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Al's Morning Meeting

Home > Reporting, Writing & Editing > Al's Morning Meeting
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Al Tompkins
Story ideas that you can localize and enterprise. Posted by 7:30 a.m. Mon-Fri.
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A dozen sites
I'm diggin'


1. Find out how healthy your county is.

2. What's with all the Google anti-trust lawsuits?

*3. The Washington Post reports on why TV reporters have to be  Jacks of All Trades now.

4. Here are the eight companies that gave the most to help Haiti.

*5. The number of U.S. millionaires rose 16 percent last year.

6. Find out why there will be a national Eggo waffle shortage until summer.

*7. The New York Times explains how women in the work force helped save Social Security.

8. Here are some great databases that newsrooms have created to help connect people with their community.

*9. Watch this online interactive story of the death of journalist Arthur Kasherman.

*10. CBS Radio News' Peter King explains how he broadcast from Haiti in the early days after the quake.

11. The FCC investigates the health and future of local news.

12. Levelcam lets you stabilize your handheld video.

All of my Diggin' sites are saved on Poynter's del.icio.us page.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but relies on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them.


Less Food for the Same Price
The size of cereal boxes hasn't changed, but the amount of product inside them has shrunk. MSNBC reports that throughout the food industry, manufacturers are giving customers less for the same price:

Nationwide, Kellogg Co. hiked its cereal prices last month for the second time this year. A spokeswoman acknowledged that it had reduced the sizes of Froot Loops, Cocoa Krispies and Apple Jacks, among other brands.

General Mills made a similar move earlier this year. NBC News found two boxes of the company's Cheerios cereal on sale in a New York supermarket. Both were $3.39. One was 10 ounces; the newer one was 8.9 ounces.

A price of $4.89 used to get you 32 ounces of Hellman's mayonnaise. Now it gets you 30 ounces. Unilever PLC, which makes both Hellman's and Breyers, told NBC News that its products had been reduced to offset increasing energy costs.

Mouseprint.org recently reported:

The quart of mayonnaise has gone by the wayside, as has the three pound tub of margarine. Now it is orange juice's turn. Typically sold by the quart, half gallon, three quart jug, and gallon, we are beginning to see oddball sizes replace the old standard ones.
Posted by Al Tompkins at 3:30 PM on Jul. 8, 2008
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