Signposts

There were a lot of good stories in today’s paper, but we need to do a better job helping readers navigate, Steve Smith said. For instance, we generally have a logo for stories related to upcoming elections (which we haven’t developed yet), and the front-page story on Jim West’s computer files could have used a refer to the related story inside.

Speaking of Jim West, Smith felt that today’s story on West’s increasing visibility could have used a little more time in the oven. Referring to the bulleted list of the mayor’s activity, Smith said “I’m not sure we had a critical mass yet. If we’d waited a week or two, we might have had some additional detail.”

“I don’t want it to appear as if we’re conducting the campaign in print,” Smith said. “It’s not a bad story - I just think it might have been premature.”

Distinction without a difference?

At least one editor objected to a correction that ran on page B1 today. In it, we distinguish between “home-schooled” students and those who participate in a “parent partnership” program that was the subject of a recent audit. The correction states that the students in the program “are considered public school students, even though much of the learning typically takes place at home.”

The editor questioned whether this correction might have been kowtowing to the school district by using their jargon to make a distinction between home-schoolers participating in the state program and home-schoolers that do not. In the public’s eyes, she said, if they’re pursuing their education at home, they’re home-schoolers, and that’s what we should call them.

The objection, it turns out, was not raised by education officials but by home-school parents, who didn’t want to be portrayed as taking advantage of a state program.

“There’s no downside to the clarification,” Smith said. “What we’re doing is clarifying a confusing point.”

Missed opportunity

It would have been to have multimedia for the Cedar Creek Dam removal , but, as with all new technologies (new to us, anyway), we’re still training our brains to recognize the best opportunities to use them. This one got away from us…