News-Record.com

Kavita Pillai, a reporter for the Guilford Record, is leaving us for Memphis, family and, eventually, law school.

When I told her that society needs good journalists way more than it needs new lawyers, she told me that she wants to be a journalist with a law degree.

She's done outstanding work for us.

Media bias has become increasingly profitable given a polarized electorate in which conservatives and liberals want news coverage that tilts toward their political leanings, according to a University of Illinois study.

"You listen to news not just to get informed, but to be entertained," economist Stefan Krasa said. "And you're more entertained if they tell you you're right than if they tell you you're wrong."

Hmm. I am certainly pleased when I'm told I'm right, but I am vastly entertained when I'm told I'm wrong.

We get occasional complaints -- normally when we mention Sen. Obama on the front page -- that we give him preferential treatment.

Today, your paper, once again, put Sen. Obama on the front page under "Quick Read" with a headline story on p.3, again with picture and plenty of coverage, while relegating Sen. McCain to "Washington Brief", two paragraph story farther down the page. In sales, we call this Position-Position-Position. Just another of your many ways to try to show Sen. Obama in the best of circumstances while trying to downplay his opponent. If you can't see this for yourself, you need to have your eyes checked.

That was yesterday. Obama was on the front page because his proposal to expand efforts to send money to religious groups is a decent news story. It breaks with his more liberal positions for one thing, and it expands upon a program that began in a Republican White House. On the other hand, Sen. McCain's visit to Colombia was much less newsworthy. He essentially asked the country to do a better job with human rights. Worthy but hardly surprising.

Still, we're going to track our presidential coverage to see who gets what sort of coverage day in and day out. The one caveat: When it comes to politics, we try to be fair, but we can't always give equal coverage. Sometimes candidates make news by what they say and do. And attempting to be equal cannot trump news judgment.

In December, three Greensboro police officers were suspended with pay after being accused of assault. We sued the city to force the release of more information that we believed was public information. The City Council then agreed to release as much information as possible about the case, and we dropped the suit.

Months and months later, the case is still unresolved, except that the officers haven't been charged with anything and the DA has said he does not have enough evidence to prosecute anyone.

Fine.

So what happens when we ask whether the officers are still on administrative leave? The city tells us they don't have to tell us. They refer to this ruling by a Superior County judge in another county in another case, a ruling that is not binding on the city. We're writing about this tomorrow.

Aside from the issue of why this case has dragged on for more than six months without apparent resolution, there's another point: the city's tendency toward opacity over transparency.

I understand that city lawyers are trying to protect employee rights. But the city of Greensboro is not a private business. Its employees work, in effect, for the taxpaying citizens of Greensboro.

When is someone at City Hall is going to start thinking more expansively and openly about what the public should know? Keeping information secret isn't normally the best path to restoring public trust and confidence.

We had discussion as to whether the story about Gettysburg and the Confederate Flag was too much on the front page. Or too high on the front page. Were there were too many images of the Confederate Flag on the front page? (The Confederate Flag is a divisive issue 'round here.)

You can see where I stood on those questions. How about you?

Juan Antonio Giner over at Innovations in Newspapers often posts photographs of newsrooms, both current and historic. Here's one unearthed from our archives that could serve as the beginning of a new series.

That's reporter Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane and me in our younger days, although somehow Dawn still looks the same today and I have no mustache and less hair on top of my head. Much less hair.

But anyway, that's not what this is about. This photo was taken at a company strategic retreat at least 10 years ago. Beer? We were drinking alcoholic beverages on company time on the company dime? In front of God and everybody? Boy, has that policy ever changed.

Hmmm, is it just a coincidence that newspapers were strong and dominant then, too?

Tomorrow will be one of those papers with the big story that tells people what they already know: Jesse Helms is dead. But it is a keeper because, regardless of what you think of him, Jesse was a pivotal figure in North Carolina politics.

I listened to Helms as a television editorialist as I grew up in Raleigh and wasn't impressed with his rabid conservatism or racial views. That did not change as we both grew older. But his savviness as a politician -- and manager of the press -- cannot be denied.

Through the years, I interviewed and spoke with Sen. Helms many times. He was always gracious and helpful. My first newspaper job was in Monroe, where Jesse's father had been police chief. He grew up there and went to Wingate College, which is also in Union County. While as a politician he castigated the liberal media, he was always kind to us at the Enquirer-Journal in Monroe. We actually felt pretty blessed politically because in addition to Helms, two other influential politicians -- Henry Hall Wilson and Skipper Bowles -- were born in Monroe.

All are gone now.

I have a couple manila folders full of newspaper clippings of my daughters' achievements in school, sports and extracurricular activities. My parents have the same for me buried in a box in their attic.

As we move more content out of the newspaper -- paper gets more expensive by the day so we're trying to save it -- we move it online. That's as it should be. Accessible information you care about is a valuable commodity.

