Monthly Archives: March 2007

Come blog with us

March 30, 20075:09 p.m.

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If you haven’t checked out "The Hall Monitor" — our political reporters’ new blog — you should. It’s an inside look at what makes our public officials tick (and ticked off). Since launching, the blog has gotten the scoop on cheap Earth, Wind & Fire tickets, covered the Wichita City Council candidate promise that wasn’t, aired a public tirade against the Sedgwick County Commission, and linked to actual footage of the controversial protest on City Manager George Kolb’s lawn.

Rengers
Coming Tuesday, Carrie Rengers — with help from some fellow reporters this time — will reprise her election-night live blog. Carrie & Co. will hop from watch party to watch party, chatting up the winners and losers and their supporters, while taking a careful assessment of the candidates’ party-throwing abilities. Link to that via the home page. It will start at 7 Tuesday evening and update continually throughout the night.

— Nick Jungman

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off

Missing comics, games

March 27, 20076:59 p.m.

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Much of the response Kansas.com has received since the site’s transition to a new system has been about games and comics missing from our Comics & Games page.

Since ownership of Kansas.com passed from Knight Ridder to McClatchy Co. last summer, much control of the Web site has been returned to us here in Wichita. That’s mostly a good thing, and it will allow us to better customize the site for you. However, among the drawbacks of this shift in control is a shift in costs. One big cost we were facing was the bill for all the comics and games we have carried. Given the relatively low usage of those features, it just didn’t make sense for us to pay to keep everything. We chose to maintain the two most popular features — the crossword and sudoku — and let the others lapse.

I apologize to those of you who’d developed a habit of using some of those features, but I hope you understand the situation we found ourselves in.

— Nick Jungman

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Web/Tech | Comments (4)

The magic of spring (fashion)

March 23, 20071:00 p.m.

Spring_fash_coverSpring is a time when all things look new. And today’s Spring Fashion section has some of the most innovative, creative visual work we’ve done at The Eagle for many a season.

Rod Pocowatchit, senior journalist and features page designer, was the artistic force behind the eye-catching design and look of the section.

Along with fashion writer Bonnie Bing and photographer Mike Hutmacher, he worked many long hours to create a stunning visual presentation — not only in today’s paper, but also on Kansas.com, where you can see his video of how the section came together.

Rod, by the way, is an award-winning filmmaker, when he’s not designing great pages for The Eagle.

How did he pull off today’s feat?

Here’s what he said:

"Bonnie showed me a designer’s press booklet that took a similar approach. and asked me if I’d be interested in doing something like it, and I said yes. Then we never did.

"Months later, when it got time to starting thinking about approaches for the spring fashion section (we also do one in the fall), she asked me about the illustration idea again, and we decided to try it.

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"We sat down and looked at the clothes she was going to feature and came up with ideas for what the models would be doing, and an overall concept. We wanted the tone to be playful, and we didn’t want the models to ‘model,’ per se, like in a catalogue. The models almost had to act, in a way.

"We sat down with photographer Mike Hutmacher and explained the concept. Then in the photo studio, we worked with the models to explain what they would be doing, and tried to give them a vague idea of what the final shot would look like (because, really, we weren’t entirely sure yet). It was a fantastic collaboration all the way around on every level.

"After the photos were taken, I added illustrations digitally on the computer, which took a lot more time than I thought it would, but it was fun, nonetheless.

"During the photo shoot, I also shot video and edited that together to give people an idea of how the whole thing came about, showing footage of the models while the picture was being shot, and afterward with the final illustrations.

"It was all an attempt to approach a project in a new, imaginative, creative way."

And it was a great success.

Thanks to Rod’s artistic talent, today’s fashion section shows how spring really can make everything new.

Arlice

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off

Keep up with spring fashion (and Bonnie)

March 22, 20073:10 p.m.

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Too bad there’s no human-made device or fossil fuel that spins off as much energy as Bonnie Bing. She’s truly a marvel. One of the more amazing feats to behold is how Bonnie coordinates the always-spiffy spring, fall and holiday fashion sections for The Eagle.

