It's been a few weeks since the start of school and the new high school and college sports seasons, and we see that the Herald-Press is all over the Vikings and the Foresters.
Well, sort of.
Because of the new, ridiculously-early 5 p.m. deadlines, sports results are now two days old in the Herald-Press. A Tuesday cross country meet that ends at 5:30 p.m. won't have a story in the paper until Thursday.
School board meetings on Monday don't reach readers until Wednesday. Most breaking news that happens during the day gets reported on two days later.
How brilliant is that?
The newspaper that preaches local ("hyperlocal" they call it) isn't able to report on ANYTHING timely. A paper could have the greatest writers around (the Herald-Press doesn't), but if they can't report timely, what does it matter? Especially when the readers can go to the Journal-Gazette and get results the next day? Heck, people can sign up to the Viking Connection from Huntington North High School and have the previous day's results e-mailed to them automatically the next morning.
Where is the new editor? The new publisher? Why aren't they standing up to the powers-that-be and telling them how ridiculous the situation is?
To that end, why aren't they telling their readers why stories are two days late?
———
Speaking of content, the pickings in the Herald-Press getting even slimmer. Twice in the last week, the top stories have been about the opening of small business. We're all for new businesses in Huntington, but we doubt it takes precedence over actual news going on in the county.
By the way, coverage of the 4-H Fair was pathetic. Yes, there were a few photos and some front-page stories, but the reporting of results was an act of futility. Results were just stuffed in nooks and crannies wherever they could be found.
There was a "Special Keepsake Issue" for the 4-H Fair, which was nothing more than a handful of group photos with no results. Far from a comprehensive issue.
———
We also saw recently that the Herald-Press is reporting that its circulation is 6,950.
Wow! We've heard some whoppers in our day, but that one might stand above them all. We know enough about the Herald-Press and people who have been and still are there to know that the figure quoted is nowhere near the actual number. If the Herald-Press still has 5,000 subscribers, we'd be surprised.
A large number of subscribers bailed when Paxon Media took over, the old staff left and quality dropped off. Even more are leaving now that news is two days late.
There might be a total of 6,950 printed, but then there are nearly 2,000 that never leave the truck.
———
The most recent move by Paxton Media is to take the Herald-Press Web page to a pay site.
Now, to be fair, there has been a lively debate in newspaper circles about whether sites should be free or pay. No one wants to give anything away for free; that's understandable.
But on the other side, the whole idea is to drive traffic to the Web site, where newspapers can tell advertisers that a certain number of visitors are coming to the site.
A free site, obviously, generates more traffic, which can elevate ad rates, but does not generate anything from the news content. With a pay site, traffic drops off markedly, which lowers ad revenue, but brings in more from online subscribers.
There are models out there that say pay sites can work, but a newspaper must provide a large amount of quality content to viewers. If you're the New York Times, you can get away with it. With the Herald-Press, there just isn't enough on the site to make it worthwhile.
Publisher Andy Eads stated that the number of pay sites are rising "exponentially," which is a poor choice of words if he knew what the word "exponentially" meant. But that aside, the numbers just won't add up.
Say the Herald-Press somehow was able to sign up 1,000 people as online subscribers (an unrealistic number, but good for working a math example). At $6 a month, that's $72 per year per person. That makes for $72,000 a year. Even with that outrageously unrealistic number of online subscribers, $72,000 a year won't get the job done.
Plus, advertisers won't sign on just to reach 1,000 people.
A free site might generate 10,000 viewers a month. Tell 60 advertisers they can reach 10 times as many people with a free site than a pay site, charge them $100 a month, and the newspaper can generate the same amount of revenue.
Eads also cited the features of the Herald-Press Web site, including the Community Sports Desk, the venture started last year to give locals a chance to create their own sports content. To date, there have been exactly zero entries on that site. No one had posted a thing. A huge waste. Again.
———
One thing that Eads did not address about the new pay site was how often content would be updated. He never said when stories might be posted. Will they be the next day? Two days late like the print product? What special content will the Herald-Press provide?
If it's going to be two days late, why bother?
———
There's been a staff change at the Herald-Press. Jennifer Kannon (real name: Kleber) is gone, finally. She was replaced by Drew Stone. We don't know much about Drew other than he's not much better of a writer than Jennifer was.
New editor Rebecca Sandlin doesn't seem to be doing much editing, but considering her level of experience, maybe she is editing and it's just not very good. It's not enough just to get spelling correct. The quality of reporting has to improve.With the inexperience of this staff, though, that's a big request.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
We're back and better than ever (?)
We tried to stay away. We really did.
But recent events and the lack of coverage or the butchering of those events by the Herald-Press just screamed out for comment.
But first, a little background. The Herald-Press deadline was recently moved to 5 p.m., despite the fact that the press run for the newspaper in Marion isn't until sometime after midnight. Stories need to be planned four days ahead, leaving no room for any kind of breaking news. Basketball games, which don't end before 5 p.m., don't make the next day's paper, putting them in the paper two days late.
The editorial staff in Huntington makes no decisions on story placement. All those decisions are being made in Marion. Presumably, editing of stories is being done in Huntington, but as we've seen lately, very little in the way of editing is being done. Either that, or writers and editors have absolutely no grasp of basic grammar or basic newspaper style rules. There's also no one in Huntington who knows enough of what's happening in city government, law enforcement, schools, etc., to chase down the stories that are important to the public knowledge.
OK, back to the rundown:
Early in the afternoon of Sunday, July 12, there was a fire call to the southern part of the county, near Mt. Etna. It would have been worth sending a photographer and even a reporter down to check it out. Anyone with an emergency scanner would have heard the fire and police department dispatched.
Events changed quickly when officers discovered that someone with a weapon was supposed to be around the area, possibly after having a meth lab blow up. In any event, the fire department couldn't get in to put out the fire, and a total of four buildings burned to the ground. In addition, a manhunt began for the person suspected of having the weapon.
