Beginning yesterday (Tuesday), The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., began streaming live online its 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. editorial meetings.
Anybody, including competitors, can watch.
I heard about the idea this weekend, while I was in Spokane teaching a workshop for the Society of Professional Journalists.
For some time now, the paper has blogged about its editorial meetings in a section of its Web site called “Daily Briefing.”
The site includes a nice primer to help the public figure out what is going on during the meetings.
I e-mailed the paper’s editor, Steven Smith, to find out more:
Al Tompkins: Why are you doing this?
Steven Smith: It’s an experiment. The late James Carey once bemoaned the reluctance of newspapers to experiment, by definition an exercise in which the outcome is uncertain. Editors tend to want certain outcomes before they take a step. We have built a pretty substantial infrastructure around our “transparent newsroom” initiative, an effort to engage our readers in conversations about news, the editorial decision-making processes and so on. Our experience is that readers value the interaction, love to participate and often provide information and feedback that informs our journalism and gives it focus. But, as journalists, we always retain the right and ability to set our own agenda, to say “no” to ideas that won’t work for us. We remain independent, that independence in no way compromised by reader engagement.
Webcasting meetings, something I’ve wanted to try for more than 10 years, is a way of taking advantage of current technology to extend the conversation with readers. But it’s an experiment and the outcome is uncertain.
Will anyone actually watch? We have the technology, but we don’t always have the drama. Will our competitors gain an advantage? Will our staff be as open in public as in private? If the experiment does not further our goals, does not help us do our jobs more effectively, we’ll stop. The technology is being used for many other purposes so the modest investment is not wasted.
You have been blogging the morning meetings and inviting people to attend your meetings for some time. How popular has the blog been, and how many people have taken you up on your invitation to attend your meetings?
The blog readership and meeting attendance vary with the run of news. When the stories are running hot, interest and attendance are up. On routine days, interest wanes. We have some hundreds of regular readers/contributors to our “Daily Briefing” and “News is a Conversation” blogs. We’ll have meeting guests once or twice a week, a bit more frequently in the fall and winter.
How did you get the idea to stream the meetings? Do you know of any other newsroom that has attempted this level of transparency?
Well, I first expressed interest in the idea when I was editor of The Gazette in Colorado Springs, [Colo.], back in the late ’90s. We had an innovative Web operation, and Webcasting from the newsroom seemed a reasonable, inevitable step. But the technology was new and broadband penetration — a must for this experiment — was quite low. Now, 10 years later, technology, cost and broadband penetration have converged in a way that makes this possible. I’m not familiar with any other paper that has taken this step. I’d guess those few who might have an interest in the idea will wait to see how things go here. Stay tuned.
Let’s be clear: You are going to broadcast the actual editorial meeting — not a pretend one for public consumption?
We will start by Webcasting two meetings each day. The morning meeting (10 a.m. PDT) begins with a critique of the day’s paper. During the critique, we’ll match our day’s performance against our stated newsroom values. We’ll involve readers through their e-mails to editorforum@spokesman.com. There will be no off-limits comments during the critique portion of the meeting. The second half of the meeting is a first look at the following day’s paper. We’ll cover the vast majority of Page One and section-front-worthy content. There will be times when we will not discuss an important enterprise or investigative story for competitive reasons. Those exclusions will be relatively infrequent and I’ll note to viewers that we may not be discussing an important story on this particular morning. The first meeting is conducted by me. The second meeting (4:30 p.m. PDT) is the typical afternoon newsroom meeting where second-cut decisions are made on Page One and local news content, [photos], etc. That meeting is conducted by the managing editor, Gary Graham. Our goal is to hold back very little. Again, there may be a rare case when a story cannot be discussed publicly. But by that time of day, our competitors, mostly local TV news operations, won’t really be in a position to report even exclusive enterprise stories. It’s important to remember that this is an experiment. We may change the parameters a bit as we learn how our competitors are using (or not using) the meeting.
Will you discuss long-term investigations and special projects during this meeting too?
Our projects and investigations meeting, and our twice-weekly Sunday meetings are not yet part of the Webcasting plan. We will evaluate their inclusion, as well as the editorial page board’s major weekly meeting, as we approach the fall.
Won’t competitors, including TV stations, just pluck your best stories before you get them in print?
As I noted above, there is a chance this might happen. But we have 134 staffers in our newsroom. No local TV station has more than six street reporters at any one time. My belief is they’ll be unable to catch us on the vast majority of our stories — and those few times they try, they’ll be doing us a favor by unintentionally promoting our deeper, better-sourced and better-presented content. This advantage might not exist in larger markets, where TV stations are better staffed and more competitive. But it’s our reality.
Note from Al: The paper also says on its Web site that it “welcomes readers to attend our daily news meetings.” The site even gives a phone number for folks to call to set up the visit. What do you think of this idea? Do you know of any newsroom doing something similar? To continue the discussion, drop a note in the feedback section of this column.
Thieves Stealing Metal
The South Bend (Ind.) Tribune says metal thefts, which started to rise in tandem with copper prices early this year, just keep on happening:
The Tribune reported in a recent series that South Bend has a high number of vacant houses. Those vacant homes are like magnets to burglars looking to steal scrap metal, police said. Some of the pipes being taken run to air conditioners, water condensers and some other utilities.
