• Editors expected webcast user count to spike this morning because of all the people who are staying home... and all the S-R employees who would normally be working today. • Great Shipp package this Sunday (Fifth multimedia installment and sixth article). Read the coverage…
The Daily Briefing will be taking this week off ... for some reason Thuy didn't want to sign in each morning from the beaches of Southern California. Go figure.And happy holidays!
• " Misconduct doesn't stop paychecks": The original headline in the print newspaper was "Teacher's pay continues." Editors wished it could have been more descriptive but the character count was so tight. • "Spike stars in children's book: Associate professor shares love of Gonzaga": where…
This was already announced on 12/4 as part of management's reorganization document, but in case you missed it:Due to tighter budget and staffing changes, S-R will lose the following columns: Bert Caldwell, Pia K. Hansen, Jim Kershner, Jim Camden, Shawn Vestal's "The Falls." All five…
• There's a story in the system right now everyone is calling hippo_saks. A Rosauer's in Browne's Addition has been bagging with Eco-Hippo plastic bags - advertised as stronger than the average bag and made with recycled resin. The first time someone said "hippo sacks"…
Check out this breaking news item for a list of city council applicants. We are a transparent newsroom. yo. One of them drives a Volkswagen bus with Grateful Dead stickers, according to one of the editors. Word is this applicant's students also have huge crushes…
Management hosted a big staff meeting yesterday evening and this morning-afternoon. Yesterday's went close to 90 minutes. In either or both meetings, editor Steve Smith, managing editor Gary Graham, senior presentation editor Geoff Pinnock, online director Ryan Pitts, associate editor John Webster and senior editor…
(a) a conversation (b) a monologue(c) a jukebox(d) sci-fiAfter a month of layoffs, voluntary resignations, budget crunching and staff rearrangement (here is an update from Steve Smith on Dec. 4 (PDF). One of the changes this month is the return of Daily Briefing. One of…
The morning meeting started off with this question-- “Where is Mark Fuhrman?” The KGA conservative radio talk show host, who gained notoriety during the O.J. Simpson trial, is AWOL on the air and his webpage has most of the content removed. Speculation abounds. Was he…
The morning meeting started with a conversation about posting documents with today's Teacher remains on payroll. Everyone who read them seemed to agree they were too graphic for publication.Steve Smith said that the A goodbye for a friend story was as good a story as…
“Wonderful-- one of the best papers we’ve had in a long time,” said City Editor Addy Hatch. “Most of A-1 and Northwest page stories developed in the afternoon,” she said.Reporter Tom Clouse and Karen Dorn Steele did a great job of explaining Appeals decision that…
After a short conversation about vote counting and possible concession speeches, Gary Graham said he thought last night's election coverage went well.Carla Savalli agreed calling the coverage,"A great package across all platforms."In particular Savalli noted the increased and timely multimedia coverage, the great analytical narrative…
In a quick run through the weekend's newspapers, Steve Smith noted that the headline on Saturday's Tent City story did not reflect the story. Smith also said he thought we had a pretty good paper Monday, "All things considered." Worthy of mention:Bert Caldwell's Sunday column:Fairness…
A news brief about Jane Hession never made it into the newspaper for some bizarre reason. It did appear on SpokesmanReview.com as a breaking news item (free access). Mayor Dennis Hession called political reporter Jim Camden. No one knows exactly how the error can be…
Yesterday there were clusters of children running around the newsroom. Because everybody followed the "60 kids" number, folks overestimated and bought a lot of Halloween candy. It now fills a very large tub.Among some of the costumes seen yesterday: Spider-Man (Spider-Man two words and hyphenated),…
For the news junkies: Former Spokesman-Review online publisher Ken Sands (hi!), now executive editor for innovation at Congressional Quarterly, wrote an interesting piece on newspaper "data delivery editors." Read the article at Poynter Institute's E-media Tidbits. The piece highlights new methods of organizing data, from…
Editor Steve Smith is blogathonning with Dave F. Oliveria, and senior editor Carla Savalli is out reassuring young journalists that there is a future to this news industry? "Guy with minivan endorses Modest Mouse"Assistant city editor Dan Hansen took a listen to some Modest Mouse…
"I've never heard of Modest Mouse - Who the hell is Modest Mouse?" asked editor Steve Smith at this morning's meeting.It's a modern band, and it's coming up in 7's cover story.
So because Cabela's has a media day today, that brought up questions about story placement for tomorrow's paper. Assistant city editor Dan Hansen is taking the tour, collecting audio and writing a story. Photographer Liz Kishimoto is shooting photos. The store is open for the…
At our Oct 12 morning meeting, photo director Larry Reisnouer said one of his reporters was asked to leave the garbage dump because of liability issues. If the photographer was not there to dump trash, he or she could not stick around. After putting a…
In a Huckleberries post by Idaho bureau blogger Dave F. Oliveria is a press release that names a suicide victim at North Idaho College. The Spokesman-Review has a policy of naming suicide victims and rape victims, and not covering suicides as news events unless the…
This fellow was seen at a harvest festival. But it wasn't a banana harvest festival. Maybe he's supposed to be a squash, a copy desk wizard said. Another said maybe the apple suit didn't fit in the car. The full photo runs in the paper…
Each weekday morning and afternoon, the newsroom staff meets to discuss the coverage plan. This blog covers editors' discussions, upcoming coverage and miscellaneous newsroom news.