Otterblog

I am still digging out from answering letters and emails from readers about our redesign and our commitment to covering the news. What I’ve tried to tell people is that we’ve put local news first, are trying to write and cover as much as possible, and that—all things being equal—when something has to give it will be nonlocal news. One of the areas of greatest concern has been local business coverage. I have a deep interest in this subject. I came to the Journal as a business reporter, covered the closing of the AT&T plant, the sale of Piedmont Airlines, etc. So I know how important business news of all stripes is to this community. Our story today that is a curtain raiser of sorts on Targacept is the sort of journalism we are trying to do more of. Anticipatory rather than reactive. Now, obviously on big breaking stories, such as Dell’s announcement last week, we can’t anticipate, but there, too, we’re assuming that most people know the barebones by the time the newspaper hits the driveway, so we are pushing the basics on to the Web and concentrating our efforts on providing context and depth that our reporters can provide.

Good read: Lots of folks have been to Biltmore House, America’s largest house, as the marketers say. And they know that it’s somehow associated with the Vanderbilt family, and they were a dominant family in 19th century America. That was about the extent of my knowledge. I’m about halfway through The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T.J. Stiles. Epic it is. A staggering tale of brute force, hustle and one man’s ability to see around transportation and financial corners.