The problem with news charts, maps and databases is that they all require maintenance in order to stay relevant. Without continual updating, they quickly become irrelevant and sometimes misleading. One way to prevent this, without allocating staff, is to have the charts pull directly from the available information as it is released, so that the chart is quickly updated (The Raleigh News and Observer does this with their crime graphs, culling information from law enforcement databases). Another helpful tool might be Wolfram Alpha, a powerful search engine that will answer queries and compute information.

You can read the Nieman Journalism Lab post here.