| HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source |
 TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2008 9:38 am |
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• We've got the goods May 12 • Words to live and die by April 28 • Ah, sweet blurb of youth April 21 |
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Editing a newspaper means deciding what to put in and what to leave out. The Herald has decided it is time to add something to its print edition. This week we launch Good Life, a place to read about the things that make life enjoyable – food and family, entertainment and trends. Good Life will tell stories quickly, in a minimum of space. As our Business editor, Mike Benbow, explains, many newspapers are feeling pressure to leave things out. The economy has slowed, revenues have been squeezed – and many readers find that the Internet is a great place to certain kinds of information. Just take a look around this site, HeraldNet.com. From stock prices to movie schedules; from traffic reports to updates on today’s headlines, our website is loaded with timely information. So The Herald has chosen to devote less space to a couple of things in its print product. Movie theaters change schedules weekly. So we will run their full schedules on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Other days, we’ll carry a phone directory for the theaters. Even better for web users: Shedules linked to reviews and film summaries are available in the movies section of HeraldNet. The Herald is also joining a long list of newspapers that no longer carry daily stock market listings. Full stock listings will run Saturday in the Business section. HeraldNet users can find timely stock quotations as part of our online markets report. Over the past six months, the print version of the Herald has gained daily customers. In fact, our growth rate was fifth highest in the nation among papers with circulation greater than 50,000. This tells me local readers care about their newspaper. If you care enough to tell us how you feel about our changes, add a comment to the end of this blog. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW!
Words to live and die by Sum yourself up in six words. No more. No less. Exactly six words. That’s the idea behind a contest inspired by the book, Freakonomics (A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything), by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt. In just six words, what would be the perfect motto for the United States? Well here’s the spinoff: the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, an educational non-profit in Florida, has challenged journalists to come up with six-word mottos for the news business. Boy, talk about gallows humor. The finalists: Doing more with less since 1690. We'll always have Paris ... or Britney. It's how I change the world. Get it right, write it tight . They'll miss us when we're gone. Feed the watchdog, euthanize the lapdog. Who, what, when, where, why, Web. Facts, schmacts ... how is my hair? Dirty commie latte-sipping liberal scum. Please stop griping, now start typing. There are more entries at the Poynter site. Of course, as the editor here at The Herald, I’ve always liked the “Tyrant’s Creed” popularized by cartoonist Matt Groening: “Hey you! Get back to work.” ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW!
Ah, sweet blurb of youth Many newspapers have opened their opinion pages and websites to community voices – guest columnists and bloggers, activists of all stripes, older folks and adolescents. For example, a Naperville, Ill., newspaper offered a regular column to a 17-year-old, naively expecting him to stick to teen topics. Oops. Instead, he wrote an impassioned (and reportedly reckless) critique of the Iraq war and American patriotism. Here’s the crummy part: Did the editors modify the commentary? No. Did they kill it? No. They printed it. But after the column drew negative reactions, those same editors dumped young Mohammad Sagha as a columnist. Unfortunately, the Naperville Sun already has broken the link to Sagha’s original column. All we can read is the Chicago Tribune’s critique. And on the subject of listening to teens... Liz Cox Barrett of Columbia Journalism Review was startled to hear a talking head on cable TV actually using a civil tone (i.e. non-bombastic) of voice during an interview. The topic? How to get teens politically involved. It was a discussion of the Generation Engage project. Here at The Herald, sharp tones of disapproval continue to echo after our decision to publish an article about one particular activist teen -- the Lake Stevens student who faked pregnancy in order to draw attention to issues relating to teen sexuality. Among many of the teens we know, sex definitely makes the list of top concerns. But several callers and letter writers seemed to agree with the sentiment: "This story isn't newsworthy ... Why should a teenager be rewarded for telling a lie by being given space on the front page?" In the minority, one writer prasied the student, saying she had "brought to the public's attention the discrimination that thousands of teenage girls face every year." ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment NEW! |
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