But we've tried to keep what is called "refrigerator journalism" in the newspaper. Refrigerator journalism refers to the things that parents clip and hang onto the refrigerator. Intensely personal. Hyper-micro-local. So micro-local that it may interest only one family. That's why we devoted an entire page a few days ago to listings of community swim meet results. I didn't read any of it, but you bet I did when my children were on a swim team years ago. And it is safely nestled in one of those manila folders.

Those swim results -- and school honor rolls and graduates -- take up precious newshole. With budgets tightening everywhere, do these lists with such a limited audience deserve immunity from cuts? Wouldn't that space be better used to publish compelling content that may appeal to a wider audience? There is a related discussion on journalism Web sites that this sort of hyper-local news is one of the reasons that people find newspapers boring. Without a child involved in swimming, why care about swim meet results?

I acknowledge that newspapers can be more interesting. The stuff that we do as a public service -- write about city and state government, for instance -- will never be made into a blockbuster movie starring Bruce Willis. Online, about the only time government stories make the most viewed list is when one elected official attacks another. Yet reporting on the activities of elected officials and public servants is at the core of what newspapers do. I don't see that changing. It also doesn't need to be boring, which is the journalists' challenge.

But I digress. If we moved the lists online only -- they are online as well as in the paper now -- would they have the same emotion meaning as being in the paper? Would parents print out the online swim results to post on their refrigerators? I'm doubtful. They would, I suppose, place the Web address in a favorites folder. But Web links rot.

Would children get a thrill from seeing their names on a Web site? I'm thinking yes, however short-lived. With the omnipresence of social networks, it's hardly unusual to have your name various places online. How exciting is one more?

Still, one of the joys of getting your name in the paper is the belief that tens of thousands of people -- your friends and neighbors, too -- will happen upon it and recognize your achievement. That can happen online, too, if you have enough Facebook friends.

Before we can move listings to online only, we need to improve our Web offering. Most newspaper sites are not yet the indispensable place for all things community. We certainly aren't. When we become the place where I go to get significant information I want -- significant to me...quite possibly insignificant to you -- then we will be on the way to cracking the hyper-local code. That means helping people connect with the people, products and information they need when and how they need it. A big task, but not remotely an impossible one.

I asked one of my now college-aged daughters if she cared that we saved the newspaper clippings of her achievements. Her response mirrored what mine would have been 35 years ago: "You saved them? What'd you save them for?"

Yet, at the same time, every Christmas we still have a laugh over a photo of my little sister -- their aunt -- when she was about 4 praying next to an advent wreath, looking so uncharacteristically angelic.

The photo was taken by a photographer with the Tulsa World in 1960. My parents clipped it saved it.

A friend e-mails: "Isn't it just like Jesse Helms, whose dislike of newspapers is legendary, to die at the very worst time for newspapers?"

The reference is to newspaper deadlines, which are around midnight to 1 a.m., generally speaking. So Jesse's last act was to make sure that newspapers were the last to tell people the news. He must be smiling.

From page 471 of the police report:

After significant accomplishments by the Department or major crimes, regardless of the hour of day or day of week, the PIO should prepare a news release for the media and the Department. News media agencies should not be expected to jump through hoops for basic public information. When there are unpleasant events or complaints, which will occur in any agency, the Department should put the facts on the table in a timely manner. When there are accomplishments as evidenced by the Study Team in Greensboro, the CIty and Department needs to put those accomplishments on the table.

About time.

We have had problems getting basic information about crime from the police department. I'm talking basic public information. We have spoken with city officials about the issue, but progress has been limited. We know that police officers often perform heroic acts. We have asked to be alerted when this occurs. Again, progress has been limited. And I have written many times, most recently here, about the difficulty getting information about "unpleasant events or complaints."

More openness would go a long way toward dealing with the public perceptions of the department.

Here are two of the preceding paragraphs relating to public information:

Sixteenth, the City should provide funding for a full-time public information officer (PIO). Members throughout the ranks noted that the Department does not do a good job at announcing events or activities within the Department. In reading daily news accounts, it is apparent that there are opportunities for improvement. News media agencies should not be required to find someone to make a statement on crimes, complaints, status of incidents, or the many positives in police departments.

The Department has a written directive on News Media Relations. The directive, Number 20.3, states that "the Executive Officer to the Chief of Police shall serve as the Public Information Officer for the Department. The PIO shall serve as the primary media contact during normal business hours, Monday through Friday, from 0800 to 1700 hours." Modern news media requirements are not a 9-5 job. With the current duties and demands it is virtually impossible for the executive officer to the chief of police to serve effectively as the PIO for the Department.

Update: Related action last night.

We've had our share of what I consider frivolous lawsuits over the years, but I don't think any have been quite like this one against our friends at The News & Observer.

