Sunday, October 06, 2013

Indy | How to edit an editor's note to readers

"This is the debut of what we’ve been telling
 you about – More. You’ll find more than 100 pages of content packed into today’s edition of The Sunday Star."

-- someone identified online only as Jeff Taylor, in a headscratcher of a note to Indianapolis Star readers this morning, as the paper becomes one of four Gannett dailies to start a Butterfly Project pilot test of adding news pages.

If I were this writer's editor, I'd send it back with these thoughts:

1. Tell the readers who you are because that conveys authority and expertise. You're the paper's top editor, after all, as opposed to some lowly copy editor.

2. What's the net increase in pages today? "More than 100 pages of content" would be impressive if there were only, say, 60 pages last Sunday. But if there were 90 pages last Sunday? Meh. It's also unclear whether today's content includes advertising.

3. What is the subject of this "powerful investigative series" you mention in your note? Is it this one about daycare? Wouldn't it make sense to at least provide a link to it directly from your column?

9 comments:

  1. From Indy, 1st look at Indy Star and Butterfly. The USA Today section was 8 pages, with NO ads. Look of pages fully USA Today look, with Blue Ball logo and USA Today's fonts. Larry Kramer has a letter to Indy readers explaining why this is a great thing for us to have in our newspaper. In Star local sports section, a four page USA Today sports section incorporated inside. USA Today look, style & fonts. The New Indy Star local pages incorporate some design changes and new page headings. The A section is in two parts. One is 24 pages. Contains major story on day care safety (which local Indy TV stations have covered in past). LOTS of ads in this section, including 6 full page (1 is a house ad); 5 half page ads, & 2 pages where the ads occupy all but 1 column of the page. The 2nd A section is 8 pages. It includes 3 pages of obits, 2 half page ads (1 a house ad) and the half page local weather section. Pages may be more but local news content in the paper (not counting sports and features) just as slim as before.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why would this expand the local coverage? You sound like a guy who gets a Big Mac and then complains because there was no pizza on the side.

      Try to come to the table with something that might work as an argument.

      Delete
    2. 5:52pm. In this new version of Indy Star, coverage isn't expanded. Almost half the main local A section is ads and the obits. Despite a long main local story on lack of safety rules for daycares, very, very little local news. As a subscriber, I didn't a Big Mac from Gannett in Indy. More like a couple of Chicken McNuggets

      Delete
  2. I get nervous whenever a Gannett newspaper promises "more." How many times have I seen Gannett executives promise "more" and deliver less. Every time they promise more it seems that a layoff is in the offing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My assessment of the first A section is that much of the content is the sort of thing that papers run in their weekly zoned suburban sections if they still have them. It's material that's of interest to some people who live in suburban town X, and of no interest whatsoever to the other 99 percent of readers. Will advertisers be happy for their ads to appear on pages where the content is so narrow? I suppose time will tell.

    The USAT pages are edited and produced at USAT, then picked up by the papers using them, which is why they look just like USAT. They're a compacted version of USAT, which will thrill (i.e., annoy) a lot of readers in Indy, Appleton, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like it. Don't know why anyone world be annoyed. More is always better. Unless you hate change or you hate anything Gannett does. National advertisers will like it. Good move!

      Delete
  4. How is it all working design-wise. Are Hubs producing all these page? I heard Detroit is about to go to design and copy editor Hubs and do the same thing as Indy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. USAT is producing the USAT pages. Indy's other pages are produced at the hub in Louisville.

      Delete

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