News-Record.com

As of 9:45 a.m., the story about Northern High School basketball players celebrating their season, despite being stripped of their championship has 23 comments, many of them expressing outrage and wondering what is being taught at the school.

The story about the possibility that more teachers could lose their jobs has five comments, mostly about state politics.

Should we try to get these people together?

1:30 p.m. update: 45 comments on the Northern story; six on the school funding cuts. This is kinda fun.

Would you buy today's paper on the off chance that there is enough value in the $2,199 in coupons inside to recoup the buck-fifty cost of the paper?

That's right. $2,199.

I had to double-check that one myself. Normally, the amount of the coupons is in the three figures, not four. But thanks to Rooms to Go, which is offering some fine, fine discounts.

Need some furniture? It's a small investment for a lot of savings.

Of course, the information in the news columns has some value, too.

For the second week in a row, Taft Wireback has outlined the expensive and painful ways the urban loop is affecting homeowners and taxpayers in Guilford County. The president-elect of the local Realtors association wasted no time in calling for action.

At what point should citizens expect their City Council and state representatives to look out for their best interests when it comes to this type of development? Finger pointing only gets you so far, especially if you're interested in going nowhere.

Cool doesn't begin to describe me when I was growing up. Truly. That is it doesn't describe me at all.

I don't even remember my community service project for my Eagle Scout award. How lame is that?

Then there is this project, as described this morning by Robert Bell, and it is about as cool as you can get. I thank Brant and Austin Taylor for sharing it with us.

We published dueling Life fronts today celebrating -- celebrating? -- the release of "Star Trek."

One is about the original:

And the other has the new:

The sections were printed and distributed so that consecutive buyers would not get the same one. Your next-door neighbor has the "other" one. As the marketing folks say, collect them both!

Sports Illustrated has done this with its cover for some time. It's a second time for us. Just something to give readers a bit of fun.

It's not my intent to look into every athletics department at this moment. It's my intent as information becomes available we will do some work. When I see something in the paper we will investigate.

-- Guilford schools Superintendent Mo Green, talking about the system's investigation into recruiting high school athletes.

Now, if we can get some other public officials to be as responsive.

Want to hear a reporter at work, interviewing a legislator under fire? Go to Capital Beat and listen to Mark Binker's interview with Rep. Cary Allred.

Stay til the end. The last comment from Rep. Allred? "Are you going to report it?"

I'm delighted to see the Sunday News & Record front page featured on CNN's "State of the Union" program Sunday. OK, featured may be too strong a characterization. But at the 7:48 mark of the program, the front page is directly behind host John King.

And thanks to Jerry Wolford, here's a screen grab.

Dustin Long, our racing writer, is on Twitter and has 875 followers.

And if you are interested in NASCAR, you ought to be following him. He uses Twitter precisely the way a journalist should. He updates with news and inside insight quickly and in a timely way. For instance, he was the only media person who broke the news that fans were injured last night in the Carl Edwards crash on Twitter. (That got him a bunch of new followers.) This afternoon he covered the NASCAR teleconference on the Carl Edwards crash yesterday.

Some examples of his individual tweets from that teleconference. (Bear in mind that reports are limited to 140 characters):

#NASCAR spokesperson: "We're going 2 take whatever measures we need 2 ensure the races are as safe as possible for everyone.''

#NASCAR officials considering issuing penalties during the race for blocking and aggressive driving ... taking a stronger stance toward this.

#NASCAR Cup director John Darby on flattening Dega: "I don't see that as a viable option.''

#NASCAR official on Dega fence height: "I think the fence was plenty high, but I do believe we'll go back and look at some other things.''

At the same time, he was talking with others and answering their questions. (@Mulator and @fourstringfuror are nicknames of people.)

@Mulator Debris went through the fence.

@fourstringfuror They didn't seem to open to slowing the car down that way when asked by the media.

Lots has been made of Twitter, much of it pejorative and much of it hyped. Dustin's reporting is an example of how a journalist can use it to advance and extend journalism.

**Follow me, too. And the N&R. (We're different!)

We've started a new feature called Ask a Reporter. It is our version of the Action Line columns that were popular in the 70s and 80s.

