Archive for October, 2008
October 15th, 2008
Last Wednesday and Thursday, we sent two newsroom twentysomethings, Kevin Haas (back of his head is above) and Billy Kulpa, to Rockford, DeKalb and Normal to talk to young voters, who are expected to turn out in record numbers for the presidential election.
They offered mere highlights last week while they were on the road last week. Today in print and online, you can see what they found.
Their four videos sum up the story: Young voters don’t pledge allegiance to any political party. They tend to support Barack Obama, but you can’t forget that there are conservatives among them. They use the Web to read, watch videos and network politically. They know there’s apathy and a lack of information out there among their peers.
Find the special report here.
My favorite observation? It shouldn’t be a surprise, but they really cared about gas prices.
October 14th, 2008
I wrote here and here about state newspaper awards won by the Register Star.
They were handed out this month, and in one case, we learned what place we earned (six first-place finishes, for example, including best Web site). The wrapup is here.
October 14th, 2008
We rearranged the tabs in our “content buckets” on the rrstar.com home page today. We wanted to bring more fresh content to the home page and introduce you to our special sites HealthyRockford.com and BusinessRockford.com in the first bucket. In the second bucket, you’ll find Nation/World and State news. In the third bucket, you’ll find blogs, columnists and odd news from the wire.
October 13th, 2008
Maybe you do now. We’ve asked that question for the past year in our Sunday newspaper about our weekly business news magazine, which is a companion to our 24/7 Web site.
Today, we’ve more than tripled the distribution of BusinessRockford.com. Editor Annette LaCross summarizes things here. If you’d like to pick up a copy, try a real estate office, like Dickerson Nieman or Gambino. If you’d like to subscribe, call Lori Cadwell at 815-987-1443.
October 13th, 2008
Last week, I spent two days in Lisle working with journalists from big and small newsrooms. Our parent company, GateHouse, puts on the Leadership Series a couple times a year.
The company brings in 15 journalists from across the country for training on how to best manage change, use different leadership styles and have difficult conversations. Important skills to develop, no matter what business you’re in. Even though I am not one of the participants, I learn from each one of these sessions.
I like to be around other journalists. Even if we come from different size newsrooms, we still have to get information on the Web, in the newspaper and other platforms. And it’s nice to bounce ideas off each other and go back to our newsrooms and try new things.
October 10th, 2008
Since the 1970s, the Rockford Register Star has honored contributions to our community through the Excalibur and Excelsior awards.
Excalibur recognizes an individual (like Richard Nordlof, above, from 2007); Excelsior, an organization.
Nominate someone for the 2008 round by downloading the PDF here.While you’re there, you can view a slide show of past winners and search our database.
Applications are due at the newspaper by 5 p.m. Nov. 14. Winners will be announced at an invitation-only reception Dec. 4 at Cliffbreakers. For more information, call Bea Ricotta, 815-987-1453.
October 9th, 2008
For everything you want to know about the November election, check out this site. We’ve got local and national coverage, blogs, photo galleries and more. You can also compare local candidates. Take some time to navigate the site and let me know what you think.
October 3rd, 2008
Today, Newspapers In Education announced who will appear in the 2009 calendar. See the cuties here. To order the calendar for $7.50, contact Dawn Curry at 815-987-1340 or email at dcurry@rrstar.com — or see the ad on 6C in today’s Register Star.
The “cover” baby is Nikoeli (above), who garnered more than 1,400 votes.
The contest is a fundraiser for NIE.
October 1st, 2008
Back in the olden days, newspaper libraries were called morgues. Not sure why. Maybe because of journalists’ dark sense of humor. More likely because of the columns of drawers filled with clippings and photos. These days (since 1997 here), files are stored electronically.
Most readers don’t even realize that a newspaper library exists, but the library’s work is becoming more and more visible. At rrstar.com, we’ve run a popular “Remember When” series of old photographs, whether they chronicled a “presidential” visit or the local impact on the polio epidemic.
In addition to photos, the Rockford Register Star library houses millions of clippings from the late 1950s to the mid-1990s. And the microfilm collection dates back to the 1840s.
Our librarians handle a number of tasks: assisting the newsroom with research, pulling historical material, archiving and more.
The digital text archive has been fed to NewsBank since 1999 and can be searched and viewed here.
The photos that appear in print are loaded to the Web for sale and can be purchased/viewed here through MyCapture.
Thanks, head librarian Eleanora Smith, for letting us shine light on your work.
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