Ask the editor

Go to macon.com to listen to audio webcast of WRALL regional games

2008-08-01T18:54:00.005-04:00

Newspapers, including this one, are often accused of reporting bad news in excess. Our coverage of the Warner Robins American Little Leaguers' quest to repeat as world champs is anything but bad news, but, yes, I've heard the word excess used in connection with our coverage so far.

We'll take the criticism. We're having a good time writing about 12 young men and their coach having the time of their lives. We put their faces on the front page of the newspaper. We'll have stories throughout the weekend. If they continue to play well, we'll have coverage all next week.

Beginning Saturday, the first day of the Southeast regionals in Florida, The Telegraph will provide an audio webcast of the game. Warner Robins faces Tennessee at 1 p.m. Listeners can go to macon.com and hear sports writer and columnist Mike Lough's account of the on-the-field action. Reporter Joe Kovac, who covered the WR team last year, will also be on hand. Joe and Photographer Jason Vorhees also will provide daily updates on macon.com and coverage in The Telegraph.

We hope you enjoy the coverage -- in excess.

LOOKING TO SPOTLIGHT PEOPLE DOING GOOD

In all seriousness, Telegraph editors listen to criticism of all sorts, and we've heard plenty of it lately. A commom criticism is that we (and newspapers in general) print bad news because it sells, and that we ignore so much good that happens. In fact, we strive to find and tell stories of people doing good. One of my favorite appeared on Page One last Saturday, and was written by Amy Leigh Womack.

It was the story of two Macon firefighters who responded to a house fire near Pio Nono. Two young children were in the fully-engulfed home. The firefighters wanted to go in to save the boys. The firefighters’ supervisor gave them 30 seconds to attempt a rescue.

They found the children, but it was too late to save their lives. (Three people have been charged with murder and arson in connection with the fire.)

I imagine firefighters are trained for circumstances such as this. Nonetheless, our community should be grateful for such remarkable public servants. No matter the training, entering that house could have cost more lives.

If you know of people doing remarkable work in the community, call our tipsline at 478-744-4636 or e-mail me at smarshall@macon.com

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO READ ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES?

Much of what The Telegaph publishes about the presidential race is provided by our wire services. That coverage is important, but it doesn't always reflect the issues and concerns of the people in our coverage area. As we plan to focus our attention -- and yours -- on the race in the coming months, we'd like to hear what you want to know about the candidates and their positions. Again, e-mail me at smarshall@macon.com.

Crime package, forum were efforts to start more community conversations

2008-04-30T12:37:00.003-04:00

As The Telegraph planned its crime package, which was published this weekend, we quickly concluded that we wanted the public to have a say regarding what we published as well as any other issues about crime. We brought together an experienced panel of law enforcement experts to answer any questions.

We applaud the heads of law enforcement in Bibb and Houston counties and in Fort Valley, Macon and Warner Robins. We also applaud the community panelists who prepared thoughtful questions for the panel.

We hope those of you who turned out were enlightened -- and maybe emboldened. Bibb County Sheriff Jerry Modena was not alone in driving home how important it is to have involved people in the community to help fight crime. It is not the job of law enforcement alone.

I wish more folks had attended. We expect to host community forums on other topics in the future. Meanwhile, if you missed the crime forum, you have an opportunity to see and hear some of the discussion. Cox Channel 15, in partnership with The Telegraph, will air a special on crime throughout the month of May. Check the newspaper or macon.com for more dates and times.

Free community forum on crime to be held tonight at the Douglass Theatre

2008-04-28T17:21:00.003-04:00

If you have a concern about crime and you want your voice to be heard, plan to attend a forum called “Where Crime Happens,” from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, April 29, at the Douglass Theatre. Top law enforcement officials will take questions from a panel of community members. Officials also will answer questions submitted by audience members.

The forum follows The Telegraph’s publication Sunday and Monday of a series of stories about crime.

Several months ago, Telegraph reporter Amy Leigh Womack started collecting statistics for a range of crimes that law enforcement agencies are required to report to the state. Those statistics eventually become part of the public domain, published as part of what are called Uniform Crime Statistics.

