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The Editors' Blog
Top editors answer questions and talk about The N&O's print and online news reporting. Contributors are John Drescher, executive editor, and senior editors Dan Barkin, Steve Riley and Linda Williams. Email John with questions or suggestions.
Weather changes - feedback wanted
We're shrinking the size of the weather info in the paper from a half page to a quarter page. Times aren't easy - you know that - and we're having to make choices about how to save money. So when we have to reduce the number of pages we print each day, something's got to give. What we have tried to do is eliminate some of the space-consuming visual elements while keeping information.
We have put a prototype of the what the weather information will look like and what it will contain. We'd like to hear suggestions about what info we should include and what we should leave out. There are a lot of different ideas about what's important. I have heard from the dew point lobby, the humidity lobby, the moon phase lobby, etc.
Go here and leave your comments. We're shooting for making the change around July 7.
Dan Barkin
Dan Barkin, senior editor/online, is a veteran of more than three decades in journalism and came to the N&O in 1996 as business editor. He holds a bachelor's in business administration from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., and a master's in journalism from the University of Maryland. He and his wife live in Clayton with their two cats.
Comments
The core mission
Sun, 07/12/2009 - 18:29 — JustWonderingThe N&O has to cut corners so that it can continue to do its core mission --- publishing columns by Rick Martinez, Charles Krauthammer, and George Will.
Without those columns, how would the readers learn to defend Sarah Palin, support torture and pointless warfare, and eschew blue jeans?
Whether to reduce the weather maps
Thu, 07/02/2009 - 15:21 — Penny_WiseIt is a noticeable difference. Reducing the size and number of Sunday Comics was also flagrant.
There are only three reasons why people buy anything:
Quality
Price
Service
You can have any two of the three and survive
High Quality ... High Price ... Low Service
High Service ... High Price ... Not so High Quality
Low Price ... High Service .. Low/Moderate Quality
Low Price ... Low Service ... Moderate/High Quality
You cannot survive selling a poor product at high prices and low service. The best in the industry can sell a high quality product with high quality service at a higher price.
Your recent series on the NCSU debacle has proven that you can produce high quality pieces. How do you revolutionize an industry that has been based in print since its inception and have it compete in a digital world? It will take some work:
There are more ideas ...
This should give you a start...