News-Record.com

Probably like every newspaper in America, we aren't banking on an Obama victory. We know that the polls have all the value of a hanging chad. We're hedging our bets.

We've prepared three front pages for Wednesday: Obama wins; McCain wins; and Too Close to Call. (I am a survivor, barely, of the 2000 "Bush-wins!-Oops-not-so-fast" election.) Hagan-Dole and MCrory-Perdue will get a mention on the front page, but just a mention. Either way, the focus will be on the big race thanks both to intense voter interest and the historical dimensions: the first African American president or the first female vice president. If we have the winner by our deadline, the paper will be one of those that is worth putting away for posterity. (80%? Does that story say 80% of the registered voters in Guilford County are going to have voted in this election? Wow!)

Naturally, the big fear is that an Ohio or a Florida will drive the electoral college into OT, announcing the winner at, say, 3 a.m. Wednesday, well past our deadline. As our publisher likes to say, the best, most up-to-date newspaper in the world is no good if it is sitting, stacked and bundled, on the dock, undelivered because it came in too late.

So, we build an online plan. What do you think should be on it? What do you want to read about, other than the winners, when you get up Wednesday morning?

I can't think of 10 things that I'm going to miss as America's endless treadmill of a presidential campaign is coming to an end.

But the fine folks at the Fort Worth paper have compiled such a list for me. (Via Twitter from Howard Weaver.)

I can think of many more things that I won't miss, but I have come up a few things I'll be sorry to see go.

1. Sarah Palin. OK. She may not go. She could be VP. But even if she is, it won't be the same. I don't think she's ready to be president, but she invigorated both the McCain candidacy and the whole race. Whether she winked or attacked or couldn't answer a question about what she reads or what the VP does, she was exciting to watch in the same way it is exciting to watch Dick Cheney hunt.

2. North Carolina mattered. For the first time, I think, in my lifetime, candidates not only cared about winning N.C., they had to care. I can't remember how many times McCain, Obama, Palin and Biden visited the state. After tomorrow, I expect we'll go back to being just another Southern state, but for four months, we were somebody.

3. People cared. 80% of Guilford County's registered voters might vote! People waited in line to vote early as long they waited on Election Day four years ago. Excitement about the electoral process. Who knew?

4. Change happens. When there's peace and prosperity, who needs change? OK, that one's off the table. These days, everyone campaigns on platform of change, but this time, I don't know, call me, naive, I think that with either candidate change will happen. Conversely, who else is sick of the word "maverick?"

5. Wonk heaven. Yeah, government policy stuff doesn't sell newspapers. Offshore drilling? Earmarks? Tax policy? No, no and no. Still, for people who watch C-Span or City Council on public access -- me -- this election has been as heavenly as waving a Saks credit card in front of Sarah Palin or posing an open-ended question to Joe Biden.

6. Lunacy run amok. Obama's a Muslim? Obama supports terrorists? Neither is a native American? Flag pins? Saluting the flag? Palin in a bikini? What? At first, I was unsettled by the amount of bogus information circulated as fact -- and that some people bought it -- then I just gave in and laughed. That so many people would consider their fellow Americans as dupes and tools had to be laughed at. By the way, I disowned the people who sent me those e-mails.

7. The amazing disappearance of Congress and President Bush. Of course, they didn't disappear, except that, where have they been? The election sucked all the air out of DC and Americans discovered they hadn't missed anything. Yeah, for a brief few days when the economy tanked, Washington politicians got the cameras back and see how that has worked out. Mr. President, let's make Congress more like the N.C. legislature -- a part-time job.

Update:
8. How could I forget free election stuff.

9. Impassioned election letters. Now we're back to complaints about parking and drivers.

Seven. Nine. That's more than a few. (Just call me Joe Biden.)

Feel free to add your own.

If you believe that much of national political campaigns is about marketing, then Seth Godin has an incisive evaluation of the presidential campaign.

There's a reason most product marketers don't use attack ads. All they do is suppress sales of your opponent, they don't help you. Since TV ads began, voter turnout has progressively decreased. That's because the goal of attack ads is to keep your opponent's voters from showing up. Both sides work to whittle down the other. In a winner-take-all game like a political election, this strategy is fine if it works.

The tribe that Obama built identified with him. Attacking him was like attacking them. They took it personally, and their outrage led to more donations and bigger turnout.

When tonight is over and the pundits start picking over the remains, more of the inside story will come out. Still, I think he's right about the tribe.

You might think the election is important, but what do you know?

The most visited story of the day? This one.

We love us some Friendly Center.