Today, you can find the results of her work in the spring fashion section in the newspaper and on our web site. More than a month ago, Bonnie began brainstorming with our extraordinary page designer (and filmmaker in his spare time) Rod Pocowatchit to come up with a section that combines traditional photographs with hand-drawn illustration. Take a look at Rod’s video to see how he did it.

Photographer Mike Hutmacher’s photos were the starting point, and will give you a good idea of what to look for in spring fashion trends. (You can see Mike’s full professional portolio here.)

Coordinating this project is a daunting feat. Take a look at Bonnie’s recipe for how to create a fabulous fashion section.

And keep in mind that at the same time, she’s juggling other responsibilities for the paper and a multitude of civic commitments. (The photo above, via my Treo, is Bonnie charging across The Eagle’s parking lot after a planning meeting for "The Wichita Eagle Divine Makeover" event she coordinates with Dress for Success.)

Go, Bon, go. Nice work on the spring fashion coverage.

– Sherry

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under News content | Comments Off

We’ve moved

March 22, 20079:53 a.m.

At 10 a.m. this morning, Kansas.com moved. We’re hoping you didn’t notice.

For weeks, our staff here in Wichita and a host of folks at McClatchy Interactive, our parent company’s online division, have been re-creating Kansas.com in a new computer system. Each of about 160 standing pages of the site had to be re-created from scratch on new servers, using powerful new software that we in Wichita were introduced to just last month.

The result — we hope — is a relatively seamless transition. Most of the pages of the new site have been designed to be nearly the same as they were in the old one. A few things have moved, though, and a few things have been discontinued. If you think something is missing, we encourage you to look again. It may just be at a different spot on the page, or it may have gained a new title or position in the navigation menus on the left side of the page.

But, if you can’t find something, let us know. It might have been overlooked. Indeed, if you find anything wrong with the new site — a broken link, garbled pages, forms that don’t work — don’t hesitate to tell us. We’ve set up the e-mail address fixit@wichitaeagle.com to collect your reports of problems with the new site. You can also use the site’s feedback form.

Although we’ve designed the new site to look just like the old one, we expect our new system to soon make possible a host of new things that you’ll find useful or entertaining or both. We expect, too, to find ways to make the site easier to navigate and even more interactive than it is now. In a few short years, WE Blog and our discussion boards have become fantastic communities where Kansans can connect on a host of topics. We’re certain there are dozens of other communities waiting to be created.

If you have some ideas about that, or the future of Kansas.com in general, we’d love to hear them. We invite you to discuss your ideas in the comments below.

— Nick Jungman, senior editor for interactive, and the Kansas.com team

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Web/Tech | Comments (15)

Is informal disrespectful?

March 21, 200711:55 p.m.

A few reader emails today reminded me of a recent conversation I had with columnist Mark McCormick over lunch. Mark had written a column about his dislike of being called by his first name by people without his invitation to do so (store salespeople, for example). His column quoted a reader who said she considered such greetings disrespectful and inappropriately familiar.

I told Mark his column made me reflect, because I tend to appreciate informality and had never taken offense at it. I recalled a flood of email I received a couple years ago after I’d written a column about our coverage of Roger Valadez’s arrest. I was struck by the high number of readers who greeted me in their email by my first name.

I took it as a compliment. The larger issue of the name usage to me is how people perceive their relationship with the newspaper. I want readers to feel like we can have an ongoing conversation — that The Eagle staff is approachable and accessible. Using my first name signals a comfort level that I welcome.

Today I noticed that all of the emails I received greeted me by my first name, and it reminded me of that lunch discussion with Mark. I usually respond to readers using their first name. Publisher Lou Heldman prefers not to do that. All of which has left me wondering if the majority of people are offended by the familiarity or comfortable with it. If you have any wisdom to share on this, drop me a note at schisenhall@wichitaeagle.com or add a comment below.

Sherry

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Reader issues | Comments (4)

Showing us some love

March 21, 20077:33 p.m.

Several readers of our business coverage have asked me in the past few weeks if I’ve noticed that a competing publication seems oddly preoccupied with reporting — in depth — about The Eagle and our parent company, The McClatchy Co.

Well, yes. It does strike me as unnatural, and obviously some of our readers feel the same. Most people ask if it bothers me. I tend to roll my eyes when I see it, but that’s about it.

