This is today's Lansing State Journal; click on the image for a bigger view. In print, the Journal is another newspaper suffering from front-page advertising creep. The Page 1 designer had to wrap a story around a Mercedes-Benz ad (left) at the bottom of the page. Makes me wonder what limits, if any, publishers place on the intrusiveness of front page ads.
Online, the Journal offers readers a big data storehouse. The paper's Data Connection includes about 40 documents and databases, some searchable. They range from restaurant inspection reports to the public-employee salary database that got the Journal in hot water this past July. Publishers love databases because they work 24/7, promise a long shelf-life -- and, unlike flesh-and-blood newsroom staffers, don't run up big employee medical costs.
Also online, I trolled through the Journal's Michigan community pages, where it looks like editors get briefs from readers or smaller publications. But you get what you barely pay for -- like a nearly week-old press release disguised as a story about an insurance agent completing a continuing education class. Is that the sort of "news" absent younger readers want? Nope.
Lansing employees: E-mail suggested links, tips, snarky letters, etc., to Gannett Blog; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.
The Journal at a glance:
- President and Publisher: Richard Ramhoff
- Executive Editor: Mickey Hirten
- Founded: 1855
- Joined Gannett: 1971
- Employees: 475
[Image: Newseum]
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