A somber anniversary

It’s not often that we run a weekday front page consisting of just two story packages. But editors this morning seemed to agree that it worked. The packages in question involved the Our kids: Our business project and the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

Editors subbed out a local story in the Our Kids package to run a wire piece about a study detailing neglect of infants. Carla Savalli noted that one of the network newscasts had done a pretty substantial segment on the report last night and called the study a major development.

Paul Turner won praise for what editors felt was a very authentic reflection on the anniversary of King’s killing . Turner is a former Memphis resident, although he didn’t live there at the time of the assassination.

The visual elements of the package caused some heartburn for Photo Editor Larry Reisnouer, who noted that the King photos were processed in sepia tones instead of black and white, as they originally existed and designers had requested. You can compare the different effects at left. Reisnouer is trying to track down where in the process the communication broke down.

Larry’s explanation was informative for a lot of editors who don’t normally concern themselves with photo processing. Not that they understood all the technical bits. as Features Editor Ken Paulman noted, “A lot of that could have been in Spanish.”

The other photo that got some note was of some notable fossilized feces discovered in Oregon . The appearance of the sample in question raised questions for Assistant City Editor David Wasson. Specifically, when scientists stumbled upon the discovery, did they actually stumble upon it.

Thin slices
• Night city editor Scott Maben appeared to have some fun with the “Wienermobile gets tagged with markers” brief.

• Jennifer Zurlini bailed out 7 with a good art walk story, Paulman noted. Zurlini, a fact checker and painter herself, was able to get images and turn out the story after the original reporter was knocked out by a nasty virus.

Coming up
• Features will have a story by Leonard Pitts Jr. on the sanitation workers strike that became King’s final effort.

• Local government reporter Jonathan Brunt is following up on the resignation of Mary Verner’s chief of staff and what, if anything, that means.

• Jody Lawrence-Turner is looking at a Spokane ordinance that could be really bad news for sellers of, ahem, tobacco accessories.