They could feel the love, but not from their newspaper

Elton John was in Pullman this weekend, and some readers wondered why he didn’t get the attention of The Spokesman-Review for a post-show recap.

Editor Steve Smith got a handful of phone calls about the Elton John concert over the weekend and why S-R did not cover the concert as a RE-view article. There’s a thread at News is a Conversation , ETA: a second editor note , and an excitement thread at Huckleberries about the concert . Some of the discussion points this morning:

• Two reasons there was no review, Smith said: Logistically, a review couldn’t be published because the concert ended after the print edition deadline for the Today section. Secondly, the point of a review is to tell people whether a show is worth attending, Smith said. With this in mind, a review works when a show will be repeating over the next few days or weeks (e.g. Symphony series, a run at the theater), allowing time for people to go see it.

• What about turnout? One reader compared/contrasted a concert with a sports game, saying that if sports games with lower turnout are often the subject of news coverage, why not an Elton John concert with many more people? On the other hand, editors said this morning, the outcome of the concert was obvious: Elton John would get on stage and perform. There was not a score, and nothing out of the ordinary occurred except fantastic music, we’re certain. Senior innovation editor Carla Savalli attended - she said it was a very good show.

• “There have been other acts [S-R has] not written about,” said sports editor Joe Palmquist, although reporter Jim Camden remembers coverage about the Rolling Stones (mid-late 2006 but it was about the Spokane Arena trying to get them to come here).

• Editors talked a bit about the apparent disconnect between a newsroom and its readers - Does the newsroom sometimes fail to recognize or understand what the public finds important? “I think they [those in attendance] want us to acknowledge that it happened - That they were there,” Savalli said about the Elton show. All 12,000 of them, it looks like … This led to a discussion about whether editors can determine widespread displeasure with the newspaper based on the number of comments and complaints, and whether a series of comments/complaints can be representative of public opinion.