From a Courthouse News Service report: A subscriber filed a class action against the News & Observer newspaper, claiming its plan to lay off 70 workers will deliver an inferior product to customers who subscribed before the layoffs began on June 17 -- part of 1,400 layoffs in the McClatchy newspaper chain.

While I haven't seen a comment from the folks at the N&O, I suspect they would have gladly refunded his money in the way we do in the non-litigious world.

Thursday update: The N&O catches up with the story.

Good quote from Editor John Drescher:

"We've had some really good papers recently, and they're worth more than the 36 cents a day that Mr. Hempstead is paying us. In fact, he owes me money. So when he gets a lawyer, he can work with my lawyer and figure out how much he's going to pay me for the excellent coverage he's been getting recently."

Yesterday the N&O published photos of a terminally ill child cradled in his parents arms right after his death. The photos illustrated a feature story about Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, a group of professional photographers who volunteer their time to make memories for moms and dads with children in dire medical circumstances.

Ted Vaden writes about why the paper decided to publish the photos, which made some readers queasy.

We wrote about the same organization in 2006 -- discussed here and here -- and it looks like the N&O made the same decision about the photographs we did.

Andy Bechtel has an interesting post about a commenter on an N&O blog asking "Please report this in a normal article in the print version of the N&O also."

Andy observes: It's interesting that this reader sees a reporter's blog post this way -- as less significant, if not "abnormal." The request also indicates that the post would have greater weight on newsprint than on screen. It's somehow less serious in the blog format -- and of course, not as widely read as it would be in the print newspaper.

As producing print media becomes less profitable and reporting through blogs increases, readers can expect to see more news that appears only on the Web. Just when those posts will have the same impact as a story in the paper is unclear.

We have had similar requests, and I have talked with some about it. They didn't see the blog format as less relevant. Indeed, they loved the give and take. Instead, they simply wanted a different and wider audience to read the post (and discussion). They wanted to make sure the print newspaper's 200,000 or so readers were informed so that they might be inspired to effect change. Bear in mind, of course, that the posts they were interested in replicating in print are ones in which their views were affirmed. Or at least they thought the posts affirmed them.

We are a good ways from "just when those posts will have the same impact as a story in the paper." That is not to diminish the value or impact of bloggers -- I kind of like us -- but a reflection of how people use the paper and its built-in readership and how they use the Web, which is far more vast, diverse and fragmented. And, of course, it is still in its infancy and its users are still learning, adapting and growing.

Tony Snow died this morning.

Nationally, Snow is best known for his roles as President Bush's press secretary and Fox News host, but in our shop he is remembered as a former editorial writer for The Greensboro Record back in the 70s. He got his start in journalism here.

Sigh.

Update: Fox is doing a live show on Tony tonight at 9 p.m. on On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.

Carol Dykers, who was a city editor with me here in the the 80's, is now teaching communication courses at Salem College. Well, she's been there since 1995 but we just reconnected. She's a specialist in civic journalism, public polling by news media, visual communication, and the role of news media in creating community.

She has kept her hand in street-level journalism, too, creating documentaries.

Tomorrow, Lorraine Ahearn reports on the whereabouts of Mark Hoffmann, the homeless man who hung out on a bench near Friendly Center before he suddenly disappeared in May. The response we got from people who had seen Hoffmann over the years on that bench or walking the bike trail along Bryan Boulevard was overwhelming. I think he has more friends than I do.

It gets better. A Pennsylvania woman, who hadn't seen her father since 1989 and had lost track of him, saw the column and connected the dots. Hoffmann is her father.

Now a News & Record reader visiting Maryland recognizes Hoffmann in church. Some calls are made. His daughter drives to meet him. Lorraine tells the story better so I won't steal any more thunder.

I'm only doing it now because there's a little debate out there about whether newspapers should build community. Over at Newspaper Death Watch, the post is titled "The Fallacy of 'Community.'" Steve Yelvington calls BS. I'm with Steve.

I don't know if Lorraine's tracking of Hoffmann from disconnection to reconnection is building community, but it feels like it to me.

Yesterday I got a call from someone at Fox News about the program they were doing on Tony Snow. They wanted to put someone on the program who had worked with Tony here.

It made me think of some of the other distinguished thinkers and writers who have come through our editorial department. An incomplete list in no special order:

* Ed Yoder, who won a Pulitzer Prize at the Washington Star.
* Jonathan Yardley, who won a Pulitzer Prize at The Washington Post.
* Newsweek critic Malcolm Jones.
* Weekly Standard publisher Terry Eastland.
* John Alexander, retired president of the Center for Creative Leadership.

This would be an all-star department, except that some of them worked for the afternoon paper, The Greensboro Record, and others for the Greensboro Daily News. Some were liberal, some conservative. They also weren't here at the same time. Yoder started in 1961 and Alexander left in 1986 1990. And the list doesn't even include Bill Snider, who started it all by hiring Yoder and who stayed here until retirement.

