News-Record.com

1. Photos
2. Graphics
3. Headlines
4. Other type that differs from the body type, such as quote blocks.
5. White space
6. Color
7. Rules and lines
8. Text

That is the order in which readers notice the various elements on the page, according to Phil Nesbitt, a design consultant who visited us a couple weeks ago. (Thanks to copy desk chief Jim Denery who reminded me of this list.)

There's nothing new here, but we are acting on it more aggressively than we have in the past. Readers have told us for years that they only read the headlines, which is why it is vital for the headline to be precise and why good headline writing is an art.

It may surprise some that the last item on the list is the actual story.

My 16-year-old daughter has been named sports editor at her high school paper. Pride fills my heart.

Now, budding journalist, meet the future.

One of the most FAQ I get from newspaper journalists and citizen journalists involves lawsuits and libel. As I've said many times, I'm no lawyer, although I've dealt with them -- and paid them -- an awful lot.

Thanks to cyberjournalist.net and Electronic Frontier Foundation, here's some useful legal information and links.

Kenneth Lee Boyd was executed in Raleigh at 2 a.m. today. Even though that's well after our last news deadline, we were able to stop the press run and get the story into the last 20,000 papers, which are distributed in Greensboro.

Staff writer Elyse Ashburn served as one of the media representives to witness the execution, and she filed our story about it this morning. As many as 16 people witness executions in North Carolina, including 5 media representatives who are responsible for briefing other reporters after the fact. We'll have more from her about the scene in Raleigh in tomorrow's paper.

We don't enjoy this duty; it's emotionally wrenching to watch someone, regardless of his crime, being put to death. The only time we agree to send a reporter is when an inmate from the Greensboro-High Point area is being executed. Looks, though, like we'll have the chance next month when Perrie Simpson of Greensboro is scheduled for lethal injection.

Mark Binker at the Capital Beat is shopping for questions to ask Gov. Easley at his news conference next week.

Now's your chance to get a word before the high and mighty. Send your questions Mark's way.

Three or four times a year we hold an in-house auction to sell off all the graft that companies send us to promote their products. Books and CDs, kitchen supplies, T-shirts and ball caps, toys, even alcoholic beverages. We rarely use the stuff for stories, but don't tell the companies because the money we raise from the sales goes to charity.

This year, we brought in $1,200, the highest total ever. The money is being split between the Empty Stocking Fund, which the paper sponsors, and a program that allows us to sponsor Christmas for some families.

Our staff does many things I'm proud of. Most of their accomplishments you see in our paper or on the Web. But the staff's generosity -- many folks pay more than the value of the product because they know where the money's going -- blows me away.

Much discussion about our practices on crediting bloggers (or not crediting, to be more precise) for being first on a story.

Our policy -- and just about every newspaper I know -- is to credit the originating publication if we lift the crux of a story and do not or are unable to confirm the same information independently. We also credit the publication if we pick up the same wording; if we don't that would be plagiarism, of course.

We do not credit the originating publication when we confirm the information and/or add more information on our own. We write our own story.

It is oft-said that the best thing that can happen to a journalist is to become the subject of a story and be interviewed by a reporter. The idea is that if you're on the business end of a news story, you'll understand how important accuracy is, how nuance is key and how words can truly hurt. I've been interviewed enough to know it to be true.

Most recently, I've been interviewed via e-mail and telephone by professional journalists and university students. The topic: blogging. Inexplicably, they hadn't actually read my blog or our other blogs. It didn't appear that they had even done the easiest research on Google. I'm still surprised as I think about that, given that every question I was asked I've answered on the blog or in any of the half-dozen or so magazine and newspaper interviews. They also didn't ask that key last question that I was taught the first day on the job: "Is there anything I failed to ask that I should have?"

I'm hopeful that our staff doesn't need this advice, but I'm going to give it anyway, just to make myself feel better. Do your homework before the interview. You'll save time and you'll be able to ask smarter, more pointed questions that could break new ground.

