Many thanks to the readers who sent me some detailed examples of erroneous listings in our TV guide section the past month or so. With your help, we’ve been able to work with the company that provides our listings, Tribune Media Services, to make changes that should significantly improve the accuracy of listings each week.
TMS was able to track specific examples of incorrect listings, finding that in each case, the networks in question had changed their programming plans after we went to press with our TV section. Sometimes, the programming changed within hours of our printing.
Like most newspapers, we print the TV section well in advance of the day you receive it. TMS sends us a feed of the listings at a specified time each week to fit our printing schedule, and we discovered that significant changes were being made to programming after we printed the section. We can’t eliminate that completely — we need to print the section ahead of time to make room on the press for live news sections, and TV networks are always free to change their programming up to the last minute.
But the Eagle’s production director, Cindy Trenary, was able to shift printing schedules to nearly cut in half the advance time we need for printing the TV section. So beginning with the section you’ll receive on June 21, you’ll be getting more current listings that will capture many more of the programming changes that get made during the week.
We appreciate readers’ help in resolving these issues. Happy TV-watching.
One of the most common questions news staff members are asked about a major news story is, “How did you hear about it?”
On most crime stories, the answer is the police scanner, or a police report.
We learned through unusual means last Sunday that George Tiller had been shot, and I think it’s right to disclose to our readers how that happened.
For more than 10 years, Assistant Metro Editor Marcia Werts and her family have attended Reformation Lutheran Church. She was arriving at church Sunday shortly after the shooting occurred, and her husband and daughter were inside the church. She phoned Deputy Editor Tom Shine to alert him to the developing story. Marcia was understandably shaken by what happened at the church that day, and we did not ask her to take part in news coverage, though she did stay in touch with other Eagle editors through the day. Other media organizations also were arriving at the church about the time Marcia arrived, presumably after hearing of a shooting on the police scanner.
It’s rare that one of our staff members is so closely connected to a developing news story. Many people have asked how The Eagle confirmed the news of George Tiller’s death so quickly that morning, and I want to be open with our readers on the circumstances of how this happened.
A reader left a voice mail for me late last week, asking me to share some thoughts on a project by the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy that sought property tax records from 105 Kansas counties. The gist of the message was that the organization didn’t really have a right to the records — or was doing something wrong by “raising a stink” at being denied records — because it is not a news organization, but is a think tank that supports a specific point of view.
My reaction: Good for FHC. Doesn’t matter who you are or why you want public records. They’re public. Period. That’s why agencies aren’t legally allowed to ask who you are or why you want records (though state law doesn’t stop some from asking anyway). Public records belong to the people, regardless of the purpose for which they’re sought.
One of the most common — and ill-informed — arguments made for denying disclosure of records to a media organization is that “you don’t represent the public, you just represent yourself.” Most individuals don’t know where to go to obtain information, how to ask for it, how to argue for it when it’s denied, or what the law requires of public agencies. If records are illegally withheld, few people have the resources to legally compel an agency to comply with the law.
If individual citizens, bloggers, other media outlets or non-profit organizations such as the Flint Hills Center are willing to invest the time and resources to support open government in Kansas, I support their efforts.
One of the somewhat frustrating problems we wrestle with is accuracy of the listings in our Sunday TV section. We get complaints from time to time that the listings are incorrect, but we’ve had some problems pinpointing specific errors. Often the issues are about general inaccuracies, not specific channels, dates and times that we can point to with the company that provides the listings to us.
Recently, though, several helpful readers have logged specific issues that we’ve been able to pass along to the company that we purchase the listings from. They’re looking into the issues, and we expect the result to be improvement in the accuracy of the TV book.
In the meantime, if you notice a day when a TV listing is wrong, drop me a note at editorsdesk@wichitaeagle.com. It’s a big help to us to be able to point to specific dates, times and channels in our efforts to improve service.
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.
I hope you saw my note Monday in the WichiTalk section that effective Monday, Sept. 29, we’ll publish WichiTalk in a broadsheet format, rather than the current tabloid format. You’ll find the WichiTalk stories and features – the same local columnists, puzzles and comics – in a new place in the paper, inside the Local & State section Mondays through Thursdays.
As part of that change, we will no longer be publishing TV listings in the daily paper. We publish those listings on Sundays in our TV guide, and we’ll continue to do so. We’ll also offer a daily TV-highlights package to help steer you to the best of TV offerings.
Another change you’ll see next week is one I’m very excited about – we’ll be extending our popular Business Today coverage to a new section on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Previously, business coverage on those days ran inside Local & State. Now you’ll find Business Today with its own section front page (and in color) on those days. We’ll continue to publish our expanded Business Today section on Thursdays.
Business Today has been a successful venture that helps us offer readers much greater depth and breadth of local business news in a timely way. We’ve been delighted with the enthusiastic response from the business community, and we’re happy to raise the profile of business news even more in The Wichita Eagle and on Kansas.com.
It was nice to start the week with this note from a reader about Beccy Tanner’s story on USS Grunion. Thanks, Tim, we love hearing from happy readers:
“The Eagle has some great writers/story tellers on staff. I just want to say how much I enjoy reading articles like the Grunion story…what a string of coincidences, and I have been moved to tears by Roy Wenzl more than once. Your paper must count itself blessed to have the depth of talent that is consistently displayed in its pages.”
We’re indeed fortunate in our newsroom to have a staff of talented writers, many who are long-time (if not lifelong) Kansans. As I told Tim, I think that connection to the community and region shows in the stories they write.
I had a phone call this week from a reader named Shirley, saying she loved the “true or false” piece we published Sunday on campaign claims. She hopes we plan to do more of this. We do. One key focus we’ll have this election season is trying to be as useful as possible in helping voters gather information they need to make decisions in the vast number of offices up for election.
One place we hope you stay in tune with is our election news page on Kansas.com. I’ll ask Jean Hays, deputy editor/news, to talk to you in this blog about plans for coverage through November. And if you have ideas for articles or features you want, let Jean know (jhays@wichitaeagle.com) or our assistant metro editor who is handling state and local election news, Marcia Werts (mwerts@wichitaeagle.com). We’ll do our best to find the information you want.