News-Record.com

When the Depot was new (an idea years ahead of its time), I talked to the first of what was to be several Depot managers about why the Depot wasn't "taking off." Money, sure, but that wasn't the main thing.

I wanted something online that I could NOT find in the print version. Special online columnists that I looked forward to (e.g. Friedman, but local). Every one of them nodded and didn't do it (went and stuck AP feed there).

I think you should have different "niche supplements" for online and print. They draw different types of readers. Make me WANT to view the online pages even though I subscribe to the print version.

Well, that's the road we're heading down, Sue, so that with the blogs, the podcasts and the multi-media shows, you're getting a lot that you won't get from the paper. In '06, we're going to both refine and expand the additional offerings.

What specifically would do that? What sorts of columnists?

"What sorts of columnists?"

I read the first 2 sections of the paper. Don't read sports. Rarely read life. My interests are in what's going on here and love it when there's a front-page story about "here," like the Tim Rice story this a.m. I love the history of Greensboro. I enjoy "different" things, so...

1. Lee Kinard. Lee can espouse on most anything and once a week would make me go to the N&R site on say, Tuesdays. Lee can write about education, about the way it used to be. He's got TV stores out the wazoo (it's one of your 2000 parts).

2. Stanley Frank. Interview him soon and get his wonderful stories transcribed. His life is almost a parallel to the history of Greensboro. Find out which law he got Jim Hunt to change regarding the airport. There are lots of other people like Mr. Frank (no one the same, but more interesting people).

3. Richard "Dick" Levy. Business owner, formerly on the Board of A&T and did a Masters there. He is sorta kinda Ed Conish, but Dick can tell stories. So can many other old-time GSO folks. Hoggard can do it (well) and so can others from different zip codes. Just find them.

4. The Geek Fix-it Area. Proposed many moons ago. A real column with real people's questions and a pool of ready & willing talent to answer appropriate tech questions. We have the pool. Online gives you space for photos or short video of, say, "how do I change the battery in..." and "how does msconfig work?" and "how do I organize my start menu?"

5. Architecture in GSO. It's a hot topic and the Greenville crowd brought it back with us. Get David Wharton to help vision it (or heck, to write it). What architectural standards are used elsewhere? What are ours? Not just downtown, either...which ones are being proposed?

6. We used to have "2 wants to know" on TV (maybe they still do). How about a "tell us your problem with the city/county and we'll find out why you can't solve it?" It's aligned with Ahearn's (wonderful) columns.

7. "Talk to..."
Online chats or prewritten questions for celebrities in GSO, like the Police Chief, Fire Chief, City Manager, Chair of X and Y and Z. Get the answers, post them. Or get an online real-time forum going. (that's a technology issue, though) (Log on Wednesday night at 8 pm to talk to John Robinson and ask hard-hitting questions about the price of the Sunday paper!)

8. Pass out cheap(er) video cameras to resonsible and diverse people like they give out disposable cameras at weddings. Take footage of things that happen here. Post a montage.

9. Move "church of the week" online with an audio and/or video welcome from the religious leader and a video 360-degree tour of the house of worship. Tell us their histories; they're rich with stories.

10. "Ask your School Board" in real time. Nuff said about that one?

Those came to mind after one glass of wine on a cold evening and after a long week. I almost didn't hit "post" and hope I didn't offend anyone. There are so many local things the online paper can bring that don't translate into print...

Perhaps I'm just crazy... But while I applaud your looking to the future I think a look into the past might not be a bad idea either.

One way to carve your niche is to fill a void, and when it comes to print publications nationwide there seems to be a void of literary publications that appeal to a mass market. Oh sure, there's a few heady magazines out there but few beyond Lit Majors ever bother to read them. You and I both remember when it was common place and expected that newspapers print literary works. I even remember reading a few in the N&R that caused me late deliveries as a paper boy. My literary heroes, Twain, Poe, James Whitcomb Riley, and even Greensboro's own O'Henry all got their starts writing fiction and poetry in daily newspapers, not on occasion but as part of the everyday paper.

One thing Greensboro doesn't have is a void of poets and authors who need someplace south of New York City to submit their works and an audience of 90,000 readers would go a long ways towards launching not only the careers of a few authors but the reputation of a city as a place for the "creative class."

Just a thought, that's all.

Sue has some good ideas. But, I can say that many of them will require waaaaaaaay too much in terms of resources to actually do. Chats? 360 degree tours of churches?

From what I can tell, the N&R needs to get its breaking news right FIRST. The way it works now is just too hit and miss -- and don't try telling me that running three "updated" state AP stories in one day consists of "breaking news."

Also, having been a regular viewer of the Depot, it was largely nothing. The N&R section of it was the only thing with any content -- and the rare bits that were on the Depot seemed like failed lab experiments... The Depot was just a list of links.

You need to get another Depot content group going, but have them develop GOOD content that is not flashy (or Flashy). It needs to be things that Journalists in the newsroom would look down their noses at -- and the vast majority of it should be TEXT driven.

Jim, you wrote, "But, I can say that many of them will require waaaaaaaay too much in terms of resources to actually do. Chats? 360 degree tours of churches?"

I didn't say do all of them. But they're NOT too hard to do. Technology (which may be your field and is mine) has made many of these things easier. Herb has proved that they are.

I agree with you about the Depot; it WAS largely nothing but it could have been something. I don't agree that the majority should be text driven. There should be text options, though. People, esp younger ones, want multimedia and that's where the viral marketing is. The newspaper has to compete and that means more than simply text.

John's original question was about what would interest me online. I proposed a wish list and don't expect to get everything.

One thing among many: a 360-degree tour of a home now costs $99/home. 360-degree lenses can be purchased all over. These things are now very do-able. And the N&R has some darned fine photographers.

I do admire your thinking Sue.

I didn't mean to criticize it. I just know how newsrooms work. If the editor of the paper passes your list on to someone with a tacit or implied desire to do these "types" of things, the people under him will scramble to do all of them -- and do them OVER THE TOP. (And keep doing them forever until someone gets laid off or someone has the guts to say "why are we doing this again?")

I more or less was trying to tell JR that this is not all that easy. While he might be a smart guy, folks on his level rarely understand their "megaphone" power with ideas. (JR might since I've seen him use that term before in posts...)

I still think there are some good things to be done with technology, but there is SO MUCH lacking from the site right now that should be a GIVEN, that I don't want to see resources spent giving me something I don't expect, when the things I DO expect aren't anywhere to be found.

Thanks, Sue and Billy. Good suggestions all. Jim, I don't think that our newsroom is like the newsrooms you say you're familiar with. You're right about one thing -- resources are scarce and we have to make choices about where to put them. That's the first thing on the agenda for our new online team. This input will help.

How about printing the news as it happens and not how you want us to read it. Case and point, the teachers pay raise. You praised TAX HIKE MIKE, however you left out that the NEA membership was dropping like a rock,and MR, Rand stated if the teachers wanted to keep getting raises, they must vote democrat.Case and point you have two letters on the internet now that have been printed twice in the last month (The one on Wally World, and cuts in programs to give tax cuts for the rich.You have the editorial page for your liberal ideas. Thats fine, how about the news in the rest of the paper?????? Not all of us belive that we owe all of our money to the goverment and we need goverment help, from birth to the grave.I know I blogged this before and send you a email about same.