Jan 7 - 14 (4)

Look for Sunday story on global warming
Did you know that sea levels could be three feet higher later this century? That the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada could shrink by 80 percent – affecting our water supplies and increasing the risk of large wildfires in the state?If not, I encourage you to read David Sneed’s stories this Sunday focusing on the impact of global warming. David has been covering the environment for many years and writes with clarity on this complex issue.Also: As we usher in the new year, we’re planning to change the mix of our editorial page columnists, offering a little less reliance on those from the New York Times. But we’ll retain diverse points of view across the political spectrum.Here’s the new lineup for our Editorial Page: Leonard Pitts, Monday; David Brooks, Tuesday; Cal Thomas, Wednesday; Victor Davis Hanson, Thursday; Ellen Goodman, Friday; Daniel Weintraub, Saturday; and Dan Walters, Sunday.On the facing page, Voices, we’ll be sure to publish regularly commentary from Paul Krugman and Kathleen Parker, as well as other columnists including Nicholas Kristoff, Maureen Dowd and Tom Friedman.Please let us know what you think of these columnists.-- Sandy Duerr
Posted by Jeff Ballinger at 11:13 AM 1 comments Links to this post
Thursday, January 11, 2007

Faster news
We are trying to make it easier for you to read the key news faster in the morning. That is why on today’s front page we used headlines and news summaries to highlight the main aspects of President Bush’s new plan for the war in Iraq. I think it works well for our time-pressed readers – it is quick, direct and on point. Thanks to presentation editor Joe Tarica, news editor Andy Castagnola and designer Rex Chekal for producing it.A recent survey done by Joe of big and small papers across the country showed we are one of just a few trying such approaches to big news. Do you think we are onto something good? Or do you think we should have put a full story onto Page 1 today? Post a comment and let us know!- Tad Weber
Posted by Jeff Ballinger at 10:43 AM 1 comments Links to this post
Wednesday, January 10, 2007

What do you think of our coverage?
Good Wednesday, bloggers! Let me add to Sandy’s welcome to our shared editors’ blog. Our hope is that the postings will illuminate you as to our decisions and practices, and that in turn you will provide us with good questions and ideas regarding our coverage.In today’s issue, we were planning to bring you a Local section feature about the upcoming Morro Bay Birdfest event. But the late-breaking fire at the Stenner Glen student complex last night changed all that. We had fine work by reporter AnnMarie Cornejo, senior reporter Cynthia Neff, photographer Laura Dickinson and copy editor Chrissy Janocko to completely re-make our Local section front page after 9 p.m.AnnMarie and Laura had some unexpected opposition in carrying out their jobs when they went to the apartments, as noted by Cynthia:“Students wouldn’t talk and the staffers there were trying to block Laura and AnnMarie from getting close to the scene – but AnnMarie still found a couple of students willing to talk, as well as the property manager. It was nice, quick work.”We also have a scoop today by Larissa Van Beurden-Doust on the Avila bridge project – road work that will affect many of us heading to the beach. (If you have not read that story yet, go to the home page.)Bill Morem’s editorial today followed up a strong Sunday profile by Bob Cuddy on “the queen,” former supervisor Shirley Bianchi. In both pieces, readers got a strong sense of the woman and her impact as an elected official. Both were authoritatively written – Bob’s through the use of multiple sources speaking about her, Bill’s from firsthand knowledge he has of Shirley dating to 1988, when Bill first met her.As a time-pressed reader, I appreciated our storytelling approach in Tuesday’s issue on the governor’s health-care plan. Sarah Arnquist’s highlights of the proposal made for quick reading. This is a form of information that we look to provide our readers on a daily basis.What do you think of our coverage?-- Tad Weber
Posted by Jeff Ballinger at 11:10 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Tuesday, January 09, 2007

First blog from Sandra Duerr
As many of you know, I’ve been writing a weekly Ask the Editor column for the Opinion Page for several years – trying to shed light behind-the-scenes about published stories or our decision-making process. Many of you have told me you find it valuable.Now I’ve asked managing editor Tad Weber to join me in writing a daily blog.Our hope is to answer more of your questions – and share greater insight into our operation.Please feel free to e-mail us questions or comments. We’ll try to answer them all.I want to underscore the importance of hearing from you – via this forum, phone calls or snail mail. We care a great deal about what you think and continue to reshape The Tribune based on what you need as the way you access information changes.All of the improvements we’ve made recently in The Tribune, for example, have been designed to do that. We changed the front page to give you a summary of all the top local news throughout the paper every day. We packaged all state news, as well as nation and world news, on respective pages in the A section. We created a weekly Home section to highlight local homes and gardens and a quarterly section called Haven to offer even more. We break 13 to 15 stories a day on our Web site – to keep you up-to-date with the latest news affecting your county and world.And, in response to your concerns, we do adjust course. In light of complaints about our TV Book changes, for example, over the next two weeks we will better differentiate movies and sports from the other listings in the grids and restore plot summaries in the movie listings for 3* and 4* movies. We’ve also restored our old stocks page format on Saturdays in response to those who wanted it back at least one day a week to track their investments.So, please weigh in. Tell us what you think – and what you want to know! And thanks for reading us.-- Sandy Duerr, executive editor
Posted Tuesday January 9, 2007