Poppin’ fresh

Carla Savalli emerged from her office like a groundhog in springtime with a stunning announcement:

“This morning, when I opened my paper and read it, it felt really old to me.”

Savalli, an admitted longtime skeptic of new media paradigms, has been studying the changing role of newspapers and reporting on it on her Future of the Newsroom blog. She said that a few months ago, she would have been fighting this argument, but acknowledged today that after following the Joseph Duncan story online yesterday, today’s print coverage felt kind of stale.

“This is exactly the dilemma that all newspapers are struggling with,” she said. Some of our readers are connected and follow the news on TV and online, others are not. In this case, though, it’s probably a safe bet that most of our readers knew about Duncan’s plea deal by the time the papers hit the front step.

Idaho editor Scott Maben said that the package did advance the story, particularly Bill Morlin’s story on the effort to decrypt Duncan’s computer files . The gravity of the news justified the print treatment, he said.

“It was a momentous day in this whole saga,” Maben said.

Steve Smith disagreed.

“One of the things that we have to get past is that we’re the paper of record and that we have to mark history,” Smith said.

Smith and Savalli both were careful to clarify that they were proud of the work that was done, particularly on a day when we were printing an early “bulldog” edition (distributing extra copies of the paper as a promotion, which is done quarterly).

“None of this conversation should take away from the work our folks did,” Smith said.

Maben explained the work that went into feeding the online and print coverage both, and said that by 4 p.m. yesterday, he and reporter Taryn Brodwater were completely exhausted.

Reporter Jody Lawrence-Turner, who covers the daytime police beat and frequently reports on breaking stories, echoed this frustration. She said that when she arrives at a scene and finds TV journalists there, she has to gather information while trying to come up with other angles that they won’t have.

“You constantly have to be thinking ahead,” she said.

Savalli and Smith hinted that we would be considering solutions to help relive this strain on reporters and editors, including the possibility of developing a breaking news team for the Web.

Some good news for a change

Valley editor Jeff Jordan told the group this morning that Pam Almeida, director of Spokane Valley’s Meals on Wheels, credits our October 4 story on their volunteer shortage with helping her to recruit 25 new drivers.

Even more good news for a change

Steve Smith reported today that our latest circulation audit shows 1½% growth from the September 2005 report, and 3% growth from March 31. “The print product is staying strong,” he said. “People here should be very proud of that.”

A few housekeeping notes

Because of the aforementioned early edition, there was no 4:30 p.m. news meeting yesterday, so anyone who tried to tune in to the webcast would have been greeted with a blank screen, which for some may have been equally intriguing. I would be the dope that forgot to put a note on the webcast page.

Also, the A section was actually two sections this morning, so people looking for the Duncan jumps should look inside the section with the U.N. story on the upper left. Finally, there’s a bad jumpline on the local tourism story in business, look for the jump with the “I-933” heading. Don’t ask me how it happened.