Rotating feature box on the home page
The WSDOT homepage now sports a rotating feature box. We welcome suggestions for that feature. What we look for when determining what items to feature are things like:
- statewide significance
- relevance to a large audience
- significant impact
- "above the fold" (e.g. if it were a story in the newspaper, it would most likely run "above the fold")
- accountability (it demonstrates accountability in a significant manner)
If you have a suggestion that meets all or most of the criteria above, please send it to WSDOT WebHelp for consideration. If you can provide a photo or graphic and the text for the slide, that helps us create the slide more quickly.
Keep in mind that during slower news periods the criteria is far more relaxed than when we have several issues competing for home page coverage.
Improvements to the News
All news items have been placed in a central news channel instead of posting them in several different places throughout the site. This allows news items to be dynamically generated on multiple (or just a single) news page(s) based on the intended audience. This avoids having to do duplicate postings manually and makes it easier to keep Web content current.
Media advisories should not be published to the external Web site, unless the public is invited to the event.
How do I post my news?
News Instructions - printable card (pdf 17 kb)
Navigate to the correct news (current) date channel:
(Example for July, 2007 news the address (URL) would be: http://edit.wsdot.wa.gov/news/2007/07/ )
- Click create new page
- Click on News, Select the NewsItem template
- Type in a brief, interesting introductory sentence. This statement should summarize your news item.
- Select the Office and appropriate categories from the pull down menu
- Office
- If you select “statewide” the release will be posted in all news locations
a. Local Area
b. Type of news release (Category)
i. If I were a news item what would I be? (pdf 19 kb)
c. Select the Mountain Pass (if not pass related, do not select)
d. Highway – use proper format (e.g. I-5, SR 101, SR 9, US 2)
e. Important Page – please use this in limited capacity and only if item is of the highest priority and urgency is necessary.
- Enter the contents of your news item (or if copying your content from a Word document, click on "Paste Plain Text" icon within CMS and format your news content with the CMS tools).
- Click Save New Page
- Enter a Name for your news item – (no spaces, example: 12_i5federalwayrampclosures )
- Enter the Title of the News item in the Display Name field
a. Special Characters cannot be used in the Title of the News item
i. Examples: &, %, $ - spell it out whenever possible
- If everything looks ok click on "Approve", if you hit submit an email will be sent to everyone with permissions to the news channel
How should I name news?
Consistent, unique naming will be very important for this change to be a success. If two news items have the same name, the items may not be accessible to users. Items such as I-5 closures need to be specifically named to denote location, i.e. i5_federalwayrampclosures rather than i5_rampclosures.
Title or Display Name
Be sure to put some type of location information in the Display Name/Title of your news item.
Name
Since Year and Month will already be in the URL you will only need to use date of the day and a brief, unique news item description for a name for your news item.
Name Samples/Examples:
1. Display Name: News Item Title
Overnight Ramp and Lane Closures This Week on I-5 in Federal Way (posted July 12th)
Name: 12_i5federalwayrampclosures
(Notice: (dd)_(highway)_(description of 4 words or less if possible)
URL: wsdot.wa.gov/news/2006/07/12_i5federalwayrampclosures
(Note: If you only name this i5federalway it may conflict with another release regarding Federal Way that may be unrelated to the ramp closure.)
2. Display Name: News Item Title
SR 410 East of Chinook Pass Partially Reopened Following July 4 Mudslides
Name: 5_SR410PartiallyReopen
URL: wsdot.wa.gov/News/2006/07/5_SR410PartiallyReopen