With so much emphasis on crime, particularly in Macon -- for instance, a group of citizens convened by The Telegraph last year as part of a project called Mission Possible listed crime among its top concerns – Amy’s pitch to do a story about where crime happens was given the green light. She launched her project during a year in which the number of homicides in Macon and Bibb were up significantly compared to the previous year. That spike, between 2006 and 2007, was explainable (the number of homicides in 2006 was particularly low), but the number was still attention-grabbing. Where crime happens and to whom seemed the right target for a closer examination.

What about crime downtown? Is it as bad as one sometimes hear? And what about the Macon Mall? Who among us hasn’t heard someone suggest the mall isn’t safe, especially after dark?

The stories published over the weekend won’t be the definitive word on crime in our region. Not even close. The reports by Amy Leigh and other staffers who joined her in this effort are based on crimes reported during a short window of time, either 2006 or 2007. This is truly a snapshot, but the findings are nonetheless interesting and insightful.

Amy Leigh’s efforts were focused largely on Bibb and Macon, but she also looked at statistics from Jones, Monroe, Baldwin and Laurens counties. Public safety reporter Becky Purser, who works in our Houston bureau, wrote about crime in Houston County, Warner Robins and Fort Valley, and Ashley Joyner, who covers the police beat at night from our Macon office, looked at the 2007 homicides, including the impact of homicide on a family of a victim.

We view this report as the start of a community conversation on crime. To that end, The Telegraph is partnering with Cox Channel 15, Mercer University and the Douglass Theatre to sponsor Tuesday night’s forum.

We hope you can join us in this conversation. If you can’t, send your questions to Amy Leigh Womack at awomack@macon.com.

Feel free to e-mail or call me as well at (smarshall@macon.com) or 478-744-4340.

Was top of Page One the right place for story on plan to overhaul U.S. financial regulatory system?

2008-04-01T20:24:00.005-04:00

Our lead story in the Tuesday edition of The Telegraph was an Associated Press story about the Bush administration’s plan to overhaul the financial regulatory system.

At our Monday afternoon news meeting, Telegraph editors had plenty of interesting options for Page One, but the financial story provided what we call a strong “lead’ -- meaning it was important and timely (the plan had just been announced; it was unveiled at a time the nation is grappling with a struggling economy; and it was seen as an ambitious undertaking by an administration near the end of its term).

The question, though, was whether the story would be written in laymen’s language. Would the impact of the proposed move be apparent to the average reader? Put more bluntly, would readers care about this story?

Ok. We had more than one question.

In the end, the story was as I had envisioned: Important, absolutely, but probably not all that engaging for many readers. In other words, it had a narrower appeal than we like for placement on Page One, and seemed a better fit for the Business front.

Meanwhile, failing to make the Page One cut was a fascinating story about the Army allowing married couples in war zones to live together. The story would not have replaced the financial system story as a lead, but it may have appealed to more readers.

Curious how other McClatchy newspapers displayed the financial system story, I looked at a number of front pages, which can be found each day on the McClatchy Web site, mcclatchy.com.

The Raleigh News and Observer ran the story as its lead, while The Charlotte Observer had a bottom-of-the-page photo that referred readers to a story in the business section. So did the Sacramento Bee, which, by the way, put the Army story on Page One. The Myrtle Beach Sun opted for the Army story, too, with no mention of the Bush financial plan on the front. The State in Columbia, S.C., had an above-the-masthead summary key to the financial story.

Doesn’t mean one paper was right and another wrong. There is no science to story placement, and the day’s offering of local news obviously was part of the equation. Just a little insight into our daily deliberations.

While I’m thinking about it, if you go to mcclatchy.com and click on front pages, take a look at the Fort Worth (Texas) Star Telegram and tell me what you think of its Page One approach to the news.

Pretty in Pink: It’s Macon’s season to shine

2008-03-27T09:51:00.002-04:00

The Telegraph staff will be out in full force over the next 10 days covering the Cherry Blossom Festival. By the time the event ends, most of us involved in the coverage will hope we’ll never see pink again. That sentiment will last for about a year, by which time we’re recharged and eager to embrace another edition of Macon’s finest festival.