Need help? Curious about something you can't Google? Send it here.

You might notice the home page of New-Record.com is redesigned.

Here is the faq link.

I like it because it is designed to load faster, comments on stories will be displayed with the story and the multi-media player is back.

Thoughts?

Some time ago we moved the Guilford County property transfers out of the newspaper onto the Web site. We did it to save the space in the paper and to allow browsers of the listings more search options. Some newspaper readers without computers didn't like it.

We're now dropping them from the Web site and directing visitors to the Guilford County site.

Thank the economy. The cost of collecting the information went up to the point that it wasn't worth it to duplicate much of the information that is on the county site.

Consider it another move toward following Jeff Jarvis' admonition: Cover what you do best and link to the rest.

In Monday's paper I asked readers to send us stories or ideas for stories about people performing acts of kindness. We've gotten some good suggestions for stories, but no submitted stories yet. We'll publish some soon.

But I have been surprised at how low the "kindness standard" is set.

For example, people have asked us to write about a minister who calls on the sick; a grocery store shelf stocker who gets an item on the top shelf for a short shopper; and a Sunday School teacher who sends Bible scriptures to a parishioner.

I applaud people who are nice to others. I know that these acts meant enough to the recipients that they would take the trouble to write about them to us. But they do seem as if they either come with the job or are just the decent thing to do. They aren't the sorts of acts that make me say I need to be more like that guy.

Are we so starved for goodness and graciousness from our fellow human beings that we celebrate rudimentary acts of kindness? Or is my standard too high?

Today's favorite line comes from Stephen Gee in Dawn Kane's story about how arts groups are dealing with the economic meltdown.

The downtown Broach Theatre programmed shows this year with casts no larger than six -- and more comedies than dramas.

"If you want to cry, open your 401(k) envelope," co-founder Stephen Gee says.

Depressed by the bad news predominating the front page and inspired by Brian Williams' effort to find some good news to put into his broadcast, we're going to ask readers to tell us their stories of hope and inspiration.

That request is scheduled for the paper on Monday. You have first crack at it. Write me a story of a random act of kindness or tell me about a do-gooder.

Anything you write for us or tip us to won't crowd out "real" news of, say, the stumbling economy, the dysfunctional government or the usual mayhem. That will all be there. It is the reality of the world. As Larry Ingrassia, business editor of the New York Times, told Clark Hoyt: "I’ve always thought it important to divorce yourself from whether a story is going to be positive or negative. ... Write it and let the chips fall where they fall."

But people's lives aren't immersed in such bad news. We need to show some of the other side. If nothing else, it will pick up the front page.

Monday update: Just got this e-mail: I don't have a good news story to submit right now but just wanted you to know I appreciate that you are seeking them for publication. Good news is inspiring. Thanks, and I hope you get some really great stories!

Humor is one of the things newspapers don't do well. We tend to be too serious and too important.

Then there's Tim Rickard.

Tim does The Jokes on You, which we publish here and in Friday's paper. It does humor right. It has gotten so big that Tim has had to develop a category for younger readers to submit captions. I asked him about the number of entries the juniors category gets. He responded with this note from a fifth-grade teacher today.

We WILL NOT let our caption writing skills be overlooked! It is on! I have attached a word document with our 50 ENTRIES!

Thanks so much for publishing the Jr. Division. My kids race to get the Friday paper every morning! Thanks for all you do -- they love it!

Check out the submissions. There's a lot of talent out there.

It's worth watching the videos of the City Council meeting that Jerry Wolford took last night. This one takes you up close and personal -- almost uncomfortably so -- as Mitch Johnson leaves the meeting and building.

A good example of video showing you something that is difficult to capture in print.

Watching television this morning, I noted this spot on WFMY about clipping coupons as a way to save money. (I would embed the video but I can't figure out how to keep it from starting automatically every time the page is loaded, and that, I have to say, is annoying.)

Among the coupon expert's advice is to clip all the coupons in the paper and never miss a Sunday paper, which is filled with coupons on all sorts of items. Let me repeat that: Never miss a Sunday paper.