To complete the circle, Mark Binker posts the "results" of the governor's news conference today at the Capital Beat. Don't want to read about it? Listen up.

A brief moment of panic -- no, concern is a better word -- yesterday when we thought the wire services were not moving any Pearl Harbor anniversary story. Not publishing a story about the Japanese surprise attack on Dec. 7, 1941, is unthinkable. We've made that mistake in the past and been covered up with complaints. Even though we devoted A2 to the anniversary today -- the wires did send stories and photos -- I still expect to get letters saying that it should have been on the front page. I certainly understand; the attack was a pivotal point in the nation's history and in many of our readers' lives. I'm glad we treated it that way.

A word of caution: my father's birthday is Dec. 7. My birthday is Sept. 11. I'm extra observant on my daughters' birthdays.

Nancy McLaughlin wrote today's story about a Quaker taken hostage in the Middle East. After a brief e-mail exchange this morning with someone she interviewed for the story, she got this message:

Gotta run now; you've unleashed the electronic news media on me. TV crews from Fox 8 and News 2 are coming to the vigil; can WXII be far behind? They do always seem to follow your lead.

A few visits to The Chalkboard and you could reasonably conclude that school superintendent Terry Grier could benefit from being a blogger just as the superintendent of Piniellas schools in Florida has. (Nice link from Blogspotting.)

Our reporters will ask Grier if he's interested. The discourse is rough and tumble at The Chalkboard, particularly if you're not a member of the Get Terry Grier Outta Here club. But that speaks to the opportunity of the blog in the first place. And maybe things would calm down a bit if he's involved in the discussion.

In any case, we'd be happy to be the host if he's willing.

Our sister papers in Norfolk and Roanoke have added video components to their Web sites. HamptonRoads.tv is from The Virginian-Pilot's online operation and is impressive. It features video news, entertainment, sports and movies. It's not all local, but it doesn't need to be.

Today, the Roanoke Times launched TimesCast, a weekday three- to four-minute video Webcast featuring local news, sports and entertainment information. Editor Mike Riley says, "A high degree of depth and interactivity distinguishes this effort, with users able to interact with the TimesCast by linking to stories, message boards, online polls and other Web sites."

It's simpler than Norfolk's, but it's more casual and looks like they're going to have some fun.

While I'm happy to learn from their mistakes and successes, I hope we won't be far behind.

Friday update: Steve Outing weighs in on Roanoke's.

Taft Wireback tells the story of a man who has slipped in between the levels of law enforcement, suggesting that Homeland Security isn't so secure. Gilberto Cruz Hernandez is an illegal immigrant who, despite having been deported twice, was living and working in the Triad. He was convicted 11 times for traffic offenses, but his illegal status didn't trigger an investigation. He's now awaiting trial on charges of rape, sexual assault, kidnapping and burglary.

It's a frightening story. Taft writes:

But if nothing else, Hernandez's story illustrates how easy it is for an illegal immigrant to assume the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship with very little risk of detection, even in the face of some fairly reckless behavior behind the wheel and run-ins with local law enforcement.

For a lighter read -- in a morbid way -- try Tina Firesheets' story on St. Francis Pet Funeral Service and Cemetary, the only place in the state that provides full-service funerals for pets. (Or at least the only legal one.)

My favorite tombstone is Punkin's: You left your paw prints all over our hearts. Loving little girl. I've had pets and I know how this feels.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the stories about the victories of Grimsley, Reidsville, Thomasville, Williams and Western Alamance.

A couple changes of note in the paper and online: We've introduced our second Hometown Hub, this one focusing on Western Alamance and Eastern Guilford, an area we call Rock Creek. Lex describes it here. We hope to move more quickly to establish the next several community sites.

We have also moved Nancy McLaughlin's column on faith to the front page of the local section. It's a move we probably should have made much earlier. Nancy is a good storyteller, and her column is popular. Now it will reach people who don't normally venture inside the B section. (Believe it or not, there are a "few" of those.) Meanwhile, Fast Forward will move to Monday's paper and Inside Scoop will run on Tuesday.

