Scott Perkins

Terry Ward

Scott Perkins has been named publisher of the Paragould (Ark.) Daily Press to succeed outgoing publisher Terry Ward, effective March 17. Ward recently was promoted to publisher of The Times in Frankfort, Ind. Both papers are owned by Paxton Media Group. Perkins, 30, has worked as a freelance writer for both USA Today online and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and as an advertising account executive in both newspapers and radio. Originally of Cabot, he became editor of The Courier in Russellville after serving as editor for more than a year at The Daily Leader in Stuttgart.

Jana Jones, vice president and chief financial officer of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, has been named to the board of parent Times Publishing Company. Jones joined the Times in March 2004, bringing with her 20 years of financial experience from banking and newspapers.  Before joining the Times, Jones was vice president and CFO for the Bakersfield Californian.

The Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame will honor nine Oklahoma journalists during its 38th annual induction ceremonies April 4 in the University of Central Oklahoma’s Nigh University Center. Among this year’s inductees are several staff members from SNPA member newspapers/companies: Ann DeFrange, reporter and editor, The Oklahoman; Bill Harper, operations manager, Tulsa World; Lindel G. Hutson, chief of bureau, The Associated Press of Oklahoma; and Paul B. Southerland, photographer, The Oklahoman.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has announced that Corinna Zarek has been promoted to director of its Freedom of Information Service Center. From 2005-2006, Zarek worked as the Jack Nelson FOI Legal Fellow at the Reporters Committee. She left the position to work as a trial lawyer at Coan & Lyons in Washington, D.C., for a year before returning as the McCormick Tribune Legal Fellow in August 2007. She also is a lecturer in media law and ethics at American University's School of Communication. Zarek succeeds Loren Cochran, who resigned in January.

The Decatur forum, hosted by Decatur Daily General Manager Clint Shelton, will be held on Friday, April 11.  The forum at the Goldsboro News-Argus, hosted by Publisher Hal Tanner Jr. and General Manager Hal Tanner III, will be held on Tuesday, April 29.  Both programs will begin at 10 a.m. and conclude at 4 p.m.  

Additional Publisher Forums will be held this year in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.  Dates for these forums will be announced as they are confirmed.

The SNPA Publisher Forums, first launched in 2007, have proven to be productive gatherings for publishers to share best practices and revenue-generating ideas.  The one-day programs are open to any SNPA publisher who wants to attend, but are targeted primarily at publishers who live within a two-hour drive of host cities.  There is no cost to attend.

The typical agenda includes discussion of significant ideas to increase revenue, successful niche publications and Web innovations, best ideas for improving productivity or reducing expenses, successes in growing circulation and readership.

Publishers who attend are asked to bring samples of their ideas to share with all of the other attendees.

Steve Buttry

The conference will be held May 4-6 at Newsplex in Columbia, S.C.

Other program topics are:

• A New World and a Better Day for Newspapers
  The newspaper business is changing, facing new competitive challenges and rediscovering its fundamental strengths.
  Jay Smith, president, Cox Newspapers, Atlanta, Ga.
• Worldwide Convergence Trends
  A global view of newspapers that are reinventing their businesses
  Randy Covington, director, Newsplex
• AP News: Customized Content and Tools for Increasing Total Audience
  New initiatives that help newspapers access more AP content and attract a larger audience to their online news
  John Lumpkin, vice president/business operations, U.S. newspaper markets, Associated Press
• Reorganizing the Newsroom
  An overview of emerging newsroom organization models
  Randy Covington
  
• The Local Information Center
  Gannett’s new model connects newspapers to communities, engages readers and provides a customer-centric approach for advertisers
  John Pittman, senior vice president and executive editor, The Greenville (S.C.) News
  
• The Reinvention of the Shelby Star
  A small-town newspaper re-thinks news and its community role
  Skip Foster, publisher, Shelby Star
  
• Audience Aggregation and Audience-Based Selling
  A new approach to growing audience and advertising
  Gary Meo, senior vice president, print and digital media services, Scarborough Research
  
• We Live in a Multi-Media World
  The use of audio and video on newspaper Web sites
  Randy Covington
  
• User-Generated Content
  Keys to building interest, content and audience
  Steve Yelvington, strategist, Morris Digital Works
  
• What Do I Need to Buy?
  The best in low-cost, efficient multimedia equipment.
  Jordan Ellis, resource coordinator, Newsplex
  
• Social Networking
  Diving into the new world of Web experience
  Steve Yelvington

The Sunday evening reception and hotel accommodations will be at the Hilton Columbia Center.

SNPA members can save $100 per person on registration fees by registering no later than March 31. Associate members also can reserve tabletop display space at the conference, with discounts on all space reserved by March 31.

Please call the Hilton Columbia Center at 1-800-Hiltons or (803) 744-7800 for room reservations. Room rates are $139, for single or double rooms. Reserve your room by April 3; rooms may not be available after that date.

• agenda
• registration form

Download Questionnaires for Salary, Benefits Surveys
April 18 is the deadline to participate in the SNPA salary and employee benefits surveys – at no cost. A $25 fee per questionnaire will be charged for questionnaires postmarked after April 18. SNPA member newspapers that decline to share data for the studies, but want to purchase the study results, will be charged $300 for the salary survey and $50 for the benefits survey.

• Download salary and benefits questionnaires

Position Wanted Ads (and Resumes) Can be Posted on SNPA Site
Journalism students and others looking for jobs in the newspaper industry now can post "position wanted" ads with links to their resumes on www.snpa.org.

SNPA's employment section on www.snpa.org recorded more than 2,600 hits last month – making it the ideal place to get a resume noticed or to learn about jobs in the industry.

