By William M. Hartnett on May 12, 2008 in featured, newspaper buildings, newspapers | 0 Comments
Mike Pride’s essay in the current issue of CJR, which one apparently can’t get online, is an excellent read. After nearly 30 years as the Concord Monitor’s editor, Pride spent his final year before retirement as a reporter. Or, as he puts it, “my job became to provide content.” If only every editor would do the same, even for just a week or a few days every couple of years, and not just at the end of their career. Doing so would hardly be unprecedented in the annals of good management.
A key principle for managers at Toyota is genchi genbutsu, “go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation.” It’s what led Yuji Yokoya, the chief engineer of the current generation Toyota Sienna minivan, to drive 53,000 miles across every American state and Canadian province and much of Mexico in the old Sienna and other minivans. Only through this “go and see” approach could Yokoya truly understand the unique needs of North American minivan drivers.
So, newspaper editor, when was the last time you filed six web feeds before noon? Shot and edited a video? Written a radio script? Filed a public records request? Covered a 14-hour county commission meeting? Looked up property records at the courthouse? Written separate web and print headlines? It’s time to have a go at all the things you’re asking your employees to do. Your meetings and memos will carry on without you, I promise.
Here’s the Concord Monitor in Virtual Earth/Live Maps.
Recent Articles
By William M. Hartnett on May 15, 2008 in daily links | 2 Comments
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“(Twitter) does breaking news, and it does that very well - in many cases these days better than the mainstream press.” Too bad so many in the traditionally depth-focused news media are now placing big bets on breaking news, where they’re most vulnerable.
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“At baltimoresun.com, video advertising has a bright future. And not just 10-second pre-roll videos or posting clients’ existing television commercials online. They’re on to something much more lucrative.”
By William M. Hartnett on May 15, 2008 in backyard post, work | 0 Comments
Just posted over at The Official Backyard Post Blog: Neighborhood mapping help from abroad. Mapping thousands of neighborhoods is hard work. So hard, in fact, that we recently outsourced a very small portion of the workload to Backyard Post’s senior Argentina-based polo correspondent.
By William M. Hartnett on May 14, 2008 in daily links | 0 Comments
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Palm Beach Post co-worker Rochelle Gilken, all 4-feet, 11 inches and 110 pounds of her, will break you.
By William M. Hartnett on May 13, 2008 in oddities | 0 Comments
Just in case you’re not friends with him on Facebook, or even if you are and missed his request, Ed Barber needs your current contact information so you can receive information about the Alligator Alumni Association. Send it to cebarber AT alligator DOT org.
By William M. Hartnett on May 13, 2008 in backyard post, work | 0 Comments
Just posted over at The Official Backyard Post Blog: We like big serifs and, no, we cannot, in fact, lie. Still coming soon over that way: The amazing true story of one programmer and his true and amazing search for the world’s most ergonomically perfect input devices. Amazing. And true. And still coming.
By William M. Hartnett on May 12, 2008 in backyard post, work | 0 Comments
Just posted over at The Official Backyard Post Blog: Backyard Post now WAY real estate-ier than before. Coming soon over that way: The amazing true story of one programmer and his true and amazing search for the world’s most ergonomically perfect input devices. Amazing. And true.
By William M. Hartnett on May 11, 2008 in meta, site stats | 0 Comments
Took the first half of the month off, didn’t do terribly much during the second half of the month, and the old world kept on spinning. Visits were up 275 percent from the same period last year, uniques up 469 percent and page views up 123 percent. The stats, then, from Google Analytics and Feedburner. Lifetime stats start Feb. 13, 2007.
TOP 10 POSTS
- More Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros: HBO version lyrics (July 20, 2007)
- Introducing Backyard Post: Real-world neighborhoods as the foundation for a reappraisal of what a local newspaper should be (March 26, 2008)
- Google Maps vs. Virtual Earth: A geocoding accuracy showdown in West Palm Beach (Jan. 15, 2008)
- Port St. Lucie: More than wallaroos (Feb. 16, 2007)
- Justifying the big investment, step by step (April 16,2008)
- Profit: Ur doing it wrong! (April 29, 2008)
- How to make a good impression at your newspaper internship (June 8, 2007)
- Why I hate Wachovia even more than Volkswagen (Nov. 11, 2007)
- Neighborhood boundaries: How small is too small? (April 17, 2008)
- Income gap persists among racial groups (Oct. 20, 2003)
TRAFFIC SUMMARY
- 3,498 visits (24,659 lifetime)
- 3,133 unique visitors (19,287 lifetime)
- 5,197 page views (51,257 lifetime)
- 1.49 average page views (2.08 lifetime)
- 1:17 average time on site (2:14 lifetime)
- 80.56% bounce rate (70.92% lifetime)
- 87.59% new visits (78.21% lifetime)
FEED SUBSCRIPTION SUMMARY
- 81 minimum (5 lifetime)
- 114 maximum (114 lifetime)
- 94 mean (55 lifetime)
- 93 median (54 lifetime)
- 92 mode (22 lifetime)
BROWSERS
- Firefox: 1,592 visits, 45.51% (46.94% lifetime)
- 4.15% FF 3
- 2.89% FF 1.5 and below
- Internet Explorer: 1,495 visits, 42.74% (43.66% lifetime)
- 64.88% IE 7
- 35.05% IE 6
- 0.07% IE 5.5
- Safari: 348 visits, 9.95% (7.55% lifetime)
- Opera: 31 visits, 0.89% (0.79% lifetime)
- Mozilla: 15 visits, 0.43% (0.38% lifetime)
- Camino: 10 visits, 0.29% (0.26% lifetime)
- AvantGo: 3 visits, 0.09% (0.02% lifetime)
- Netscape: 2 visits, 0.06% (0.36% lifetime)
- Konqueror: 1 visit, 0.03% (0.01% lifetime)
- Playstation 3: 1 visit, 0.03% (0.01% lifetime)
OPERATING SYSTEMS
- Windows: 2,793 visits, 79.85% (81.72% lifetime)
- 78.98% XP
- 16.36% Vista
- 2.08% Server 2003
- 2.04% 2000
- 0.47% 98
- 0.04% ME
- 0.04% NT
- Mac: 633 visits, 18.10% (16.51% lifetime)
- 70.30% Intel
- 29.70% Power PC
- Linux: 45 visits, 1.29% (1.32% lifetime)
- iPhone: 9 visits, 0.26% (0.09% lifetime)
- iPod: 7 visits, 0.20% (0.05% lifetime)
- Unknown: 5 visits, 0.14% (0.25% lifetime)
- Danger Hiptop: 3 visits, 0.09% (0.02% lifetime)
- FreeBSD: 1 visit, 0.03% (0.01% lifetime)
- Nintendo Wii: 1 visit, 0.03% (0.01% lifetime)
- Playstation 3: 1 visit, 0.03% (0.01% lifetime)
TOP 5 SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
- 1024 x 768: 1,097 visits, 31.36% (32.44% lifetime)
- 1280 x 800: 651 visits, 18.61% (14.85% lifetime)
- 1280 x 1024: 602 visits, 17.21% (24.19% lifetime)
- 1440 x 900: 334 visits, 9.55% (7.19% lifetime)
- 1680 x 1050: 222 visits, 6.35% (4.85% lifetime)
(totally subjective) TOP 5 ACTUAL SEARCH STRINGS
- william porn
- what is a meaningless phrase
- what is a “geek face?”
- what does paper sound like?
- properties hair in the war