The distinct aroma of fresh baked bread drifted through the newsroom Friday.

Or perhaps it came from the crust of a pumpkin pie. I'm not sure. But for a group of folks more used to the scent of ink and raw newsprint the smell certainly made the day's workload lighter.

And that was only a side benefit.

Every once in a while, I like to write about the people who work here. You deserve to know more about the journalists who decide what goes into the paper every day.

This time, however, I'm not writing about their work. This is about exuding the Christmas spirit now and year-round.

The newspaper has been accused of being responsible for many perceived ills over the years: losing business development clients, feeding society's immorality, the dumbing down of Greensboro, the loss of professional hockey, encouraging young people to abandon what's right, and even causing death.

But this is just too much to bear:

I can't believe that after all you wrote about Page and their lousy season, you would put a story about Grimsley on the front page the day of the state championship! (Underline is the writer's, not mine.) Have you not heard of the Sports Illustrated jinx? Now we have the News & Record jinx! Next year, just stay away!

That came as an e-mail this morning. I'm not sure if the writer was joking; I can only hope so. A story about Grimsley quarterback Josh Stewart was on the front page yesterday, and Grimsley did lose.

Let me just say this: There may be a political endorsement jinx, as those candidates who aren't endorsed often claim; I don't know. But I'm not copping to a cover jinx. No way.

Go Whirlies.

Every year on the newspaper of Dec. 25 -- known to many as Christmas day -- we strip a greeting to our readers above the newspaper nameplate on the front page. Given the faux controversy brewing over de-Christianizing Christmas, you want to weigh in now with your preferences?

To put things into perspective, in 1985, we published a drawing of elves in Santa's workshop above the flag (no words). In 1990, we published "Season's Greetings," the salutation we've used ever since.

Editorial cartoonists from across the nation drew cartoons in protest of how many newspapers are responding to current economic conditions. Called Black Ink Monday, the 80-some cartoonists have unleashed "their biting commentary on the current state of affairs in the newspaper business, with a specific emphasis on corporate downsizing."

Like all good editorial cartoons, they cut with jagged glass, show no mercy and ring true. (They load slower than I'd like, but be patient: they're worth it.)

In the I-can-find-a-silver-lining-if-I-look-hard-enough department: We don't have to worry about cutting the position.

We've hired Sonja Elmquist, a correspondent for The Cedar Rapids Gazette in Iowa, as a reporter in our Rockingham County office. In addition to a journalism background -- she was an economics major in college -- she taught school in Germany, is skilled in French, German, Russian and Arabic, and served in the National Guard for eight years. And just for fun, she has experience teaching ballet, playing rugby and has a black belt in one of the martial arts.

Wednesday update: Looks like we're not the only one criticized for a headline involving President Bush's comments.

A couple readers have complained to me about our headline over this Peter Baker story from the Washington Post. We published a shortened version today on page A2 under the headline: "Bush acknowledges Iraqi deaths but has no regrets."

The story starts this way: President Bush estimated Monday that 30,000 Iraqis have died in the war since U.S.-led forces invaded in March 2003, but he offered no second thoughts about ordering the attack and said the threat of terrorism against the United States has subsided as a result.

"Knowing what I know today, I'd make the decision again," Bush told a questioner after a speech here. "Removing Saddam Hussein makes this world a better place and America a safer country."

Unfortunately, in the process of editing a 19-paragraph story down to four-paragraphs to fit the space available, the second sentence in that quotation was cut. More important, the readers correctly point out that the headline is misleading; it could easily be interpreted as meaning that the president was uncaring about the Iraqi dead.

One writer commented: Intended bias or not, this is a very unfair -- and untrue -- headline.... Bush gets more than his share of grief from the N&R, many of its columnists, and letter-writers.

While I'm at it, we've gotten complaints about a headline on our Greensboro Christmas Holiday Parade story.

One writer from Martinsville: What's the matter, John? You folks embarrassed to mention the word "Christmas?" Shame! Shame!

