How to Create a Paper.li Online Newspaper

Before anyone starts raging about Paper.li's apparent reliance upon social networking, it's worth noting why Small Rivers created it.

It came from Twitter!  Their initial inspiration was to turn Tweets into newspapers, so that you didn't lose any fascinating stories in your channel.  That developed into a broader remit.

You're not looking at a general curating service which adapted to social networking. You're looking at a Twitter add-on, which broadened its horizons.

So sign in with your social networking account and enjoy!

Once you are logged in, you will probably be prompted to create your first ever newspaper.  If not, then the button to begin is on the top site browser bar.

There are dozens of ways to use this service.  You can have it based around subject, theme, friends or a personal paper.  Today I'm going to be creating one which takes the hundreds of great articles at Wizzley and turns them into a newspaper.

You begin by filling in the details in the pop-up box.

The pull-down menu allows you to change the frequency of each new edition.  Your options are: daily; morning/evening editions; and weekly. How much content do you think that you can generate?

Whichever you select, that's how often your links will be scanned for content.  That's how often your newspaper will be up-dated.

Please note, this isn't the same edition acquiring some new links.  It's a fresh one, with the old version archived.  Readers will be able to click through a calendar and look through your past editions though.

The next stage is to add feeds on which the links may be found.  The left-hand column is invaluable for this, but I'm going to start with the search box at the top.

I've typed in 'Wizzley' and Paper.li has searched the internet for likely feed channels. There's quite a list!  Just about every Wizzley author has social networking channels.  I can flick through them all here. 

But what I want is generic ones.  This is a gift to the whole Wizzley community, not just myself and people I've befriended here. 

Those feeds which I know will generate the broadest possible content are moved across. Clicking the plus button beside it will do that.

Please note that this isn't the end of days.  You can go back at any time to add or remove sources from your newspaper.

In fact, it might take a few weeks of tinkering before you're absolutely satisfied with what's being pulled.  At least, it will if you're a perfectionist.

The rest of us set it up once and wander off.

All of these Wizzley sources have been selected, but naturally we only want to show articles by JoHarrington.

We don't?!  Oh!  I thought that we might. *grin* 

In my newspaper, I really have no reason to set up filters, but you might.  For example, say you want to add your Twitter channel, but only display links pertaining to 'fiber'. 

That can be done here (or later) by clicking the icon that looks like a funnel and adding the word 'fiber'.

You will have to remember this though.  In future, every related Tweet will have to include the word 'fiber' in order to show up.

As for the example in the image, don't fret, I did remove those filters after I took the screenshot.  You can add 'Wizzley' to any Tweet and it will show up in this newspaper until the end of time (or Twitter, which is surely the same thing).

Welcome to the launch of the Daily Wizzley Herald!

• Publish an article on Wizzley.  The feed from the site will send it in.
• Post something on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus which mentions Wizzley.
• Be featured on the official Wizzley Twitter or Facebook channels.
• Upload a video onto the Wizzley YouTube channel. This one only really works for the Wizzley Team.