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Kit Seelye of The New York Times believes that the story about Greensboro's citizen journalism movement will run Monday. I should say it is "scheduled" to be published. There are many reasons it might not be, but at least it is written. She's been fact-checking and plugging holes this week. She must be committed to getting it done, though; as the reporter covering newspapers for the Times, you'd think she'd be distracted by this story, which is pretty important. But she's not covering it.

Personally, I'd prefer the story held one more week. Publishing it on July 4 means that it will probably have lower readership as many potential readers will be returning home from holiday weekends. It also means that the story will not be posted on the some mass-media Web sites that close for long weekends, including Romenesko.

Of course, if the story reflects negatively upon us, then Monday is a wonderful day to publish.

"Oink, oink, critics say of budget."

That was the lead headline on the front page yesterday. (Yes, I'm a bit behind.) It was atop an article about all the "extras" in the Guilford County budget. Some folks inside our newsroom wondered about the appropriateness of it. It certainly isn't a traditional headline, which might read more like "GOP criticizes fat in budget."

I liked it. It grabbed my attention, told me the story clearly in just six words and gave me something to point out to my wife at breakfast. Here's how ace copy editor, Kenwyn Caranna, came up with it.

While reading the article, I noted the repeated use by those critical of the budget of the word "pork" in describing certain items funded. I thought that using the sounds made by a pig in the headline would get the point across to readers in a direct, yet humorous manner, that some thought "pork-barrel politics" was in play. Most readers are familiar with the term "pork barrel politics" and I thought that they would be able to make the connection quickly, after hopefully being surprised and amused by the use of "oink, oink" in the headline. After all, "Oink" is just a fun word to say. And it rarely makes it into a headline.

I thought it worked. What about you?

The San Jose Mercury News has launched a newspaper redesign that attempts to move the paper into the future. They've come to the realization that most people know the news headlines from around the world by the time the paper is delivered so they put national and international stories in the back of the A section and, instead, focus on local news. Sound familiar?

I say good for them. Naturally, the paper is getting beaten up for the changes.

I don't read the Merc. I haven't actually seen the redesign. Here's a front page PDF. But what I understand about it, it makes sense, given everything I know about the future of newspapers and readership.

An angry suspect shoved a gun in the lawyer's face. They struggled and the gun went off. The shot went wild. Our reporter asked the lawyer what went through his mind at that moment. The lawyer said, "...'the (SOB) missed.'"

Except that he didn't use the euphemistic acronym; he used the full, colorful four-word phrase. We didn't publish it, even though there's no question the man spoke those words.

We bend over backward not to publish profanity, doing so only when the wording is vital to the story. It rarely is.

Mind you, we don't get offended easily; journalists are second only to sailors in the saltiness of our language. But we refrain from publishing profanity other than the occasional "hell" and "damn" out of respect to our readers. Including gutter vernacular doesn't cause readers to appreciate us more, and it sure makes some think less of us. Many simply stop reading when they encounter vulgar language, and good writers hate to give readers an excuse to stop reading.

The lesson: Respect your readers. They're smart and sophisticated. We can impart news and ideas without scatological references.

Which brings me to Allen Johnson's recent post about the continued problem of trolls. (I'd say that you know who you are, but I'm coming to the conclusion that you don't, which makes the problem even more perplexing.) Commenters without anything of value to contribute are choking the letters to the editor blog, and are trying to get their hands around the throat of The Chalkboard. (On The Chalkboard, Godwin's Law routinely goes into effect, except that Superintendent Terry Grier and the school board take the place of Hitler and the Nazis, which is just plain sad.)

It's the journalism that matters.

That's the one aspect of the story in The Times that got overlooked.

Yes, we're blogging. podcasting and soliciting citizen submissions to reconnect with readers. But the overriding reason we're barging into the form is to extend the ability to break news, spur civic engagement, to help readers, to be a watchdog. Pretty much what we're trying to do in the newspaper.

The online channel is different, feels different, looks different and reads different. It's more fluid, so that we can interact with readers and other bloggers. It's endless so that we can post citizen journalism without worry about time or space. It's competitive so that everyone can do it, redefining what it means to get a scoop.

All those things are wonderfully helpful to our core mission, but they aren't our core mission.