Words to live by.

We do have more than $100 dollars worth of coupons in the paper every Sunday. But I think that advertising circulars are among the most misunderstood items in the paper. We often get calls from people who think we have skipped them because a friend got an insert they didn't.

Here's the deal: Advertisers can purchase specific distribution areas for their inserts and that may not include where you live. Some businesses know their customer base pretty well and may, for instance, only purchase areas near a specific store. That may not seem fair, but to quote a wise sports figure, it is what it is.

They're a great value and the make the paper even more of one, so buy up!

Last night's bank robbery and chase could have come straight out of a TV drama. I like "Heat" for it, but the robbers were no DeNiro and Kilmer.

Anyway, two guys rob a bank and speed away. With police on their tail, one of them leans out of the window and shoots at the pursuit. They wreck their car and a full-out gunfight ensues. Both robbers and one officer are shot.

Listen to the police communications.

You think Sully was cool under fire? So are these guys.

And the bank robbery call from a citizen following them:

Soft launch of a new look for GoTriad.com.

Shoot us some constructive feedback. It gives us more multimedia capabilities. We hope it also features better navigation in the menus, better organization and better use of the SCENE calendar, but you need to be the judge of that.

Please note the new weekly feature, Washington Watch, that debuted today by Mark "Energizer Bunny" Binker.

Seemed as if Kay Hagan joining the Senate as the first or not first from GSO is as good a reason as any. (I'm repressing the thought that Binker proposed it to be able to write off future trips to our nation's capital.)

Tim Rickard is interviewed on the Comic Riffs blog at The Washington Post. Tim is one of our staff artists, along with doing The Joke's on You and a weekly editorial cartoon. But he's interviewed about his job as creator of Brewster Rockit.

The interviewer describes Tim. He is laid-back and witty, delivering anecdotes with a warm Southern drawl. He is unassuming, never stooping to trumpet his MENSA-tested mind. And he wields the self-deprecating, occasionally dark humor of someone whose day job -- as a graphic artist -- depends on the health of the groaning newspaper industry.

The interview is primarily about cartooning, of course, and Tim's current series about the news business.

Tim's most telling quote: Pam is an interesting character. More so than any other I've created for "Brewster," she's developed her own personality independent from me. I haven't directed her development, I've followed it. Her affection for Brewster despite the fact he drives her crazy, her short fuse and explosive temper, and lately her surprising shallow materialistic streak.

Got to disagree with you on that one, Tim. You and Pam sound like twins to me. (I kid because I love.)

In any case, so that Tim doesn't get too big of a head, he should know that I get almost as many requests to cancel Brewster Rockit as I get to bring back Mark Trail.

Last week, Politico reported that presidential inauguration planners had received a record number of requests for media credentials for the swearing in Jan. 20. Mark Potts calls it a boondoggle for most news organizations. But what on earth are these expense-account journalists going to be able to tell their readers and viewers about the inauguration that isn't available elsewhere -- indeed, all over the place, in the blanket coverage of the event?

We aren't covering the inauguration for all the reasons Potts outlines. But we are going to D.C. to cover the swearing in ...

... of Sen. Kay Hagan tomorrow. Mark Binker is there; he'll get some other stories about her first days in Washington along the way.

We published an item on the front page of the local section Dec. 24 that invited people to send me their mugshots for use in a photographic mosaic on inauguration day. The solicitation run through Jan. 1, and we've received a huge response. My e-mail address was on the notice first and then we switched to a special address. (You can still send your mugshot for inclusion.)

But even though my address ran only that one day, I have received photographs ever since, including this morning, 10 days after the item ran in the paper. I'm assuming that people clipped the notice from the paper -- Christmas Eve is a busy time for most people -- and put it aside to tend to when they had a moment.

So often we journalists think people consume the paper the way we do. Read today; recycled today. It is always nice to be reminded how people actually use the newspaper.

Honored that my friend Bill Mitchell -- well, we met once -- picked this post as one that brightened his outlook for 2009. That brightened my outlook.

This morning, the crawl on ABC's early newscast told me that Santa had begun his sleigh ride around the world.