With chests puffed with pride, we'll brag to our friends that Macon has more cherry trees than Washington, D.C. (home to that other cherry blossom festival) as we direct visitors to a favorite venue or event.

In today’s paper, you’ll find a special Cherry Blossom Festival section listing a host of fun events. The section includes useful information such as where to buy tickets, or gifts, or where to catch up to a bus tour. We hope you’ll use it to plan your Cherry Blossom outings.

You can also find a calendar on our Web site, macon.com. We invite you to visit macon.com each day during the festival. We’ll have plenty of things to show and tell, including lots of colorful photos from our staff photographers and our readers, and regular postings from our cherry blogger. There’s a special CBF site already on our Web site, so please take a look and tell your friends to submit their photographs.

Meanwhile, if you have a fresh idea for a story about the festival or any of its many volunteers, we’re all ears. Call me at 744-4340 or shoot me an e-mail. If it’s next week, and I don’t get right back to you, be patient. I’m probably standing in line for my scoop of Cherries and Cream ice cream. It was so popular last year that I missed out on it. Not this year, baby.

Too many errors? Trying harder to get it right

2008-02-11T12:39:00.000-05:00

We took a lot of heat – and rightly so – for the recent “I have a deam” headline on the Editorial page.

Some readers and letter writers noted that the headline was just one of many bloopers that appear in the newspaper. They’re right about that, too.

So are these errors occurring because the people we hire to write and edit copy are poorly trained compared to people who sat in their chairs twenty years ago? Are we too short-staffed? In the too-frequent cases of subject-verb disagreement, do Telegraph staffers simply not care about the English language? Don’t we realize that misspelling a name makes readers wonder what else we might have wrong? In the end, don’t these mistakes, which at a minimum make us look sloppy, also affect our credibility?

One letter writer responding to the “I have a deam” headline allowed as how we all make mistakes and suggested we get on with matters of more substance.

I appreciate that reader.

But . . . some of us in today’s newsroom may not be as disciplined about language usage as our predecessors. Multitasking has meant a little less focus on one craft as we ply another; blogging and the instant posting of breaking news online doesn’t breed accuracy (Note my own use of pour instead of poor in a recent blog entry). Almost every editor in the country will say his or her newsroom could use more staff.

Still, journalists at the Telegraph do care about the English language and good grammar, and they care about accuracy. We are scared to death that we are hurting our credibility one garbled headline at a time, one wrong address or phone number at a time. No one gets a pass. All of us at the paper who touch copy – and there are many of us - need to be more careful.

Let me say it before the most cynical of you do (is there any one more cynical than a journalist?): You don’t care why it happens, you just want it to stop.

We agree. We’re going to work harder to prevent errors. And we’re going to do a better job of tracking errors – as a way of holding each other accountable and, most importantly, learning from our mistakes.

When we fall short, as we will, we expect you’ll let us know. That, too, should help set us on a better path.

Readers say some photos not fit to print

2008-01-12T20:25:00.000-05:00

Some months back, The Telegraph published a photo of an accident scene in which a teen was killed. The photo showed sheriff and other emergency personnel on the scene. The car was upside down near the pole it had hit.

Initially I didn’t notice the teen’s body on the ground covered by a sheet, nor did a number of others who saw the photo.

But the teen’s mother noticed. And she was furious. To her, the picture was disrespectful. She was in great distress, and publication of the photo added to the tragedy, she said.

The Telegraph also caught heat when it photographed a picture of a boy who had just walked upon a scene of a murder-suicide involving his parents. That picture didn't show the boy’s face, but there was no mistaking his grief. More recently, family members complained we were insensitive when we published a photo taken at the scene of a fatal accident at a local workplace. Again, the photo showed a covered body.

Over the years, we’ve had to make tough calls regarding publication of photos. We sometimes decide to publish recognizing our decision might bring complaints. Often, though, the photos that create the most furor are ones we least expect.