"Journalism provides something unique to a culture -- independent, reliable, accurate, and comprehensive information that citizens require to be free. A journalism that is asked to provide something other than that subverts democratic culture. This is what happens when governments control the news, as in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. We're seeing it again in places like Singapore, where news is controlled to encourage capitalism but discourage participation in public life. Something akin to this may be taking root in the United States in a more purely commercial form, as when news outlets owned by larger corporations are used to promote their conglomerate parent's products, to engage in subtle lobbying or corporate rivalry, or are intermingled with advertising to boost profits. The issue isn't just the loss of journalism. At stake is whether, as citizens, we have access to independent information that makes it possible for us to take part in governing ourselves."

That's from "The Elements of Journalism" by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. It shouldn't be missed. It's why we do what we do. It guides our rethinking of the newspaper and the development of the Web site.

Lex was exactly right when this was mentioned at the end of the Times' story:

While the outreach to readers raises questions about the fundamental role of newspapers, and whether they should be leading readers or following them, Mr. Alexander, who is overseeing the online project, said The News & Record was by no means ceding control. "If we came across a story that needed to be done but would make a lot of people unhappy, we'd still do it," he said. "And we'd still take the heat."

Heck, we try to do that every day.

John Vandiver, who covers public safety out of our High Point office, is headed to the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press. John hasn't been with us long but has made an impact. He's the guy who broke the stories about the difficulty the Guilford school system has screening teachers.

Along with the Boss and the beaches, Asbury Park has got a good reporter.

Since the first few posts here, we've gone on about the bias of the news media. I've taken the position that we go to great lengths to avoid the appearance of bias, specifically political bias, in our local coverage.

I still believe that. But I wish I had also made this point because it is dead-on accurate. According to Douglas McCollam, a contributing editor at Columbia Journalism Review, the press has a bias -- a bias against power (via Romenesko.

"Some may still call it liberal, and to the extent that it is suspicious of the status quo, they would be right in a way. But I am advocating admitting to an active suspicion of concentrated financial and political influence and those who stand to benefit from it, not the promotion of any particular ideology, cause, or agenda.

"This stance puts journalists directly in the crosshairs of any ruling cadre, which is just where they should be. It is no coincidence that the two institutions most reliably opposed to entrenched power in the last century -- journalism and the judiciary -- are today under tandem assault. Both institutions have made a habit of raising prickly objections to the will and beliefs of the majority, often on behalf of the despised or disenfranchised. And both institutions have been labeled "elitists" by those who view such interference as antidemocratic or unpatriotic, or at least pretend to."

The war has split the nation apart, and letter writers either argue that the news media is irresponsible for not "exposing" the various ways the administration is going awry or for being simply far left and against the president. Directly to Mr. McCollam's point, last month a writer to this paper called the news media's reporting on the war "an act of treason."

It happens with local power structures, too. We're often criticized by those in power, whether it be Mayor Keith Holliday, Commissioner Skip Alston or High Point leaders who don't like the way we write about the Las Vegas market.

It comes with the turf. We expect the push back when we write stories bigwigs don't like. And they should get used to that sort of coverage, although I'm not holding my breath. My point, though, is that it's not political or personal; it's simply that they are in power, making decisions that affect many, many people. They should be questioned by a skeptical news media and constituency.

McCollam ends his piece with good advice: "From the founding, the American press was meant to be oppositional. There is a reason Thomas Jefferson, no stranger to bad press coverage, said that if forced to choose, he'd rather have newspapers and no government than government and no newspapers. In the aftermath of the Afghan riots, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stepped to the microphones at the Pentagon to admonish that, in these dangerous times, the press should be "very careful" about what it said and printed. Of course, the opposite is true. In turbulent times, the press should be more outspoken, not less. Rumsfeld's comment recalls another old legal theory, that freedom of speech does not extend to falsely yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. Journalists should never be false about anything. But for too many in the wake of September 11, 2001, the whole world has become a crowded theater, and the press is too often being told to ignore the gathering smoke. It shouldn't."

Yes, it is going to be red.

I'm talking about the new site that launches on Monday. We know that many of you don't much care for red. Honestly, I like the green, too. But I'm told by the experts that red is a hotter color, and this site needs heat, a conclusion that I certainly agree with. I try to let the experts make the decision on matters I disagree with them on, unless I think it's important, and, frankly, the color's not that important.