Say what you will about the editorial positions they took, the department certainly is a career launching pad.

Craig Lindsey, movie critic at the N&O, had a piece yesterday on the importance of movie critics. (Via Romenesko.)

Without critics to remind people that cinema is more than just entertainment used to pass the time, but a visual medium that can challenge and inform as well as excite and be enjoyed, moviegoing will become as automatic and artificial an experience as reading the wire reviews often patched into your local paper.

We are necessary not just because we start the conversation, but because we keep the conversation going.

It's the kind of thing that makes you want to, well, go sit through "Hellboy II."

I haven't been a big supporter of keeping movie reviewers on staff when it comes at the expense of another position. Most of the arguments are here.

But it seems as though Lindsey's piece assumes that newspapers will stop publishing reviews, which is hardly the case. Lindsey refers to wire reviews as an artificial experience, but he doesn't even try to make the case that local reviews are better or any more significant to local readers. And that, to me, is the point.

The question before editors today is, what does a local reviewer bring to the table when he reviews "Hancock" that a wire reviewer doesn't? And is it worth the cost?

Having a staff arts critic or music critic makes more sense than a movie critic because they are reviewing local events and artists. But I suspect -- and this is just a guess -- that newspapers employ more movie critics. More readers go to the movies, after all.

I've got nothing against movie critics. I like reading movie reviews. But given the choice between a movie critic and a local reporter? Well, we made that decision long ago.

"They're making mountains out of a gnat's turd," said Regina VonCannon, a potter with a shop in downtown Seagrove, about the dispute.

That is the caption to a photo illustrating a front-page story about a feud in Seagrove.

The thoughts of one reader: Well, just when I thought the world was about as crass as it can get, I see that the News & Record wants to join the crowd. Regarding the caption under the photograph of the woman from Seagrove...how classy!!!! Come on...what happened to high standards?

Unfortunately, the world isn't as crass as it can get. Turd is not on our list of forbidden terms...when someone else uses it.

The truth is that sometimes a quote is so colorful and so telling, you just have to let that baby run.

Update: On the other hand, I just got an e-mail thanking us for publishing a story about the latest at the Mediterranean Union. Bravo on your article about the Mediterranean Union in section A of the newpaper today!!! It is always thrilling to read about earth shaking news from around the world. Even the television stations failed to note this momentous news this time. I realize that this was from The Associated Press, but I would very much like to know exactly what the names of these 40 plus nations are.

Specifically I would like to know whether or not Iraq or Iran would be included in this union(which would be even more difficult to believe). I also hope that the newspaper will continue to provide follow up information about this dramatic move.

Does this story about Rep. Howard Coble and its display seem as if we are giving him an advantage in an election year?

The question was raised yesterday. We decided that it is noteworthy that Coble has become the longest serving Republican in the state. With the election a long four months away, we didn't think the story would unduly sway any voter now. Had we been trying to parse his views and votes over 24 years, we would have handled the story differently.

Of course, Dr. Bratton may not see it that way.

We published a story today about Pruitt Rainey, who was killed Sunday in Afghanistan.

The Burlington Times-News had the story, too, but didn't publish.

Editor Madison Taylor writes: We actually had a story ready to go Monday night that was at least as documented as the current one by the News and Record (sic). By Tuesday night we had a lot of information the N&R didn't have -- including the rank and base where the young man was stationed.

From our perspective the News and Record story with only two sources, no military rank, no base is way to skimpy to publish.

Our reason for publishing wasn't complicated. The death of a local serviceman in fighting in Afghanistan is news, and we believed it to be true. We had family and church confirmation of his death. There was a lot more information we wanted for the story, but couldn't get. Still, we didn't think much about holding the story to await the military.

The Times-News went ahead and published its story on its Web site this morning, presumably without military confirmation. Because the News and Record (sic) has a story on its Web site about this incident and Channel 2 does as well, I’ve decided to post ours so readers will at least have more information.

But I’m not comfortable with it.

I would not have changed what we did, but I understand the Times-News decision. When to publish what you have on sensitive topics is often a tough call.

Commenters Fred Gregory and jaycee and I have been carrying on a conversation/debate about when comments should be deleted. (Some of the conversation has occurred off-line.)

It was provoked by a particularly offensive comment someone made on this post about Tony Snow's passing.

Fred suggested I delete the comment because it "is beneath contempt." While I don't disagree with his evaluation of the comment, I am reluctant to delete it.

It doesn't expressly violate our terms of use that I can tell. (The terms even warn users that By using the Online Service web sites, you may be exposed to Content that you may find offensive, indecent, inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise objectionable.)

It also pushes me further into the gray area of deciding which comments are contemptible and which aren't. And I am not convinced I am the best judge of that. (Now I pretty much only delete comments that insult other commenters or contain profanity. And I've probably only had to do that a dozen or so times.)