[Pat] Hechlinski, [a South Bend Police Department crime prevention specialist], said scrap metal can sell for as much as $1.50 a pound at scrap yards.
“(Burglars) are looking for the weight,” he said. “It all adds up. If they get 30 or 40 pounds of copper, it’s a nice chunk of change. They go around to the scrap yards and sell it.
“But they just enacted the ordinance for it.”
Hechlinski is talking about the city’s attempt to crack down on thieves selling the copper and aluminum to scrap yards. In a recent ordinance passed by the Common Council, scrap yards are required to report all purchases within 24 hours, including the names of sellers, to the South Bend Police Department. Hechlinski said he isn’t sure how successful the ordinance has been so far.
Many times when the scrap metal is stolen, the vacant homes flood, making them unlivable and unwanted by future buyers.
“Copper piping is really big now,” added Sgt. Jim Maxey, a member of the Regional Crime Intelligence Unit. “It’s happened a lot of times in the northwest (side of the city), but the copper is everywhere.
“It’s a quick way for the thieves to get cash.”
Single-Sex Public Schools
This story is appearing around the country. The Associated Press reports that Michigan lawmakers are pushing the idea of allowing for single-sex public schools. The wire service reports:
There are more than 40 single-sex public schools in the U.S., according to the Maryland-based National Association for Single Sex [Public] Education. More than 200 public schools have some classrooms or programs that are separated by gender.
The number of schools with single-sex classrooms has grown in the past few years, the association says.
Forty-four of the more than 200 public schools using the single-sex concept are completely single-sex. The rest have some single-sex classrooms and some mixed-gender classrooms. The National Association for Single Sex Public Education defines a single-sex public school as “a public school A) in which all grades offer ONLY single-sex classes, and B) which is not a correctional school for delinquent juveniles.” Another Associated Press story adds:
At least 223 public schools scattered throughout the country, from New York to California, already offer some single-sex classrooms, according to Leonard Sax, director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education. He says that’s up from just four in 1998.
Sax predicts thousands more public schools will join the movement once the U.S. Department of Education finalizes new Title IX regulations first proposed in March 2004.
Backers of single-sex classes point to a growing body of research that shows the genders learn in different ways. At elementary school age, they say, girls’ vision and thought processes have developed to respond better to color and detail, while boys’ brains are more apt at processing motion and direction.
While those difference smooth out over time, they can have a big impact, single-sex advocates say.
“If you don’t understand those differences and you teach boys and girls as if they were the same, the end result is a kindergarten classroom where the boys tell you drawing is for girls and a middle school classroom where girls tell you computers are for boys,” said Sax, one of the nation’s leading proponents of single-sex education. “If you don’t understand gender differences, you end up furthering gender stereotypes.”
Not everyone agrees. A 2004 statement from the American Association of University Women says single-sex classrooms distract from real problems in schools and “would throw out the most basic legal standards prohibiting sex discrimination in education.”
Lisa Maatz, public policy director for the university women’s group, said not enough research exists to show that single-sex schools truly improve student performance.
“There are other ways to close the achievement gaps that are proven,” she said, mentioning smaller class sizes and extra training for teachers. “People are looking for a single silver bullet, but there’s no quick fix.”
Maatz said the effort also appears to continue a Bush administration trend of chipping away at Title IX, which ensures equal opportunity for male and female students. “This is another attempt to modify, in a really unfortunate and unnecessary way, one of the most successful civil rights laws this country has ever had,” she said.
Sax said that as more same-sex schools crop up, data is beginning to show results. He and other proponents point to an elementary school in Deland, Fla., where fourth graders last year were randomly assigned to either a single-sex classroom or a coed one.
In Woodward [Avenue] Elementary School‘s coed classrooms, 57 percent of girls and 37 percent of boys passed a state writing test. In the single-sex classes, 86 percent of boys and 75 percent of girls passed.
“There is greater confidence, greater enjoyment, greater interest,” said David Chadwell, lead teacher at The Two Academies at Dent, a pair of single-gender middle schools in Columbia, S.C. “Also, on the teacher side, the teachers are enjoying teaching this way.”
In Atlanta, single-sex classes have been conducted at several middle schools as part of a pilot program of sorts for next year, when Carson Honors Preparatory School will split into two campuses — one for boys and one for girls.
The middle school, where 69 percent of eighth-graders failed a state math test last year, draws its student body largely from two government housing complexes.
“The failure rate and the dropout rate in that particular area is enormously high,” said Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall. “This is a strategy designed to really turn around what is a failing environment for lots and lots of young people.”
For a list of single-sex public schools around the country, click here.
Interesting Twist
Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, points out:
Several senators who opposed their chamber’s immigration bill and favored giving special protections to the English language have Web sites in — of all the darn languages — Spanish!
How did your senators vote on the language bills? Here is a list.
Here are some examples of senators’ Spanish-language sites:
- Sen. John Cornyn, Texas
- Sen. Lamar Alexander, Tennessee
- Jon Kyl, Arizona
No Money? No Car.
The Associated Press has an interesting piece about “starter interrupters” — a cigarette-pack-sized device that shuts down your car if you don’t pay your lender.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
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 depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.