This was a NEWScast.

I thought of all the local news programs that track Santa's journey on Christmas Eve. These are NEWScasts, too.

Like Al Tompkins, I'm a news guy and didn't know journalists could blend their principles with holiday mythology. Seemed contradictory to me.

Then I had children. And their nascent fascination with Santa merged with my own developing understanding of the role a newspaper should play with its readers. If you consider yourself a member of the community, you talk, you listen, you share experiences with each other. And you celebrate wonder together.

That's why, in our NEWSpaper, we published O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" across the top of the front page today. (Author William Sydney Porter was born in Greensboro.)

It's part of the magic of the season. Merry Christmas.

We are planning a special section for the presidential inauguration. As part of that, we're going to create a photographic mosaic in the shape of Obama's face using photos of readers.

Want to help us? E-mail us a picture of yourself -- a mugshot, as opposed to a full body shot -- or a loved one. You'll be part of a unique front page and have a special keepsake.

I gave momentary thought this week of overruling the holiday wrapping paper contest judging panel. It wasn't that I didn't think the winners were worthy; I just liked the runners up much better.

The two winners are #1 and #2 here. Personally, I preferred the sixth and the 18th entries in the slide show.

I didn't give any serious consideration to disrupting the proper judging; you don't empanel contest judges and then mess with their deliberations. That only happens in Pulitzer judging and NFL games.

We don't cover our corporate self all that well. Many times, not well. When the corporate side invests in a community project -- think Festival of Lights or Kids Voting -- the news side doesn't necessary promote it prominently in the news columns.

So, you might ask, when you splash this story on the front page, what makes Operation Greensboro Cares different?

I was asked the same question in-house. Answer: It's a good cause during a time of great community need. With the economy faltering and people hurting, the community should -- and knowing Greensboro, will -- rally to help. The newspaper ought to crusade to help those among us who are hungry and homeless. It is a way to fulfill part of Finley Peter Dunne's call to "comfort the afflicted."

Would we do it if we weren't a major sponsor? That's a tougher one to answer. I hope that we would. The worthiness of the cause is certainly still the same.I hope we would not be slower off the mark, although I fear we would. In any case, I'm glad we're part of this fund-raising. We will be writing more about the need and where the money will go. I hope it helps.

Friday update: Of course, we could have crusaded this way. Just don't tell Allen.

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.

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!

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.

In all the bustle about this announcement today, I neglected to promote my colleague Michael Fuch's new enterprise: a weekly newsletter for bargain hunters.

Sign up.

Bryan Murley at Innovation in College Media thinks about GoTriadU, our sister site that we hope will eventually link together the area's colleges and universities.

As usual, he asks good questions.

Southern High School student Scotty Wayne died in an automobile accident last week.

Last Friday's football game was an emotional heart-wrencher. The story conveys it.

The multi-media show opens the flood gates. Go ahead and cry.

Welcome to goTriadU, the beginnings of a network among the students of eight of the colleges and universities around here.

The link is to the blog, which is the first part of a wider network that will include news, entertainment, discussion and fun stuff. Sixteen student reporters are building it, and the site is forming relationships with media at the schools.

From the About page: goTriadU is about connecting college students throughout the Triad area of North Carolina to each other and your community. Get out of the single-campus silo and link to other students, groups and campuses. Make connections on events, help each other network for internships, find part-time jobs, sell your stuff, form new cross-campus groups, find a ride home, rate your classes, get involved in an important cause. We’re here to help you connect; it’s up to you to make the effort.

On the blog you'll find what you need to know about Aggie Fan Fest, Dollarmania, sports, the second prez debate, and that Yum Yum's is one of the five most important things to know about UNCG. (Has anyone told the new chancellor?)

It's new. It'll get less institutional and more compelling as the year progresses. As the bloggers get experience, they'll also get their voices. I'm looking forward to it.

It's an offshoot of the News & Record, although not really "of" us, as you may think of the paper. It is being developed by the company's new ventures group.

Edward R. Murrow is one of Guilford County's most famous sons. He wasn't here long -- he moved away to Washington state as a boy -- but we're proud to claim him.

