In-paper promotion of breaking news

Just received the following from Roger Black in Plattsburgh:


Was on the front page of today's Press-Republican.

Recordnet | Blogs

Recently launched: Recordnet | Blogs

Steve Outing » A magazine brings its editors out into the open

It's a familiar rant for Steve Outing: Allow newsrooms to become more transparent through blogging. His latest post on the subject highlights what's happening at Bike magazine.

WSJ.com - The Perfect News Site, 2016

Pointed out by Romanesko today: WSJ.com - The Perfect News Site, 2016. No surprises, really, but a good read nonetheless.

Blogs: Good or Evil?

Washington Post's Howard Kurtz collects some wide-ranging thoughts (by others) on blogs in his column today:

Blogs: Good or Evil?

The column almost reads like a blog. Ironic, eh?

Baseball music

Heard this on a WNYC podcast as I was driving home from work yesterday. Some neat anecdotes in here. Might even inspire some story ideas for you. Plus, there's a clip of Bernie Williams playing a classical guitar piece. I'm not a fan of his ball playing, of course, but I'm liking his guitar work. He's pretty good!

Soundcheck: Hit Music (April 11, 2006)

Give me 5 every Friday

UGC idea from Cape Cod: Give me 5 every Friday.

Poll-licious

I just noticed that Daily Candy on Friday inserted a poll into its e-mails. Perhaps they did it sooner than that. There are days when I tend to delete the e-mails in the interest of time.

Point being that I recommend inserting poll questions into your Lyris templates, if you're not already. It's a great way to fold an additional call to action into the sometimes humdrum daily headlines e-mail. The whole idea of the e-mail newsletters is to entice clicks from people who might not otherwise visit that day. A poll -- especially an irreverant one such as what Daily Candy offered on Friday in it's Boston edition -- could be just the trick.

For the surf fans

Several Santa Cruz area surfers are up for XXL cash prizes for biggest waves ridden this year. Check out the site: www.billabongxxl.com for video of the insanity

Marathon route - Boston.com

Came across an engaging slideshow on Boston.com today. It's very clever in its execution, right down to the detail of having 26 slides.

Optimizing headlines for search engines

Spied via LostRemote:
NYT: This Boring Headline Is Written for Google

We didn't need it, necessarily, but consider it as further proof of the importance of the 'Net headline (as opposed to the newspaper kicker that can often wind up online).

Blogging forward

Looks like we're muddling our way to a couple things web-wise in Santa Cruz (it's been raining nonstop since the conference, so we've had a little time).

We've figured how to promote a Sunday story, how to pop photos into the "latest local scores" hole, worked on some kind of a system for updating the scores each night. I started a blog today (zero views!), and assistant SE Mark Connelly gets going tomorrow. Those are up at santacruzsentinel.com/sports.

The Sentinel site has a forum started, to which we'll add a sports thread, promote it from the sports front, hope to get more action from that in the fall.

Hoping to get some audio posted with a story this week about a local longtime play-by-play guy.

I've met with our web people and talked about several projects to work toward, including databases for calendars and recreation listings, and ultimately scores, standings and stats for local high school leagues. Also plan to get reader/viewer votes for athlete of the year packages at end of the school year.

Met with staff today, most of whom seem at least interested, some enthusiastic about what's possible. Here are my notes, which went out to the staff and were generally talked about today, for what it's worth (feel free to borrow, delete, or laugh at them).

================================

As we go forward, our focus on internet will continue to be more important to us, more of a service to readers, more important for the company financially, more essential to being relevant and competitive, more fun (and probably more work) for us. I’d encourage everyone to think in terms of how your work can be put to use on the internet, to look at what works for us and what works on other sites, and to learn/train in the technology used for our site.

A few things in the works:
In addition to someday being able to put up agate, to put up photos with stories, and getting parentheses to appear, here are a few things we’re shooting for within the next couple weeks/months, The idea is to focus on the things that have the biggest impact for the least amount of effort.