Photo chief Woody Marshall, after hearing me pontificate about being sensitive to readers and families, pulled out a number of pictures we have published, none of which brought a complaint: workers removing a body from a lake, a bag of human bones from an overgrown field.

These are news photos, he argues, adding that we second-guess ourselves only when someone, usually a family member, complains. Second-guessing is a poor substitute for setting guidelines and standards.

So what are our guidelines about publishing pictures of bodies or other potentially controversial content? We first consider the news value. Does the picture tell the story or help make what happened clearer to readers? It the photo powerful? Even if we believe a picture has high news value, that doesn’t mean we automatically will publish. Many newspapers, maybe most, declined to publish photos of people jumping from the World Trade Center towers. We didn’t publish pictures of a baby’s body being recovered after hours in a hot car.

But we don’t try to shield readers from everything that might make them uncomfortable.

There is no science to what we do, and we don’t always make the right call. But we don’t operate blindly. We try to ask good questions, solicit other views, and consider the consequences and impact.

Obama vs. Clinton: Did the Telegraph deliver?

2008-01-09T20:50:00.000-05:00

What a difference a few hours makes.

With polls indicating that Barack Obama would easily win the New Hampshire primary, I left work early evening Tuesday, grabbed dinner, went home and took a nap. I awoke to the news that Hillary Clinton had edged out Obama. It was around 11:15.

Earlier in the day, editors had discussed how we would display the New Hampshire results. None of us expected a surprise, though one editor noted that the story would take on more significance if Hillary won. And because of the early Iowa results, we didn’t ask for later deadlines.

I don’t know how many people stayed up to watch the numbers come in. More importantly, if they did watch, I don’t know what they expected to see in their morning newspaper. With round-the-clock coverage on TV and on Web sites, by morning the "news" is not always the score; rather it is the analysis, the perspective, the "what's next." McClatchy's Washington bureau had budgeted such a story.

The New Hampshire results came in later than we expected. While that wasn't an issue for our Online Editor, who posted results at macon.com from home, it meant a scramble to make our press deadline. There was just enough time to get the breaking news story onto the page. There was no time to wait for the perspective piece, nor to process a photo of a wildly excited Clinton to pair with the pix of a victorious John McCain.

In this day of constant news, constant chatter, what do you expect in the way of political (and other national) coverage in the newspaper?

Telegraph news coverage in 2008

2008-01-03T15:42:00.000-05:00

Among our goals is to monitor Macon’s new city government and write about promises made and kept -- or not. How will the new government find money to fund new initiatives, or provide pay raises for police and fire fighters as well as other personnel? Will our downtown continue to grow, and will more people feel safe whether downtown on in the neighborhoods where they live? Will Macon and Bibb County stop seeing a population drain to other counties?

We’ll also keep our eyes on how our schools are educating kids. What will be the impact of redistricting in Bibb schools? And, why, for instance, do so many students in Middle Georgia and throughout the state have trouble passing parts of the graduation test?

As Warner Robins continues to grow, how will the character of the city and Houston County change? How is growth being managed? What is the impact on areas such as Byron and Peach County?

During the last base realignment process, Robins Air Force Base seemed to fare pretty well, but there are stresses at Robins, among them an aging workforce. How are base officials and local leaders meeting the challenges? It is a story we’ve been diligently covering because of the potential impact on the base and the region.

These are some of the issues we will be writing about. What are your ideas? Send them my way: smarshall@macontel.com

How important are local concert reviews?

2007-12-13T12:10:00.000-05:00

I was in Nashville, TN, earlier this month, where there were two nearly sold-out concerts, one featuring Keith Urban and the other featuring Stevie Wonder. Both got great reviews from writers at The Tennessean. I love music and other arts, but I’m too busy to attend many concerts. Still, I love to know what it might have been like had I attended.

At The Telegraph, we hire freelancers to review some Macon Symphony Orchestra performances, but we tend not to review pop or country acts, or local theater productions. The argument has been that it is more useful to preview events so that people can attend than to write a review that, because of our print deadlines, wouldn’t be published in the newspaper until a couple days after the event anyway.