First, because I believe readers recognize it for it is. And second, because time spent covering us is time not being spent covering news of wider interest.

Every editor has his or her own philosophy on writing about competitors. Anyone in our newsroom who has written about a competing publication knows I don’t like using our pages that way unless the news value of the story is very clear. I believe we honor competitors when we spend our two most valuable resources — time and news space — writing about them. Most of the time, I’d rather not give them our attention and our readers’ attention.

Sherry

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under News content | Comments Off

Best front page

March 15, 20075:50 p.m.

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Getting instant recognition for page design is a rarity.

But today was an exception.

The Eagle’s front page, designed by Jarrod Evans, was named the best front page design on the Web site Best Front Design.

The Web site comments say, "The newspaper with the best front design today is The Wichita Eagle for its effective use of images and headlines above the fold.

"Single-copy sales depend, in part, on above-the-fold presentation. The Wichita Eagle did a great job in its lead package, and followed through with its promos, using photos with large image size."

Jarrod said his job with the page was made easy with good photography and well-written headlines.

"Travis Heying shot an excellent photo for the gang story, and Jennifer Comes wrote a great headline to help make the page inviting to our readers," Evans said.

"Content drives design, so a lot of times, good copy and photography make the designers look good."

You can find the page and comments at http://www.bestfrontdesign.com/

Congratulations to Jarrod. Today, he and The Eagle are the best.

Arlice

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off

Honors for our staff

March 9, 20075:29 p.m.

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I’m always proud of our newsroom staff but, recently, several reporters and visual staffers have won awards that make me even prouder.

We learned last week that Coryanne Graham, visual editor for WichiTalk, won an Award of Excellence from the Society for News Design for her WichiTalk cover design for the special candy issue in October. It’s shown here.
For the candy issue on Oct. 25, Cory painstakingly created an image of a ghost overlooking a hillside — all from pieces of candy. The Society for News Design is an international professional organization that promotes high standards of journalism through page design. More than 10,000 entries are judged each year in the international design competition. Cory’s award was in the features page category.

More kudos came this week from the AP Sports Editors, who gave the Eagle five awards. They are:

Jeffrey Martin, a double winner, finishing in the top 10 in breaking
news for a story on Kansas State hiring coach Bob Huggins and for a game story on K-State’s rare basketball
win over KU.

Scott Paske, also finishing in the top 10 for a story he wrote on the final round of the U.S.
Senior Open.

Our Sunday Sports section was named in the top 10, and our special section on the ‘06 NCAA Tournament received an honorable mention.

And, finally, reporter Tim Potter won an in-house award for writing the best story in January. The article was a three-part series titled "A World Apart," about a young Wichita mother’s struggle to get her children out
of Jordan.

I hope you’ll join me in congratulating these folks for their work.

— Theresa Johnson

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By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Uncategorized | Comments Off

How many turned out to vote?

March 2, 200710:15 p.m.

A headline in Wednesday’s paper said that seven out of eight county voters skipped the primary election.

The 13 percent turnout didn’t set a record for the worst turnout in Sedgwick County, but it was hardly a show of civic engagement.

Actually the turnout was more dismal than 13 percent.

The numbers in the paper were based on the number of registered voters.

Ken Ciboski, a political science professor at Wichita State University, called to suggest that The Eagle follow the standards used in national elections and base the turnout on the number of adults living in the county, rather than the number of adults who register to vote.

That would put the turnout closer to 7 percent. Some of those folks had an excuse. Not every small town in Sedgwick County had a primary. (The 13 percent turnout number was based only on voters living in towns with primaries.)

Bill Gale, the Sedgwick County election commissioner, acknowledged that there are two ways to figure voter turnout.

But, he said, his office knows the number of people registered to vote in Sedgwick County. It doesn’t know the exact number of adults living in the county on Election Day.
In addition, those with felony records and those who are not citizens couldn’t register to vote if they wanted to.

Gale said that 233,147 people or about 70 percent of the county’s adults, are registered to vote.

In the future, we will try to be more careful in explaining how those voter turnout numbers are calculated.

— Jean Hays

By Sherry Chisenhall | Filed under Politics | Comments Off