The manhunt became huge news on local television as officers from three counties and the state police went on the search. Updates were given on TV, and Fort Wayne newspapers updated information on their websites. A story was even posted statewide by the Associated Press.
All this managed to escape the people at the Herald-Press. No one there knew anything about what was going on until Monday morning, by which time the manhunt ended with the suspect dead, either in a shootout or by a self-inflicted gunshot.
The Herald-Press did finally manage to post a story on their web site Monday afternoon. Even then, the incoherent story was a travesty of journalism, with confusing information poorly constructed.
The lede of the story gave a clue to what the rest held.
"Police’s search for a man they believed was out to kill his father ended early Monday morning in a deadly shootout."
POLICE'S? Did the writer actually begin the opening sentence of the story with POLICE'S?
"Barton L. Thompson, 34, Warren, was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:47 a.m. Monday after he got into a gun fight with officers from multiple police agencies. Huntington County Coroner Leon Hurlburt said Monday it is still under investigation whether Thompson’s death was caused by police fire or a self-inflicted gunshot wound."
At the scene? Where is the scene? Got into a gun fight?
"Thompson’s house at 8584 S. 600 West, as well as three nearby barns caught on fire, and were eventually completely destroyed."
Just for everyone out there, something is either destroyed or it is not. There is no degree of being destroyed. You don't say "completely destroyed." It's like being pregnant, either you are or you aren't. You're not completely pregnant or partially pregnant. The house was destroyed. Otherwise, it's just damaged. You might think that's being picky. No, it's just a matter of being correct. Nothing wrong with that.
"Huntington County Sheriff Kent Farthing said they believed Thompson escaped into the nearby woods, but would go to his father’s house 7365 W. 1000 South next. At around midnight, officers backed away for the night, except for state police officers, who stayed guard over the father’s home. Surrounding homes were evacuated for the night, Hurlburt said."
I don't know where to start. Let's just look at "officers backed away, except for state police officers." That's like saying "everybody got a lollipop, except for those who didn't." Just bad writing.
"Outside the house, Thompson came out of the woods and got into a shootout with waiting police that ended in his death. Hurlburt said it’s believed Thompson had several firearms at his disposal during the fight. No one else was injured in the fire or the following investigation and gun fight, Hurlburt said."
Good to know that no one was injured in the investigation.
One more note: The photo that was used with the story (a photo taken by the state police, not the Herald-Press photographer) also had a dandy of a caption.
"The foundation of the house set on fire by Barton Thompson is all that remains following Thompson's suspected arson on Sunday. Three barns were also completely destroyed in the fire."
Well... the Herald-Press has apparently already convicted Thompson by saying he set the barn on fire. BUT WAIT! Just a few words later, Thompson is only "suspected" of arson. Journalist nullification. We close out with another "completely destroyed."
Always end on a high note.
———
There was another recent whiff by the staff.
Two city police officers were busted for looking at porn while on the job. There was an intial story in the Herald-Press, noting that one officer had been suspended, with no names or reasons. The reporter was told that they were not able to get the information because it was a "personnel matter," even though a public official had been deemed guilty and punushed. Apparently, no one at the Herald-Press has ever heard of the Freedom of Information Act or Indiana's Open Door Policy, in which information has to be provided upon request.
The Fort Wayne newspapers know that, and they were able to get the information, and thus got the story. Although, only one of the officers was mentioned in any of the stories. The second officer was allowed to retire and walk away unscathed.
After the story naming the first officer made Fort Wayne television and newspapers, the Herald-Press followed up with a weak story, which looked like it was based on the story from the Journal-Gazette. No one seemed to do any real reporting, or any follow-ups on the second officer or what the police department was going to do now that they are two officers short.
This is an important oversight by the Herald-Press. Newspapers are the watchdogs for the public trust. If there's no one to ask questions, then there's really no accountability for any public official. If no one covers what goes on, any missteps, wrong-doing, etc., can go virtually unknown by the public. That's a bit scary.
———
There has also been outright willful ignorance of events in the community.
Heritage Days is the biggest community event of the year, and the naming of the Chief of the Flint Springs Tribe the centerpiece celebration, where a member of the community is honored for his or her lifetime of service to Huntington County.
The Chief's breakfast happens on Thursday morning. The Herald-Press editor was there, as was a reporter to cover the event, as Steve Mason was deservedly bestowed the honor of Chief.
But despite have Herald-Press staffers there, was the story in Friday's paper? No. Was it in Sunday's paper? No.
Finally, on Monday, after Heritage Days had ended, the story finally ran in the paper.
An oversight? Nope. It was planned that way. Apparently, all the available space had been allocated, and there was just no room to get in that story. Not that it was important or anything, or that newspapers are supposed to be TIMELY!
The writer of the story, who knew that the story wouldn't run for four days but couldn't do anything about it, felt he had to apologize to Steve Mason. The editor then had the audacity to follow up later in the week with an editorial lauding Mason as well-deserving of the honor.
Well-deserving of the honor, for sure, but apparently not well-deserving enough to run the story as timely as possible.
Sickening. Steve Mason deserved better than he received from the Herald-Press, which deliberately kept the story out of the paper for four days.
———
One of the bigger local stories lately was the murder-for-hire plot by a Roanoke doctor. The story reached something of a conclusion last week when the doctor made a plea deal. The story was the lead in the Fort Wayne papers, made statewide news everywhere but in the very county where it happened.
The Herald-Press never ran a story about the plea deal.
Speaking of big stories, the death of Michael Jackson topped newspapers around the world, and his funeral service was equally a huge event. For sure, the news media went a bit overboard in the coverage, but none went so minimalist as the Herald-Press.
On the death of Michael Jackson, the Herald-Press ran a small story on Page 2 announcing his death.
For the funeral service, an event witnessed by countless millions around the world and splashed on the front page of every paper on Earth, the Herald-Press ran no story. Ooops, they did run a two-paragraph story on Page 2, noting that people gathered in Jackson's hometown of Gary to watch the service on TV.
