News-Record.com

So Paxton, which bought the Herald-Sun newspaper in Durham, walked in yesterday and promptly fired 80 of 350 staffers, including the photo chief, a 50-year veteran.

Now, don't get me wrong: The paper's owner has the right to do what it will with the paper, including screwing over the employees. But to give that many people instant dismissals tells me a number of things about Paxton, including but not limited to the following:

I'm going to post the text as soon as I get some HTML issues worked out, but in the meantime, you can download the report as a Microsoft Word document by clicking here.

UPDATE: Text after the jump.

As JR announced on Saturday, I'm going to embark on turning the News & Record's online presence into a public square, using principles of open-source journalism, as soon as I get one or two other things off my plate.

As he said, my "early efforts" will be to develop interactivity, forums, communities of place and of interest. I'll also be trying to break down artificial boundaries between N&R staff and readers by working to develop more staff and reader blogs and finding other ways to get more reader-produced content -- stories and media -- online.

That's an environment so target-rich as to be almost bewildering. And I'm a content guy, not a tech guy. (My c0ding skillz aren't mad. They're not even grumpy.)

So while I'm clearing my decks, let me lay the cornerstone for the public square by throwing this question out for discussion: Of the various formats for online discussion -- for argument's sake, let's say a discussion that could be initiated by readers OR N&R staff -- what format (blog, threaded messaging, etc.) do you like best and why? For the techies among you, is there any particular program for managing such discussion forums that you especially like? Any particular features we ought to be insisting upon?

Hit the comments link and let me know.

Thanks! Let's get to work.

The "J-Lab," the Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland, is sponsoring a competition for 20 grants to be awarded over the next two years by the Knight Foundation to start-up community-news ventures. Grantees get $12,000 the first year and $5,000 second-year matching grants. Charities, educational organizations and civic groups may apply. Information and links to guidelines, application forms and additional background info are here. Given Greensboro's growing blog community and growing interest in community news, I'd be extremely disappointed if we didn't have several applicants and very surprised if we didn't have at least one winner.

We've stopped looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Talk amongst yourselves.

UPDATE: And the reason I say, "Talk amongst yourselves," is that until we get some kind of forum/blog up and running, I'm going to let this blog serve that purpose, among others. So jump right in, y'all.

... I'll take the oath, too:

I swear that I have never taken money -- whether directly or indirectly -- from any political campaign or government agency in exchange for any service performed in my job as a journalist and/or blogger.

So that's settled.

I'm going, and so's JR. Some interesting people will be there, too, so maybe you should go as well. Info here.

My colleague Mike Fuchs, the news department's main online guy, has posted links to the 10 most-viewed N&R stories of 2004.

Now, given that we don't post all our staff stories online, I'm not sure how much to, um, read into this. You will notice -- I sure did -- that not one of the 10 constitutes "hard news" as that phrase traditionally has been understood. The important work done by my colleagues on the enterprise/investigative team, Taft Wireback and Stan Swofford, on such issues as Project Homestead, video poker, school violence and crack cocaine appears nowhere on the list.

That's not to denigrate the work of other colleagues on the stories that did make the list. But the makeup of the list raises a question: What are the ramifications as the N&R proceeds with plans to remake its Web site and its news operations? Should we produce more stories like these? Should we give people what they want, or what they need, or both? Is serendipity dreamt of in the philosophies of those who will be working with and advising us on our plans? Why stories about mysterious creatures but not stories about jet-powered outhouses, which, as we all know, are much cooler?

Inquiring minds want to know.

One of the first things I wanted to do to our Web site was to enable reader comments on every staff-written story we post online.

The good news: We'll be able to do that, and we will do it.

The bad news: Our new Web-publishing software has to get here first, and it's still probably several weeks out.

Meanwhile, our tech folks are looking at some other changes we'd like to make. When I know more, so will you.

What's on your mind this afternoon?

Mainstream media coverage of the 2008 -- no, that's not a typo -- presidential campaign already has begun, and journalist-turned-rhetorician Andrew Cline says the early indications are that news coverage isn't necessarily going to be any better than it was last time around.

What's on your mind this afternoon?

