Q&A With New York Times Web Journalist Naka Nathaniel

By: Jay DeFoore At a New York Times cocktail reception this past October, NYTimes.com Editor Len Apcar took a moment to plug the launch of TimesSelect, the company's first major leap into paid online content.

Apcar noted that one of the key features to the paid section would be the interactive Op-Eds produced by Naka Nathaniel and columnist Nicholas Kristof. Nathaniel, an American based in Paris, has accompanied Kristof to far-flung and neglected parts of the globe such as Darfur and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Largely the unsung hero, Nathaniel interviews subjects, poses on-camera questions to Kristof, captures all the audio and video, and then assembles the components into award-winning interactive Op-Eds.

Together, the two have nearly single-handedly kept the public's attention focused on the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and they've filed reports from each of the three countries listed in President Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech. In addition to his work with Kristof, Nathaniel has produced multimedia Web packages on the Paris fashion, auto, and air shows and a touching look at the life of Pope John Paul II.

A graduate of the University of Texas, Nathaniel joined the New York Times as an intern in 1995 and is the last member of the editorial team that launched NYTimes.com in January 1996 to still be working for the Web site.

He answered the following questions about his role at NYTimes.com, the frustrating lack of progress in Darfur, and what skills journalists of the future should arm themselves with.

(Note: some of the links in this story may require a TimesSelect account.)

Describe the editorial process when working with Nicholas Kristof on the multimedia Op-Ed pieces.

Nick does a lot of preparation before a trip. He speaks with a lot of folks already on the ground and our trips are very well planned and efficient. We start plotting out what we'd like to do in the first day and then we build the piece along the way. We've never done it the same way twice. It's been great the way things have worked out and I've learned a lot from him.

You've had a good vantage point for the rioting in the Paris suburbs. Does this sort of violent, widespread breaking news situation lend itself to multimedia coverage? How do you plan on covering it?

That's a tough question because I could strongly argue that it does and it doesn't. Yes, showing the vehicles burning and the clashes with police make for great visuals, but there's a much, much deeper story here that really can't be explained in the context of breaking news.

We tried something different with this story and we're asking our audience to be a part of our multimedia reporting. On Tuesday, I asked our readers to e-mail in questions that would be posed to our European correspondent, Craig Smith. I left the link up for an hour on Tuesday morning (6 a.m. to 7 a.m. New York time) and we received a couple dozen questions. I took six of those and posed them to Craig on camera. I'd like to do more features that are based on the ideas of our audience. It worked exceptionally well with a Darfur piece called, "Why Should We Care?" which was a response to a letter from a reader.

A lot of interactive efforts in journalism are oriented toward what's happening downstream, in other words people reacting to your ideas. I think there's a lot of potential in journalists reacting to other people's ideas.

What are some of the tools tomorrow's journalists need to arm themselves with? Should journalists looking to work in multimedia learn how to program in Flash, or just concentrate on collecting audio and video, or all of the above? What other tools or skills are helpful in producing multimedia packages?

I wish I had the sure-fire formula on this one. I've been encouraging a lot of folks to grab their cameras, recorders and computers and to get out there and start telling stories. I've been saying that I want more people to have jobs like mine -- but right now I'm afraid I'm not much help. You might get better odds asking a peanut butter sandwich on how to become "the journalist of tomorrow."

I've never taken a Flash class, so I think it's disingenuous of me to be telling people to plunk down hundreds of dollars to learn a program that might not be right for them.

Also, I'm not a solo journalist. I always team up with somebody. It's incredibly tough to do things all by your lonesome. If you're not technically adept, find someone who has the skills you don't have and strike up a partnership. I'm a big believer in teamwork and I really can't imagine not having someone around to talk things through. It's always been that way for me, especially since my wife, Meredith [Artley, editor and director of IHT.com], is in the same field and we're always discussing things digital.

You have been to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and the refugee camps in Darfur, Sudan. And I just watched a video you shot of a life-saving caesarian-section in Niger. What are some of the projects you've produced that you're most proud of?

I was happy with the way each of those turned out. I use audience reaction to deem whether something is a success or not. If a piece clicks with the audience we'll get hundreds of e-mails and it's incredibly gratifying to read their kind and generous comments. The best notes are those that ask how they can help. It means that we touched on something and that our work has motivated them to take action.

Our Darfur work has been frustrating, because while we're connecting with a younger audience, the problems in Sudan persist. I wish that horrors there would come to end and it was no longer a regular destination for us.

How will the newsroom of 2010 and beyond be different than it is today?

I'm not a huge fan of newsrooms as workplaces. It's a tremendous social environment, but I have a hard time getting any work done when I'm in the newsroom in New York. There are too many things going on and I find it difficult to resist the temptation to be chatting with my friends and colleagues. For me a newsroom is like a bar without alcohol.

I don't know if I'm the best person to offer up ideas the newsroom of 2010, because I'm not sure if I'll be in one then. When I was in New York over the summer, I was in a large meeting where folks were asking about their desks in the new building that The Times is constructing by the Port Authority bus terminal. We were in a large conference room and the talk about the specifics of people's desk was causing me to go a little stir crazy. I want people out and about and technology allows us to take our desks with us. Now, I understand the necessity and the value of newsrooms, but I don't think they encourage journalists to get out in to the field enough. It's easy to take our desks with us.

Are there any online resources or tutorials out there you find especially helpful?

I've been sending people to interactivenarratives.org -- it's the best resource around for what's happening in multimedia journalism. Andrew DeVigal has done a great job pulling all these disparate journalistic creations together into one site.

If you had one piece of advice for someone looking to enter the field, what would it be?

The more I think about it, the more I believe that the peanut sandwich is a better source of advice. A journalism student from Northwestern named Alison asked me the other day for some advice for getting into the field. I told her that there are an infinite number of paths, but that these skills might be helpful:

- Know how to handle both a still and a video camera and how to transmit your work to a capable editor if you can't do it yourself.

- Work on your voice skills. Reporters are called upon more and more to discuss their stories for web features, podcasts, radio and television. You don't have to be the next James Earl Jones, but you'll be much happier with yourself if you're able to ease the extra "ums, ahhs, likes and y'knows" out of your speaking vocabulary. A good chunk of the audio editing that I do involves take out people's thinking noises.

- Keep an eye on what's going on with experimental storytelling. Sites like viewmagazine.tv and interactivenarratives.org will get your creative side heated up.

- Though it may seem so last century, writing is still a critical skill. Whenever, a prominent broadcast journalist is eulogized the highest praise doled out is that he/she they was a great writer and that's why they were so good on television. Writing is about organizing your thoughts and being an organized thinker will help you tell your stories.

Additional Multimedia Links

Nuclear Collision Course
Paris Air Show
Inside North Korea
The Life of Pope John Paul II