Another from Greensboro: I am disappointed to see that you don't mention Christmas in the "Holiday" parade. After all, Christ is the reason for the season. It disappoints me that you follow the crowd in fear of offending a few, when in fact you offend many more.

Problem is, it's not our parade and we didn't name it. The Jaycees sponsor it and call it the Holiday Parade. If we could change the names of places and events to suit our preferences, well, the mind boggles at the potential. I'm sure you all could suggest some. (Please, no News and Fishwrap references.)

Previously on a related topic.

All you Grimsley fans -- that's you, Hoggard -- don't miss this show. Thanks to photographer, multi-media guru and outstanding alumnus Jerry Wolford.

Mike Riley, editor of The Roanoke Times and the suit behind TimesCast, explains their daily online video program and responds to comments about it here.

We don't plan to worry too much about TV stations. What we're doing is not broadcast TV, and that's intentional. We don't wear makeup. We don't worry (too much) about wardrobe. We simply want to offer users an interactive feed of news and information online each day in a video platform.

And:

What we're doing is an experiment, to be sure. Newspapers have long been averse to experimentation, but, given the imperatives of online, if we don't take innovative steps to shape our future, the future will shape us ... and I'd rather us have a say in what happens.

I don't know if the News & Record is going to do what Roanoke is doing, what Norfolk is doing, or what Rocketboom is doing. (Well, I seriously doubt we could duplicate Amanda's charm.) I do know we're headed down the video road for the same reasons Mike describes. It is another to extend our journalism to people who want it their way. It's an exciting part of the future.

Mike is interested in the conversation and getting feedback about their site. Weigh in.

Brent Hackney, who worked here as a reporter back in the 1970s, passed away today at his home in Southern Pines. The full obit from the Southern Pines Pilot is here.

Brent was gone by the time I got here, serving as press secretary for Gov. Jim Hunt, which is where I first met him. Jim Schlosser, who was here then, says that Brent was a fine writer and an excellent press secretary because, having been a reporter, he understood what reporters needed.

I asked Jim if he had any good stories about Brent. He smiled and said, "None that we could print." That's as fine an epitaph for a reporter as I can think of.

Want a smile? Take a look at this front page of the Dayton Daily News. (Via Romenesko.) Commenters at the News Designer site don't much care for it. It's over the top. It's nothing but a front page ad for the movie. It's bad design. Heck, the ape's hands don't even match the rest of the body.

No, the commenters don't care for it at all.

On the other hand, is it compelling? Yes. Did it attract people who don't read papers to pick up the paper that day? Don't know but I'd bet money it did. Can you see a Time or a Rolling Stone or a New Yorker designed in this style? Absolutely....except they wouldn't waste as much of the space on words in small type.

Would we do it? Not with King Kong because it takes a giant step over the line into using the front page to promote a movie. Heck, if you do it for Kong, what do you do for the next Harry Potter movie? (Now, if it were Jon Bon Jovi of "National Lampoon's The Trouble with Frank," that's another question.)

Seriously, if it were a story with some gravitas and strong art? I think we'd consider it.

Should we?

We announced some new staff assignments this afternoon. This is the announcement that I sent out to the newsroom.

I'm pleased to announce several changes in the News Department.

Tom Steadman will become High Point editor. Tom brings a vast knowledge and variety of experience to the job, having been an editor and reporter at the News & Record for more than 20 years. He's worked in the news, sports and community news departments, and when he was state editor in the 1980s, he was in charge of our High Point coverage. He replaces Michael Grossman. Tom will assume his new role after the holidays.

Michael will become the leader of the News Department's online operation. He will coordinate the newsroom’s online efforts to build new content, and he will work closely with the Interactive Department. He will lead the online team of Michael Fuchs and Lex Alexander. Michael also has a depth of experience, having been a reporter and editor, and spent four years as the news content editor of www.News-Record.com. Michael will assume the job in January.