————
Like we said at the beginning of this post - we tried to stay away. Despite having a new editor, things are no better at the Herald-Press, and in many ways, it's getting worse. The paper may look a little better, but the content is just as lacking. There is no one doing any real editing. News judgement is non-existent. Many, many important stories are being missed. Other stories run days or even weeks late. Deadlines are now so ridiculous that the Herald-Press can hardly be called a newspaper.
On top of that, advertisers are still bailing. Revenue and subscriptions are falling.
The decisions being made for the Herald-Press, both out of Marion and the Paxton Media home base of Paducah, make absoutlely no sense. If someone was deliberately attempting to put the Herald-Press out of business, then could not do any better job than what is being done right now by the current management.
It's all so very tiring, frustrating and maddening. Small towns need a paper that cares about delivering the news. The Herald-Press no longer is doing that.
But recent events and the lack of coverage or the butchering of those events by the Herald-Press just screamed out for comment.
But first, a little background. The Herald-Press deadline was recently moved to 5 p.m., despite the fact that the press run for the newspaper in Marion isn't until sometime after midnight. Stories need to be planned four days ahead, leaving no room for any kind of breaking news. Basketball games, which don't end before 5 p.m., don't make the next day's paper, putting them in the paper two days late.
The editorial staff in Huntington makes no decisions on story placement. All those decisions are being made in Marion. Presumably, editing of stories is being done in Huntington, but as we've seen lately, very little in the way of editing is being done. Either that, or writers and editors have absolutely no grasp of basic grammar or basic newspaper style rules. There's also no one in Huntington who knows enough of what's happening in city government, law enforcement, schools, etc., to chase down the stories that are important to the public knowledge.
OK, back to the rundown:
Early in the afternoon of Sunday, July 12, there was a fire call to the southern part of the county, near Mt. Etna. It would have been worth sending a photographer and even a reporter down to check it out. Anyone with an emergency scanner would have heard the fire and police department dispatched.
Events changed quickly when officers discovered that someone with a weapon was supposed to be around the area, possibly after having a meth lab blow up. In any event, the fire department couldn't get in to put out the fire, and a total of four buildings burned to the ground. In addition, a manhunt began for the person suspected of having the weapon.
The manhunt became huge news on local television as officers from three counties and the state police went on the search. Updates were given on TV, and Fort Wayne newspapers updated information on their websites. A story was even posted statewide by the Associated Press.
All this managed to escape the people at the Herald-Press. No one there knew anything about what was going on until Monday morning, by which time the manhunt ended with the suspect dead, either in a shootout or by a self-inflicted gunshot.
The Herald-Press did finally manage to post a story on their web site Monday afternoon. Even then, the incoherent story was a travesty of journalism, with confusing information poorly constructed.
The lede of the story gave a clue to what the rest held.
"Police’s search for a man they believed was out to kill his father ended early Monday morning in a deadly shootout."
POLICE'S? Did the writer actually begin the opening sentence of the story with POLICE'S?
"Barton L. Thompson, 34, Warren, was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:47 a.m. Monday after he got into a gun fight with officers from multiple police agencies. Huntington County Coroner Leon Hurlburt said Monday it is still under investigation whether Thompson’s death was caused by police fire or a self-inflicted gunshot wound."
At the scene? Where is the scene? Got into a gun fight?
"Thompson’s house at 8584 S. 600 West, as well as three nearby barns caught on fire, and were eventually completely destroyed."
Just for everyone out there, something is either destroyed or it is not. There is no degree of being destroyed. You don't say "completely destroyed." It's like being pregnant, either you are or you aren't. You're not completely pregnant or partially pregnant. The house was destroyed. Otherwise, it's just damaged. You might think that's being picky. No, it's just a matter of being correct. Nothing wrong with that.
"Huntington County Sheriff Kent Farthing said they believed Thompson escaped into the nearby woods, but would go to his father’s house 7365 W. 1000 South next. At around midnight, officers backed away for the night, except for state police officers, who stayed guard over the father’s home. Surrounding homes were evacuated for the night, Hurlburt said."
I don't know where to start. Let's just look at "officers backed away, except for state police officers." That's like saying "everybody got a lollipop, except for those who didn't." Just bad writing.
"Outside the house, Thompson came out of the woods and got into a shootout with waiting police that ended in his death. Hurlburt said it’s believed Thompson had several firearms at his disposal during the fight. No one else was injured in the fire or the following investigation and gun fight, Hurlburt said."
Good to know that no one was injured in the investigation.
One more note: The photo that was used with the story (a photo taken by the state police, not the Herald-Press photographer) also had a dandy of a caption.
"The foundation of the house set on fire by Barton Thompson is all that remains following Thompson's suspected arson on Sunday. Three barns were also completely destroyed in the fire."
Well... the Herald-Press has apparently already convicted Thompson by saying he set the barn on fire. BUT WAIT! Just a few words later, Thompson is only "suspected" of arson. Journalist nullification. We close out with another "completely destroyed."
Always end on a high note.
———
There was another recent whiff by the staff.
Two city police officers were busted for looking at porn while on the job. There was an intial story in the Herald-Press, noting that one officer had been suspended, with no names or reasons. The reporter was told that they were not able to get the information because it was a "personnel matter," even though a public official had been deemed guilty and punushed. Apparently, no one at the Herald-Press has ever heard of the Freedom of Information Act or Indiana's Open Door Policy, in which information has to be provided upon request.
The Fort Wayne newspapers know that, and they were able to get the information, and thus got the story. Although, only one of the officers was mentioned in any of the stories. The second officer was allowed to retire and walk away unscathed.
After the story naming the first officer made Fort Wayne television and newspapers, the Herald-Press followed up with a weak story, which looked like it was based on the story from the Journal-Gazette. No one seemed to do any real reporting, or any follow-ups on the second officer or what the police department was going to do now that they are two officers short.