Live scores, probably the most useful and unique thing we can do now, No one else is doing it. Everyone should know how to update the live scores section, and it should happen every night. Ideally, the slotter updates every score we receive. At a minimum, we should keep the biggest games in mind. For every game meaningful enough for us to staff, reporters should call with halftime updates and final scores. For the very biggest games, we can do more, a live running commentary is possible, as long as we’ve got the internet connection.

How to update scores:
1) From the Sentinel intranet home page, click: Mid Day Update Admin. That takes you to the following site:
http://midday.santacruzsentinel.net/administrator/ (you can access that site from anywhere you’ve got an internet connection).
2) Username: admin; Password: CACRU
3) Under the pull-down menu: Content, choose content managers, then choose ‘latest sports scores,’ then choose ‘latest sports scores items.’ This takes you to a page where you click: “Latest sports scores.”
4) This brings up a dialogue window, where you can edit what appears on the site under “Latest sports scores.” After updating, click “save” icon at top right of the page.

It’s also possible to post photos immediately in the same site:
1) Photographers need to provide a quick 72 dpi image, Lovejoy is always up for doing it, plans to do so on every assignment.
2) From dialogue window, click the ‘edit/modify image’ icon (third from left above the text field)
3) Browse to find the photo, probably in GWIP_sport
4) Click upload, then OK. That takes you back to the original dialogue window. Add text below photo for cutline info.
5) click ‘save’


Blogs. Everyone will get one. That will mean spending a little time, on the subject of your expertise, especially during your season, keeping a running conversation with readers. Ask them questions, ask for advice, for their opinion, point them to interesting links/discussions, let them know what you’re working on, especially talk about issues of the day. I’d say this is a daily, 15-minute, type of activity, but will lead to story suggestions, feedback.

Landing pages - We’ll work on setting up pages for columnists, etc. that will link to their blogs, archives of columns, related articles, etc.
The idea is that if we’re writing about a subject and someone is reading on the web, we should offer that person reasons to stay, explore the site more. Eventually, we’d like to have landing pages for outdoors, Watsonville (possibly other communities/high schools), football, baseball, basketball, other sports, with links to schedules, standings, stats, results, archives and photos. Much like Mbaypreps. Ryan and I will work on a basketball page, and we’ll build other templates from there.

E-mail to readers: At some point, I’ll start sending a daily e-mail to readers about what we’re planning for the days ahead, or what they should check out in today’s edition. I’ll also be able to send e-mail to readers about a breaking story, or a big upset.

Databases:
In time, we’ll work on putting schedules, stats, results, Breaking Away, etc., into databases. This might mean that instead of typing in incopy documents, we’re entering info on web pages, standings, stats hopefully will be updated immediately, then we’ll export to publish that stuff in the paper.

Promos, photo galleries, slideshows are all fairly easily accomplished. Mostly, requests and ideas should go through me. But Kim O’Keefe in back is the person who helps us get all of these things done. My plan is to learn the interface as much as possible, so we can quickly change the look/feel/content of the sports front.

The future:
Coaches input their own scores, especially for community events, lower levels
Readers send in their own photos
Reporters can post audio
Video ... .
Podcasts
Polls
Saxotech ... the new system. They’ll start planning that in June, it’s a fairly long process, and detail-oriented to set up what we want from the sports section front/home page.

============================

Also, this is funny:

When UGC Goes Bad

Check out the New York Times article today on an effort by Chevrolet to solicit user-generated advertising.

Some samples:

• $70 to fill up the tank, which will last less than 400 miles. Chevy Tahoe.
• Our planet's oil is almost gone. You don't need G.P.S. to see where this road leads.
• Like this snowy wilderness? Better get your fill of it now. Then say hello to global warming.

The good news? So far Chevy is sticking with the concept:

"We anticipated that there would be critical submissions," Ms. (Melisa) Tezanos said. "You do turn over your brand to the public, and we knew that we were going to get some bad with the good. But it's part of playing in this space."

