We had what I thought was an excellent front page on Sunday, anchored by two very strong stories. The first was a narrative piece about George and Nan Griswold and what it’s like when your loved one has Alzheimer’s. It was sad without being maudlin, and an exceptional window into a world that is all too real for many in our community. The second was about what comes next for BB&T, the big, hometown bank that seems to have surfed through much of the recent financial troubles and took over a struggline Alabama bank on Friday.
This sort of serious enterprise is vital to our “brand” and to our success by whatever metrics used—financial, journalistic, user satisfaction, etc. The Sunday paper has always been a unique product. At larger papers, they often had journalists who only worked on that edition. The rationale was that Sunday circulation was disproportionately larger, and that readers spent more time with that edition, over that leisurely bacon and eggs breakfast before church etc. and throughout the day.
And some of that is still true, but the Web has changed a lot of that. Online, Sunday is one of our weakest days, and my guess is that is the case for most newspapers. Traffic is much lighter on the weekends. The reason is that most people aren’t at work, and so browsing the Web while eating a sandwich or waiting for somebody to return a call is not as common. It’s more of a hard-core constituency on the weekends. So, one question that will come into focus in the next few years as print and Web operations continue to converge is what’s the most important day of the week. If your audience—the word newspaper folks use to describe paper and online users—is largest during the week, does it make sense to emphasize Sunday the same way we do now? The short answer—of course—is that everyday is important, but my guess is that you will see newspapers looking at Sunday in a whole different light down the road as Web-only users become a bigger part of audience. That could change, however, if Web traffic evens out more between work and weekend.
Check it out: My father, better known as OTTERBLOG Sr., had a piece in the News & Observer yesterday about planning for a career change. As I’ve noted before, he’s a good writer. And yes, I’m sure there are those out there who think I should heed his advice and change careers…
Your host is Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. It's a forum to discuss the media, from
Not necessarily career change but approach to reporting local news especially within the sports’ community is needed. If you are indeed the boss then you need to work with that department some more and make sure they are covering all sports and not just men’s sports such as fall football. Your paper historically has been about as sexist as one can be when covering the female side of sports. It is obvious you have quit responding to these points but it doesn’t mean they will stop being pointed out.
David: It’s really not a question of having quit responding. It’s more a question of is that a productive use of my time and the time of people who follow this blog. I encourage you and others who feel there are gaps and shortfalls in our coverage to point them out with an eye toward improvement, but incessant attacks don’t accomplish anything. And to engage in dialogue with a person who based on their comments seems to think we’re all a bunch of idiots down here isn’t fruitful. It’s too predictable. You get to tee off on me and berate me. I don’t. I’m not getting into the gutter with you. That’s not part of my job description.
That said, I get and agree with your point. We need to do more with women’s sports at the high school and college level. ‘Nuf said.
Gutter? What part of pointing out and asking you to investigate is gutter? Persistance in pointing these things out isn’t gutter and when they are repeated over and over what do you expect-we quit? May I suggest asking for a report of the last time your reporters “attended” games for women’s sports or private schools. If the number is small then give the directive to change. IF they don’t change I would bet there are many that would like to have a job at the paper.
Just a reminder of questions sent weeks ago too.
1. How many out of county students are there and how much do they pay? Do they play a sport?
2. Does each school report fights and drug issues the same through the sherrif’s department?
3. How much money is generated from athletics that allows them to travel to New York, Virginia and Myrtle Beach to play teams instead of playing local teams?
Thanks for taking the time to post such a detailed and informative article. It has given me a lot of inspiration and I look forward to more like this in the future.
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