This is an important oversight by the Herald-Press. Newspapers are the watchdogs for the public trust. If there's no one to ask questions, then there's really no accountability for any public official. If no one covers what goes on, any missteps, wrong-doing, etc., can go virtually unknown by the public. That's a bit scary.
———
There has also been outright willful ignorance of events in the community.
Heritage Days is the biggest community event of the year, and the naming of the Chief of the Flint Springs Tribe the centerpiece celebration, where a member of the community is honored for his or her lifetime of service to Huntington County.
The Chief's breakfast happens on Thursday morning. The Herald-Press editor was there, as was a reporter to cover the event, as Steve Mason was deservedly bestowed the honor of Chief.
But despite have Herald-Press staffers there, was the story in Friday's paper? No. Was it in Sunday's paper? No.
Finally, on Monday, after Heritage Days had ended, the story finally ran in the paper.
An oversight? Nope. It was planned that way. Apparently, all the available space had been allocated, and there was just no room to get in that story. Not that it was important or anything, or that newspapers are supposed to be TIMELY!
The writer of the story, who knew that the story wouldn't run for four days but couldn't do anything about it, felt he had to apologize to Steve Mason. The editor then had the audacity to follow up later in the week with an editorial lauding Mason as well-deserving of the honor.
Well-deserving of the honor, for sure, but apparently not well-deserving enough to run the story as timely as possible.
Sickening. Steve Mason deserved better than he received from the Herald-Press, which deliberately kept the story out of the paper for four days.
———
One of the bigger local stories lately was the murder-for-hire plot by a Roanoke doctor. The story reached something of a conclusion last week when the doctor made a plea deal. The story was the lead in the Fort Wayne papers, made statewide news everywhere but in the very county where it happened.
The Herald-Press never ran a story about the plea deal.
Speaking of big stories, the death of Michael Jackson topped newspapers around the world, and his funeral service was equally a huge event. For sure, the news media went a bit overboard in the coverage, but none went so minimalist as the Herald-Press.
On the death of Michael Jackson, the Herald-Press ran a small story on Page 2 announcing his death.
For the funeral service, an event witnessed by countless millions around the world and splashed on the front page of every paper on Earth, the Herald-Press ran no story. Ooops, they did run a two-paragraph story on Page 2, noting that people gathered in Jackson's hometown of Gary to watch the service on TV.
————
Like we said at the beginning of this post - we tried to stay away. Despite having a new editor, things are no better at the Herald-Press, and in many ways, it's getting worse. The paper may look a little better, but the content is just as lacking. There is no one doing any real editing. News judgement is non-existent. Many, many important stories are being missed. Other stories run days or even weeks late. Deadlines are now so ridiculous that the Herald-Press can hardly be called a newspaper.
On top of that, advertisers are still bailing. Revenue and subscriptions are falling.
The decisions being made for the Herald-Press, both out of Marion and the Paxton Media home base of Paducah, make absoutlely no sense. If someone was deliberately attempting to put the Herald-Press out of business, then could not do any better job than what is being done right now by the current management.
It's all so very tiring, frustrating and maddening. Small towns need a paper that cares about delivering the news. The Herald-Press no longer is doing that.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Let's try this and see if it works
Let us be the first to break news about the Herald-Press, before you see it in the Herald-Press.
The H-P will start using CommunitySportsDesk, a web-based service that allows youth and recreation leagues to use the company's software to create news stories and post information about teams. There's a lot of buzz words about "hyper-local" and "reverse-publishing" that are the new hot terms in the newspaper industry.
For sure, youth leagues don't get reported on much in any newspaper, so this is a way to get that information published locally, albeit not in the print product, whch has less and less coverage all the time.
The company line will talk about getting coverage for this segment of the communty, but what it is is they are trying to drive more traffic to the newspaper's web product in hopes of seeling some advertising. There aren't many statistics yet about how well this kind of things works, but advertising is drying up with any newspaper product, and the general consensus is that this won't work, either.
The coverage from the Herald-Press is also drying up, but that's for another blog entry at another time.
Here's the information from Editor&Publisher, a newspaper trade publication:
-----
Paxton Group Deploys CommunitySportsDesk
By E&P Staff
Published: February 26, 2009 3:56 PM ET
NEW YORK Paxton Media Group has selected CommunitySportsDesk (CSD) to collect, organize and present community sports and recreation content for its online and print products in five Indiana communities where Paxton publishes daily newspapers.
CSD's structured software collects, manages and serves user-generated content online and back in print, according to Group Publisher Neal Ronquist.
"It's like having extra stringers, coached by the software, working in a uniform way to provide content that we couldn't otherwise reach," Ronquist said in a statement. "The result is an online site that stays fresh and keeps the community engaged."
Tentatively branded as CentralIndianaSportsNetwork.com, it will include online advertising and reverse-publishing options for Paxton's five central Indiana properties, the Marion Chronicle-Tribune, the Peru Tribune, Wabash Plain Dealer, The Times of Frankfort and the Huntington Herald-Press.
CommunitySportsDesk is a hosted Web-driven product of Media Innovations LLC, a subsidiary of privately owned newspaper publisher United Communications Corp., Kenosha, Wis., where it was the Kenosha News developed the flagship Kenosha Sports Network.
CSD Managing Director Bill Dunbar said the Paxton group will provide strong community engagement for further development and extension of patent-pending CSD technology and business modeling.
CSD provides a database-driven structure to collecting and displaying grassroots sporting events, creating mini-sports pages for teams and online sports sections for community leagues. It also offers back-office functionality for league administrators. At the option of the media affiliate, selected results can "roll up" electronically for publication in print. CSD staff trains and supports media companies, leagues and team representatives.
---
The H-P will start using CommunitySportsDesk, a web-based service that allows youth and recreation leagues to use the company's software to create news stories and post information about teams. There's a lot of buzz words about "hyper-local" and "reverse-publishing" that are the new hot terms in the newspaper industry.
For sure, youth leagues don't get reported on much in any newspaper, so this is a way to get that information published locally, albeit not in the print product, whch has less and less coverage all the time.