David Wharton reposts a comment from the kind of couple Greensboro has been trying desperately to attract and keep. I'm skeptical that the kind of urban planning they advocate would make a huge difference, even as I acknowledge a personal taste for it that I picked up during my 18-month exile in New York two decades ago. But it probably would help at least a little, and given the success of the city's Southside project, it's at least worth discussing.

Bill Mitchell, editor of Poynter Online, the Web site of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a journalism education program and think tank, has an interview up with N&R editor John Robinson about our open-source journalism initiative. Regular readers of JR's blog won't find much new, but this'll get what a lot of us in Greensboro already know out in front of a much wider audience.

I finally got to a meetup of local bloggers -- the one held last night at the Green Bean in downtown Greensboro. It was low-key, productive and enjoyable, and it was good to see some old acquaintances and meet in person some of the people whom I've known and admired to this point only through their writing. Props to Roch, Chewie, Billy, Jim Capo, TheShu, David Hoggard, Jay Ovittore, Tara Sue, Sue, Herb and the other attendees I'm probably forgetting.

The regular meetup time is 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month, although I had to leave last night before things were over and so don't know yet where next month's meetup will be. (In a moment of parental rashness, I had promised my kids I'd be home to kiss them goodnight before they went to sleep.)

If you're local and you blog (or want to learn about blogging), c'mon out.

So at a preinaugural dinner Tuesday night, James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, stood up and announced that the creators of Spongebob Squarepants had enlisted the cartoon sponge in making a video with a message supportive of gay people. It's not clear from the story, but Dobson also appeared to be implying that they did so because Spongebob is gay.

The article goes on to explain that Dobson was laboring under a misunderstanding (although Dobson's spokesman said Wednesday that Dobson stands by his accusation anyway. Where have we heard that before?).

As it happens, I blogged about this issue more than two years ago on my personal blog, to wit: Spongebob Squarepants isn't gay. He's just, like, 10 years old.

It's a different character on the show, Squidward, who is gay.

Late Wednesday, I met with two of our online staff, Charlie Stafford and Stephen Paschall, to discuss additions/changes to our Web site that would enhance interactivity and could be done fairly quickly and easily, without having to wait until our new Web publishing software goes online.

One thing we looked at was online forums, which we've had in some form or fashion since our first Web site went up 10 years ago. Our current forums are here; on the News & Record home page, look for the "message boards" link near the top right corner of the page.

In addition to previously created forums on specific subjects that we'd covered heavily in the paper, you'll find two new forums, one for area news and one for sports. I'll spend some time over there regularly, and I invite you to do the same.

In response to a request from a reader, we've created new forums for each of the colleges in and near Greensboro. Links are here, or they can be accessed from the News-Record.com home page by clicking on the "message boards" link near the upper right corner of the page or the "message forums" button right underneath the Top News Updates.

The N&R welcomes another addition to its blog roster: religion writer Nancy McLaughlin's "The Front Pew." We had some technical problems with it this weekend (along with our forums and some other parts of the site that apparently no one noticed), but they're all fixed now (we think). So y'all stop by there and show her some love, mmkay?

Coming soon: Biz enterprise writer Dick Barron and editorial-page editor Allen Johnson will join our blogging ranks (Allen's will be here). And we might be able to whup up some more surprises for you this week, too.

Mike Fuchs, the N&R newsroom's online-news editor, has just created two new sports discussion forums, one for NASCAR and one for the ACC. Y'all are now free to, as whatzername on "Saturday Night Live" says, talk amongst yourselves, although don't be surprised if I or other N&R staffers make the occasional appearance as well.

The list of links to all our forums is here.

Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" is nominated for three Academy Awards, all relatively minor (cinematography, makeup, music).

Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" is nominated for zero. Zip, zilch, nada.

Looks like Hollywood wants a depoliticized Oscar show this year.

(I have seen neither film, in case that matters.)

Eleven years ago this month, I was pulled into a meeting here at the N&R of a bunch of people, most of whom were much higher up the food chain than I, and learned that we, via our corporate parent, were getting into the Internet bidness. A few months later, I was assigned to lead a team of newsroom and tech folks in planning content for what would become the N&R's first Web site, Triad Online, which started going up between Christmas and New Year's Eve of 1994.