A year ago, Lex asked readers what we should do to create a new, robust Web presence that would serve readers and the purposes of journalism. His insights -- and those from many of you -- launched us on a journey that has been exciting, instructive and, frankly, much longer than we thought. We're not even close to having arrived. But it’s been a great ride so far.

Our strategy -- no, that's too strong of a term -- our plan was to experiment, to learn and to let ideas bubble up. We didn't know what we didn't know. So we blogged. We solicited citizen journalism. We started podcasts. We added audio. We dipped a toe in video. We did slide shows and multi-media. We set up Hometown Hubs. Some of it extended our journalism, some didn't. But everything taught us something.

We learned that technology is often not our friend. We learned that writing a newspaper story, an online story and blogging about it takes more time than just writing the newspaper story. We learned that not everyone trusts us, likes us or even wants to be constructive. (Well, to be honest, we knew that already.) We learned that audio is easy; good audio isn't. Same with video. There's a reason we're newspaper people.

Does anyone else do this? In Sunday's New York Times Book Review, Pamela Paul writes of "Internet-assisted narcissism" by authors with new books, but it applies to me with the blog.

Thanks to blog search engines like Technorati, IceRocket and Feedster, writers have easy access to the latest entries, where bloggers and their readers post both in-depth and off-the-cuff reactions to the books they're reading.

And later:

Of course the blogsophere can also be a rough place for fragile egos. Rick Moody, a self-described "suppurating wound of vulnerability," admits to having plugged his name into Technorati on several occasions. "I can graph it onto my serotonin levels," said Moody, whose new novel is "The Diviners." It's like taking a pill to enhance suicidal ideation. Even the good ones make me want to kill myself."

Fortunately, I don't plug my name in too often, and it comes up even less often. Every once in a while, though, I get a smile. For instance, I'm not sure which John Robinson is being referred to as "pretty fly", but I doubt it's me.

The Christian Science Monitor posts a virtual tour of its newsroom's day. If we did it, would you watch?

My sense is that it rings true, although they obviously know the cameras are there and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle applies. We wouldn't have a photographer in Mozambique as the CSM does, but reporters talking to editors about busting deadline for stories, copy editors debating the correct spelling of a foreign name, and the managing editor making arcane comments (just kidding, Ann) occurs here just about every day.

I don't know -- we'd probably want to edit out the cursing, the flirting, the gossiping, the bs'ing and the goofing off that makes a newsroom such a special place.

Thanks, Diane, for the link.

There's the Chapman Street Santa. There are the lighted tree balls on Ridgeway and Sunset Hills. And then there's Deerglade Court. I like them all, but Deerglade is my favorite. Gaudy yet charming. Loud yet intimate. It's just simple holiday fun.

We're going to write about it on Saturday in the paper. But take a sneak peek here in Jerry Wolford's multi-media show. You have to be there to get the full force of the 100,000 lights, but this comes pretty close. (My teenagers are waaaaay too cool for this now, but when I hear the dazzled voices of the children on the audio, I'm reminded of the good old days when my kids were captivated by the sights and sounds of Christmas.)

Enjoy.

It's bad when we get someone's name wrong in the paper. It's worse when we publish the error on the front page. It's personally embarrassing when I know the person and realize the mistake the moment I open the paper. We did all that this morning.

Then insult was added to injury when we discovered that the reason we got it wrong is that the subject purposely misidentified himself and gave the name of a classmate as his own.

At least, that's how it appears right now.

After taking the photo, our photographer asked him to write his name on the photographer's notepad so that we would get the correct spelling. This is common practice. Rather that the photographer asking the subject to spell his name, this eliminates the possibility of making a mistake when transcribing the name. Ironic, huh. In this case, the student wrote another student's name.

I won't name the student involved. I happen to know him and this behavior doesn't surprise me. I am sorry for the young man whose name we printed, and who wasn't involved in the photo at all. We'll correct it in the paper tomorrow, but now we have probably thousands of people walking around today wondering how we could have gotten the identification so screwed up.

I guess we've been Punk'd. Doesn't seem all that funny, though.