At least, I think we are.

Jeri Rowe writes about the Murrow home place.

Wade through a Southern jungle, and you'll find the five dilapidated houses within a few dozen steps of one another.

It looks like a homeless camp. But it's not. It's one of Guilford County's most historic sites. It's the birthplace of Edward R. Murrow, the father of broadcast journalism. And it's downright embarrassing.

Indeed.

The video shot by Michael McQueen and narrated by Jeri is even better.

UNCG and the Greensboro Historical Museum are hosting events this month to celebrate Murrow and the 100th anniversary of his birth. It's the least we can do.

I watched the debate last night. I know that Gwen Ifill is getting props for her performance as moderator. Won't hear that from me.

Some questions I wished she had asked:

For Biden:
Would you cite the sources you used to defend your pro-abortion stance despite being Catholic?

After being in Congress for so many years, what past political mistakes or miscalculations have changed the way you go about your decision-making process today?

Are you prepared to be second fiddle to a man with little experience compared to yours? Are you able to deal with Obama's potentially successful bid for Presidency while your own never succeeded? How will the dynamics work between what you bring to the ticket (experience) versus Obama's strengths (vision and personality)?

For Palin:
Why did you fire the public safety commissioner in Alaska?

What was the last book you read that significantly impacted your perspective on political office/public service? How did it influence you?

Why do you feel you deserve to be Vice President? Why do you want this job? For love of country or for party ideology? What leadership can you provide that more seasoned politicians (Mitt Romney, for example) can't?

Specific, direct. Might have provided some insight. These aren't my questions. They came from citizens on our Voterspeak panel.

Economy getting you down? Can't get a loan? Is your 401K disappearing faster than the latest Kevin Costner movie?

Put it all into perspective here.

Do you believe that the candidates in this presidential campaign will deepen the divide between Democrats and Republicans or will they bridge the great rifts between the political parties?

The first question answered by our Voterspeak panel.

Please join the discussion.

We started The Joke's On You in January 2007. (The blog came later.)

In the feature, artist/humorist Tim Rickard draws the cartoon and readers provide the caption. It's not an original idea; other newspapers have a similar feature. Parade magazine went so far as to steal an idea from us. Well, seriously, I doubt it was stolen; it's just remarkably similar.

Anyway, the Evansville Courier-Press has debuted a feature with the exact same name. And to their credit, they credit us for the name. I only wish they had linked to us, too.

The title, "The Joke's On You," is shamelessly stolen from a newspaper in Greensboro, N.C., that does the same thing. We like the idea so much that we sought out a cartoonist to do it here.

I asked Tim his thoughts: "They stole the idea from us. We stole the idea from the New Yorker. That shows that we have much higher standards."

Because blog readers and writers love to gush over and trash restaurants and clubs, TV personalities and radio shows, and theaters and galleries, please consider voting for your favorites in this year's Readers' Choice Awards.

It's easy and when the television ads start appearing promoting "the most popular newscaster in the Triad" you can claim that your vote counted. Or not.

Business reporter Dick Barron has started an e-mail newsletter that comes out at 4:30 p.m. weekdays and wraps up the day's business news. Called Biz Bytes, it includes breaking news about jobs, economic development, corporate moves and markets. It also features local executive achievements and people news.

Dick told me: "The idea came when I was thinking about ways to expand business news into the online platform with the basic resources we have. I know that we have national and local competitors that do this kind of thing, but nobody has the combination of deep local coverage plus full-scale national and international business news and market charts. We have all this stuff easily available in one form or another. All I had to do was aggregate the information and provide a design and some commentary that would integrate it.

"My other motivation was that we can offer far more content than people see in the print publication because space and emphasis just don't allow us to give it a showcase. Our major stories always get good play on the front page. But this would be another venue for the smaller achievements that people have, plus a spot for me and my colleagues to do a little commentary about stories of the day."

Sign up here.

Morgan Josey, who has covered education for the past couple years, is moving to a new assignment: developing a comprehensive "green" site to report news, commentary and interaction on environmental issues.