NYT points out that Converse had more success with its user-generated advertising effort: conversegallery.com. I guess Chuck Taylors engender less activism than SUVs.

Warning: Converse's site is addictive. Here's a few of my favorites:

• Dogs
  
• Lonely Ranger
• Grass Court

Play Ball!

Heard this a.m. while driving from MA to NY:
http://wbz1030.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=50180

NFL Removes Local TV Affiliates From Game Sidelines

I think we spoke about the practice of local TV stations filming from the sidelines of NFL games, capturing their own highlights in the process?

Well, no more: NFL Removes Local TV Affiliates From Game Sidelines (via Romanesko)

williamsport grays

Anybody know anything about the Williamsport Grays?
My brother bought something on e-bay and was wondering if I knew anything about the team ... since I'm so close to Williamsport. Yes, I am related to a genius.
Anyone have any idea where I might find something?
Thanks.

P.S. We're talking LANDING PAGES here!!!! Whoopppeee!

Potty talk

You guys have it easy.
Probably never see this sort of thing in Santa Cruz.
Later

03/29/06

Dinner includes a side of ignorance

COLUMN BY DEAN RUSSIN

If ignorance is bliss, allow me to introduce you to the happiest couple in the world.

Meet Pinky and Strapping Young Man, two members of the foul-mouthed generation that’s about to take over the world.

Since this is the sports section of your local newspaper, I have to make at least one sports reference for this to qualify as a sports-related story. I could go the route of former Daily Star sportswriter Ryan Lillis and simply write, "Jessica Laing — What a player!" to meet this requirement.

But since we’re deep into March Madness ... George Mason? In the Final Four?

Enter Pinky and Strap, two college-aged kids who likely would have tucked a neat profanity between George and Mason just because and another between Final and Four for alliteration purposes.

This perfect match is at the front of the line at a local restaurant Monday while the rest of us mopes who still think tacos and fishsticks are an irresistible combination patiently wait.

Pinky, who is dressed in pink and is talking on her matching pink cell phone (how cute!), has one foot in the batter’s box. It’s her turn to order, but she’s arguing with some other knucklehead on her cell.

The cashier doesn’t exist in Pinky’s world, which also excludes the 10 people still standing in line and those fortunate enough to be sitting with a tray full of deep-fried goodness in front of them. There’s at least one child within earshot of Pinky, who apparently is the butt of a prank call from one of her friends.

Pinky finally hears the punchline from her friend, who I can only assume is a 911 operator with three calls on hold, then drops the loudest Letter-Between-E-and-G-Bomb in history to effectively express her relief.

Much like 11th-seeded George Mason making it past the Elite Eight, it’s time to pay attention.

"Awww, come on," I say at a slightly higher volume than normal, hoping that Pinky will realize this is neither the time nor the place for "Jerry Springer Uncut."

Pinky is in utter disbelief. How dare someone interrupt her conversation!

A few clean words are exchanged as both sides plead their cases, but Pinky reverts to her pre-thesaurus days and tells me to go four-letter myself.

So our conversation continues, much to the dismay of Strap. After asking me who I think I am — who I think I am! — Strap soon says I’m thisclose to getting punched in the face.

This is bliss at its finest, and it’s a trend that seems to be catching on with the teenage population these days.

Three days before this incident, I was sitting in a local pizzeria with my 3-year-old son when three teens — a girl and two boys — sat down in the booth behind us. Within a minute, I heard the girl use three profanities — for no reason in particular — while her escorts mumbled through mouthfuls of pizza.

The same can be heard in the stands at just about every high school game in the area, and more often than not, the biggest offenders are too young to vote.

Like those fat, little beetles that float around Damaschke Field during summer baseball games, it’s everywhere and there’s really nothing you can do about it to make it go away.

Still, there’s no bliss in simply ignoring it.

