WRAL-TV5 andThe News & Observerare creating an onlinehurricane tracking site for immediate and in-depth storm coverage. The goal of the new site, calledncstormtrack.com,is to inform people in threatened areas, as well asprovide compelling coverage to anyone with an interest in these powerfulstorms.
WRAL OnLine Services Manager John Conway says the joint effort betweenWRAL-TV andThe News and Observerwill provide unique and richinternetsite."You'll find extensive archives of newspaper coverage of paststorms, a photo gallery from past storms, as well as video andaudio clips that we have recorded from previous hurricanes."The online staffs ofThe News &Observer On The Weband WRAL OnLine are workingtogether to build and maintainncstormtrack.com.
WRAL OnLine Technical Director Jason Priebe says one unique feature isa Java-powered tracking map."You can actually plot a number of different storms at once so you can comparetheir trajectories. You could take some of these plots and transfer themto the map that's going to be distributed in the paper (onJune 15)."
News & ObserverExecutive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal says thenewspaperand WRAL-TV remain competitors but will work together on other onlineprojects."We can and still compete. You see that happening in many places. You lookat what's happening in media nationally. All kinds of different companiesare trying to figure out how to work together because it's a newmedia."The existing online sites for the N&O and WRAL OnLine will continue tooperate as they do now, but there will be links toncstormtrack.comfrom both, as well as return links toeach site.
ncstormtrack.comis, as we say, "under construction"rightnow. But it opens to Internet users Sunday, June 15.WRAL will air a hurricane special that same Sunday at 6:30 p.m., and you'llfind the 1997 stormtracking map in the June 15 Sunday edition ofTheNews & Observer.
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