The company line will talk about getting coverage for this segment of the communty, but what it is is they are trying to drive more traffic to the newspaper's web product in hopes of seeling some advertising. There aren't many statistics yet about how well this kind of things works, but advertising is drying up with any newspaper product, and the general consensus is that this won't work, either.
The coverage from the Herald-Press is also drying up, but that's for another blog entry at another time.
Here's the information from Editor&Publisher, a newspaper trade publication:
-----
Paxton Group Deploys CommunitySportsDesk
By E&P Staff
Published: February 26, 2009 3:56 PM ET
NEW YORK Paxton Media Group has selected CommunitySportsDesk (CSD) to collect, organize and present community sports and recreation content for its online and print products in five Indiana communities where Paxton publishes daily newspapers.
CSD's structured software collects, manages and serves user-generated content online and back in print, according to Group Publisher Neal Ronquist.
"It's like having extra stringers, coached by the software, working in a uniform way to provide content that we couldn't otherwise reach," Ronquist said in a statement. "The result is an online site that stays fresh and keeps the community engaged."
Tentatively branded as CentralIndianaSportsNetwork.com, it will include online advertising and reverse-publishing options for Paxton's five central Indiana properties, the Marion Chronicle-Tribune, the Peru Tribune, Wabash Plain Dealer, The Times of Frankfort and the Huntington Herald-Press.
CommunitySportsDesk is a hosted Web-driven product of Media Innovations LLC, a subsidiary of privately owned newspaper publisher United Communications Corp., Kenosha, Wis., where it was the Kenosha News developed the flagship Kenosha Sports Network.
CSD Managing Director Bill Dunbar said the Paxton group will provide strong community engagement for further development and extension of patent-pending CSD technology and business modeling.
CSD provides a database-driven structure to collecting and displaying grassroots sporting events, creating mini-sports pages for teams and online sports sections for community leagues. It also offers back-office functionality for league administrators. At the option of the media affiliate, selected results can "roll up" electronically for publication in print. CSD staff trains and supports media companies, leagues and team representatives.
---
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The password is ...
This one was too good to let slip by:
In Tuesday's Herald-Press, the top story concerned Huntington possibly getting a high-speed fiber optic system in the next couple of years, written by Jennifer (If That Is Your Real Name) Kannon.
Jennifer seemed to be searching for a word, and couldn't quite get it nailed down.
"We will be (installing) cables all the way to the customer premise which will be serving all of Huntington.”
The basic premise is that "premise" is not correct.
Try again.
"We'll be doing a complete construction project in Huntington and then once the consumer signs up we take the fiber all the way to the preemies."
Wow. You know, you can almost forgive the first one until you see the second one.
How many premature babies actually need high-speed Internet or watch cable?
But we're glad the company is offering that option.
Just for the record, the missing word is "premises," which is not a very good word to use in that situation. "House" would have been a better choice. And easier to spell, presumably.
But thanks for playing, Jennifer. Please accept these parting gifts before you leave town. Soon.
On a side note, there was a sports teaser on page one about the Huntington North swim meet, which was called a "duel" meet. Backstroke at 10 paces, anyone?
Again, the correct word is "dual."
In Tuesday's Herald-Press, the top story concerned Huntington possibly getting a high-speed fiber optic system in the next couple of years, written by Jennifer (If That Is Your Real Name) Kannon.
Jennifer seemed to be searching for a word, and couldn't quite get it nailed down.
"We will be (installing) cables all the way to the customer premise which will be serving all of Huntington.”
The basic premise is that "premise" is not correct.
Try again.
"We'll be doing a complete construction project in Huntington and then once the consumer signs up we take the fiber all the way to the preemies."
Wow. You know, you can almost forgive the first one until you see the second one.
How many premature babies actually need high-speed Internet or watch cable?
But we're glad the company is offering that option.
Just for the record, the missing word is "premises," which is not a very good word to use in that situation. "House" would have been a better choice. And easier to spell, presumably.
But thanks for playing, Jennifer. Please accept these parting gifts before you leave town. Soon.
On a side note, there was a sports teaser on page one about the Huntington North swim meet, which was called a "duel" meet. Backstroke at 10 paces, anyone?
Again, the correct word is "dual."
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Regifted: New look, but same old product inside
It's been a while since we've been here, and to tell you the truth, we've just been weary.
We've had Kathy Branham becoming the first female to sit on a Huntington County Commissioner.
There have been incoherent stories that have taken three reporters to write.
Other stories have been botched, including the initial Mike Snelling debacle, when no one from the Herald-Press showed up for a public Commissioners' vote, then seemed indignant when the Commissioners refused to let tell the newspaper what the vote was. (Duh, show up for the vote!)
We've been fed plenty of news from Marion, Wabash and Peru, including one day when there were no stories from Huntington County, but a full front page of Grant County news.
The recent heavy snow and ice storms caused states of emergency in Huntington County. People went to shelters for days. Others were without power and tried to survive in sub-zero temperatures in their own homes. It barely earned a mention in the Herald-Press. Only when a press release was received from the power company did the paper have anything in, and then the reporter didn't even make a call to local authorities to see how the city and county were handling the emergency. That's not just laziness, that's just plain ignorance.
Obituaries ... it's not even worth discussing. It used to be you only hoped they spelled your name correctly when you die. Now it seems they can't even get the right name with the right obituary. They're disasters.
We didn't even touch on the whole episode with Mayor Steve Updike and his "Taliban" comments. The reporting was completely bungled, prompting corrections, clarifications, mea culpas and perhaps a doctor's note claiming the Herald-Press was ill that day.
Most recently, the paper completely missed a huge story when the Department of Corrections erroneously sent out calls to people in Huntington County saying certain prisoners were being released. Well, we can't say they completely missed the story. A week after it happened, the Herald-Press ran an Associated Press story saying that people in Kokomo had gotten calls.