Self-fulfilling prophecy? Naysayers? Oh ye of little faith?

The N&R editorial pages are already getting letters to the editor from McCain supporters bemoaning the Obama victory. Say what? It's not even 9 p.m.? Only a few states have been called.

Maybe Doonesbury is their barometer.

Our first edition front page

Update: Proud to be part of this collection of best front pages.

Update II: A friend writes that our front was flashed on CNBC.

Guilford County goes 60-39 for Obama.

Around us, Randolph goes 71-28 for McCain; Alamance, 54-45 for McCain; Rockingham, 62-37 for McCain; Davidson, 66-33 for McCain.

The political division between the urban county and the surrounding counties continues. For years, Guilford County has been blue while its neighbors have been red. For several years, while bemoaning our political coverage, people have insisted to me that the N&R is out of touch, that the sentiment of the Triad is conservative and Republican. Obviously, it is in some places.

And not others.

Our election coverage here.

Like newspapers all over the country, we have essentially sold out of the paper today. We believe that there are some papers still in racks and at stores, but my guess is that there won't be for long. I can't remember that happening before.

Plans in the work to print more!

And you can go to eBay.

Update: Best line I've heard so far. Put the newspaper away for your grandchildren. When you pull it out, you can show them what a newspaper was.

Thursday update: Reprints available this morning. There was a crowd of people in the lobby of our building buying multiple copies.

Our librarian, Diane Lamb, sends along these tips for preserving newspapers:

* Do not put the paper in a plastic bag for storage in an attic or basement where it will decay.
* Lay the newspaper flat -- do not store with paper folded along the middle. The fold is the first place a newspaper will decay and discolor.
* Store in an acid-free paper folder available at most art and office stores.
* Keep paper away from extremes in temperature or humidity.
* If framing, use an acid free matte and UV-3 Plexiglas, which protect paper from most of ultraviolet rays and prevents discoloring and fading.
* Finally be advised that nothing can really eliminate newsprint deterioration over time; after all, this media format is not designed for archival storage. All we can do is be careful about controlling the environmental threats to newsprint deterioration.

Source: Special Libraries Association

That said, I have pages from Greensboro newspapers from the 19th century. They are easily readable, but they crumble at anything more than the slightest touch.

We are selling yesterday's front section today. We are printing a poster page of president-elect Obama for distribution in the paper Saturday. We'll have more reaction and reflection throughout the week.

Over at goTriadU.com, students share some thoughts.

However, I feel that in this election, the youth of America -- my peers and myself included -- looked around us and saw this economic disaster, saw these preemptive wars, saw rights that could be taken unjustly from those who deserve them, saw the manner in which the United States was viewed globally, and realized the need for change and new politics in the White House.

I have fielded calls, blog comments and now a letter to the editor wondering what our Wednesday front page would have looked like if Sen. McCain had won the election.

A McCain photo would have taken up about two-thirds of the page, not the entire page. At the bottom of the page, a story about his victory and a box with promos to other stories elsewhere in the paper.

Why the difference in treatment?

All news is not created equally. An Obama victory is one for the ages. Fifty years ago, a black person could not eat lunch at Woolworth's. Today, an African American is poised to become president of the United States. Obama will be our first black president. McCain would have been our 44th white president. Our coverage wouldn't have diminished McCain's importance, but the historical significance of Obama's victory elevated it.

On a related issue, Saturday we will include a poster of President-Elect Obama in the newspaper.

One of the main reasons we have to do this is when traditional newspaper advertisers do this.

So many people think their subscription covers the cost of producing and delivering a newspaper. It scarcely covers the delivery cost, and it may not even do that these days with the cost of gas. Still, we're not expecting major content pain as a result of the voluntary buyout plan.

Market changes. Financial downturns. Niche fragmentation. They challenge us to be quicker, smarter and tougher, all of which we can be.

For the past several years, we have asked readers to submit their own designs for holiday gift wrap. The first year we did this, I thought the idea was OK, but just OK. I didn't think it would resonate with readers in the way you want a reader participation project to.

As happens more often than I wish, I was wrong. So wrong.

Last year, the winner of the contest, Sue McBean, had her design picked up by Shamrock Giftwrap and Accessories and Innisbrook Wraps.

Now it is your turn to take a shot at creating a winner. Be creative!

I continue to get comments and e-mails about the Obsession DVD. (Sounds like a perfume ad, doesn't it?) The sustained interest in the DVD interests me. Yesterday, I received an e-mail interview request from a student at Syracuse University who is writing a research paper on the topic. I've attached it, with my responses. She didn't explain why -- perhaps the interest interests her, too.

