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Thick slices

Oh the world we live in. A few thick slices of weird news from today. More stuff could come later. ( Full post )

Oh the strange calls we get.

A caller to the city desk the other day asked... how much is the paper? Fifty cents, an editor replied. No, really, how much is the paper? he asked again. The editor asked him if he is interested in subscription rates, in which case she could transfer him to the circulation department. ( Full post )

McCain coverage, newsroom news

So the discussion at the 4:30 meeting today was about story placement/prominence for a McCain-accepts-nomination speech story. Two good arguments here: ( Full post )

Thin slices, Sarah Palin, Huskies

� Man gets 12 years for wife's attempted hanging: Told her the noose was part of the haunted house...
� College, custom-built: Convenience, growing number of classes help drive growth in online learning
� Highway microgadgets track speeders: Includes interesting statistics about what parts of what highways have speediest drivers.
� Most Spokane high schools fail federal standards ( Full post )

Flash mob at RPS, thin slices, news pods, newsroom news

Yes, there really was an unauthorized dance party in River Park Square on Sunday afternoon - right outside the second floor elevator of Restoration Hardware. Yes, the little closet with the chairs and catalogs. ( Full post )

Thick kudos slices including WASL scores breakdown

BORSTAR candidates move a pile of rocks several feet Tuesday during training exercises in Spokane to weed out weaker Border Patrol agents trying to advance to the search and rescue aspect of the job. Brian Plonka photo, The Spokesman-Review. Read the story: "Border agents train, toil for chance to move up"

( Full post )

Thin slices for Shock, dems convention, the mayor's new goose?

� Shock coverage | Photos from the game | Video of interviews
� Convention search results from Google News
� The mayor and the goose: Mayor Mary Verner happened to be "in the right place at the right time" to herd a goose to a safe place.
� Coming in Food - Picnics, and last installment of canning of (tomato, salsa) ( Full post )

Concert reviews, reader calls, thin slices, slideshows, etc

WILCO: News editors were surprised to see a review on the Wilco concert, published in print. The concert was just this past weekend. Music writer Isamu Jordan wrote a review and posted it on the Soundwave blog. The features department picked up his online review and repurposed it for the print edition. On the other hand, for reasons of coverage fairness, S-R normally doesn't do reviews and isn't staffed to review every show that comes to town. "It's hard to argue that some people should be elevated and others not," assistant managing editor Carla Savalli said. Do we hold back on doing concert reviews because we can only review all or none? It's a conversation worth revisiting, editor Steve Smith said. ( Full post )

About today's Duncan video, and related coverage

Today's story on the Joseph Edward Duncan III sentencing proceedings should go to page A1 or B1, some editors said, but they agreed that all Duncan coverage will come with a disclaimer for explicit content. ( Full post )

Election hangover, kudos/thin slices

Every time there's an election, S-R staffers shift schedules around to adjust for the late results that come in. Between having deadlines for the printing press, versus having ballot results batches that come in late, that also made it more difficult to get quotes/comments from candidates into the story in time. Ah, the difficulty of having a deadly printing press deadline in a 24-hour-news-cycle and flexible staff world. Making warm, crisp Spokesman-Reviews daily for the rhythm of your life! Also check out this link buffet: ( Full post )

Good paper, good coffee

This is the new campaign for North Idaho coffeeshops, because for every hot cup of coffee there's a warm crisp delicious Spokesman-Review waiting to be read. Managing editor Gary Graham shared this with the pod pals* ( Full post )

Kudos, primary voting, On The Record, skating

KUDOS AND UPDATES: Nixing direct United flights to Chicago | Then & Now with Ed Randall, one-time Indians voice | More Duncan news from Boise ( Full post )

iSalon: Reporter debrief from Boise visit

Reporter Meghann M. Cuniff is back from Boise, after taking the grim Joseph Edward Duncan III case to Twitter. (more archive coverage here) Two questions today - Where would S-R use a microblogging format again, and how do you make money from it? For one, folks recommend developing a similar technology in-house, to keep the viewer traffic in a Spokesman-Review venue instead of diverting it to a third-party site. The plan is to use similar microblogging format for other cases in the pipeline. ( Full post )

A reporter's account, a discontinued column, thin slices

Impossible not to be shaken: Boise reporter Betsy Z. Russell posted a reflection on covering the Duncan sentencing proceedings and how it changes her personal and home life, including waking up to strange noises in the middle of the night. Also, the video that shows the torture and death of 9-year-old Dylan Groene has not been shown in the courtroom yet.

On Friday night, after three days of intense immersion in the blood-drenched reality of the Joseph Duncan case, I came home from the courthouse only to find blood smeared all over my bathroom floor. I couldn�t help it; I screamed. Read the rest of Betsy's post.

( Full post )

Smith's statement on Twitter, notes about J-camp

"We've come to the end of our one-week experiment [in using Twitter]. We will return as developments warrant and for closing arguments and the verdict." (editor Steve Smith) ( Full post )

Video, Duncan, Islam, swimming, Star Wars

Longtime pen pals finally meet: They'd been writing each other for more than six decades. Here's a quick video of their reunion, produced by Andrew Zahler: ( Full post )

We'll pick Twitter projects wisely

said editor Steve Smith at the meeting this morning. ( Full post )

More live blogging and Twittering tomorrow

For the Duncan sentencing. ( Full post )

Social networking and all that jazz

"I created a Facebook account yesterday and I don't know what to do with it," said managing editor Gary Graham, who also signed up for Twitter to follow the Duncan case. Many newsroommates have also signed up for accounts during this coverage experiment where reporter Meghann M. Cuniff is sending mini blog posts to the SpokesmanReview's Twitter page. Instructions are below. ( Full post )

How to follow Duncan case on Twitter

RE: Toadman's question, here's the link to Twitter updates: Real-time posts from the trial. ( Full post )