"Is he cute? "Well, he has a great personality."
Mr. Sun has some wonderful advice to those of us on East Market Street trying to figure out how to publish a better newspaper. "I realize that journalism is a discipline with standards that are sacred cows. I don't think allowing a writer's voice to shine through necessarily interferes with the biggest of those standards -- objectivity. It's worth considering."
Adding personality to the paper hasn't been lost on us. We've been attempting to do that in a variety of ways for the past few years, adding more columnists and changing the mix of front page stories, for instance.
Honestly, we've approached "voice" in stories with some timidity. A year ago, we began talking to writers about telling stories in different ways. We have had some success. Mike Kernels has a distinct voice. As does Jim Schlosser and Margaret Moffett Banks. So do many of our sportswriters.
But we still have a ways to go, and we know it. Adding voice while writing news is more difficult than some would imagine. Not everyone has the singular expressive talents of a Schlosser, Kernels or Banks. (I know that I don't.) Sometimes adding the personal touch to stories falls flat or sounds self-absorbed. And one man's voice is another's bias.
So, we're taking great care on this slope. But we're working on it. The blogs, I suspect, are helping some of us hone the ability to write with voice. We aren't stopping at the four we have now, either. More will come.
As for those nice things you say about us, I'll cop only to the imperfect label. My sister would add that "funny" is correct only if it precedes "looking."
Comments (8)
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Not to take away from those you mentioned, nor to exclude others but... Maria Johnson is one of the finest writers around.
Anyone who can manage to make me sound as cool as she did last month in her Maria Treatment posseses some modicum of genius.
Posted on September 24, 2004 6:14 PM
Yes, but I was looking for someone who wasn't writing fiction, as she was about you. :)
Just kidding, of course. I hesitated even mentioning anyone because I knew I would leave people out. She's exceptional. I wanted to focus specifically on those who write with voice and personality AND maintain the objectivity of the observer.
But mostly I wanted to use people who had some stories that were easily to link to!
Posted on September 24, 2004 6:30 PM
Easy to link to, given the user-unfriendly, revenue-deflecting archiving strategy at the paper you run?
Posted on September 24, 2004 8:11 PM
I thought that might smoke you out. :) Don't worry. We're bringing in a whole new online publishing system before the end of the year that'll fix that.
Posted on September 24, 2004 8:14 PM
Geez, In my freelance work I've always got some editor complaining that I interject too much of my own voice and here you go wanting more voices. Soon I'll be hearing voices.
Editors, can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. ;-)
Posted on September 24, 2004 8:47 PM
You sure do have a ways to go! Here was one particular bonehead move: Shutting down Triad Style in favor of the bland, syndication-stuffed GoTriad.
Who wants to pick up a free weekly in Greensboro that, but for a few paragraphs, is identical to the free weekly in Cleveland or Baltimore or Pittsburgh?
And what happened to all those "voices" you silenced in the process? I can tell you that at least half of them moved out of town or out of state.
Nice going! Anyone want to do another series on why young people don't stay in Greensboro?
Posted on September 25, 2004 10:41 AM
I don't know what free weekly you're reading, but it can't be Go Triad. The only syndicated material in it are the movie reviews, and since movies aren't remotely local, there's no huge need to have them written locally. Everything else -- which is most of the content -- is written locally.
And are you saying that our folding Triad Style into Go Triad has caused young people to leave Greensboro? That's more power than I thought we had.
Of course, the book is free.
Posted on September 25, 2004 2:09 PM
I love your site. Itīs really a pleasure to read through all this interesting stuff and it home.
Posted on January 4, 2005 4:14 AM