Geez, it was in the Journal-Gazette the next day, with quotes from Huntington County prosecutor Amy Richison. Is anyone at the H-P even paying attention?
There was also more horrible reporting on the recent e-mail scandal at the Courthouse. Trying to make heads-or-tails out of the stories in the Herald-Press was mind-spinning. Oh, and the reporting was also a couple days late. No big surprise there.
But we guess they've been pacing themselves waiting for the new editor, who was just recently hired.
Rebecca Sandlin comes on board, bringing a wealth of experience ... well, if you call about three years of police-beat reporting a wealth of experience. She did serve as managing editor of a restarted paper in Noblesville - for a month from October to November of last year. No word on why she left that paper or what she did in the two months before she was hired at the H-P.
We guess she was working on making her own jewelry, which she apparently markets on the Internet and in some trinket shops in downstate. We'll take a crystal unicorn, thank you.
Really, at least Tom Davis had some newspaper managerial experience - for all that was worth.
So we waited breathlessly for the promised all-new Herald-Press, which made its debut on Tuesday.
We got a new-look paper, and really, it doesn't look too bad. It's an improvement from the Tom Davis-designed disaster.
But there was something familiar about the new look - oh yeah, it's a clone of the Marion Chronicle-Tribune. No surprise there. Marion is the worldwide headquarters of Paxton's Central Indiana newspaper fiefdom that also includes Huntington, Wabash, Peru and Frankfort.
In fact, the people at Marion have been handling design duties for the Herald-Press, so it's no surprise that they look the same.
A giveaway was that one of the sports pages had a folio line with the "Chronicle-Tribune" name on it.
So while the paper had a better look, the reporting was still abysmal.
Also, the type size has been reduced and squeezed some much that even people with 20/20 vision will need a magnifying glass to read it.
The flashy new look is still not enough to make us want to pick it up.
We don't hold out much hope for this new incarnation the Herald-Press.
- The same reporters who couldn't get the job done before are still fumbling through.
- A new editor with an unbelievably-thin resume was brought in to right the ship and guide an equally-inexperienced staff.
- Many of the basic functions of the paper are now being handled in Marion.
- Stories are still be missed or misreported. There is so much going on in Huntington County that hasn't been reported on that it's inexcusable.
- Run-of-the-mill press releases, grip-and-grin photos, ribbon-cuttings, free dentist days, and any other manner of ho-hum non-stories are continually passed off on the front page as breaking news while important local goings-on in government, police, etc., are overlooked or missed completely, and state and national events are flat-out ignored.
- All the while, the TAB, under the leadership of former H-P staffer Cindy Klepper, is grabbing all the advertising in Huntington County, and with the addition of the new TAB website, is cleaning up on cornering the news as well.
The Herald-Press is not so much a newspaper as it is a bulletin board for anyone handing out an over-sized check.
If a reporter would even step outside the doors of the Herald-Press, they'd find there's a bustling little community out here, with a lot of important news going on.
Newswriting is more than retyping a press release. Reporting involves going out and gathering information, and then having the ability to craft that information into a story.
The people (we can't even bring ourselves to call them reporters anymore) at the Herald-Press can do neither. They don't gather the information, and can't put together a coherent story. Maybe it's not all their fault. They're inexperienced and have no one to train them. A good editor teaches as well as edits, but again, none of that is happening at the Herald-Press, and the new editor doesn't seem to have enough experience to do that, either.
But Paxton Media doesn't seem to have much choice. If this is the best editor they could find ... (maybe she was the only choice they had) it's hard to believe she was the cream of whatever crop they had to pick from.
It's all going to be moot, anyway. The redesign is just the next step into making the Herald-Press an extension of the Chronicle-Tribune. In a way, it already is. National pages, "Home and Garden" pages, are all put together in Marion. No one in Huntington sees those pages. The brain trust in Marion is already making editorial decisions for the readers in Huntington.
All the Herald-Press newsroom does is try and write stories and take some photos. They send them to Marion where it's all packaged. All the advertising is handled in Marion as well.
In essence, the Herald-Press is the Huntington edition of the Chronicle-Tribune.
Newspapers everywhere in this country are disappearing.
For all practical purposes, the Herald-Press is gone, and empty shell with a new coat of paint slapped on.
So who will tell the stories that need to be told in Huntington County? The Journal-Gazette will cover the biggest stories. There is hope that the TAB will continue to grow and at least give us important news on a weekly basis.
And without a watchdog, who is going to tell us when Steve Updike compares people to terrorists?
We've had Kathy Branham becoming the first female to sit on a Huntington County Commissioner.
There have been incoherent stories that have taken three reporters to write.
Other stories have been botched, including the initial Mike Snelling debacle, when no one from the Herald-Press showed up for a public Commissioners' vote, then seemed indignant when the Commissioners refused to let tell the newspaper what the vote was. (Duh, show up for the vote!)
We've been fed plenty of news from Marion, Wabash and Peru, including one day when there were no stories from Huntington County, but a full front page of Grant County news.
The recent heavy snow and ice storms caused states of emergency in Huntington County. People went to shelters for days. Others were without power and tried to survive in sub-zero temperatures in their own homes. It barely earned a mention in the Herald-Press. Only when a press release was received from the power company did the paper have anything in, and then the reporter didn't even make a call to local authorities to see how the city and county were handling the emergency. That's not just laziness, that's just plain ignorance.
Obituaries ... it's not even worth discussing. It used to be you only hoped they spelled your name correctly when you die. Now it seems they can't even get the right name with the right obituary. They're disasters.
We didn't even touch on the whole episode with Mayor Steve Updike and his "Taliban" comments. The reporting was completely bungled, prompting corrections, clarifications, mea culpas and perhaps a doctor's note claiming the Herald-Press was ill that day.
Most recently, the paper completely missed a huge story when the Department of Corrections erroneously sent out calls to people in Huntington County saying certain prisoners were being released. Well, we can't say they completely missed the story. A week after it happened, the Herald-Press ran an Associated Press story saying that people in Kokomo had gotten calls.
