Archive for May, 2008
May 29th, 2008
Our very own Jennie Pollock earned much deserved recognition as one of the best and brightest young leaders in our community. Last night, the Rockford Area Chamber of Commerce awarded Jennie and 39 others at the inaugural Forty Leaders Under 40 reception at the Rockford Art Museum. (For more, see our photos and story and this ADwire blog post by Cindy Harris.)
Jennie wears many hats here. She’s deputy managing editor. She’s the editor of Rockford Woman. She is the other primary blogger on Bricks and Clicks. She’s the Go Green blogger. She has many more responsibilities outside of this place. She is Mike’s wife, and Sydney and Cassidy’s mom. She’s Carol and Jeff’s daughter, and Karin’s sister. She’s a dear friend to me and many others.
I’m not a good picture taker. (My degree is certainly not in photo journalism, and the lighting last night at the Rockford Art Museum made it trickier.) None of the pictures I took turned out. But here’s one that Jennie’s husband, Mike, took of me and Jennie.
May 28th, 2008
1. thanks to mrs. venstrom’s third-grade class at carlson school in rockford for listening to me read “i know i can” on tuesday and talk about the benefits of going to college. it’s a national program but pushed locally by the golden apple foundation. i wore my uw-eau claire sweat shirt, and all of the students were good listeners. i loved hearing what they want to be when they grow up. answers varied from vet to police officer to hair stylist to basketball player to nurse to scientist.
2. did you know that the register star has a “newspapers in education” component? the register star subsidizes newspapers in classrooms, for teachers of english, social studies, reading and so on. we just launched our own web site with the link you saw earlier. you can nominate a student or teacher of the month, order papers for next school year, check on our pet or baby contests and link to educational resources. nie coordinator dawn curry let me know about the site’s launch this week.
May 27th, 2008
Our newsroom has a writers’ group that meets weekly. Reporter Sean Driscoll, who writes about the city of Rockford, organizes the meetings. Tomorrow’s session is on writing for the Web. He shared a column by Jonathan Dube, a columnist for Poynter and tech writer for MSNBC.com, so attendees could prepare in advance.
In a nutshell, Dube tells journalists to get to the point, keep it short and know your audience. When you’re reading news Web sites, what are the things you expect? Dube sums it up perfectly when he says we need to think differently. What are the best ways to tell this story online? What about pictures, audio, video, etc.? With so many platforms — paper, online, TV — we need to learn how our readers want their information and deliver it appropriately.
It’s good our journalists are talking about how the Web differs from the printed newspaper. Different audiences just might require different approaches. What do you think?
May 23rd, 2008
as expected, the national media are starting to pick up on the story of rare triplets born in rockford this week.
on the web, fox gives credit to wrex-13, which broke the story before the babies were born, and rrstar.com. we also have wrex’s pre-birth video of kalie and josh kuhl’s effort to save their boys, who have the rare twin to twin to twin transfusion syndrome.
we’ll be covering the 10 a.m. news conference later today.
May 23rd, 2008
sunday life&style, that is.
ever since we launched the monday-saturday GO section two years ago, the life&style section went from seven days a week to one.
this weekend, we’re unveiling a new look for the page: more magazine-like, with shorter stories on topics readers have told us they like: family, home/garden, travel, tech, relationships, food, movies, music, books and fashion.
we’ll also have a health item from healthyrockford.com, which launches next month, and a short excerpt from rockford woman magazine.
maybe the highest profile change is moving elizabeth davies’ generation x/mommy column from thursday’s people section.
some things have moved: will pfeifer’s dvd column about older releases can be found in the friday go section. the “go way ahead” planner can be found in saturday go.
on a final note: remember when i asked for your mom/dad/grandma/grandpa moments and photos? we’ll put them in sunday life&style. so send them in to me at jpollock@rrstar.com!
May 22nd, 2008
OK. I am just going to use a cliche. When it rains, it pours. That is, when news happens, it really happens. I am officially calling today breaking news Thursday. It’s not even 1 p.m. yet and here are the major stories we’re working on today:
- Alan Beaman’s 1993 murder conviction reversed by Illinois Supreme Court today.
- Triplets with rare disease born at Rockford Memorial Hospital.
- Gas tops $4/gallon in Rockford.
Typically, right before Memorial Day, we struggle to fill our Web sites and our newspapers with newsy news. Not today or tomorrow. And the day certainly isn’t over yet.
May 21st, 2008
what about having to think about the holiday in may?
for rockford woman, we’re brainstorming topics for our november/december issue. it’s the challenge of working so far ahead in the magazine world.
if you have ideas for the gift guide or stories you think would be helpful over the holidays, let me know in the comments. remember: we do give away gifts as part of the gift guide! we had so many entries last year.
p.s. my food article for that issue will involve gingerbread, but not cookies. that should make you wonder.
May 20th, 2008
for almost a year, we’ve been talking about starting a military moms/dads blog: a place where parents can share advice and give insight to those of us who don’t have family serving in iraq, afghanistan or other foreign missions.
we could run excerpts in our thursday people section.
would you read it? would you contribute to it? let us know in the comments. or e-mail me at jpollock@rrstar.com.
p.s. it’s also the season of memorial day. we often don’t think about the meaning of the day except to grill out or attend a parade on a day off. it is a day of remembrance to honor those who have died serving our country and dates back to the civil war era.
May 19th, 2008
We plan to launch a health Web site in early June. It’s called HealthyRockford.com (don’t try the URL yet … it doesn’t work). This site will be your go-to guide for all things health in the Rock River Valley. The site’s editor, Mike DeDoncker, is already blogging. Check out Like Mike. Also blogging is HealthyRockford.com reporter Deb Austin. Her blog is about the business of health, and it’s called Pulse.
We’ve also asked health experts in the community to blog. Doctors, nurses and other health professionals are contributing to the Our Health Experts blog already. Great discussion there about kidney health, vampires in blood labs and pain management.
Get the best fitness and healthy living advice from our panel of local experts on the Good for You blog. Read about the benefits of “moderate physical activity” and why sitting a lot isn’t the best for your waistline.
Oh, before I forget, here’s a sneak peek of the site …
May 16th, 2008
who says rockford doesn’t have culture? or that you can’t enjoy very different things?
on wednesday night, i played the new wii mario kart racing game with my husband. poorly, of course.
last night, we went to the full dress rehearsal of “tosca” at the coronado. the rockford symphony orchestra and the rockford chamber of commerce allowed young professionals to mingle in the manager’s apartment and meet a few actors beforehand, watch the show from the balcony and see how things work backstage during intermission. it was a very powerful show, with great voices and great music.
we learned a few interesting facts. for one, the singers/actors are brought in specially for this performance, and they’ve performed in such revered places as the met and the lyric opera. secondly, the actress who plays tosca (amy johnson) and the actor who plays scarpia (vernon harman), the villian, are married in real life. if that’s not enough, harman is actually the director filling in because the man originally cast as scarpia has a throat ailment.
the show is saturday: see our video here by bob schaper.
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