Second, the new site isn't complete. After all this time, it's frustrating to us that I say that, but we decided we just need to get the danged thing up. You know how hard it is to change the design on your blog page? Think of thousands of pages. We had hoped to enable comments on the stories -- similar to the blogs -- but aren't ready. Because of the issues raised by trolls and spammers and pornographers, we're waiting. I don't want to imagine the sorts of comments we'd get on a story about, say, a child abuser or pedophile or, heck, a Democrat. So, we need to get a secure registration system in place first.

Third, this isn't the Town Square. Somewhere along the line the idea of a new Web design and the Town Square merged. Nope, not intended to be connected. The Town Square is going to be a place that will link outward to all sorts of sites, not necessarily News & Record sites. It will have sites for Summerfield and Stokesdale, Gibsonville and McLeansville, Pleasant Garden and Kernersville. It will feature provocative posts from local bloggers. Podcasts galore. And it's phase dos.

Fourth, the new site's different. Yeah, we know. Things aren't in the same place. Things may not be where you want them to be. Yeah, we know. The staff is divided, too. Some think it's too busy. As my daughter used to say -- no, she still says -- oh well. For me, it's different, but it's intuitive. It's certainly easier to manuever and navigate. Try it for awhile.

Finally, the links from the old design will rot. Sorry about that, but that's the cost of switching over. The good news is that, we're done with rotted links. From now on, what you link to will be there. And still there. You can thank Ed Cone. That's the second thing he asked of me when I became editor. (The first: Could I give him a raise?)

Send feedback here. That's not a site I receive so if you want the world to know what you think, feel free to leave a comment on this blog. I welcome it.

For the record, we're replacing a publishing system that is nearly 10 years old. You know, back in 1995, like when Clinton was president, blogs were a twinkle in Winer's eye, Al Gore was admiring his invention of the Internet and, heck, I was still young.

Check it out on Monday. Unless, of course, we pull the trigger and the gun doesn't fire. In that case, I'll let you know.

Back in the day, I was a Harry Potter reader. Hey, my kids were fans, and I'm a nurturing father. That was then. I haven't read the last two Potter books and don't plan to read the one coming out later this week.

So I'm no expert in these matters, but one of our staff, Melissa Umbarger, is and she sent me an e-mail at 6:45 a.m.

"On the Books page today, there is an article about security surrounding the book coming out Friday ('Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'), and in the last paragraph, something really big is potentially spoiled for fans. It talks about how betting has been ceased on the death of one of the (huge) characters in the town where the book was stolen.

"And there's no warning at all -- had I not already been spoiled earlier this week by a well-meaning co-worker, I would have been really upset."

Now, if you care enough about these sorts of things, a quick look around the Web will reveal the rumors about the character's death. But my guess is that most Potter readers won't look around the Web and could be disappointed by the ending of the article.

I did take, however, and discovered that this rumor is a couple months old. The publishers of the book pooh-poohed the rumor and said it should be taken "with a pinch of salt."

But, if you don't want to know, don't read to the end of the article in today's Ideas section.

A serious automobile accident on Hill Street has knocked out power across downtown Greensboro. Our prayers go out to those involved in the accident.

Meanwhile, it's tough to get out a paper without power. Right now, we're planning to collapse our three editions into one, assuming the power comes back soon. Fortunately, there aren't any big-time government activities, Major League Baseball is on its All-Star hiatus, the Hoppers played this afternoon, and high school and college sports are on summer break.

Duke Power has given us various times to expect the power to come back up. Then it takes a while for our computer systems to power up. This is nail-biting time. And the rumors that the heat from the red on the new site sucked all the power out of downtown are unfounded.

Update: It's 10:15 p.m. and the computer system is back online. Four hours and change without access to our publishing system in primetime cramps our style. But we'll git 'er done.

I don't want to get too uppity about journalists understanding the purposes and values of blogs, and I probably was over at Ed Cone's place. (See WSJ story raising questions about reporters blogging.) Actually, I had the same concerns the article raises 18 months ago. I hadn't blogged then, but now I understand how powerful a tool a blog can be for a journalist and a newspaper.

In response to the Journal article, Ed asks, "I wonder what the N&R bloggers think. Is blogging useful to you? Are you happy to be doing it? What rules do you follow on your blog, and how does it differ from other work you do?"