Update: Photo Director Rob Brown called the student. His report: "He was kind of sheepish, and he said he was just playing around by writing the name of a kid he had seen in the hallway moments before. He apologized for the deception."

Yes, we are quite the buzzkill.

And y'all think we run some goofy photos on the front page.

At least it's not this one, which is the top e-mailed photo on Yahoo!

Update: Whenever I write about some other paper, it comes back onto me. A reader called in this afternoon to say she didn't care for our A1 photo of the man who coaxed the girl off the tracks. She called it an ugly picture -- a nose shot. A good reminder not to get uppity. It's bad karma.

The senior editor at Editor & Publisher, a journal of the newspaper industry, has come up with his list of the Top 10 stories of the industry for 2005. It's an odd list, not because of what's on it, but because of what's not.

Joe Strupp correctly includes the massive job loss at papers, the Miller/New York Times folderol, the possible sale of Knight Ridder and the incredible efforts of the Times-Picayune to publish during and after Katrina.

Inexplicably omitted:
* The widespread circulation decline of virtually every daily newspaper of any size. On my list this displaces job losses for the No. 1 slot. Readers are the liveblood of any paper -- yes, more than advertisers -- and producing journalism they want is the biggest of the challenge looming before us.
* The rapid expansion of technology and the user's control of it. This has been hashed over here and other places to no end. From blogs to citizen journalism sites to podcasting to video to mobility, the world has opened up marvelous opportunities for newspapers....and their readers. When customers control the choices because they have so many other sources and because they can report and publish themselves, then newspapers must understand and facilitate that, not ignore or resist it.
* The great journalism that is being produced across the country. Newspapers continue to focus on public service, despite all the other distractions going on in the industry. Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute has plenty of examples. We could do more, but we're still doing well.

Well, it's happened again. So nice of the Klan to visit our subscribers on Christmas Eve, too.

A reader who lives in zip code 27410 wrote me: Did everyone receive the application to join the KKK in their paper today, or are we just lucky? I trust the paper did not know my carrier was inserting this garbage into the paper. If it is considered advertising, I may be wrong, but I think you can refuse advertising that is distasteful to most people. I would hope we won't be receiving these in the future.

Then a little while later she wrote back: I didn't realize when I wrote you earlier that I didn't know all the facts regarding the KKK application. It was not inserted in the paper, but according to a disclaimer at the bottom of the form, this is the case: "The attached newspaper/magazine is for weight purposes only and should not be considered an endorsement of either this flyer or the Knights Party." The KKK advertisement was rolled up and placed under my
newspaper.

Pam Platt, public editor of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., wrote about this very thing in her column in November. (I linked to it last month.) Her explanation of the practice of using newspapers to weigh down the fliers is most likely the same here.

We were getting ready for a Christmas Eve worship service when one of my daughters said, "I don't really like church that much."

"Why?" I asked. This girl is active in religious groups and goes with a church group on a mission trip for a week every summer to build homes for the poor. She's no slacker.

"I like Young Life and Campaigners better," she said.

After some discussion, it occurred to me that the mainstream church faces the same challenges as the mainstream media.

I've written about the new and wonderful opportunities newspapers have to extend their journalism into audio and video. We're just now starting to understand the possibilities. Julian Gallo, a professor of New Media at the Master of Journalism program offered by the University of San Andrés, Grupo Clarín and the Columbia University School of Journalism, puts a fine point on it for us (via Steve Outing here).

In a single post, he illustrates the value of video, audio and the written word when they complement each other. He uses the written and audio versions of a speech by Juan Perón in 1955 as an example. We could say that, from an informative viewpoint, both the textual and the audio versions are alike. But when we listen, we realize they are not. I would say they complement each other. I can better analyze the written word, but I can better perceive the menacing tone in his voice. The oral version of Perón scares me. The point is that pictures, audio or video material should be included whenever appropriate. As readers, we should learn to demand not to be deprived of multimedia information. Printed newspapers are mute; Internet media are not.