Dean Russin is the sports editor of The Daily Star. E-mail him at drussin@thedailystar.com.

Congrats Dean

Congratulations to Dean Russin for a top 5 APSE for Breaking News story.

Our reporter Julie Jag got a third place for game story in under 40k. She interviewed the participants before they left, traveled, stayed up all night, hung out at remote aid stations to deliver this account of the Western States 100 and the progress of several Santa Cruz athletes:

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/June/27/sport/stories/01sport.htm

It would have been nice if she had remembered to take her camera.

Baseball Hall: Veterans Committee voting

Guys,
I tried to e-mail this to each of you (two times apiece, even) if anybody was interested, but our sweet Microsoft system likes to put coding all over the place when you paste something into an e-mail.
Hopefully, it does the same thing here so you can each have three jumbled e-mails from me.
Later

______
The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y.
And then there were 260.
Including a president.
A select committee narrowed the list of eligible candidates for the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2007 Veterans Committee election to 260, the Hall announced Monday. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America appointed a Historical Overview Committee that is independent of the Hall to complete the first step in the VC voting process.
Among the 60 candidates on the managers, umpires and executives list is President George W. Bush, who used to own the Texas Rangers. Other notables on the managers, umpires and executive lists include former California/Anaheim Angels owner Gene Autry; former Yankees manager Billy Martin; former Mets manager Davey Johnson; former St. Louis Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog; and former Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer, who also managed the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the San Diego Padres and the Rangers.
Among the 200 eligible baseball players are former New York Yankees Roger Maris, Thurman Munson and Mel Stottlemyre; former Minnesota Twins outfielder Tony Oliva; and two-time All-Star catcher Tim McCarver. Minnie Minoso, who was overlooked for election to the Hall via a special Negro leagues ballot this year, is also on the players list.
Nine historians and veteran baseball writers made up the committee, which met in the Hall’s Library Research Center in December. The committee finalized its selections following further research over the last few months.
The original list of players, which includes all eligible major leaguers with at least 10 seasons of experience up to and including the 1985 season, encompassed more than 1,400 players. The Hall and Elias Sports Bureau provided data used by the committee to determine its choices.
A BBWAA-appointed committee of 60 members will cut the players list to 25 candidates and the other list to 15 this summer.
Simultaneously, a six-member screening committee of Hall of Famers will select five players to be added to the list of 25, should they not be included.
The final ballots will be announced this fall.
The VC electorate is comprised of the living Hall of Fame members (61), Ford C. Frick Award recipients (14), J.G. Taylor Spink Award recipients (8) and former VC members whose terms have not yet expired (1).
The VC will vote in January 2007. Those who earn votes on 75 percent of ballots cast will be inducted into the Hall during the summer of 2007.
The last two VC elections _ in 2003 and 2005 _ produced no Hall of Famers.
The next VC players election will run in 2009, followed by VC voting for managers, umpires and executives in 2011.

March Madness

I just got a short and entirely confusing tutorial by two co-workers about blogging. So, after I shoot myself, I'll have a few questions for you all.

I was going to create a blog talking about the Final Four and how one player in our 26-man NCAA pool has a national champion alive. Yep, 1-for-26 at The Daily Star. Nice stats, if you're talking about prison convictions. Fortunately, the one person is my 3-year-old son, who made it to the Elite Eight last year and vowed to forgo potty training until he won an NCAA pool. He's a boy of his word.

Unfortunately, the leader is 18 points ahead of him, meaning UCLA has to sweep to break the curse of the soiled diapers. Our leader had six of the Elite Eight, including George Mason. He said he picked George Mason because that's where it looked like an upset belonged and the Midwest is stronger than other regions in the U.S.

Seriously.

So, anyway, I didn't think creating a blog was the intention of this forum because it seems so permanent with formats and stuff. I haven't read past Sean's second e-mail, though, so this is basically another test run on the road to the World Wide Web, which used to be owned by Spider-Man.

Later