The review of Urban’s Friday night concert appeared in Sunday’s edition of The Tennessean and the review of Stevie’s Saturday night concert appeared in Monday’s paper, so deadlines must be an issue at that paper, too. (Of course, newspaper Web sites would allow more immediate publication of reviews.)

One of the reasons The Telegraph has curtailed reviews is that it is hard to find reliable, experienced freelancers who are also good writers and critics. But that isn’t the only reason; it requires an editor’s attention to assign and manage a freelance rotation, and to edit the stories. That resource is now devoted to covering daily news stories, so I can't promise that we can add a lot of reviews to our workload.

Still, as we assess the content we are able to provide readers, we'd like to know what you think. Do you find reviews newsworthy, and would you like to see more? Was there a concert you attended that you believe readers also could have enjoyed vicariously? If we published more reviews, would it make you buy the paper or would you more likely look for the review online?

What about the events we do preview? Do you find the previews useful? Do we do enough? What would you change?

Up Next: Controversial photographs: Are there pictures we should not print?

Oprah visit a shot in the arm, or too much?

2007-11-23T10:57:00.000-05:00

We’ve received three calls from a reader, who didn’t leave a phone number or other contact information, complaining that Oprah got too much attention before, during and after her visit to Macon and that, contrary to what the newspaper might think, the talk show host doesn’t walk on water.

From the perspective of a newspaper editor, I'd say we had a nice few days in Macon covering Oprah’s visit. It was just the kind of story readers periodically tell us they want to see more of. Positive. Energizing. Fun. In the end, Oprah’s visit was a story about somebody doing something nice for somebody else. From all accounts, Oprah and her crew were very gracious guests who delighted hundreds of people by stepping out on the town and engaging with the locals. Frankly, some of the video footage made me wince because some eager fans seemed to forget that it can be frightening to be rushed. Everybody wanted a piece of Oprah, and she gave as much as anyone could have expected.

Does she walk on water? Of course not. She’s human, and that humanity was on display in fine form for a few days in our fair city.

By the way, if you did not visit macon.com during the visit, you can still find plenty of content related to Oprah’s visit. The photo slide shows and the videos are terrific. My favorite is video of the unscripted encounter between Oprah and fans outside her hotel Friday morning. If you haven’t already, check it out.

Race, race go away?

2007-11-13T12:42:00.000-05:00

A group of residents representing various churches met last Thursday night at Cherokee Heights United Methodist Church to talk about what some say are social injustices that result from racism. According to The Telegraph news report, the group wants to form a governing body that will be responsible for encouraging church forums and other town meetings to talk about such issues.

Tonight at the Douglass Theatre, the Center for Racial Understanding is hosting a community conversation about race. The discussion, which is set for 7-8:30 p.m., is co-sponsored by The Telegraph and WMAZ-TV. A point person for the event is Catherine Meeks, director of the Center for Community Engagement at Wesleyan College, who says such a dialogue is long overdue.

Among the panelists will be Meeks and mayor-elect Robert Reichert.

In discussing the forum with a friend this morning, he was skeptical. “What can anyone say about race that everybody doesn’t already know?” he asked.

How then, I responded, do you propose we tackle this thorny issue?

Neither of us had answers that satisfied the other.

Folks inside and outside the newsroom have told me for years that, in Macon, race is the elephant in the room. While an elephant is hard to miss, it is also hard to move.

Tonight’s gathering is intended to start a conversation that will continue, eventually, in small groups. Maybe that’s the best way to take a conversation about race beyond talk: In small, manageable pieces.

For more information about "A Conversation on Race," can call 478-757-3800. If you are unable to attend tonight’s forum, you can read about the event on macon.com are in Wednesday’s Telegraph.

What do readers know?

2007-11-06T15:54:00.000-05:00

For years, journalists have been party to discussions about community journalism and reader participation. The theme of these discussions is that plenty of interesting things happen in our own back yards, that readers are interested in these events - and even willing to provide information about them - and that readers are more engaged with the newspaper when they believe they have a voice.

