Threads

Threads is a set of features for GrapheneCMS designed to help readers follow news events as they develop over time.

This project was inspired by my own experience as a news consumer and informed by extensive research, including surveys, interviews, and user testing. That research as well as industry-wide studies suggest that news consumers are struggling to keep up in a cacophonous news environment and experiencing high levels of news fatigue. They choose to detach from the news as a result.

The basic concept of Threads, developed in partnership with the editors of the LA Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune, is to link together news stories about a single news event. Readers who keep up with the news regularly are able to quickly identify the most recent updates on that event, while readers who arrive at the news later are able to more readily find comprehensive summaries and recaps. The newsrooms are given tools to curate and summarize overage of a single news event.