Those of us who commented didn't really tackle his questions, although Mark Binker gets it right with his comments about the medium and the message. And I'm only going to indirectly answer them here.

Blogs are all one thing only in the same way that the News & Record, The Rhino and The New York Times are all one thing. That is, other than being ink on newsprint publications, we have different voices, different reporting philosophies and different points of view. Blogs are no different.

In our case, the simple answer is that the rules of journalism we follow in the newspaper -- independence, fairness, accuracy, truth-telling -- apply online as well. The message that I give to our staff bloggers is that they must practice journalism and represent the values of the newspaper. We see the blogs as an extension of our journalism, no more, no less.

For some of Ed's other questions, visit Tim Porter, who wrote perceptively about this very topic last month. And interviewed our own Matt Williams of Inside Scoop for the post.

I don't like to write about grammatical writing here because, as some of you have commented, I occasionally get the grammar wrong. That's why I like to rely on our experts to tackle grammatical questions. And I know from letters and e-mail I receive, readers love to spar over grammar.

Here's the latest note from our style guru, Jim Denery, to our copy editors, edited slightly for length:

"Never Split an Infinitive" ranks No. 2, actually "B," on the list of superstitions that Bryan A. Garner published in A Dictionary of Modern American Usage.

Garner makes his case for allowing split infinitives through this quote from Thomas R. Lounsbury in The Standard of Usage in English (1908): "The notion that it is a grammatical mistake to place a word between to and the simple form of a verb, as in to quietly walk away, is responsible for a great deal of bad writing by people who are trying to write well. Actually the rule against 'splitting an infinitive' contradicts the principles of English grammar and the practice of our best writers."

Garner then quotes Porter G. Perrin in Writer's Guide and Index to English: "There is no point in rearranging a sentence just to avoid splitting an infinitive unless it is an awkward one."

If you'd like a memorable example of effectively splitting an infinitive, let's boldly go to the words of noted grammarian James Tiberius Kirk: "Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before...."

Marcus Kindley makes some assumptions on his blog today about why he's not on my blogroll at the right of the page. He says he's been blacklisted, which is silly. I just wish he had asked before he had drawn his conclusions.

I don't pay attention to the blogroll as I probably should. I have no written policy on being listed there, either, although I have a few practices. And it doesn't have anything to do with partisan politics, as Marcus suggests. I have no idea of the political affiliation of any of those linked, except for Lex who has said he's Republican.

Regular commentary on the Triad's civic affairs is the main screen I use for inclusion on the blogroll. If you're not there and want to be, message me. New blogs are created every day, and I am the first to say that I don't try to keep up with them. (As a courtesy, I do put bloggers who work at the News & Record on the list.)

I purposely do not list bloggers who prominently represent an organization or business, or who primarily use their blogs to promote their organization or business. I'm the first to acknowledge that this line can be narrow and winding. But that's why city council members and politicians aren't on the blogroll. And if Hoggard files, he'll move off the blogroll onto the politician page.

That's also why Marcus isn't there. As head of the Guilford Republican Party -- his blog is called The Chairman's Corner -- he's the public face of and lobbyist for that organization. His omission from the list is not remotely personal. I don't believe we've even met. When he steps down from the chairman's post, I'll be happy to put him on the list.

One of the goals of our citizen journalism initiative is to create community sites on the Web. Our community news editor, Betsi Robinson, describes the first such site. We're starting in Summerfield.

Soon we'll be contacting churches, schools, civic groups and neighborhood associations in Summerfield to find people interested in becoming "community correspondents," people willing to write short stories about what their groups are up to and snap photos at community events. You know, the civic club's latest effort, the Little League championship, the church mission trip, the neighborhood park project, the school play. We figure you know more about what's going on in your community than we could ever hope to.

...Most of what we'll offer by way of news and photos will be posted first on the Web, with the best of what we get appearing in the printed News & Record each week.

We're excited about the Web-to-print model. This is just the first. Want to participate? I hope you do. E-mail Betsi.

Just before 6 o'clock Monday evening, a truck slammed into a power pole and knocked out the power to much of downtown Greensboro, including the News & Record.

But unlike many of the businesses downtown, which were at the end of their work day, we were just gearing up.

Six p.m. is primetime. Reporters are finishing stories. Editors are reading them, and copy editors and designers have just arrived to organize, edit and design the next day's paper.

