Hot Off the Press: Democrat and Chronicle

This is today's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle; click on the image for a bigger view. I always thought it would be a pain to work here because so many top Gannett executives traced their roots to Rochester. It was Gannett's corporate hometown until GCI decided in 1986 to move headquarters south. The Democrat and Chronicle was still their paper long after they decamped for Virginia's greener pastures, so I figured they always gave it an extra-critical read. ("What crap! It was a real newspaper when I worked there!")

On today's front page, editors wisely direct readers to the website with several "story chat'' graphs (see example, left). And, sure enough, the big ambulance story had drawn 10 reader comments this morning when I checked the site.

Online, I like the RocMen site launched earlier this year. It looks smart: a separate site for a niche audience -- men, 25 to 54 years old. Editors hatched the idea with feedback ("plenty of photos") from potential readers, according to this issue of News Watch. Check out the YouTube picks by "Mark the intern." (It's pretty edgy for a family paper to feature a pile of turds as the button for voting down one of his picks. Did that go all the way to Corporate for a final OK?) Here's Mark's choice today: "Japanese Spa Prank. Leave it to the Japanese to find more embarassing and extremely dangerous pranks to pull on people." Watch:


Rochester employees: I don't know anyone at your paper; help! E-mail tips, snarky letters, suggested links, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

The Democrat and Chronicle at a glance:

• Publisher: Michael Kane
• Vice President/News and editor: Karen Magnuson
• Founded: 1833
• Joined Gannett: 1928
• Employees: 975
• Circulation: 167,851 morning; 225,092 Sunday

[Image: Newseum]