Dear Mr. John Robinson,

I have read your posts on the topic and was wondering whether you could answer some additional questions for me.

1) In your article "Radical Islam DVD didn't meet standards" you mention that "As a journalist, my default position is to provide people with more knowledge, however, troubling, rather than less." In the same article, you also say, "Were this truly an issue of freedom of information, I would have argued to publish. But this was a paid advertisement presenting one side of an inflammatory issue." I see these two statements in contradiction with one another. So are you saying that an ad and a piece of written news should be treated differently? Just because the ad is troubling, it shouldn't be published but a piece of news that is troubling should? Could you please clarify this difference?

A letter to the editor today takes us to task for not reporting on then gubernatorial candidate Bev Perdue's campaign speech at the Depot.

Your newspaper did a very bad job covering her campaign.

Early on, there was an important rally at the Depot, only about 200 yards from the News & Record building; no reporter covered it, and I do not recall any reference to it in your paper. No reporter came to the celebration in Raleigh when she won the primary. (I was at both events.) Most coverage of her campaign used AP stories.

It's not unusual for supporters of political candidates to tell us that we haven't done their candidates justice.

But it is true we didn't cover that rally. It wasn't personal or political. It was in keeping with a decision we made early on that, outside of the presidential race, we weren't going to do much with campaign rallies. Candidates use those occasions to give stump speeches; little news occurs. Reporters can spend their time better. We also didn't cover many of the local candidate forums for the same reason.

For the big state races, we did use AP stories often. That's one of the reasons we buy the wire service.

Many readers know I have a love-hate relationship with comments. I have come to terms with it all. I sent this to the staff today:

It has been a long time coming, but I'm pleased to tell you officially that we have begun enabling comments on some stories on the Web site. As soon as the testing is complete, most stories will allow comments from Web visitors.

That gives us one more way to talk with, listen to and help our readers, to say nothing of letting them help us. As you know, our ultimate goal is to help build a community of people who want to talk with each other in a safe, civil environment. As the local newspaper, we can provide that.

Here's what it means to you.

Your ownership of your story doesn't end when it is published. You have introduced the story into the community, and you maintain some responsibility for hosting the conversation.

When you participate in the conversation -- answering questions, correcting assumptions, acknowledging commenter corrections of you, and encouraging people to help you -- you show you care about your story and the community. It also gives the discussion more credibility because people know that the person who wrote the story is there to talk with.

We do not expect the toxic atmosphere that you may have read about elsewhere taking over the site. As the host of the Debatables blog for the last year, I can assure you that 99% of the comments are not only worth publishing, but they also provoke a good discussion.

Remember John Lennon: "The love you take is equal to the love you make." So be professional and respectful. Your civility will be contagious. If you have a problem with a comment or a commenter violating our terms of service, holler. We aren't afraid of deleting offensive comments or banning violators and trolls, if it comes to that.

My expectation is that when you're working in the office you check your story for comments throughout the day. More likely, you’ll be in and out all day. At a minimum, check in before you leave for the day. (Unlike the blogs, you won't get an e-mail every time someone leaves a comment.) You don't have to respond every time a comment is left, but don't be a wallflower, either.

If you are already a Drupal user, your username and password will work. If you haven't signed up yet, please do so. The link is in the top right of the home page.

Questions?

My newspaper column

As many of you know, our Wednesday, Nov. 5, front page featured a full-page photo of President-elect Barack Obama under the headline "Obama Triumphs."
That issue sold flat, plumb out. The last time we had a sellout was Sept. 12, 2001.

Because of the demand, we put the front section back on our presses that evening and ran off another 12,000 copies. Some people came by and bought copies fresh off the press. On Thursday morning, our lobby was packed with people buying copies. One man bought 200. We sold out of those, too.

On Saturday morning, we distributed a full-page commemorative poster of Obama in the paper. That edition sold well.

People can talk all they want about the death of newspapers, but they certainly haven't been at one to witness what happens when the paper is delivered late, as ours was this morning. Crashed the phone system as hungry readers wanted their morning fix.

We apologize for the late delivery.

P.S. Me and Andy Rooney. Can't beat it.

Requesting permission to brag on a couple of our folks. Well, actually to pass along a compliment:

A subscriber to Biz Bytes writes: I like the timely voice of blunt sanity this newsletter's columnist brings into my work day. It's a quick bite of reason and common sense (without being placating) in a wildly, wildly busy day. All of these columns are to me cutting-edge/right-on-the-moment in observation. No wild pontificating like that Chris Matthews voice that's out there, either. Thanks for good work.

