I got a voice mail message from a reader who identified herself only as “McLeod” and asked for an editor to call her back. Problem is, the phone connection wasn’t very good, and I couldn’t correctly decipher the phone number to call back. If you are Ms. McLeod with a Cokie Roberts question — please drop me a note with your phone number at schisenhall@wichitaeagle.com. Sorry for the technology mishap.
In the next few weeks, we’ll be working on updating our print edition’s weather page. Designer Mike Sullivan has done a great job so far on a preliminary prototype to improve our graphics and make information as useful as possible. To help us with a facelift for the page, we want to hear from you.
I recognize that some readers prefer to get weather information elsewhere. This post is directed to the people who like to spend some time with the printed weather page and have favorite features on the current page, or ideas for weather content they’d like to see. Some questions that would be helpful to us: Do you spend much time looking at the list of temperatures/forecasts for other cities? Is a seven-day local forecast useful, or, given the mercurial nature of Kansas weather, would a five-day forecast be most helpful? Are air-quality indexes useful?
If you have any feedback to offer, post a comment here on the blog or drop us an email at editorsdesk@wichitaeagle.com. Thanks for your time.
Interesting draft report out today from the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy — the preliminary findings of the commission’s work since last June to gather opinion and fact about the information communities and citizens need to function, and how well those needs are being met.
Through May 8, the commission, in partnership with PBS, is seeking public comment on the draft report and taking questions for the commission’s co-chair.
The most common question I get these days is about what the future holds for all news media, including print newspapers. The commission’s report builds from a broad definition of “news” and should be an interesting read both for those who greatly fear the death of traditional news outlets and those who are eagerly anticipating such a moment.