When the lights went out we were dead in the water.

I live in Greensboro but that darned newspaper delivered a Rockingham edition to my house this morning. Me and 27,999 other subscribers. A press problem combined with human error killed us. I apologize to all 27,999 of you. (I've already apologized to my wife.)

Something like this always happens after I write about special efforts we make to get it right. (See post below.) We'll reprint the city edition stories that didn't make the correct edition in the paper tomorrow.

Everyone has a story, that one moment that brought them within a few meters of rolling directly over a roadside bomb. They come back to the barracks, swap tales, laugh, even tease each other about their brushes with death. They told me their stories, let me in on their jokes. Some searched me out later in the day. Could I keep those stories to myself? They didn't want their moms reading about their close calls.

Those are the words of staff writer Allison Perkins, writing about her experience in Iraq. Her five-part series begins Sunday and you shouldn't miss it. Her audio reflections are already posted. Video should be up by Sunday.

Allison used to work for Stars and Stripes, and she's been to war zones before. Her reporting from Kuwait and Iraq brings a poignancy and intimacy to our war coverage the wire services don't often provide. Her focus is on Piedmont units: a Summerfield soldier in Kuwait, an A&T student on convoy in Falluja, Marines out of Greensboro in Al Asad, and others.

As always, it's the detail that brings it home. Tomorrow in the newspaper we're running a promotional ad for her series. In the ad is a photograph of Allison geared up, sitting in a Blackhawk helicopter. Hand-written in blue ink on the pouch that holds her identification is the notation "A Pos."

Personally, I'll be happy when she's back stateside. I don't know any editor who enjoys having reporters in danger, even when its for a noble cause. In any case, she was in safe company.

At most bases, I showed up in the middle of the night, exhausted and hungry. They gave me a bed, food and made me one of their own. They showed me pictures of their kids, looked at pictures of mine. When it was time to leave, I was disappointed to go. They had become my protectors and my friends.

Read it Sunday through Thursday.

Staff writer Nate DeGraff, who covers Guilford County government, talked by phone with the two commissioners who are vac-conferencing in Hawaii this week. His report is at Inside Scoop.

People inside and outside the newsroom have asked me why we didn't send a reporter to Hawaii this week with commissioners Bruce Davis and Paul Gibson, a la Rhino Times.

When I first heard that Scott Yost was going to follow the two Democratic commissioners around, I loved it. It's the perfect story for the politically partisan weekly. It's just the sort of coverage you might see on "The Daily Show," where they pride themselves on fake news. And I mean that in a good way.

Frankly, it never occurred to me to send a reporter to watch two commissioners in Honolulu. When they said they were going to attend the National Association of Counties annual conference I assumed it would be part-business and part-vacation at taxpayer expense. I don't know anyone other than the participants who suggested otherwise. (If the conference was intended to be county business morning to night, why schedule it in a beautiful resort spot hard to reach for everyone east of the Rockies?)

So, it's a perfect "fake news" assignment for Yost to follow two commissioners around and record how they spend their time. Knowing Yost's writing, his dispatch will be funny and entertaining. But unfortunately for Nate, county business wasn't going to be conducted on the trip, and we'd already told our readers a few times how their money was being spent. I didn't see a compelling reason to send him with them.

Besides, we have one reporter overseas already.

Mike Fuchs, the Bargain Blog king and our online content editor, has put up a new podcast called GameBuzz where you can hear the latest video game news, reviews and deals. The inaugural audio review is about Destroy All Humans.

Podcasts and audio files are another piece of this grand experiment moving from newsprint to other media. We now have five semi-regular podcast features:
* GoRadio -- Jeri and Nicole of our Go Triad staff talk arts and entertainment.
* The Beat -- Our reporters give the story behind the story.
* Radio Free Sports -- Our sports reporters conduct their own Sports Talk radio program.
* Lorraine Speaks -- Metro columnist Lorraine Ahearn reads her column.
* GameBuzz

Here's what Mr. GameBuzz says about his podcast:

It aims to feed a growing appetite for video games. What game is hot? What's not? Should I wait to buy the next generation video game console or go ahead and plunk down money now and buy a PS2 or Xbox? We'll answer those burning questions and much more.

The podcast will feature interviews with Triad gamers and local video game store managers on topics including the top 10 rented or purchased video games and inside info on what's on the minds of gamers out there.

