make revisions from within Superdesk. Select the article and click Correct item in the Actions menu:

Once you make your edits and send the correction, it will automatically get updated on the Triangle website.