By now, newspapers have plenty of experience with “reader involvement,” “reader-generated content,” and “hyper-local” news. Much of this content appears on opinion pages, in sections targeted at specific groups, or on pages published on certain days of the weeks (such at The Telegraph’s Neighbors’ pages).

Still, the cost of newsprint and other costs associated with producing a paper have prevented the wide use of reader-submitted content as well as the wide distribution of hyper-local content that some readers say they want.

The growing popularity of news Web sites, however, has made newsprint costs almost a non-issue when it comes to finding a place for readers to have a voice. Chat rooms, discussions boards, blogs and commenting functions have led to a wave of reader participation.

The Telegraph believes readers want to engage in community conversations that are empowering, enlightening, engaging and helpful, though there are those for which this clearly is not always the case.

As of last week, The Telegraph requires registration for readers wishing to comment on local stories.

Of course, if you still want to talk to the editor, e-mail me, or call me at 478-744-4340.

Ditch Dear Abby?

2007-10-31T10:52:00.001-04:00

A caller who didn¹t leave her name on my voice mail asked why we keep moving Dear Abby around in the paper, making the column hard to find. One day it¹s in the local section, she said, and the next day it might be in the sports section.

Why don't you just kill it, she suggested.

Dear Abby remains where she has for years: on the TV page. Our Page One index will always tell you where to find the TV page.

Still, the caller has a point. On one day a week, the TV page moves to a different section. Here's why:

The TV page appears in the Life & Style section Monday through Thursday and Saturday. On Friday, we publish the Out & About entertainment tab instead of a Life & Style section, so the TV page most often had appeared near the back of the Local & State section.

That¹s not always the case these days. The TV page sometimes ends up in the sports/business section.

The reason? In our effort to manage news print, we are less likely now than a year ago to increase the number of pages in the paper.

Stick with me.

Once upon a time, if the Local& State section filled up -- say, we sold more ads than normal, or more obits, leaving insufficient space for local and state news -- we¹d simply add two pages to the section. Because of how our presses run, if you add two pages to Local & State, you have to add two pages to another section. It doesn¹t matter whether you only need one page, you¹d be required to add four.

Today, we are much more likely to move content around to avoid adding pages. That means that on Fridays, we sometimes need to move the TV page -¬ with Abby -¬ to the sports section. Not ideal, but that¹s the way it works.

Again, the best way to find Abby is to look for the TV page listing in the Page One index.

Do newspapers care about old people?

2007-10-24T20:03:00.000-04:00

I hoped the headline would catch your attention.

I spent part of last week in Warner Robins interviewing candidates for city council. When asked about their concerns, many of the candidates mentioned quality-of-life issues that affect senior citizens. Lack of transportation was the common theme, but I sensed a larger concern about how seniors fare in our youth-obsessed society. Ok, maybe having just marked another birthday made be particularly sensitive to the comments. The candidate interviews also took place just as I returned from “vacation,” much of it spent trying to figure out how to get good care for an elderly mom who wants to remain in her home, but whose modest income is increasingly used to pay for expensive prescription drugs.

I know I’m walking the path many, many others walk every day, but trying to navigate the maze of Medicare rules, requirements and restrictions has just about gotten the best of me.

Newspapers – and now Web sites - spend a lot of time courting young readers, but many of us do poor job writing about the lives of seniors or the issues that affect them and their caregivers. This is not sexy stuff, but it sure can hit home.

Health care is hardly the only topic pertinent to seniors and their families. What about transportation? How big a problem is it? An assortment of specialized senior housing has cropped up, but how many seniors can afford it? What about other aging issues? What is an 80-year-old’s social life like when her siblings and close friends have all died?

What stories are we not covering that would be of particular interest to older people, their families, friends and service providers?

Business coverage drought?

2007-10-18T20:20:00.000-04:00

To “Anonymous,” who asked about the newspaper’s business coverage: The Telegraph has a business reporter in the Macon office, and it has a reporter in the Houston office who covers business and other topics. I wish we had third business reporter, but we work with what we have.

