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The Care & Feeding of News Apps

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Any news app that relies on live or updated data needs to be built to handle change gracefully. Even relatively simple interactive features often require special care when it comes time to archive them in a useful way. From launch to retirement and from timeliness to traffic management, we offer a collection of articles that will help you keep your projects happy and healthy until it’s time to say goodbye.

Articles

  1. What You Need Is a News Peg

    By Ben Welsh

    Posted on

    A news app that hooks into a fresh story is likely to get a lot more attention than one that floats aimlessly through time. Ben Welsh breaks down the right and wrong ways to connect an app to the news, with bonus general tips on getting it done quickly and well.

  2. Watching the Results Change

    By Jacob Harris

    Posted on

    Sometimes the key to pulling out a timely, appropriate visualization for breaking news (or live election results) is having the framework ready to go, just in case. Jacob Harris explains how the New York Times zoomed in on a close election in an otherwise boring evening for the nerds in the newsroom.

  3. Sane Data Updates Are Harder than You Think

    By Adrian Holovaty

    Posted on

    Accommodating changing data sets is one of the great challenges of news app management. In the first article in a three-part series, Adrian Holovaty gets all the way down into the details. See also part two and three.

  4. The Times Regrets the Programmer Error

    By Jacob Harris

    Posted on

    Mistakes happen. What happens when they show up in a news app? Good question. A primer on avoiding common sources of errors—and issuing a good correction if the worst happens anyway.

  5. Live Streaming History

    By Travis Swicegood

    Posted on

    You can never really tell which things are going to blow up. Travis Swicegood explains how the Texas Tribune handled a huge, unexpected jump in traffic with no panic at all.

  6. And Remember, this Is for Posterity

    By Jacob Harris

    Posted on

    Archiving and preservation doesn’t happen by accident. Jacob Harris offers essential groundwork for keeping news apps useful and accessible past their first bloom.

  7. Kill All Your Darlings

    By Matt Waite

    Posted on

    When it comes time to pull the plug, there are better and worse ways to deal with the aftermath. Matt Waite explains how to set yourself up for a graceful exit, right from the beginning.

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