In case you're like me, which is to say not hip, here is a primer on podcasts from today's New York Times.

Podcasts are little radio shows that people create on the cheap; you can download them at no cost from the Web, and listen to them whenever you want.

That's helpful for the 87% who are clueless about podcasts. For us, though, it's another way to reach folks with information we have and they might want. Enjoy.

Just a peek into the conception (reg. req.) of one of those stories that mean nothing but get good play, including on our front page this morning. Can you wear flip-flops at the White House?

Chicago Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski: "I stared at the shoes and thought, `Hmm, that's an interesting choice,'" she said. "I ripped the picture out, set it aside and wondered if there was a story there, or if I just needed to get some sleep."

In the office the next morning, she showed the photo to one of her deputies and simply asked the woman if she noticed anything unusual. The editor failed the flip-flop Rorschach, "and I thought, OK, I guess I'm the only one," Lipinski said.

Of course she wasn't.

Eric Zorn: Were there more consequential stories that day? Was the Flip-Flop Flap a frivolous fuss during fundamentally serious times? Sure. But we need those stories, and it's always a sad day when we can't stop to enjoy them.

Now that the the site is up, we are in the process of adding more staff blogs, including one by staff designer Melissa Umbarger on cooking and another by staff writer Jim Schlosser called Architecture, Artifacts and Antiquity.

After all this time, we've pulled together a list of standards and practices for our bloggers. Most are common sense and aren't original to us. As with everything on the Internet these days, they are evolving. Help us add to them.

1. Be honest and tell the truth, for all the reasons that your mother and editor told you. It's what we do, and besides, it means you don't have to worry about....

2. Libel. Don't do it. You know what's permissible and what's not. Don't get close to the line because....

3. Our blogs aren't edited. Editing slows down the process, and editors have enough to do. Blogs also must have the writer's voice. Editing squeezes the life out of them. We trust you. That said....

4. You represent the newspaper, not yourself. We're still responsible for the blog's content so get it right. Blogs must be factual and fair. The newspaper's standards apply. When in doubt, ask. This is not an opportunity for you to mouth off about whatever occurs to you. Do not embarrass us, and that includes....

You don't have to be a wonk to enjoy Inside Scoop, our local government blog. Here's one of the best posts on any of our blogs yet.

For the record, one of these is going for $6.99 on eBay right now.

I don't think this is necessarily complimentary but syndicated columnist Art Buchwald kind of writes about the News & Record today. I wouldn't call the Town Square "a circulation scheme," but wouldn't mind if circulation rose as a result.

Anyway, Ed Cone -- where I read about the mention -- nails the description of the column, saying that Buchwald: "...then phones in pretty much the same material he's been writing for the last few decades."

In an unrelated development, our Town Square initiative is one of five finalists for the Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism, which are administered by the Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland. Pretty cool.

Update: These are proof that there is alignment of the stars. Here's what my horoscope says today: Your ideas are golden. You'll surely succeed by following through with your own wacky antics but fail if you follow through on someone else's.

It takes a special person to be a teacher. I know. I taught junior high for a year and realized quickly that I wasn't special enough.

So, while I'm unhappy that Justin Cord Hayes has resigned his reporting job for us in High Point, I'm delighted that he left us to teach English at Southwest this fall. He'll be a good one. Justin has been with us since 2000, and most recently, he covered north High Point and Jamestown. (Still does, actually, and will for the next two weeks.) Others may recognize his byline from the CD reviews he wrote for Go Triad.

Justin is also the pioneer of our first community blog: North High Point and High Point. He's been helping us find a rhythm and voice for this idea of establishing communities of geography. (Unfortunately, we'll probably let the blog lay fallow until we hire a replacement.)

Anyway, the kids at Southwest are lucky.

Today's front page is a different look for us. Managing Editor Ann Morris explains:

When I heard about the breadth of Allison's reporting on the "Faces of War" package, I knew we had something special. This is the first time we've had a local correspondent in Iraq, and in less than a week, she'd interviewed and shot photos of almost two dozen soldiers from the Triad.

We were discussing how to use all this material when our photo assignment editor, Leger Meyland, suggested taking the whole front page. We rarely do that, but we had an opportunity to showcase unique local reporting about a subject of great importance. We could introduce our readers to these hometown soldiers in a dramatic and memorable way. And for the families of the soldiers, the front page and accompanying inside page should provide a nice keepsake, I hope.