Called Greening Guilford, the site has been around for awhile. Morgan developed the blog on her own based on an intense passion for the environment. She proposed expanding the idea into more than a personal blog as part of our innovation process, and here she is. Our loss on the education scene is our gain in the environment.

She'll explain further.

Last year when I wrote this column about my younger daughter, HPU's president, Nido Qubein, asked if he could send copies to every incoming freshmen.

I suspect that Sunday's piece by Nancy McLaughlin will have similar clip-and-save impact. Of course, the intended audience, incoming college students, may not read it in the paper. Not because they don't read the paper as much as by the time they are finished with high school they have had their fill of advice from adults. We will depend on a parent or a well-intentioned older person to stick it under their noses.

In my experience as a student and as a parent of two students, the clergy has good advice, even if some of it the students will probably need to learn on their own.

Below is a factoid that didn't make it online, for some reason:

Greensboro City Council member Dianne Bellamy-Small normally declines to speak with our reporters face to face or by phone. She will accept faxed questions and answers them sometimes. Less often do we get her responses before deadline.

She has agreed to be interviewed one-on-one face-to-face for our Sunday 10Plus Q&A feature. If you would like to submit a question for the interview, please do.

Got an early jones for the Wyndham? Go here.

Numbers for July blog readership are in. Normally, letters to the editor is the most visited site, and it was in July.

No. 2, though, is a newbie. Not only is it not a blog, but it is a single blog entry. And not only that, it is a blog entry from last November. And one more not only: it has more page views than the next three blogs combined.

What it is? Here's a hint: I'm not a monster...I'm just ahead of the curve.

Answer.

* Headline refers to this.

Both Gerald Witt at Inside Scoop and Mark Binker at Capital Beat have announced and solicited for Voterspeak '08, a weekly online conversation about news and politics. You might think there is no reason for me to promote it here, too. You would be wrong.

I know that readers of this blog are politically engaged and would love to participate with us and each other. Just in case you don't read Scoop or Capital Beat, well, now, you won't miss this opportunity.

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!

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.

From Michael Grossman, our Web content guru:

We recently launched a test site of News-Record.com using an online publishing platform called Drupal. In the coming months, we hope to transition entirely to Drupal, an open source system that offers us the tools to more quickly develop our own dynamic, data-driven, interactive products.

You shouldn't notice many differences immediately. Our initial goal is to simply replicate what we offer under the old system (though we couldn't resist adding a few new features, such as more photos). We're confident the new platform will be faster than the current site, but we want to make sure we understand the new system and how to optimize its performance.

We need your help in benchmarking that performance. There is still work to be done on the beta site, including creating missing pages and cleaning up the little differences between how various Web browsers display the pages. But we invite you to explore the site here.

For what it's worth: Friday morning's storm brought us the most page views of any day since we installed our current measurement system in August 2006. Comparing tragedies, the traffic was a third again higher than the fire at Eastern High School in November 2006. These numbers don't include multimedia (photos, video or audio) so the total is even higher.

I asked Michael Grossman, our online content editor, his thoughts on why the numbers were so high: Typically, bad weather (hurricanes, winter storms -- both actual events and predictions) are among the most viewed. There was a death which may have added more. And it made the national news, which I'm sure helped as we got some traffic from Google, but it wasn't a big chunk of the traffic. I think the fact that there were numerous updates always helps bring people back -- the initial reporting, the city letting some business owners in, several press conference updates, releasing the identity of the man killed.

Compelling news story, constant updating and different types of media. That's a recipe for success. I'd add that we posted virtually the entire day beginning at about 12:30 a.m. and were really cranking it up before most people woke up in the morning to see the damage.

About four weeks and change until the Citizen Journalism Academy being put on by the Society of Professional Journalists The June 7 session at Guilford College promises to be good. Learn about journalism ethics, media law, public records, new tools and smart writing, among other things. I know two of the session facilitators and they're top drawer talents.

It costs $25. Register here.

Want to hear the straight talk on McCain's Straight Talk Express? Mark Binker taped it in all its 25-minute glory today.

Be prepared to listen to sausage being made.

