You can rate those football videos

Add comment September 16th, 2009 07:49am Jennie Pollock

As we’ve told you before, we’ve bumped up the number of videos we do for prep football.

In addition to the Game of the Week posted each Friday night, our sports staff previews the big games, picks which teams they think will win and interviews players/coaches.

Now you can rate our videos. Instead of stars, you’ll see flames.

College media team goes digital

Add comment September 10th, 2009 03:16pm Anna Derocher

TommieMedia.com launched yesterday at St. Thomas University in Minnesota. The campus ditched its print newspaper, opting to focus on delivering news and information solely online. Jack Burke, former Register Star business editor and St. Thomas grad, sent me the link yesterday. He said The Aquin, the former newspaper, was “always a sharp operation. Good to see they’re trying to stay ahead of the curve.”

It’s Waterfront time

2 comments September 2nd, 2009 09:21am Anna Derocher

At church Sunday, I told an older woman that I would be at Waterfront on Saturday to see the Barenaked Ladies. She raised her eyebrows. I’m sure she was unaware I was referencing the Canadian band famous for “If I Had $1,000,000″ and “One Week.” Oh well.

The downtown Rockford festival kicks off Thursday night with Charlie Daniels. Rockford native Amanda Torp-Pedersen, who fronts the group Amanda Christine, will open for the country singer. Smash Mouth closes Waterfront on Sunday night.

In today’s newspaper, is a Waterfront guide booklet. And, of course, you can get information on our Waterfront site.

The air is crisp. Hello, Friday Night Football!

Add comment August 28th, 2009 04:54pm Jennie Pollock

Sigh. The weather has felt like fall for two months. And summer is unofficially over as we approach On the Waterfront and watch our first high school football games tonight.

Today’s Gridiron section introduces the season with 18 pages of previews from our Sports staff. What I love the most, creatively, is that our staff re-created famous football photos in history with each of the NIC-10 teams. See our gallery and the video explaining how we did it.

Our Web site is back and better than ever, with a Twitter feed, quarterly scores, team/individual statistics, stories, photos and three video shows a week (Wednesday-Friday), plus a video from the game of the week.

Special report, comment on fatal police shooting

Add comment August 27th, 2009 08:31am Anna Derocher

We’ve gathered all the content related to Monday’s shooting in one place on rrstar.com. The special report has stories, videos, photos and more. You will also find a link to comment on the case.

A familiar voice

Add comment August 26th, 2009 07:43am Jennie Pollock

Jim Killam, adviser for the Northern Star, Northern Illinois University’s daily newspaper, spoke with WNIJ about the future of the journalism and its uncertainty.

At the Register Star, we’ve worked for years with Killam because his recommendations on students carry currency for us in hiring.

Of course, he worries about less investigative journalism and the ability to make money when people expect news to be free. In the end, he makes a good point:

“What our main product is is not paper and ink; it’s news and information.”

IPA to recognize our work

1 comment August 25th, 2009 10:50am Anna Derocher

We won some Illinois Press Association awards for our work in the past year. We don’t know the places yet. Those will be announced at the annual awards luncheon Oct. 9. Here’s the work that will be recognized:

Editorial Page (staff)
Business/Economic Reporting – IBM; 30 years, 3 agencies, 1 mission (Isaac Guerrero)
Enterprise/Feature Writing – 180 degrees project (staff)
Informational Graphic – How the Rock River Valley voted (Margo Morgan, Chris Soprych)
Headline Writing (Barry Wood)
Special Section – Rockford Woman magazine (staff)
Best Web Site, rrstar.com (staff)
Most Innovative Project – Gridiron (staff)
Sports Photo – 2 pinned, see it below (Scott Morgan)

SCOTT MORGAN | RRSTAR.COM
Harlem’s Derek Elmore works to pin Belvidere North’s Greg Adkins in the 103-pound championship final Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009, during the NIC-10 Conference Wrestling Championships at East High School in Rockford

Si, “C”

Add comment August 20th, 2009 12:44pm Jennie Pollock

Today, you’ll see the section letter “C” on Thursday’s People section.

This is nothing new. It’s fallen in that position for almost a year.

Before that, the section used to be inserted. Why the change? You don’t really want the boring, complicated details about press configurations. …

The bottom line? Readers really like order. Seeing the A section and the B section and then no C section was disconcerting to some of you, so we gave People “a C section,” one e-mailer joked.

Readers like order so much, in fact, that I had one tell me he always wanted B to be Local and C to be Sports and so forth, darn it! If only it were that easy. News and advertising needs change daily, and our new press, while wonderful, cannot print just any number of pages or sections we want. It’s a balancing act.

Most popular

4 comments August 19th, 2009 11:35am Anna Derocher

The coverage of Baby Crystal’s mom, Katie Stockton, is hands down one of the most read on our Web site in the last couple weeks. Since the story broke Thursday, Aug. 6, rrstar.com garnered more than 100,000 page views. There are more than 100 comments on this case, too.

Still time to win Journey and Heart tickets

1 comment August 11th, 2009 11:26am Anna Derocher

Win two tickets to see Journey and Heart on Aug. 18.

Take our quiz to be entered into a drawing for tickets to the show at the MetroCentre.

Hurry up and enter as many times as you like until the contest ends Thursday.