To find folks from the Triad, Allison walked around the base with a sign asking if anyone was from the Triad. As they approached, she interviewed them and shot their photo. Ingenious.

I'll add my two cents on the front page. To get the right look and tone, we designed this page in advance. We discussed what to do if big news broke out. We left some space on the page for another story, just in case, but we really didn't want to lessen the impact of the faces of war. In the end, the biggest story of the day -- at least according to other newspapers -- was the grounding of the shuttle fleet.

In addition to all the other components of Allison's Iraq package, we've added video.

Big props to Allison, editor Betsi Robinson, Lex Alexander and online content editor Michael Fuchs.

Long, long story about blogging and journalism in the American Journalism Review, known by most journalists as AJR. Both Ed and I are quoted. Seems to be on target.

This is sort of the nut graf:

The state of the blogosphere is also fluid and fast-developing. The first line of blog swarms pounded the national press, but bloggers are already growing more enmeshed in political causes and becoming more active at the local level. How bloggers are moderated in these activities -- by an implicit and self-imposed code of conduct, government regulation or nothing at all -- will influence their role in tomorrow's mass communication landscape. How the mainstream media react to bloggers and other challenging voices -- by ignoring them, engaging them or attempting to co-opt them -- will do the same.

I like this:

Where will all of this lead, and how long will bloggers' glory days last? One scenario is that the blogosphere (or its essential behavior, since the technology may change) is an emerging Fifth Estate, a vast and vigilant sector of citizen watchdogs over a wide range of media, government and corporate institutions. In order to sustain that role, however, bloggers must survive numerous threats to their independence.

And, finally, wisdom from Tom Rosenstiel:

"It will take a tough hide, a tougher one than journalists maybe are used to, as they sort out their new relationship with a more interactive audience," says Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "But journalism has no value, nor any claim to authority, except in the name of citizens... I think many news organizations have already found it remarkable how much the tone of an angry audience member can change if you simply listen attentively and respond fairly."

Just for fun -- and speaking of long -- here's the e-mail interview I did with Barb Palser for the article.

The good folks at API have asked me to speak to a seminar of newsroom leaders in September. For that I'm honored and flattered. But that means homework and preparation. Here's the description of the session: Thriving in a Digital World: Explore the possibilities and ramifications when hyper-local content meets interactive platforms. And discover how to establish priorities in a multi-platform newsroom.

One of the requests is that I bring a list of "lessons learned." (Go into investment banking comes immediately to mind, but it's probably not why they asked me.)

I'm going to begin a list of lessons we've learned or are learning inside the newsroom. If you want to create a list here of lessons you either want us to learn or you're learning, that'd be very cool. As we go along, I'll also hone and add to this list, particularly as it pertains to open source journalism.

1. Presumably, you got to where you are because you know what you're doing. Don't make the mistake of thinking that's now enough. The world has changed. You've seen the readership trend lines. You've heard Phil Meyer's provocative calculation that the last newspaper reader will die in 2044. Status quo thinking isn't working. Start learning something new. Open your mind to all the possibilities.

2. Don't judge blogs or citizen journalism based on what you read in the trade press. Spend some time visiting sites. Leave some comments and watch what happens. Decide who and what you like. If you think blogs are all alike, just self-styled experts spouting opinion, gossip and wild conspiracies, then expand your blog reading list because, well, you're wrong.

3. It's the message, not the medium. The medium is faster, more versatile and more selective than a kid riding a bike throwing papers, but it's still just a delivery system. What you need to care about is the message -- the journalism -- you're delivering, and the way you're helping readers connect to each other. We see blogging, podcasts, audio and video as an extension of our mission. The integrity and credibility of your report -- this is key -- will not be harmed by moving aggressively into participatory journalism.

(I know this is long, but keep reading. I really want your thoughts.)

I've been reluctant to comment on the Reidsville Review 's dealings with the reporters who falsified quotes because we are involved in reporting it.

I will say this, though. I admire the reporters and editor involved. for standing up and facing the music openly, rather than ducking and covering. By all accounts, these are talented journalists who screwed up. (And there should be no question: for journalists, it's a big screw-up.) From their comments, it seems they've learned a big lesson. I wish them luck.