The Editors’ Exchange

The Web edition of The Editors' Exchange offers a compendium of interesting and imitatable innovations from the world of daily newspapers. In posting it here, ASNE makes the ideas available to the general public for use in all sorts of publications, including newspapers. The printed version of The Editors’ Exchange includes the names of editors who are willing to share information with other editors. However, because the Web version is archival — and not current — Internet readers should not contact the contributing newspapers or ASNE for examples or illustrative material. Thanks... and enjoy!

Alabama’s football fever chronicled

People in some states are wild about hockey, baseball or tennis. In Alabama, though, it’s football. As Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald Editor James Denley writes, “there are three seasons of college football in the state, fall, recruiting and spring practice.”

To celebrate this love of football, Graphics Editor Larry Kasperek came up with the idea of a Football Fall Fever feature to focus readers of the Post-Herald (circulation 42,000) on activities that everyday fans are involved in.
Kasperek and members of the photo staff generated ideas relating to football. All topics focused on action surrounding the game, not the play on the field.

This year, packages looked at trainers, small schools, tailgating, Little League and other non-game aspects. Some packages are stand-alone photos. Others have had a reporter assigned or the photographer has done both the reporting and writing. Packages generally have been displayed on news pages, including the front page.

Policies on good news
A woman walks into a newspaper office with a birth announcement. The newspaper runs it and gets an irate call from the “father” the next day — he’s no papa, but the mother’s relatives think he is. All of this could have been avoided with a call to the mother or father. Thoughtful policies on birth, wedding, engagement and anniversary announcements can prevent these errors from seeing ink. To help out, Ann Maloney of the New York Times Regional Newspaper wire, has compiled a collection of policies from several of the Times’ 21 papers, all ripe for adaptation.

Noting the good news
On the Light Side is an effort from The News Times of Danbury, Conn., (circulation 37,000) to call attention to the light side of the news. “News doesn’t have to be grim,” writes Executive Editor Ed Frede. “We put smiling a smiling face on a story that editors pick at the news meeting.”

Cook column
Here’s one more way to get someone’s picture and name in the paper: the Look Who’s Cooking column. Dave Bryant, editor of Highlands Today of Sebring, Fla., (circulation 16,500) says that the column is one the readers really enjoy. Readers are invited to suggest cooks, who then are pictured with short bios, a favorite recipe and their “most embarrassing moment cooking.”

Putting a face on a legal issue
Land rights (and local authority) of Alaska’s Native Americans is becoming a contentious issue. So when the Anchorage Daily News (circulation 72,000) ran a series on local control, it struck a chord. City Editor David Hulen, who headed up the series, said that stories kept unfolding but it was challenging to make them interesting to the average reader. “The problem was how to take a fairly complicated legal issue and put on a human face. Throughout, we looked for real situations that readers could picture and understand. And we really tried to avoid the legal stories.” The series helped connect native people throughout the state while at the same time educating Alaska’s newest residents.

Cyber obits make life easier
Larry Reisman, editor of the Press Journal in Vero Beach, Fla., (circulation 33,500) wanted to cut errors and amount of time it took to enter obituaries into his paper. Computerization was key. “About a year ago we told local funeral homes that we'd start charging them $10 per obit unless they sent them in via computer,” he writes. “We had been trying to get a couple of them to send them directly into our computer before that, but they had been dragging their feet. The threat of a $10 penalty was enough to convince most of them. Others decided to join in once they started getting billed.” Some held out until he sent a note saying the price was going to $50 per obit. To help, the paper armed funeral homes with a computer template and tech support. Out-of-town funeral homes are still allowed to do it the old-fashioned way, Reisman notes. The results? “Overall it has saved us time and dramatically improved our accuracy, which is important when dealing with grieving families. This is the only way to go!”

A newsroom at your service
While looking at ways to make The Gazette of Colorado Springs, Colo., (circulation 103,500) more reader friendly, managers started the “Gazette On Call” program. Every weekday, the paper publishes a staffer’s name on the front page, writes Connie Steel, newsroom office manager. “We ask our readers to call if they have a question, comment or suggestion about news content. For that 8-hour period, the newsroom associate is not a reporter, section editor, managing editor, photographer, artist or copy editor. They sit at what has been affectionately become known as the ‘Ombuddy’ desk, and answer the phone.” It has led to good news tips, suggestions and questions about the newspaper. It has also brought many newsroom staffers closer to the place they live.

Special section captures diversity
The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel (circulation 263,000) used staff photographers and journals written by local residents to document “the rapidly changing racial and ethnic mix of the area.” The special photo section, “A Whole New World” ran in a Sunday edition. Coordinated by Bill Dunn, the report profiled the lives of 11 people who were chosen from more than 50 journals — including one written in Spanish — submitted to the newspaper. Maria Padilla, the project’s writer and journal editor, said the section was “an awakening” for the newspaper and the community on the region’s diversity. She said journal writers offered “spectacular answers” on a wide range of subjects. Reaction has been “quite positive,” she said. Orlando’s largest school system plans to distribute the report to seventh-grade classes.

Improving coverage of minority communities
Articles examining media coverage of communities of color and gays and lesbians are featured in the quarterly “News Watch” newsletter. Each piece offers “tips” for reporting and writing more sensitively about minority groups. And, a Web site includes a stylebook on diversity terms.

Sharing diversity efforts with all
The Kansas City (Mo.) Star (circulation 280,000) wanted everyone — readers, newsroom and business-side employees — to know what the whole newspaper was doing to embrace diversity. The result: “Celebrate Diversity,” a 16-page tabloid that looked at the paper’s five diversity committees: newsroom, finance/administration, operations/production, advertising/marketing and circulation. Also inside — a letter from the publisher, a calendar of events and a list of diversity terms. Nearly 5,000 copies of the report were distributed to co-workers and at community events.

Diversity on college campuses
A new Internet site — Diversity Newsroom — offers editors and reporters a vast array of information on diversity in higher education. A joint project of the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the University of Maryland at College Park, Diversity Newsroom provides fingertip access on trends, surveys and polls, news clips, sources, and research databases on recruitment, faculty, and affirmative action.

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