Our Sports staff tried like heck to get the National Baseball Congress World Series bracket in your Sunday paper. I alone made a half-dozen calls on Saturday night, making sure we could get the pairings on the page-deep bracket. Finally, it was done.
And two days later, that bracket you cut out is worthless, a victim of one team dropping out of the tourney and some mix-ups in scheduling.
Space during the week prevents us from running the new bracket, but you can find a new (and hopefully unchanged) bracket on Kansas.com’s NBC World Series page.
– Kirk Seminoff
When Gerald Ford died as our news editors were pushing deadline, there was no question they needed to tear up Page One to display this news prominently. We know what to do when a former president dies. But how we play obituaries for other nationally prominent figures is not so clear cut. One reader’s beloved icon may mean nothing to someone else. This morning we had a photo of Ingmar Bergman on Page One, referring to his obituary inside the A-section. Yesterday in our afternoon news meeting, we debated whether to do this– with a couple of our staffers shrugging their shoulders at the relative significance of the filmmaker’s passing, while one editor advocated running a complete story about him prominently on Page One.
This morning I’m kicking myself a little, thinking the great 49ers coach Bill Walsh deserved mention on Page One also. And someone in our morning meeting today suggested we could have created a three-person refer on the cover to include talk show host Tom Snyder as well. I remember in February getting a phone call from Wichita radio star Johnny Western, who was troubled that we had failed completely to make any mention anywhere in the paper of the passing of Frankie Laine. Johnny was diplomatic with me on the phone, but I still feel bad about that.
When I worked in Missoula in the early ’90s, I remember the news editor there (who happens to be my husband now) deciding that the death of "Brady Bunch" star Robert Reed was a Page One story. Some of us cringed at the time, and my husband cringes about his decision whenever I tease him about it now, but I’ll bet if we looked back to find that day’s edition, Mike Brady’s obit may be the most memorable thing we reported in the paper that day.
– Theresa
A couple of readers have asked why we say Bush instead of President Bush in headlines. For example, this headline from Sunday’s Eagle: British PM visits with Bush tonight.
The answer is simple: space. The limited amount of room in most headlines means we jettison unnecessary words to get in more information.
In stories, where space is more plentiful, the first reference is always President Bush and subsequent references are either Bush or the president.
— Michael
Curious who is behind the ads telling you to vote for or against a casino?
So are we.
State law says that groups supporting ballot issues don’t have to disclose how much they are spending or where they are getting their money until Dec. 31 - a full 21 weeks after the election.
That’s why the Eagle has been asking groups to release the information early.
As you’ll see in a story in this Sunday’s paper written by Deb Gruver the response from the three groups has been less than enthusiastic, with one exception.
– Jean
A reader sent the Eagle an e-mail today to express shock upon seeing a cigarette advertisement on the back page of our GO! entertainment section. She asked whether the Eagle routinely accepts cigarette ads, noting that in the two years she’s lived here she couldn’t ever recall seeing one.
She’s right that cigarette ads aren’t often in the Eagle. But, according to Eagle advertising manager Lisa Fetter, the paper doesn’t have a policy against accepting them. Lisa said the Eagle’s philosophy is to place such ads in sections where they make the most sense. The GO! section, she noted, contains entertainment information for weekend activities, including nightclubs.
She’s not sure how long the ad will appear in The Eagle, but she didn’t think it
would be too long, saying, "It’s rare that we even have cigarette ads
anymore."
– Lori Linenberger, features editor
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If you’re not a subscriber to one of our e-mail newsletters, you might want to consider it. Our Midday Business Update e-mail arrives in subscribers’ inboxes around lunchtime five days a week, alerting them to all the latest news on local companies. Michael Pearce’s Outdoor Sports newsletter is sent weekly and offers outdoors enthusiasts insight into what Michael’s thinking about and what might be worth doing on your next weekend outdoors. To subscribe to either e-mail, visit http://lists.wichitaeagle.com.
This fall, we expect to launch a series of new newsletters, including a daily news headlines e-mail. Got an idea for an e-mail newsletter you’d like us to do? Let us know.
– Nick Jungman
We’ve been doing a poll with our Business Today section since we launched last September. And, for the most part, we’ve gotten a few hundred responses to the weekly question. Lately, we have discovered what makes a successful poll question: Anything about Wild West World or the upcoming casino vote. This week’s question on the Chamber’s decision to oppose a casino already has drawn more than 1,000 votes. Previous polls this month on Wild West World’s bankruptcy drew more than 1,800 votes and another on the casino advertising campaigns drew 1,400. What we need to figure out now is a question that incorporates Wild West World and the casino.
Vote early and often.
Tom Shine
I have a couple friends who work at the Wall Street Journal, and my stepdaughter writes a bi-weekly restaurant column for the paper’s Saturday edition. I’m a daily subscriber, and I love it. We often run well-crafted Wall Street Journal wire stories in The Eagle. If Rupert Murdoch gets his hands on the paper, I pray he doesn’t do anything to make it less appealing. It is truly an American gem. One friend who works there has told me how grueling the WSJ editing process is for reporters, especially when he’s writing for Page One. As a reader, I’m grateful. The paper has such high standards for writing, reporting and originality. And I appreciate how it’s broadened its audience by featuring brilliant consumer news, trend stories and the smart "Personal Journal" section.
Nearly every journalist in America knows how stressful it is when the company you work for is about to change hands. We went through that at The Eagle when Knight Ridder was up for sale, and we survived and are growing more and more used to McClatchy, our new corporate family. I know Rupert Murdoch scares a lot of us because he is flamboyant and has a reputation as a cutthroat businessman. But he has not turned his Times of London into a clone of his New York Post. He knows how to cater to different markets. He’ll be buying a fine, respectable product if he lands the Wall Street Journal. And he’ll alienate a lot of his customers if he messes too much with the franchise.
Theresa
During the past several months, reporters have visited casinos in five cities to get an idea how a casino would change the character of Sedgwick County.
They have analyzed ads for and against having a casino here to determine what claims are true and which ones are stretching the truth.
As voters are getting their advance ballots in the mail, they are calling with questions:
If Phil Ruffin builds a casino in Delano, could he get a liquor license that close to the Metropolitan Baptist Church?
What is the state going to do with the money it gets from casinos?
Why doesn’t the ballot question specify that the slot machines will only be located at the greyhound park?
They are all good questions.
With a little more than a week to go before the final vote, we’d like to know what other questions you have.
Call me at 316-268-6557 or email me at jhays@wichitaeagle.com and we’ll try to find and print the answers.
– Jean
I hear occasionally from readers who’ve posted to comment boards on Kansas.com and wonder why their comment didn’t show up right away.
All comments to the boards are tested by a word filter, which attempts to weed out profanity, spam and other generally anti-social comments. As those of you who frequent the boards know, that filter is imperfect. Many anti-social comments get through and have to be deleted after the fact. On the flip side, many well-meaning comments are trapped by the filter. Among the innocent things that can be trapped: the word "shot" (an attempt to catch violent comments) and any Internet link (an attempt to catch spam).
Trapped comments aren’t immediately rejected, however. They just queue up and await review by members of the Kansas.com team, who approve or reject them. That can happen within a few minutes or, sometimes, after a couple of hours.
The technology will surely improve in the coming months and years, but in the meantime, we appreciate your patience if your comment doesn’t show up on the boards right away.
– Nick Jungman