Reporter Linda Morris knows her way around the business community in Macon, but she has to prioritize her time. In Houston County, Wayne Crenshaw writes about growth and other business-related issues, but he also covers government meetings on occasion. Overall, we aim for daily business stories while trying to find time for longer enterprise and trend pieces. Linda is working on such a story now, but she has to work on that story even as she handles daily assignments.

We sometimes pull in other reporters to cover business. For instance, Heather Duncan, who writes about the environment as well as special projects, wrote a package of stories last year about the financial challenges facing the Medical Center of Central Georgia.

If you have a specific story you’d like to see us report, send it my way.

My Apologies

I was on vacation last week. I was out of the office much of this week with the editorial board interviewing political candidates. I should have posted a note that I would be on vacation. I had hoped to blog at least a few times while I was gone. No such luck.

That was last week. I’m back and waiting to hear from you.

Are TV books worth the paper they're printed on?

2007-10-03T19:53:00.000-04:00

Increasingly, TV viewers here and elsewhere tell me they don’t use the TV guide provided in their newspaper, mostly because so much information is now accessible from their cable and satellite TV providers. Want to know what’s on at 7? Hit a button on your remote and there you have it on your TV screen.

Newspaper TV guides consume a ton of newsprint. Many newspapers, including The Telegraph, have trimmed back the guides over the years. When we’ve done so, most of us have heard howls of protest. Once upon a time, newspapers had the luxury of providing such guides whether readers used them or not. We are, after all, a mass medium. That luxury no longer exists.

Some folks might argue that if audience interest alone dictates what you put in newspapers, editors might have to eliminate a lot of content. A reasonable argument, but TV listings, like some other types of information – stocks come to mind – are not the kind of content that readers can get only in their local newspaper. A person interested in stock listings, for instance, can have the latest info about the companies he or she tracks delivered via email each day.

What complicates this issue for many editors is that some readers – many of them our older and most loyal customers - are not plugged into the internet. They have no interest in looking to the Web for their information, they’ve told me. They prefer the convenience of sitting with a TV book at their sides as they plan their viewing.

In an ideal world, we’d figure out how to deliver a really good TV book to the folks who want it, and stop delivering it to those who have no interest. The complexities of The Telegraph’s market – the sheer size of our delivery territory – makes that impractical right now, but other papers are trying this, along with other things, such as changing the publication day from Sunday to a day with less circulation, such as Friday.

The Telegraph’s latest change, made a few weeks ago with the introduction of our Leisure section, combines the TV listings with features content, but in such a way that the listings can be pulled out and kept all week long. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s the most efficient way we could find for now.

What's with these comments?

2007-10-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

The Telegraph allows comments on stories because we believe there are readers who have something to say that others might find enlightening or interesting. We expected some misuse of the comment feature, because editors at other newspapers that allow comments told us as much. The comment function at newspapers has prompted hateful, profane, racist, illogical and off-point posts. People write things to which they won't dare sign their names.

With comments, a newspaper is bound to get the good with the bad. The hope, of course, is that the good will outweigh the bad.

Still I have been disappointed, even discouraged, at the level of discourse in some cases.

A “report a violation” link in the comments section allows readers to alert us to offensive material. But because we don't have the staff to moderate the discussions, we're expecting soon to require registration for those who want to comment. It won't stop all the violations - anonymous commentators can be crafty -- but it should help.

Anonymity has its place. There are many wrongs that wouldn't have come to light without an anonymous tip or unsigned letter. But folks who make personal and often vicious attacks behind the shield of anonymity may need to find another medium through which to express themselves.
Of course, controversial comments will always be allowed. Our goal is not to stop the expression of unpopular views. Some comments will sting, or anger, but they may also prompt positive action or a solution.

The comment function on macon.com is really about creating a space that allows readers to have a conversation, or even a debate, about the people, events and issues we write about, and it’s about providing a forum in which readers can question how we report the news.

Those of you who are offering thoughtful, helpful, and interesting comments, as well as story ideas and even criticism, we hope you will not let your voices be silenced by those seeking to cause a distraction. That would be a sad commentary indeed.