I also think that other readers can judge for themselves the intelligence and value of comments. When someone says something stupid, it usually comes across as stupid.

But I could be wrong. Should I tighten the comment policy?

Now that we've faced the reality of the newspaper business, what now? Where do journalists go from here? Where do news companies go?

Go to where the people are going, right? Well, duh. (Funny, though, how we have such problems figuring out where that is.)

Now, thanks to Michele McLellan we have some information from Jeffrey Cole, who runs the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern Cal, that helps shine a light. His research on young people and the media is filled with potential for news companies. As McLellan reports his comments at a conference yesterday:

Life of a 12-24-year-old:

* Will never read a newspaper but attracted some magazines
* Will never own a land-line phone (and may never wear a watch)
* Will not watch television on someone else's schedule much longer
* Trust unknown peers more than experts
* For the first time (2005) willing to pay for digital content
* Little interest in the source of information and most information aggregated
* Community at the center of Internet experience
* Think not interested in advertising or affected by brand, but wrong
* Everything will move to mobile
* Television dominates less than any generation before (important but not the only thing that's important to them)
* Want to move content freely from platform to platform with no restrictions
* Want to be heard (user generated)
* Use IM. Communicate through Facebook. Think e-mail is for their parents

Some of this research will surprise of some of us, and my guess is that many will deny it. "They will trust peers they don't know over us??? They don't care about the source of what they're getting??? They don't use e-mail??? That doesn't make sense. Everybody uses e-mail! How can they not trust us? We've been here 100 years!"

But this is an excellent roadmap showing us where people are moving. It's mobile. It's social networks. Our "trusted brand" is devalued. We can talk about various platforms; they just want it when, how and where they want it. The challenge for news companies is to diversify, expand and experiment. The challenge for journalists is to learn and use new digital skills to extend their journalism.

Steve Smith of the Spokesman-Review has another take on Cole's talk.

Just for fun, we took a page from our magazine cousins today and produced two different Life fronts on the release of "The Dark Knight." The papers were spaced so that the same neighborhood got different versions, and the different issues made it into the same box.

Collect both!

Credit goes to assistant features editor Mike Kernels and artist Tim Rickard.

Newspaper.

My advice: Stay with black & white. You can do more with it. But before you start gluing, be prepared to change your room color scheme as newsprint yellows after a week or so of sunlight.

Happy Friday.

(Via Coudal Partners.)

This story about the computer tape stolen from a member of the staff of Greensboro Gynecology Associates is an interesting one. Police say that 47,000 people have been notified that their personal information may have been on the tape.

Note that police are saying that. The medical practice isn't saying much of anything.

Virtually all of our information has come from police and patients. The practice sent a letter to the 47,000 people, but the patients said that it didn't have much detail. A computer expert cast doubt on the veracity of a statement in the letter that the stolen data would be difficult to access.

Greensboro Gynecology hasn't talked with us or other media, best I can tell. Two e-mail responses to questions from reporter Ryan Seals haven't contained much information.

Patients, though, have talked with us. Many of them are angry and asking questions, the same ones we ask: The tape and laptop were was stolen after thieves broke jimmied a window in the employee's car, but the employee didn't notice the theft until the next day? The theft occurred on a Thursday night, but not reported to police until the following Wednesday? Then a letter wasn't sent to patients until at least after June 16? The data was not encrypted?

That's some of the anger. Others want information: What information about me is at risk? How do I protect myself? What companies do I need to contact to safeguard my identity?

Greensboro Gynecology is certainly not a public entity in the government/taxpayer-supported sense so the usual avenues to information aren't there. But the company sure is public when 47,000 people are possibly exposed. As one reader said to me: They have no clue what "transparency" means either. They don't know how to do damage control. They handled it wrong; a phone number or web video would have been a good start. If you call the office now, they have no one to talk to you.

There's a lesson there.

Because I have been critical of how the city has handled the case of the three police officers accused of assault, I will give credit where credit is due. As promised, the city notified the media of its action in the case.

Two of the three Greensboro police officers accused of sexual assault by a female officer were fired today, according to City Manager Mitchell Johnson.

Hold on just a minute update: Saturday's story.

"It was some of the bravest stuff I've ever seen in my life, and I will never see it again because those guys," Stafford said, then paused. "Normal humans wouldn't do that. You're not supposed to do that -- getting up and firing back when everything around you is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head ... It was a fistfight then, and those guys held ' em off."

"Just hardcoreness I guess," he said. "Just guys kicking ass, basically. Just making sure that we look scary enough that you don’t want to come in and try to get us."

That's end of a story in Stars and Stripes this morning about the firefight in Afghanistan that killed Cpl. Pruitt Rainey of Alamance County and wounded Sgt. Matthew Gobble of Thomasville.