The Society of Professional Journalists is conducting a Citizen Journalism Academy June 7 at at Guilford College's Frank Family Science Center. This looks like a good deal -- a lot of valuable learning.

From the release:

Among the topics this daylong workshop will explore:

* Journalism ethics. The new-media landscape is rife with dilemmas for anyone wanting to report accurately, fairly and outside the bounds of special interests.

* The basics of media law. The same longstanding laws concerning libel, slander and access to people and information apply to 21st-century news-gatherers.

* Access to pubic records and meetings. Public information can add substance and value to every news story. But knowing where to look for it can be tough.

* Standard and responsible reporting practices. With media ethics and law in mind, how else should news-gatherers approach sources.

* Tips on smart writing. SPJ instructors want to help ensure your voice is clearly understood.

* The use of technology. We'll show you an array of tools you could start using -- or continue using even more effectively.

The cost to attend the Citizen Journalism Academy is $25, which includes lunch and course materials. For more information about this program or to register, visit SPJ's Citizen Journalism Academy page. Please note, the registration deadline is May 24 and seating is limited.

As part of our bicentennial coverage, we have digitized some of the more historically significant papers in our archives.

News librarian Diane Lamb explains:

This assignment was like going into a candy story that has all your favorites but you are told you can choose only 2 pieces.

Stay tuned -- we hope to scan more of our historical microfilm in the future.

We have looked into digitizing the total archives. Way too expensive...now.

It is interesting to wander around in these editions, looking at how news judgment, design and advertising styles have changed over the years.

For Tar Heel junkies, we have gathered our season's worth of UNC coverage in one place, beginning with a nice sights-and-sounds slideshow of the Eastern Regionals. (All the photo galleries are there, too.)

Just to get you ready for Saturday night.

If you missed the special section on Greensboro: 1808-2008 in yesterday's paper, go back to the recycling bin and get it. It's a keeper.

That's not just me talking, either. The Greensboro Historical Museum is going to display an enlargement of the 1808-2008 city map by Doug Cox in its lobby during the long bicentennial celebration.

A bunch of Greensboro bicentennial info here.

Credit for the bicentennial special section goes to editor Bob Williams; designer Jennifer Burton; copy editor Brenda Hiles, researchers David Bulgin and Diane Lamb, and, of course, Cox.

We have a video entertainment report called Unwind. I haven't written about it before because it is still beta, but what the hey... you like to give us feedback.

This week's episode has reports on synerG, Molly McGinn, speed dating and some best bets for entertainment. And as I'm a big fan of Molly's and we have her playing and singing, it's worth a look for that alone.

It's common knowledge that the diet of news folk is more John Daly than, say, Lance Armstrong. Fast-food burgers, eating on the run, drinking too much...you know the drill. Heck, in my earlier reporting life, I lived off the sandwiches, honey buns and so-called fruit pies in the vending machines across the hall from the newsroom. Hey, make fun all you want, in those days we believed Wonder Bread helped build strong bodies 12 ways.

Which brings me to Cheesefry Nation, our latest blog. Proud eaters Joe Killian and Amanda Lehnert write about their efforts to clean up their act.

Joe writes: So Amanda and I are doing something about it -- taking the Get Healthy Guilford Challenge and launching a blog to chart our progress. In our typical fat, lazy fashion we're doing it a week late -- but I'm still determined to lose ten pounds in ten weeks. And, hopefully, a few inches off my waist. Those pants aren't getting any bigger.

Knowing the two of them, it'll be fun to watch.

We have transformed greensboro.com into our city bicentennial site. We're building it as we approach the bicentennial itself in March. You will note that some of the pages are still under construction, and we'll be adding more content to it as we complete it.

From the intro page: Turn to Greensboro.com throughout 2008 to find out about events scheduled to celebrate our fair city's 200th anniversary, learn about Greensboro's rich and colorful history, and connect with the people and places that make the city a wonderful place to call home.

For the second straight month, this post has ranked among the top 10 most trafficked blog posts on our site. As you might note, it was written in October.

Why? I'd wager it's the perfectly Googlable headline: "Talk dirty to me."

