d u d e r n e t

Um ...

With the Indiana primary not called until after 1 a.m. Eastern time, it seems rather unfortunate timing to take down your newspaper's entire web site to launch a new one. Sometime. Later.

As I suspect the problem will be fixed (or the great new site launched!) soon, here's evidence. You'll note the time in the upper right here; you'll also note the cheerful duck (he's hard at work!) and cute backwards "3"s. You won't, however, note any mention of this pesky "election." Nice job, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

I've been scooped

So, it's official: I'm headed to Florida.

If you live anywhere in the country near I-10, you may well see me sometime in the next few weeks.

Dean Singleton, Morale Builder

"... You hear our people in the newsrooms whine -- they whine and whine and whine."

Proof that a newspaper web site ...

... can look great, be functional, integrate multimedia and trumpet original content, even if its name isn't "New York Times" or "The Guardian":

Outstanding work by our friends at the Las Vegas Sun. Kudos!

Headlines you won't see ...

... on the front page of an American newspaper's web site:

(The main refer to the Guardian's "Comment is Free" section today.)

Good reading

I try not to make a habit of "check-this-out" posts, but in this case, I couldn't resist.

I worked with a magnificent photographer called Kevin German way, way back when we were both, I believe, 17 years old, at the Peninsula Daily News in Port Angeles, Wash. I was in the midst of an ill-fated job as sports reporter/photographer/copy editor/designer in a two-person sports department. Kevin was, I think, a high school junior or senior at the time, and was interning as a photographer.

I left quickly, and Kevin left for college at Washington State and then an internship at the Seattle Times, but I've followed his career ever since. He's an incredibly talented photographer who clearly has a special way with people, and the best thing is, it seems he's part of a department that truly appreciates him at the Sacramento Bee.

Anyway, this is a very long way of saying: Check out his work. There are many bits and pieces of great writing and photography on his blog, but I'm particularly jealous of his new additions, and I'm even more impressed with some of the first pictures he made with it, of an adorable boy and dog.

The industry formerly known as my own

A fascinating column in today's LAT on the future of newspapers. It's the first time in a decade that I've been on the outside of this industry, and it's somewhat heartening to see a report like this actually appear in a newspaper.

In his "Regarding Media" column, Tim Rutten speaks of the enormous change necessary for newspapers in this country to thrive like the newspapers in the United Kingdom.

Among the more interesting points:

- (T)he media research firm Nielsen/NetRatings reports that the online editions of Britain's two largest "quality" newspapers -- the Guardian and the Times of London -- now have more American than British readers. The Independent, a smaller serious daily, already has twice as many readers in the U.S. as it does in Britain. ... The quality British papers, particularly in their online editions, are much farther down the road toward what looks like the future of newspaper journalism, one that places a much higher premium on analysis and opinion than do serious American newspapers.

Indeed, one of the many things that brings me great joy reading the Guardian online (and considerably more joy reading the print edition on visits to London) is the personality and opinion that is consistently spread throughout the paper. Viewpoints that might be considered "biased" stateside aren't relegated to a page or two of editorials inside a section; they're jumping off nearly every page. It's almost as if choosing a newspaper there is proclaiming your political viewpoints. Or at least your leaning.

- Sooner rather than later, the newspaper you're holding in your hands will be very different from what it is today. Different in what way is the fair and obvious question. The honest answer is that nobody knows for certain, but the odds are it will be a hybrid publication in which an online edition that's focused mainly on breaking news and service works in tandem with a print edition whose staples are analysis, context and opinion. ... the latter will have to be much more thoughtful and far more intensely and carefully edited.

Which is certainly true; and which is the direction many American newspapers are moving. But mostly at a snail's pace; and with the slow movement come staff reductions, which prevent, for the most part, "intense and careful editing." Sort of a catch-22.

Anyway, it'll be interesting to watch this sea change as an outsider. And I can only hope that American newspapers, particularly the one I have quite an affinity for, can catch up in time. For now, though, I'll keep reading here.