The piece by Steve Mraz is powerful. Read the whole thing and listen to the multimedia. It's a the latest exhibit of how compelling journalism can shine a light into places most readers fear to go.

You might think -- at least I do -- that the traditional wire services would send us more like this. I guess they are too busy running with the pack following Obama in Afghanistan. Fortunately, the good people at Stars and Stripes are going to allow us to reprint this story. (Robb Grindstaff, a former GM at the Asheboro Courier-Tribune and now executive editor of Stars and Stripes in Europe, made it happen. Thanks, Robb.)

Don't you love the description of the men from the Triad: "Just guys kicking ass, basically."

Related: We have memories of Rainey and a little bit of inside baseball on publishing a story about his death.

Update: I should have credited John Appel for tipping me to the S&S story. Thank you, sir.

The best thing about this story -- well, no, not the best thing. The best thing is the story of these all-American men -- but one of the next best things about this story is how it ended up on the front page this morning.

John Appel, with whom I have traded e-mails and blog comments over the years -- it would be fair to say that he and I don't always see eye-to-eye -- sent me a link, recommending I read the Stars and Stripes story about the firefight that involved two of the Triad's fighting men. I did.

It was Saturday morning and I didn't think I had much chance of reaching anyone at Stars and Stripes, much less getting permission to reprint the story in today's paper. But I gave it a shot. Went to their Web site and shot an e-mail to about six different people telling them we wanted to reprint it and asking about the rights.

I got an immediate response from the editor of S&S, granting the rights. Knowing something about deadlines and press schedules, he said we could handle the paperwork later this week. I suspect it helped that the editor, Robb Grindstaff, is an alum of the Asheboro Courier-Tribune and knows where Haw River is. Update: Writer Steve Mraz is a 1998 UNC Journalism School grad so he knows where Haw River is, too.

Readers often ask us to reprint articles published elsewhere; they are usually columns that affirm the reader's position. Most of the time, they come from publications or writers that don't permit reprints or by the time they reach us, the columns are a bit moldy. Either that, or they are stories from the Internet with origins that are either obscure or impossible to track.

Maybe it was because everything fell together nicely, but I like how this worked. A reader alerted us to a good local story we were unaware of and it was on the front page of our next edition.

A side note: An editor working Saturday asked me if they should call the families of the two men from the Triad as a courtesy to let them know the story was being published in our paper. (Presumably they knew it was published Saturday by Stars and Stripes.) I said I didn't feel strongly either way, and I don't know if they did.

I've read a number of reports about the latest survey of newspaper editors by Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. I haven't read the actual report yet, and I'll get to it, but the stories seem consistent.

We march right along with most of what the other papers report: smaller staff, smaller newshole, less world news, more local emphasis, more movement to digital.

One point to make before I read the whole thing. Some commentators bemoan the cut back in space devoted to international news. We scaled back some years ago because our research showed that a vast majority of readers said they got that elsewhere. Why use the newsprint to give readers something that they don't look to us to provide?

(I was surprised that 15% of newspapers over 100,000 reported not having reduced their staffs over the past three years. I wonder where those papers are. I know they aren't in N.C.)

The Fox affiliate in Las Vegas has begun featuring McDonald's coffee in a prominent product placement on its morning news/talk program. Invariably, this will be met with calls of outrage from journalists all over.

Not here.

Assistant Sports Editor Margaret Banks is all over this revenue enhancement opportunity. She proposes "selling sponsorships to the afternoon budget meeting: 'Here's Wednesday's sports lineup, brought to you by Duracell. Duracell … the world’s best rechargeable battery. Period. OK. We’ll have coverage of East-West all-star soccer …"

Me, I'm happy with the sticker ad that occasionally adorns the front page, but Margaret is an innovator and I don't want to dampen that spirit.

Amid all the hecticness over 24/7 publishing deadlines, stretched-thin staff and the challenge of understanding a new business model, it is hard sometimes to remember to stop and take a deep breath.

This column in The New York Times reminded me. Unfortunately, you have to register to read it. But it's worth it.

It is about a geriatric doctor going about her rounds and how she falls into the trap of treating death as just another part of her busy day. The nut graf for me: I learned that day that I needed to slow myself down, to appreciate the gravity of the moment, the power of time and the depth and proximity of my work. It was a very big deal.

In this business, we don't deal in death, most days. But we do start the day at a run and end the day in a sprint, with a bunch of 50-yard dashes in between. And then the run starts all over again. It is, I know, not unlike many other businesses. This just happens to be the one I know and love.

It is worth remembering that we should stop every so often to reflect on what we have: the pleasure of going wherever we like and asking all sorts of impertinent, important questions of others; the opportunity to learn new skills as our craft evolves and expands; the joy of working alongside inquisitive, passionate and funny people; and the attention of tens of hundreds of thousands of people who look at our work, including many of whom who pay cash money for it.