Geez, it was in the Journal-Gazette the next day, with quotes from Huntington County prosecutor Amy Richison. Is anyone at the H-P even paying attention?
There was also more horrible reporting on the recent e-mail scandal at the Courthouse. Trying to make heads-or-tails out of the stories in the Herald-Press was mind-spinning. Oh, and the reporting was also a couple days late. No big surprise there.
But we guess they've been pacing themselves waiting for the new editor, who was just recently hired.
Rebecca Sandlin comes on board, bringing a wealth of experience ... well, if you call about three years of police-beat reporting a wealth of experience. She did serve as managing editor of a restarted paper in Noblesville - for a month from October to November of last year. No word on why she left that paper or what she did in the two months before she was hired at the H-P.
We guess she was working on making her own jewelry, which she apparently markets on the Internet and in some trinket shops in downstate. We'll take a crystal unicorn, thank you.
Really, at least Tom Davis had some newspaper managerial experience - for all that was worth.
So we waited breathlessly for the promised all-new Herald-Press, which made its debut on Tuesday.
We got a new-look paper, and really, it doesn't look too bad. It's an improvement from the Tom Davis-designed disaster.
But there was something familiar about the new look - oh yeah, it's a clone of the Marion Chronicle-Tribune. No surprise there. Marion is the worldwide headquarters of Paxton's Central Indiana newspaper fiefdom that also includes Huntington, Wabash, Peru and Frankfort.
In fact, the people at Marion have been handling design duties for the Herald-Press, so it's no surprise that they look the same.
A giveaway was that one of the sports pages had a folio line with the "Chronicle-Tribune" name on it.
So while the paper had a better look, the reporting was still abysmal.
Also, the type size has been reduced and squeezed some much that even people with 20/20 vision will need a magnifying glass to read it.
The flashy new look is still not enough to make us want to pick it up.
We don't hold out much hope for this new incarnation the Herald-Press.
- The same reporters who couldn't get the job done before are still fumbling through.
- A new editor with an unbelievably-thin resume was brought in to right the ship and guide an equally-inexperienced staff.
- Many of the basic functions of the paper are now being handled in Marion.
- Stories are still be missed or misreported. There is so much going on in Huntington County that hasn't been reported on that it's inexcusable.
- Run-of-the-mill press releases, grip-and-grin photos, ribbon-cuttings, free dentist days, and any other manner of ho-hum non-stories are continually passed off on the front page as breaking news while important local goings-on in government, police, etc., are overlooked or missed completely, and state and national events are flat-out ignored.
- All the while, the TAB, under the leadership of former H-P staffer Cindy Klepper, is grabbing all the advertising in Huntington County, and with the addition of the new TAB website, is cleaning up on cornering the news as well.
The Herald-Press is not so much a newspaper as it is a bulletin board for anyone handing out an over-sized check.
If a reporter would even step outside the doors of the Herald-Press, they'd find there's a bustling little community out here, with a lot of important news going on.
Newswriting is more than retyping a press release. Reporting involves going out and gathering information, and then having the ability to craft that information into a story.
The people (we can't even bring ourselves to call them reporters anymore) at the Herald-Press can do neither. They don't gather the information, and can't put together a coherent story. Maybe it's not all their fault. They're inexperienced and have no one to train them. A good editor teaches as well as edits, but again, none of that is happening at the Herald-Press, and the new editor doesn't seem to have enough experience to do that, either.
But Paxton Media doesn't seem to have much choice. If this is the best editor they could find ... (maybe she was the only choice they had) it's hard to believe she was the cream of whatever crop they had to pick from.
It's all going to be moot, anyway. The redesign is just the next step into making the Herald-Press an extension of the Chronicle-Tribune. In a way, it already is. National pages, "Home and Garden" pages, are all put together in Marion. No one in Huntington sees those pages. The brain trust in Marion is already making editorial decisions for the readers in Huntington.
All the Herald-Press newsroom does is try and write stories and take some photos. They send them to Marion where it's all packaged. All the advertising is handled in Marion as well.
In essence, the Herald-Press is the Huntington edition of the Chronicle-Tribune.
Newspapers everywhere in this country are disappearing.
For all practical purposes, the Herald-Press is gone, and empty shell with a new coat of paint slapped on.
So who will tell the stories that need to be told in Huntington County? The Journal-Gazette will cover the biggest stories. There is hope that the TAB will continue to grow and at least give us important news on a weekly basis.
And without a watchdog, who is going to tell us when Steve Updike compares people to terrorists?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Can you use that in a sentence?
To be truthful, I hardly read the stories in the Herald-Press.
It's difficult enough to get past the headlines.
The January 6 edition was enough to send a home-schooled, spelling-bee geek into a spasm.
The carnage began, literally, at the top. In a teaser headline for the sports section, the promo said:
"Viking gymnists begin season tonight."
I guess that would be the Huntington North gymnistical team.
If you have trouble getting that out of your mind, you can always go to a hypnotast.
After uncrossing my eyes, I continued to wade through the paper and reached the back page and the Dear Abby column. Thinking that I would not see butchery worse than I saw on the front page, I was quickly corrected.
The headline:
"Words Can Inflick Wounds No Apology Can Fully Cure"
No kidding. I'm wounded deeply, and apparently it was inflicked upon me, however that might be.
The only thing I can come up with is this:
"How did that booger get stuck to the wall?"
"I think it was inflicked."
While those headlines are straight-forward, in-your-face in ineptitude, I always prefer the more complex, thinking-man's screwup.
On Page 5A, there was press release (what else is new?) about the winner of the lottery.
The first thing I noticed was the phrase "Fort Wayne Hoosier" in describing the winner. Well, you know, I guess the winner could have been from Fort Wayne, Montana. Therefore, to prevent any confusion, we would need to know that it actually someone from Fort Wayne, Indiana, requiring the addition of the word "Hoosier."