Biz Bytes is the Monday-through-Friday email newsletter that Dick Barron prepares and sends to subscribers. (Lanita Withers fills in when Dick's out.) It's a mix of financial news, advice and local achievers. (The above was NOT sent in by Dick's mother, either. She knows that Dick is pretty much a wild pontificator in person.)

Sign up here.

My wife is happy for a variety of reasons about this news. Me, I'm happy that the number of times we need to include the following sentence in any story is now dramatically diminished.

The property is owned by Susan Robinson, the wife of News & Record Editor John Robinson, and her brothers, W. Hardy Spence and Royall Spence III.

The sentence was included in the interest of full disclosure. Even so, she and I didn't discuss this deal at home. At work, I didn't participate in news coverage discussions about it. I also didn't participate in the editorial board discussions that suggested the city not buy it.

Being involved -- even when you're not involved -- in a news story is a pain.

There but for the grace of god....

(Thanks, Newsom, for the link.)

Sue points to reports of Hoder's possible arrest.

I was looking forward to meeting him at ConvergeSouth in 2005, but then this happened, and he didn't make it.

Sigh.

In order, thoughts a newspaper editor had when he awoke ay 3 a.m. to snow outside.

1. Damn, too late for the morning paper.
2. What do we need to do online?
3. Who should I wake up?
4. Doesn't look heavy enough to close schools, but that's never stopped them.
5. Old news for tomorrow's paper.
6. TV news will be going crazy with team coverage.
7. I hope it doesn't mean the paper will be delivered late.
8. Man, it sure is beautiful.

Ratings for cable TV news and the number of visits to news Web sites built for weeks and then peaked on Election Day, giving the electronic media some of their biggest audiences in years. But since then, TV ratings and online traffic have fallen -- in many cases precipitously -- indicating that viewers and visitors have largely quenched their thirst for political news.
-- The Washington Post

My sense is that this holds true here, too. I have not checked our Web site data -- as a local news site we didn't do much with the presidential story online unless the candidates were here. Still, since election week, we have published virtually all presidential transition stories inside the paper. The suspense and excitement of the horse race is gone, and now people are waiting to see how their decision plays out. But Obama's not in office yet so it's premature to dissect his performance much.

And no one is talking about President Bush. Has there been a lamer duck in recent presidencies?

Things will gear up again in early January.

Mark Hamilton of Notes From a Teacher writes:

* Should Newspapers Become Online Ad Brokers for Local Businesses? Why wouldn’t I like this idea? After all, I wrote about a similar idea a year ago. (Looking back at that post, based on the lack of comments and trackbacks, it seems no one paid any attention to me.)

I suspect every blogger who writes about something other than themselves feels this way one time or another. I know I have. Did the subsequent writer improve on your idea? Did they better articulate it? Did they give any link credit? Harrumph. Never! So why are they getting all the attention?

Of course, this isn't a new phenomenon. Small papers routinely write stories that don't get noticed until they are picked up by larger papers or television. What interests me most is that with the explosion of media, we still feel that way. Now that everyone can publish -- and so many are -- the possibility that a number of people have the same good idea seems likely. That you might write it first, but be overlooked by others, seems likely, too. Even if you build it, they might not come.

All of which argues for taking full advantage of all of the social networking aspects of the Web. When you think you have a good idea, let people know. That part of digital publishing is easier -- and cheaper -- than ever.

Over at Capital Beat, Binker collects information about Prez-elect Obama's citizenship. Who knew it was even an issue? (Well, we did, as evidenced by this comment.)

Still, the idea that Obama is not a citizen of the United States is pretty much debunked. Not that that will stop true disbelievers. Political partisanship is a powerful thing.

If I banned infantile and mean-spirited comments, would I get fewer commenters or more?

Just an idle thought on a cold Saturday.

A warmer Wednesday update: Ryan Thornberg, an assistant professor of journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill posts his list of rules for building community.

When I first met Eva DuBuisson, she was a middle school student, I think. Her father, David, was our editorial page editor, and she was in the office visiting him.

Fast forward to yesterday when I read about her advice to the Alamance-Burlington school board. That middle-schooler is now a Raleigh attorney specializing in education issues. She didn't stray too far: her father has a law degree, too.

David, by the way, left the paper several years ago and now runs Pecan Tree Inn in Beaufort with his wife, Allison.

Wednesday update: Speaking of editorial page editors, my friend Dennis Hartig, who serves in that position at the Virginian-Pilot, is retiring. Dennis is a great editorial page editor. I'm happy for him.

Just in case you thought that things couldn't get much sillier on the relations between the president elect and the news media, you will be happy to know that some people are watching everything very closely.