Ahead of it last month were posts more specifically local: about Terry Grier and the sale of the paper.

As for this blog, these posts made the list.

I continue to be impressed at how the different media tell stories in different ways. The latest case is this written story, this photo/audio slide show and sound, and this video, all about Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. And they are all really about Martin Luther King Jr.

Each presentation is both informative and moving in its own way. Listening to and comparing these should put to rest the old media types who keep popping up with complaints that they didn't get into journalism to take video or record sound. I defy anyone to listen to Dr. King's words and the gospel music (on the slide show) and not be inspired. That's a message that even the most powerful words on paper can't replicate.

In the two months the Debatables blog has been up, no story has gotten more comments than the reassignment of A&T athletic director Dee Todd, which got 39. But last week's possible News & Record sale comes close, with 34.

Next comes a discussion about school fights; actually you could argue that this topic is the biggest one. We had two debates about it, one day apart. One got 33 comments; the other 7.

Tied for third with 33 comments was a story about Schools Superintendent Terry Grier in the running for a job in San Diego.

I guess you could say that A&T sports trumps the dismay with the paper, fights and the super. Of course, the topic is John Edwards and his campaign today so he could fight his way to the top.

Tuesday update: As of this writing Tuesday morning, Edwards got 13 comments, respectable but moderate in turnout. I don't know if that's a good or bad sign for his candidacy. If you read the responses to the stories with the most comments, they are dominated by people passionate in their distaste of the topic. If you're a political candidate, you don't want the dislike, but you want the passion.

It is a shame that today's paper isn't among the best read -- I can't imagine why -- because there's good stuff in it, including these two:

* This is our second year soliciting wrapping paper creations from readers. We got more than 100 entries -- you know, this isn't like shooting off an e-mail; this requires actual work. Additional entries here. As a special bonus, all of the submissions are on display through early January at the Greensboro Public Library's Central Branch.

* We publish our All-Area football, volleyball and boys soccer teams. This is a special issue for these athletes; more special for their parents.

Enjoy.

While I fear it will get lost in the holiday rush away from the web, Decision 2008, our election blog hosted by the inexhaustable Mark Binker, is up and running.

We've added a new blog called Triad Diary. I meant to let it simmer awhile and build up some steam before writing about it here, but after a day it already has 10 posts so maybe it has simmered enough.

As stated in its intro: A community is defined as much by its small stories of life as its big news events. This is a place where we hope to tell some of them. Some will be anecdotes, others observations. Some will have insight, others no obvious point. Sort of like every day life.

One aim is to get people from outside of our staff to contribute. Well beyond our wildest dreams, it took less than two hours to get a reader-generated post.

Visit. You can listen to the Boss as you do.

(Read this as if I were whispering.)

We have started a new blog called Debatables to create a place for people to talk about specific news stories. I'm whispering because this is a soft launch to work out the kinks.

Normally, we would do what many other Web sites do and enable comments on each story. Unfortunately, our Web publishing system doesn't allow it right now. We created a work around at one point, but it wasn't the most elegant of processes and not many people used it.

Our blog software provides an easier forum. I'm picking stories that may engender some discussion and some disagreement and posting them first thing in the morning. Most will be local, but not all. Most will be news oriented, but not all. We're looking for a public forum on issues of the day. We'll see how it goes.

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you will know that I want the debate to be civil and not to slide into personal attacks by anonymous commenters. There are plenty of sites that permit that; Debatables isn't the place for it and I'll be policing it there. One advantage of selecting the stories is that I can avoid those that have caused vicious and offensive comments on other sites. But, as I say, we'll see how it goes.

Suggestions welcome.

I voted early so this won't help me, but it may interest you. Here the video debate between mayoral candidates Yvonne Johnson and Milton Kern. (Sorry, Billy.) Moderators are Editorial Page Editor Allen Johnson and Government Editor Eddie Wooten.

Fair warning: It's 35 minutes long; they are politicians, after all.

Update: We've broken it down by question so it's more manageable.

Online News Squared links to Tim Rickard's Brewster Rockit with a I-wish-I-had-thought-of-that-line line.

Tim also maintains The Joke's on You.