One of my team's early meetings involved brainstorming content. Someone suggested that we would probably want to post online the contents of Discover the Triad, a special section we publish every year that's a kind of user's manual for this region.

Dave Stroble, a writer with an even unhealthier interest in computers than my own, then suggested what we were being trained at the time to call a "paradigm shift": Rather than re-reporting each year's edition from scratch and then sticking copy from the printed edition online, he said, we should maintain the information online, make different newsroom people responsible for keeping the different sections up to date, and then download the contents each year to produce the printed edition.

It was a good idea at the time. Now, with our more advanced technology, it's an even better idea. And I was reminded of that by this post at Southern Rants, in which Sue talks about an acquaintance who noted that a charity that appeared in the N&R's recent wish list for area charities was seeking something that he could provide, cheaply. And he provided it.

In the brief ensuing discussion, a commenter suggests that the list be kept online and interactive, "like a wedding registry," which would better serve local charities and make it easier for people to help. This is a perfect, and arguably even more productive, example of what Dave Stroble, who since has left the company, was talking about. I don't know what the technical obstacles to this idea would be, but I'm going to find out.

Perhaps, then, the first manifestation of what I'm going to continue calling the Stroble Paradigm will appear soon as a service linking people who want to help with agencies that need the help.

Got any other ideas for exploiting online's advantages over print in this fashion? Send me an e-mail or hit the comments link.

Another small step toward making N-R.com a true public square: There's now a link on the home page, right underneath the Top News Updates, whereby you can submit a suggestion for a story directly to me. I'll forward your suggestion to the appropriate editor or reporter. I'll also let you know via return e-mail when I have done so and to whom I forwarded it.

This arrangement isn't quite as rich and transparent as the one suggested by Jim Wilson and described in my memo. In fact, it's not hugely different from what we were doing before I wrote the memo. But it's what we're capable of doing now with the staff and technical resources we have, and we'll be working to make people more aware of this feature. As we move closer to true open-source journalism (and once our Web-publishing system is updated), we'll take bigger steps, but for now, just click on the link and hit me with your best ideas.

Thanks!

"One, two, another, another ... "

That's how my son, now about to turn 4, used to count. I'm starting to feel the way he does about the growing number of N&R blogs.

And that's a good thing.

Two more blogs have made their debut.

Editorial-page editor Allen Johnson's Thinking Out Loud made its official debut Friday evening. To judge from the anticipation it engendered -- a routine "test" post by one of our tech folks two weeks prior drew nine responses -- it should quickly become a high-traffic site, one that involves a great deal of community discussion.

To me, someone who works in the newspaper business, the reason is fairly obvious. Most people don't really obsess much over the newspaper business the way they do over, say, TV or movies, which is one reason why movies about the newspaper business tend not to succeed. But one aspect of the business that does interest people, at least in this community, is how the N&R's editorials come to be. (That question may be rephrased, depending on one's political viewpoint, as "Why does the N&R support nothing but liberal candidates?" or "Why does the N&R always support the Old Boy Network here?")

Allen will tell you himself that he's a blogging newbie, but I've known him for 18 years and I can tell you he has one attribute that's necessary, and might even be sufficient, for blogging success: He enjoys a good conversation, even with people he disagrees with.

The other new blog, which made its debut earlier this morning, is Off the Record, by Doug Clark, a N&R editorial writer and columnist. Doug, a longtime staffer at the High Point Enterprise before joining us about a year ago, also has demonstrated a taste for conversation that will serve him, and you, well.

Also, beginning Tuesday, the letters to the editor published in the News & Record also will appear online in a blog called, simply, Letters.

Letters currently appear online already, but each day's letters appear together on a single page without links to individual letters and without a way for readers to comment on one. The blog format will create a link to each individual letter, called a "permalink," to make citing a letter online easier, and will allow reader comments on each individual letter. The commenting feature, we hope, will help engender more community conversation, particularly on local issues of wide interest.

We hope you'll enjoy these new features and use 'em often. And, as always, if you've got comments, suggestions or criticism, e-mail me at the link to the right or hit the comments link below this post.