The headline says it all: "Obama ignores TV networks at presser."

Six reporters called on, all from print. Media conspiracy?

(Via E&P.)

Wednesday update: And he takes no questions from Fox News.

Journalists -- well, print journalists -- have never been fashion plates. Truthfully, I should qualify that even more by saying male print journalists. Dressing up means throwing on a navy blazer if you can find one on the company coat rack.

But we're going to positively GQ beginning Monday.

That's when a federal regulation requiring us and anyone else working near a highway to wear “high-visibility safety clothes” -- in our case, an orange vest. (Comes from the jailhouse jumpsuit clothing line, I think.)

One of our criminal justice reporters, Ryan Seals, reminds us: "Don’t forget it if you run out to cover an accident.... Troopers can get darn right nasty if you don't follow the rules."

Applies to photographers, too.

So, as you're passing by a wreck or a search by a highway and see an orange vest, give a honk and wave.

Jim Schlosser writes about Thanksgiving 1929 at the dawn of the Great Depression. In it, he makes a quick comparison between news coverage then and now.

The difference now -- as stock markets plunge, banks falter and General Motors nears bankruptcy -- is public awareness of just how bad the economy has become. Bad news saturates the front page, 24-hour cable channels and National Public Radio.

Such gloominess was frowned on in late 1929. Newspapers gave bad news a positive spin. The state labor commissioner talked of a "labor surplus" in the state's big cities. He refused to say "unemployed."

Newspapers tended to quote business people with rosy outlooks or who could easily pinpoint blame. Local business leader Pierce Rucker castigated Wall Street "financiers." They had "exploited" the market by recommending risky stocks in Northern companies while ignoring strong Southern outfits.

Some business people tell me they wish newspapers were still that way. Their position is that news about the downturn in the markets undermines consumer confidence, which, I suppose, is true. Some readers, too, ask for "good" news, almost as relief from the stock declines, joblessness and bankruptcies.

So a recent piece in American Journalism Review by UNC-Chapel Hill professor Chris Roush is interesting and timely. He evaluates how the print media has covered the run-up to the latest market collapse. In this case, newspapers may have changed, but reader habits haven't.

The business media have done yeoman's work during the past decade-plus to expose wrongdoing in corporate America. In fact, a review of the top business publications in the country shows that they blanketed the major issues, from subprime loans to adjustable-rate mortgages to credit derivatives, that caused so much economic pain.

Here's the issue that financial journalism faces: No one likes a nattering nabob of negativism, especially when the stock market is climbing and all of our 401(k) plans are tied to it. So we shut out what we don't want to hear because it conflicts with what we'd like to happen.

Depending on how you measure it, today's newspaper is either the largest or the second largest paper of the year. (It vies with the Sunday before Christmas.) The paper delivered to my house this morning weighed 4.5 pounds.

On this Thanksgiving, please remember to thank your carrier. That's a lot of weight to deliver.

On that note, I am thankful for many glorious things this year. One is that you have visited and spent time here. Thank you.

Some people believe -- and I'm one of them -- that those political prognosticators will say pretty much anything if it gets them more notoriety or, better yet, more airtime. So, who can resist when their comments coming back to haunt them? Andrew Sullivan reminds us of some of the best ones about President-elect Obama.

My favorite: "Barack Obama is on his way to a McGovern candidacy," -- Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, March 29, 2008.

(Via E&P.)

I asked our reader advisory group whether they read the promos at the top of the front page that direct them to other stories inside the newspaper. Virtually all 150 respondents said they did and they gave us good ideas about color, topic and type selections to improve.

Then there are the fiercely independent-minded ones who said they didn't need any help.

I'd rather find the articles and read them 'unannounced'.

*******************

I like to go through the paper and pick items I'm interested in. I think for myself and don't let others think for me.

******************

No. I just read all I am interested in.

Wanna get in on it? Sign up here.

Two folks are leaving us as part of the buyout program. Copy editor Frank Oathoudt and reporter Adria Hairston.

Frank came to us nearly 15 years ago, after a career in the military. In that time, he's done practically everything on the copy desk, including serving as our national editor. Like most of us, he has distinctive personality traits. For a while, he made sculpture out of plastic soda bottle caps. Like me, he usually has a bag of baby carrots to munch on. His devotion to getting it right never wavers.

Adria started here two years ago, about the time we launched the Guilford Records publications. She has written for all three of the Records, ranging from first-person columns to news stories about government machinations to human interest stories. She's also one of our go-to people to represent the paper at community functions.

We'll miss them both.