That's worth appreciating.

Now, back to work.

Some folks on the Debatables blog are debating our photo of Maurice Green, the candidate for school superintendent from Charlotte-Meck schools. One e-mailed me and the editor of The Charlotte Observer about the photo.

While the published photo probably won't qualify as a mug shot, it appears to be one more associated with a criminal than that of a professional. Clearly public perceptions of these type of images can not be understated, and it simply was not a good impression for a man who has less than 48 hours to make one with the residents of Guilford County. The sad reality is that many have already formed their opinion of this man solely based upon this published picture.

When the names of the two superintendent finalists were announced Monday evening, we requested the home papers of the candidates -- the Observer and the Laurinburg Exchange -- to send us photos. When the photos came to us, we had a traditional posed photo of Dr. Prince at her desk and an action shot of Mr. Green. To make them size equivalent, we cropped both down to mugshot size. While I quibble with the e-mailer that Mr. Green's makes him look like a criminal, I understand his point.

Here's the original photo we received from the Observer.

Seeing the entire photo shows the context of Mr. Green's facial expression. He was standing, clearly about to answer a seated questioner in the audience. Cropping the image down to a mugshot makes him look less flattering. That wasn't intentional.

We will have different photos of both candidates today as they make their first public appearances in Greensboro.

A couple bloggers noted the News & Record's appearance on Letterman last night.

Here it is. Thanks to our friends at WFMY, who passed it along. Update: Here's WFMY's story. Bottom line, bird still lost.

Update: News researcher David Bulgin passes along the link that the N&R was mentioned in "Small Town News" last month, too. Here's the clip. Greensboro is the final item, at about the 4:10 mark. (Personally, I liked the one at the 3:05 point better.)

DJ Chris Kelly on Rock 92 invited media outlets to bid to be the exclusive publishers of photos of his new baby, in that way that celebrities do. While he specifically called out the News & Record -- well, he also mentioned Auto Trader and the Thrifty Nickel -- he said his preference was Yes! Weekly because of the suck-up coverage the tabloid did on the station's recent Bubbalympics.

Fair enough.

Should we bid? The baby is due this fall so the photos may be a welcome break from the diet of boring political coverage. On the other hand, some people may accuse us of pandering. Or worse.

This is new territory for us, so I solicit the advice of you, dear readers.

Update: One in-house wag suggests we go for photos of Rosemary Plybon 's twins. Way more followers of the WFMY morning show announcer.

We redesigned Go Triad, our entertainment magazine, today. (GoTriad.com will be redesigned later with different elements and for a different audience.) As editor Carla Kucinski Seward said in her message to readers: The biggest difference you'll notice is the overall design; it's fresher, cleaner and more reader friendly. We've changed fonts, renamed features, reorganized the layout and given it more of a magazine feel.

We also introduced a new feature to our Life front: a photo spread that tells its a story in images each week. Sometimes they will be staff photos, others they will be the best photos from around the world.

Newspaper readers, let us know what you think.

I understand the frustration and anger inside some parts of the newspaper business these days, but isn't this behavior by adults embarrassing? Even when it's done by journalists?

Especially when there are smart people who are suggesting you channel your energy in other, more constructive ways?

I have spent the past week unsubscribing to e-mail lists that I never subscribed to in the first place. I'm not talking about your run-of-the-mill spam for Russian babes and get-rich schemes. I'm talking public policy notices that I presume are sent to me because I'm with a media outfit. They range from opinion pieces from somewhere else to releases from businesses and governmental agencies that are legitimate but of no interest to us.

The experience is fascinating in its own bizarro way. I get three reactions:

1. I click the unsubscribe link and get sent to a page that doesn't exist.
2. I click the unsubscribe link and get unsubscribed. Or at least that's what the page tells me, but who knows?
3. I click the unsubscribe link and get asked why I want to unsubscribe. The page lists possible choices, although none lists my reason: Never wanted.

The worst is the e-mail with no information about unsubscribing.

Still, it is not as bad as the snail mail coming into the business. Everyone once in a while I will sort and deliver the mail coming into the newsroom. Don't be surprised. It's easy and takes almost no time because I toss 80 percent of it directly into the trash unopened. It's easy to tell from the envelope if it has value.

Just sayin.'

After the school board voted to offer the superintendent's job to Mo Green last night, board member Amos Quick thanked the two assistant superintendents who had run the school system for the past several months. The board and the crowd gave the one assistant who was there a standing ovation.

The reporter from the News & Record remained seated, taking notes.

It may seem rude, but it is generally a rule that reporters don't applaud much of anyone when they're on the job covering a news event. It goes with the turf of being independent of the people and institutions you cover.

I thought of this as I've read about the exuberance with which Sen. Obama is expected to be received at the Unity Convention, a conference of members of the national associations of Black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian American journalists. If there is cheering among supposedly objective, unbiased journalists, how will it be interpreted?