We're so much more than a newspaper

2007-09-27T19:34:00.000-04:00

Early in the spring, I told one of my online staffers I was ready to start a blog.

Things kept getting in the way. There were crises and heavy workloads and more crises. My initial draft blog entry, reviewed a couple months later, seemed dated.

So rather than wait for the perfect moment, or the perfect news story, here it is: my opportunity to tell you a little about how we do business at The Telegraph and your opportunity to tell me what you think about what you read – or don’t read – in the paper or on our Web site, macon.com.

Speaking of our macon.com, we’re spending a ton of energy on it these days. It has made life a lot more complex – and interesting. Our Web site is hardly new, but the urgency with which we produce content for it is. Gone are the days when a reporter or editor storms into my office protesting that a story that we believe is an exclusive shouldn't be posted to the Web.

“Why should we let other media steal our thunder,” the argument went. “We’re our own worst enemy,” was another common refrain.

These days, the Telegraph recognizes its audience is not just the person who expects the newspaper at his doorstep each morning, but the businesswoman or student who throughout the day wants to know what’s happening in Bibb, Houston and surrounding counties.

We’ve turned ourselves upside down to make sure these new readers are not disappointed. Inside the newsroom, it’s been a hard sell. Frankly, that’s because it’s more work, or at least different work. Reporters and photographers are now expected to file breaking news throughout the day. Some are shooting video and taking their own photos. With the web obligations satisfied, reporters then write a story for the next day’s newspaper, mindful of the need to provide more detail to keep the story fresh. Photographers edit their pictures, choosing one or two for the newspaper and a gallery of photos for the Web site.

I was a broadcast major in college, so I have a slight familiarity with newsgathering and delivery that emphasizes the visual. But for most of us in the newsroom, what we’ve learned about producing journalism for the Web has been seat-of-the-pants.

We’ll need to hold on to our britches because more change is afoot. Media companies across the country are experimenting with new forms of news delivery (from cell phones to e-mail alerts), embracing the delivery of other kinds of information (from entertainment news to a week’s worth of recipes), and embracing reader-provided content (from news stories to photos, video and blogs). At a multimedia session held at our newspaper this week, sponsored by the Georgia Associated Press, we got a look at what some other newspapers are creating: Prep football shows, Web sites for niche audiences, short video clips of regular folks telling their own stories, breaking news video and stories about events that a newspaper might once have ignored.

At the Telegraph multimedia reporter Liz Fabian produces a daily newscast that we post on our Web site each day, usually by 8 a.m. Liz’s day starts at 5 a.m., something that might be commonplace for TV stations and big newspapers with big staffs. But it’s a clear investment in our future and our readers’ habits of expecting news more immediately and more often. While her primary responsibility is to get the newscast up early, Liz now catches up with overnight news and gets a jump on early morning breaking news that we might have missed in the days when we had a reporter start at 8 or 8:30.

After she finishes her early morning work, Liz might be sent to shoot video to accompany another story, or she might take a few hours off so that she can come back to videotape a late afternoon or early evening assignment.

Liz isn’t the only one with her own Web show. Sports reporter Jonathan Heeter and features reporter Joe Kovac anchor a high school football show that we post each Wednesday. Liz also shoots a show for our Web site featuring local celeb Mark Ballard. During election season, we videotaped interviews with candidates seeking endorsement from the Telegraph Editorial Board, allowing readers to hear, unedited, everything the candidate had to say. Meanwhile, we continue to add staff-written blogs to our site, on topics ranging from parenting to movies to sports and politics.

None of this means we value the newspaper less; it simply means we recognize the importance of two primary audiences.

Our web site traffic is growing, significantly. To keep growing will require that we continue to report and break local news, maintain our watchdog role in reporting on city and county government, continue to investigate wrongdoing, and stay plugged into the community at all levels. These are the things good journalists have always done.

WANTED: YOUR QUESTIONS, COMMENTS AND STORY IDEAS

A lot of what appears in the Telegraph news pages and on macon.com is the result of tips from readers. More on that another day. Meanwhile, let me hear from you. You can post your comment on the blog or e-mail me at smarshall@macon.com.