We've intuited this -- and provided audio in isolated cases -- but we haven't fully embraced it for a variety of reasons, not the least of which involve time and resources. With technology and readers' demands racing ahead of us, we must move faster to break the model we've followed for so many years.

To paraphrase Terry Heaton in his post about TV News in a Postmodern World: We will continue to improve our daily journalism, and I hope that it will continue to draw more readers. Meanwhile, to grab new readers and to help them understand their community better, we must use all the creative thinking -- and tools -- at our disposal.

Check out our new ACC basketball page tomorrow Saturday. (A pdf will be online, too, if all goes as planned.) The page will run on Fridays Saturdays through March.

The idea is to highlight the three best ACC games of the week ahead with "a little more insight, a little more attitude and a little more fun," says sports editor Joe Sirera.

In addition to the game previews, the page has:
* "He's Got Game!" -- a feature on which video games the Big Four players are playing
* "TattooU" -- a feature on some of the body art on the players
* "CoachSpeak" -- we ask ACC coaches for a top-five list
* "TrashTalk" -- we encourage readers to speak out

It ain't traditional sports, and that's the point. We want to show readers another side of ACC basketball.

On Friday, we publish a recap of some of the top local stories of the year. We expect it to be controversial because we know that some of the selections are arguable. (And my experience is that many of you like a good argument. :) Besides, it wasn't scientific in the least so why not argue about it?)

Here is a sneak peek:

* The new ballpark
* Dell coming
* JP-Lincoln merger/buyout
* High Point school reassignment plan killed
* Lead testing
* Las Vegas furniture market opens
* Lottery passes
* Helping Katrina victims
* Truth and Rec

So, the Burlington building implosion ain't on the list. Or the Wade-Parks who's-on-first silliness. Or Fantasia's book release promoting her wonderful childhood in High Point.

And alas, no Blogsboro.

What's missing? What shouldn't have been anywhere within spitting distance of the list? Comment below. Me, I'd have added the UNC national championship.

Unlike so many of the end-of-year lists I've read, this one from The Editors Weblog is one of the more interesting, perhaps because it is directed specifically at newspapers and journalism. Here is its list in italics, with my comments next to each item.

1. Print/Online integration becoming the norm. We're already integrated to a great extent; we don't have separate content operations. If you believe the future lies in this direction, it makes sense. However, Lex sent me a story about a Harvard Business School study suggesting that a separate online operation produces more innovation. Oh well. Don't tell anyone.

2. Threats against investigative journalism growing. Agreed. We're doing some restructuring to bolster our investigative report.

3. More transparency needed. Agreed. It's a tough one, though. The discussion often devolves into a just-admit-you're-liberal, no-we're-not argument. And it's more than that. Not everyone reads the blogs or my column in the paper. We could open up more of our internal meetings (and bore the pants off you). And some of our decisions and practices can border on inexplicable. But we'll try.

The hard-nosed traditionalist journalists among us have got to like this suggestion from the Chicago Reader. Michael Lenehan proposes that professional journalists go on strike for a year. Let bloggers, citizen journalists and news robots report the news. Let's have no reporting, no editing, no application of any human intelligence whatsoever to events public or private till January 1, 2007. I'm calling it the Year Without Journalism. Let's all relax, let go, and float blissfully in the information-free state (excuse me, I mean free-information state) that our public awaits so eagerly. (Via Romenesko.)

It's a deliciously cold-blooded rant that makes a lot of sense. Until you think about it for 10 seconds. It reveals the worst side of us, even as it is written by an alt-weekly editor. Defensive. Hard-headed. Blames others, mostly Craig and Google. Feels sorry for ourselves. Thinks that if we hold our breath until we turn blue we'll get what we want, which is a return to the good old days.

Worst of all, it doesn't acknowledge what it should embrace: that the access to new tools, new methods and new information that citizens have we have, too. And we're actually getting paid to use them to serve readers better. Maybe we should try moving forward?

The other problem with his thesis is that nature abhors a vacuum. Our absence would get filled.