I understand the significance of having a minority candidate in a serious run for the highest office in the land. I think I can understand how personally exciting that is. And I certainly see and feel his charisma.

But then I also remember the abuse that one of our reporters took when she expressed, with too much exuberance, her appreciation for Condi Rice at the end of an interview with the Secretary of State a few years ago.

No question that personal feelings can outrun professional obligations. We don't permit journalists to campaign for candidates or put bumper stickers or post yard signs for candidates. We don't want to put our credibility in jeopardy. We vote, but we also exercise dispassionate detachment as best we can. We know that some members of the public question our objectivity, and we don't want to further fuel the perception that we favor one candidate over another.

In 1999, I attended a journalists conference where then President Clinton was invited to speak. He was politely applauded at his introduction and at the end of his talk. Politely. Most of us were simply conference attendees; I didn't see the working reporters clapping.

Myself, on Sunday, I hope Sen. Obama is greeted with applause, polite, respectful applause.

Sunday update: From a Chicago Tribune report: At UNITY, the applause was restrained, after organizers reminded conference participants that the appearance was being nationally broadcast and they should make every effort to maintain "professional decorum."

Still, Obama received a standing ovation from many in the audience at the start and end of his appearance. There was also a rush toward the stage after his speech, as Obama shook hands and signed autographs.

We have talked about this John Edwards story for a couple days. The arguments to publish and not to publish are pretty well covered in these links.

For our part, we got nothing to publish. AP hasn't moved anything. The New York Times hasn't moved anything. The other wires we use have sent us nothing, all because they don't have any independent confirmation that what the Enquirer is reporting is actually true. I have no doubt, though, that many of their reporters are on the trail.

Surprisingly, I have not gotten many calls about the story. I don't know if that is because it comes from the Enquirer, because people don't know about it or because it's summer and people have better things to do than obsess over a politician without an office. For the record, I have no idea if the allegations are true. I would be disappointed, but not surprised. (Is it possible to be surprised anymore by any behavior exhibited by national politicians?)

In any case, we aren't avoiding the story because of some bias. We will publish if we get a story from a credible source.

I've been in meetings like this. Heck, I've run meetings like this.

In its own absurd way, it does describe the "new product creation process" that stymies the industry sometimes. Except that in real life more people get involved, and money gets discussed more. But, hey, a stop sign is a good idea.

Via Seth Godin.

My newspaper column

Last Sunday, we published a gripping story about the firefight in Afghanistan that killed or injured at least 24 American soldiers, including two from the Piedmont Triad.

The battle against about 200 Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province was, at its core, about American tenacity and courage. It was all the more personal to Piedmont Triad readers because Army Cpl. Pruitt Rainey of Haw River died there and Sgt. Matthew Gobble of Thomasville was injured.

We had written about Rainey and Gobble earlier in the week, but this story of the battle was different. And it is worth noting how it came to be published on our front page.

After years of resistance, we've joined Charlotte, Raleigh, Fayettevile, Asheville and other papers around the state in charging $1.50 for the Sunday paper. The reason shouldn't surprise you: as with so many other things, expenses are through the roof. I think that this is the first single copy price increase in 10 years.

Hey, if you would redeem just a couple of the $100 worth of coupons included in the paper, you'd have the whole paper paid for!

The American Editor is a magazine published by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, of which I am a member. It is published four times a year and comes with the ASNE membership.

The magazine publishes the sorts of stories you'd think it would. The summer issue has a cover story on the flooding in Cedar Rapids and how the paper published all the news on its Web site. Also in the issue are a column on a winning strategy for newspapers, a piece on the Newseum, a column on Twitter and where the presidential candidates are on a press shield law.

OK, fine.

Now, go to The American Editor Web site. The content of the Fall 2007 edition is still up. The winter and spring editions have come and gone.

Does that say all you need to know about the digital commitment of newspaper editors?

OK, that was a cheap shot. If you wander deeper into the site, it seems as if new content has been added, based on update notations, but it is all one-way.

What if the Web site were a resource for editors? What if it were a place where editors could ask questions of each other and exchange ideas that work? Want to know best practices when cutting TV listings, stocks or sections? Go here and ask. Have an idea for a new feature? Chances are its been done somewhere and there's an experience to learn from. Looking to fill a certain position in the newsroom? Ask: Who out there is good? Wondering about how to use Twitter day-to-day to help people? The answer is out there. What's the best digital recorder to use? You get the idea.

My experience is that editors -- even those at competing papers -- are happy to share knowledge and information when asked.

What if there were a wiki of good story ideas and results? Of new helpful journalism Web sites and how they work? Of specific newspaper content and design evolutions and how they work? Of technological developments that have journalistic adaptations? Editors and site administrators could create and update, contributing to the improvement of our craft. Nat