At RTL Today, we have several web editors. Without web editors, there would still be stories - just no one to make sure you can read them on the web!
One of them is Alannah, who you may have already met at at some of our public events, including the Bazar, RTL Today Radio party or at the Tash Sultana concert, where we played games with concertgoers and distributed lots of fun stuff.
Alannah manages content, the news flow, sends push notifications and keeps an eye on incoming stories overall. Alongside Sasha Kehoe’s Morning Roundup, Alannah now also writes the Weekly Recap, which is published on Fridays and presents the week’s top stories as a short, interactive read.
She joined Steps and Meredith on air to chat a bit about selecting the right stories for the site, serving the community, but also discovering new facts about her own country. Hear the full interview below:
What RTL Today does, how the site functions and an introduction to the Weekly Roundup
RTL Today gets its news from various sources. Local Luxembourgish stories are mainly translated from RTL.lu (Luxembourgish) and RTL 5Minutes (French). They have larger teams with more reporters in the field, but these stories are often just as relevant to the anglophone community.
Governments, organisations and companies frequently also reach out directly to news sites with press releases. RTL Today’s translator team then gets to work, selecting the most relevant points and creating the English-version article.
But just because RTL Today is in English does not mean it couldn’t serve the Luxembourgish population, believes Alannah: “I think a lot of our content could also be relevant to the Luxembourgish community. Because I am Luxembourgish, I was born and raised here, and I read soft news on our website (like Knowledge Bites, Insider) and I think: Wow, I didn’t know that! You learn things about your own country.”
International news stories are also fed in through AFP, but news editors also keep an eye out for stories on other international news sites. For example, a breaking story may be caught faster through a leading newspaper than via the AFP channels.
When treating the news it is important to remain neutral, impartial and informative. How do you do that? “I think it has to do with this journalistic gut feeling,” says Alannah. “You get a feeling what is and what is not interesting for our readers.” Despite balancing local with international stories, RTL Today always emphasises Luxembourg and Greater Region news.
“We are also a community hub serving to expats that may only be here for a month or two. We have guides explaining how to move to Luxembourg, how to find a job, how to buy a house,” says Alannah.
Find the Luxembourg Insider section here.
“There are five top stories, five stories you should not have missed this week,” says Alannah, summarising the Weekly Recap. Since last week, she also selects the top stories from business and technology, science and environment, sport and entertainment.
There are also direct links taking you back to the original stories. Whether you’re in need of a two-minute summary, or want to take an hour reading back through the week’s most pressing issues, the Weekly Recap serves any reader.
“At the moment I’m trying to get more people into the sports section, because we have so many stories. Last week we had a Formula 1 article that was doing pretty well.”
“We also have a 17-year-old contributor in Hungary for the local football section.”
If people want to share a comment, ask a question or if you’ve spotted an error, email contenttoday@rtl.lu and someone at the news desk will get back to you.