So stunned was I seeing that, I initially missed the other wayward piece of punctuation in the headline. I'm assuming the amount won was $7,500, but the headline listed the amount as "$75,00"
I suppose the headline writer could have been from Europe, where commas and periods are switched.
But I doubt it.
Although I could use the 75 euros.
One of our ongoing tasks is to track the number of ads in each issue. Tuesday's Herald-Press had five block ads, called display ads. (As a comparison, this week's TAB had more than 70 display ads).
The H-P did have a page they call the "Marketplace," where they offer businesses an ad for $85 a month. With the 23 ads there, that's about two grand a month, or $24,000 a year.
What's the over-under on the demise of the Herald-Press?
It's difficult enough to get past the headlines.
The January 6 edition was enough to send a home-schooled, spelling-bee geek into a spasm.
The carnage began, literally, at the top. In a teaser headline for the sports section, the promo said:
"Viking gymnists begin season tonight."
I guess that would be the Huntington North gymnistical team.
If you have trouble getting that out of your mind, you can always go to a hypnotast.
After uncrossing my eyes, I continued to wade through the paper and reached the back page and the Dear Abby column. Thinking that I would not see butchery worse than I saw on the front page, I was quickly corrected.
The headline:
"Words Can Inflick Wounds No Apology Can Fully Cure"
No kidding. I'm wounded deeply, and apparently it was inflicked upon me, however that might be.
The only thing I can come up with is this:
"How did that booger get stuck to the wall?"
"I think it was inflicked."
While those headlines are straight-forward, in-your-face in ineptitude, I always prefer the more complex, thinking-man's screwup.
On Page 5A, there was press release (what else is new?) about the winner of the lottery.
The first thing I noticed was the phrase "Fort Wayne Hoosier" in describing the winner. Well, you know, I guess the winner could have been from Fort Wayne, Montana. Therefore, to prevent any confusion, we would need to know that it actually someone from Fort Wayne, Indiana, requiring the addition of the word "Hoosier."
So stunned was I seeing that, I initially missed the other wayward piece of punctuation in the headline. I'm assuming the amount won was $7,500, but the headline listed the amount as "$75,00"
I suppose the headline writer could have been from Europe, where commas and periods are switched.
But I doubt it.
Although I could use the 75 euros.
One of our ongoing tasks is to track the number of ads in each issue. Tuesday's Herald-Press had five block ads, called display ads. (As a comparison, this week's TAB had more than 70 display ads).
The H-P did have a page they call the "Marketplace," where they offer businesses an ad for $85 a month. With the 23 ads there, that's about two grand a month, or $24,000 a year.
What's the over-under on the demise of the Herald-Press?
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Merry Christmas and a Happy New
The new-look Herald-Press began back on April 1, not coincidentally April Fool's Day.
Perhaps bringing a fitting end to the year, the staff closed out 2008 with another beauty, this time in the headline announcing their Citizens of the Year.
In choosing Joel Froomkin and Rich Najuch, the design of the page had a red box over the photo that said "Citizens of the Year." As if we didn't know what the story was going to be about from that, the headline writer decided to spell it out again in the headline, or at least attempted to do that.
Thus, we get, in large-point type hearkening back to the Reign/Rein debacle, is:
Najuch, Froomkin
named Citizens of the
I'm not sure where the mystical land of "the" is, but I'm sure Joel and Rich are proud to now be citizens of it.
As a sidebar to that glaring wonder, there is another headline in Wednesday's paper that also is terrifically misleading.
"Marion recycling begins January"
Where do we start? Is Tarzan writing headlines? How about "Vikings play North Arena?"
Me like. Headline good. Paper bad.
And what's with "Marion recycling begins." It seems to give the reader we're talking about Marion recycling (imagine thing that?) As a Huntingtonian, do I care about Marion recycling? Not really.
You have to read into the story to see that it's Marion Services who are taking over recycling IN Huntington.
See, there's that word "IN" that you might have been looking for. I guess the word "in" ran off with the word "year" that was supposed to be in the other headline.
Don't you hate it when words just jump off the page - literally.
Oh yeah, there's another Marion story at the bottom of the page. At least it's in the headline. The story only says someplace called Five Points Mall. We're guessing it's Marion.
And another thing - no Colts were there, despite the headline. It was only some cheerleaders and the big blue mascot.
But then again, it was in Marion, so why would anyone in Huntington care?
Perhaps bringing a fitting end to the year, the staff closed out 2008 with another beauty, this time in the headline announcing their Citizens of the Year.
In choosing Joel Froomkin and Rich Najuch, the design of the page had a red box over the photo that said "Citizens of the Year." As if we didn't know what the story was going to be about from that, the headline writer decided to spell it out again in the headline, or at least attempted to do that.
Thus, we get, in large-point type hearkening back to the Reign/Rein debacle, is:
Najuch, Froomkin
named Citizens of the
I'm not sure where the mystical land of "the" is, but I'm sure Joel and Rich are proud to now be citizens of it.
As a sidebar to that glaring wonder, there is another headline in Wednesday's paper that also is terrifically misleading.
"Marion recycling begins January"
Where do we start? Is Tarzan writing headlines? How about "Vikings play North Arena?"
Me like. Headline good. Paper bad.
And what's with "Marion recycling begins." It seems to give the reader we're talking about Marion recycling (imagine thing that?) As a Huntingtonian, do I care about Marion recycling? Not really.
You have to read into the story to see that it's Marion Services who are taking over recycling IN Huntington.
See, there's that word "IN" that you might have been looking for. I guess the word "in" ran off with the word "year" that was supposed to be in the other headline.
Don't you hate it when words just jump off the page - literally.
Oh yeah, there's another Marion story at the bottom of the page. At least it's in the headline. The story only says someplace called Five Points Mall. We're guessing it's Marion.
And another thing - no Colts were there, despite the headline. It was only some cheerleaders and the big blue mascot.
But then again, it was in Marion, so why would anyone in Huntington care?
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