Today's newspaper column
UNCG mailed my daughter a glossy brochure last week soliciting her interest. What struck me wasn't the aggressiveness of the school -- she is in 10th grade -- but the headline: "The impact of one, the power of many."
I wish I had come up with that. The slogan describes the path the newspaper is exploring this year. Last month, I wrote about our initiative to transform the newspaper and www.News-Record.com into a virtual town square, a trusted place where people can get the news, share information, talk to each other and us, and engage in building community.
Our idea is to make the paper and Web site a true marketplace of information and ideas, not just ours, not just community leaders, but yours, too. That means that we need to include many voices and take our lead from readers.
As in any town square, your voice can be as loud as you want it to be, if you want it to be.
The impact of one, the power of many.
Here are some of the moves we've made since we started this journey of citizen journalism. They can all be found at www.News-Record.com:
* We've added four more Web logs -- we now have nine -- in which our writers and editors post stories and voice opinions. Anyone with an Internet connection can read them, link to them and comment on them. You can ask for more information, suggest corrections, debate issues and cause us to rethink positions.
Our blog topics include local education, local government, sports, faith and religion, traffic and editorials. (A business blog is on the way.)
Our intent is two-fold: We want to give you news and information in different ways and use methods that complement what we publish in the daily newspaper; and we want to interact with you, to involve you in the conversation.
For instance, one of the hottest discussions is taking place at The Front Pew, our blog on faith, in which readers are debating when to forgive a priest convicted of child abuse. Another is going on at Thinking Out Loud, hosted by editorial page editor Allen Johnson, where the discussion is about columnist Charles Davenport.
* Letters to the editor are now interactive online. See a letter in the paper that you want to applaud or critique? Have at it. Others can respond to your comment and so on. So far, the discussion has been lively and robust. Occasionally, a reader will get personal, but most of the debate is civic-minded, which is what we prefer. Unlike the newspaper, responses can exceed 200 words, and there are no limits on how frequently you can weigh in.
Personally, I think this is one of the most exciting steps we've taken. Few letters make it through the day without comments. If you believe that open discussion builds learning and understanding, then this is the place to be.
* We've added a dozen new forums relating to each of the college campuses in our area, sports, the ACC, NASCAR and local news. They haven't picked up much steam yet -- not compared with the forum on FedEx, where nearly 500 comments have been left -- but we haven't promoted them. If you want us to create a forum on another area of interest, send an e-mail to Lex Alexander at lalexander@News-Record.com. We want readers to drive the direction of the forums.
* We're experimenting with Podcasting, in which we make an audio file of an interview or an event available online so that listeners can download it and listen to it on the computer or a personal music player, such as an iPod. All of a sudden, we're no longer talking only about "readers" but also about "listeners."
* Everyone can be a reporter, and we want your stories. Know about some news? Write it as a story and e-mail it to us. Know an interesting person or place? We'll publish a story about it online. Disagree with how we've presented a news event in which you attended or participated in? Rewrite our story the way you think it should read. E-mail all such submissions to Lex, too. They will be lightly edited for libel, veracity and grammar. (And watch our blogs for announcements coming soon about how you can publish your photos on our Web site, too.)
In essence, we're beginning to dismantle the arbitrary barriers that separate you and the newspaper. With www.News-Record.com, we can do that.
And if you simply want to give us an idea to pursue on our own, we've got a button on the home page for you to click on and e-mail us your idea. To steal a line from the Staples commercial, call it an "easy button."
Next month, we're going to launch a redesigned Web site that will be easier to use and have more features, including enabling comments on every story and allowing more flexibility for photography and video. To say that we can't wait is an understatement.
We're also making progress on newspaper-centric initiatives. The most obvious – increasing our watchdog journalism – is on track as illustrated by our recent focus on lead poisoning, lack of oversight at St. James Homes II, the ease with which illegal aliens can get N.C. driver's licenses, and the cost of doing business with Dell.
But I'll write about those another day.
Comments (3)
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Wow, it's as if you've unlocked the doors to the newsrooms and sent the security guards home early.
Posted on February 13, 2005 10:48 AM
John,
I applaud your efforts. It may seem like a case of opening the coop door to the fox but I do believe that the cyber world demands that we test and explore in ways that do not seem rational.
Maybe we are not too far away from the time that our morning news will be on the screen and a normal course will be to zip off a few lines of either agreement or dissent. I have been following the paper's blogs and it seems a little slow.
Here is a theory. Bloggers have typically been outsiders, and the blog was an opening in what they saw as an establishment. Bloggers, at least many I read, are edgy types, picking at the norms, trying to find ways to spur comment, discussion and controversy. I think bloggers have opened us up to, even forced us to recognize that info is in the public domain, and opinion comes with it. Hence it may a little hard to convince the normal print reading group to get excited about blogs. And it may be that the writing that catches attention in the pages is not the same writing that catches attention in space. So why I think it is admirable to have this town square news concept, you may have to think about hiring, maybe contracting some blog writers who routinely try to find the spectacular in the accepted or ordinary, and who just love to write some lines that light up the comments!
I think there may be a similarity between a blog and the columnist. We, or at least I, look to the columnist to give his or her take on a subject, somewhat divorced from the opinion of the editorial staff. Editorial writing has gotten a little predictable. So and so can be counted on for this or that slant. And the editorial writer is a far away icon, interested in selling his column and probably books. Not all that appealing to a local type, especially today's younger types. Now enters the blogger, a local type who thrives on getting info out and elicting comment. The blogger may harbor secret desire of turning up some whopper of a story but he/she knows the odds. It's all about creating dailog, and the more the better.
If you really want a town square I'd say great but be prepared it may be messy, full of opinion and comment, and probably led by a little known insurgent!
Posted on February 14, 2005 4:44 PM
Thanks, Bob. Like the newspaper itself, cyberspace has a menu like you wouldn't believe and you can pick and choose what you want. If some of the newspaper readers want to continue to get their news from the paper, that delights me. Others want to go online, that does too.
As for the town square being messy and full or opinion and comment, we're already there, I think. And it's fine.
Posted on February 14, 2005 5:14 PM