For just $25 a month, individuals may post a “positions wanted” ad with SNPA.  The ad can include:

• Position sought
• 2-3 informational paragraphs
• Name and e-mail address
• Resume

The site also carries "jobs available" listings, which are free to SNPA members.

For details on posting "position wanted" or "jobs available" listings, contact Cindy Durham in the SNPA office or click here.

The Ledger Acquires News Chief of Winter Haven
The News Chief in Winter Haven, Fla., along with the Polk County Shopper and polkonline.com, have been sold by GateHouse Media, with the sale becoming effective Monday.  The paper was sold to The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla., and its parent company, The New York Times Company.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray represented GateHouse Media in the transaction. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The News Chief will move its operations to the Ledger’s Winter Haven office, but will continue to operate as a separate paper with a separate staff.  The Ledger will cut its East Polk section as a result of the purchase.

“We are deepening our commitment to East Polk,” said Jerome Ferson, publisher of The Ledger. “The News Chief has a rich history of serving the information needs of the greater Winter Haven community. I am absolutely thrilled we are able to preserve the News Chief banner and pleased to carry it forward as a separate news-gathering and editorial voice for the community.”

Nelson Kirkland, who has been advertising director of The Ledger, was named publisher of the News Chief. A new advertising director of The Ledger has not been named. Joe Braddy will remain with the News Chief as managing editor.

About 24 members of the News Chief staff, mainly from the editorial, classified and circulation departments, will be retained by the new ownership, the paper reported. GateHouse Media has offered a severance package to employees not hired by the New York Times Company.

Kirkland noted that there will be some subtle differences when readers open their News Chief on Tuesday. "Because of the mechanical configurations of our presses in Lakeland, the paper will go from a 12.5-inch width, to a 12-inch width," he said. "There will also be some changes in the classified section because of our software configuration. We're going to go from a 10-column to a nine-column width. We will maintain the rates for subscribers and advertisers."

Different mechanical configurations on The Ledger presses will allow the News Chief to print more consecutive color pages and readers also will notice the disappearance of the stylized American Indian chief on the logo for the News Chief.

"The paper will still bear the name News Chief, but we at The Ledger and The New York Times Company are sensitive to Native American issues," said Jerome Ferson, publisher of The Ledger.

Read more:

• From the News Chief
• From The Ledger

Star-Telegram's Lois Norder Wins 2008 Mimi Award
Lois Norder, managing editor of investigations at the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, has been named winner of The 2008 Mimi Award, a prize that recognizes exceptional work by an editor.

Lois Norder

The Dart Society, an independent group of journalists dedicated to promoting sensitive coverage of victims of violence, gives the award annually. Norder is the second recipient of The Mimi, which includes a $1,000 prize.

The Mimi was created to honor the memory of Providence Journal editor Mimi Burkhardt, who died unexpectedly in December 2004. Burkhardt inspired those around her to live up to high ideals and to produce solid journalism with heart.

Norder was nominated by a group of journalists who say she champions and nurtures both the stories she edits and the reporters who write those stories. Her nominators were Jennifer Autrey Forsyth of the Wall Street Journal, Yamil Berard of the Star-Telegram, and Mark Horvit, executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

“You can always go into her office and interrupt her. She’s completely available and committed to every aspect of the story,” says Berard. “You can ask her anything you want. You can tell her what your biggest fear on something is and she is completely helpful.”

As managing editor of the Star-Telegram’s investigations team for the last six years, Norder has helped reporters uncover numerous local and statewide problems including shoddy health care for the poor, misuse of school tax dollars, mistreatment of prisoners, questionable decisions that put hundreds of city workers’ retirement benefits at risk, shortfalls in the levels of charity care provided by hospitals, and the cutthroat deal-making of corporations and power brokers.

Norder was chosen for The Mimi because of the compassion she shows for those abused by the system as she aggressively pursues watchdog stories. She has a reputation as an editor who brings that same compassion to her staff – pushing them to do their very best, but also to maintain a healthy life outside of work.

“I’ve been lucky over the years to work with a number of talented journalists who are passionate about their work, particularly when it comes to looking out for the underdog,” Norder said after learning she was chosen for The Mimi. “As an editor, you don’t want to let them down.”

The Dart Society also has chosen an honorable mention for this year’s Mimi  – Joan Walsh, editor-in-chief at Salon.com. Walsh’s nominators said that under her leadership the Salon staff has gotten “permission – and a steady nudge of encouragement – to care deeply about what you write about, to make it matter.”

Norder and Walsh were among eight finalists considered for the award. Selection was made by a panel of journalists, all affiliated with the Dart Society or the Dart Center, who reviewed examples of the editors’ work, read letters of nomination and conducted interviews with the top finalists’ co-workers.

For more information about The Mimi Award, click here.

New Daily Press Section Arrangement Showcases Local News
The results of a project started just 12 weeks earlier – a re-ordered, more colorful arrangement of sections for the Daily Press print edition – were introduced to readers in Newport News, Va., on Sunday, Feb. 10. 

“That’s a lightning-fast turnaround by industry standards,” notes Daily Press President and Publisher Digby Solomon.

This revision was built on newspaper industry research, as well as face-to-face discussions with readers and advertisers.  Executing the project involved intricate cross-departmental planning that made it possible to give those customers what they’ve asked for.

Conversations with some of the paper’s most engaged readers, recruited through in-paper advertising, validated the findings of national studies conducted by the Readership Institute and other media research companies.  Those studies had indicated that the best way to connect with local readers is through local news – a commodity that describes the unique stock-in-trade of newspapers.

Wanting to showcase local news and other content in the way that readers would find most appealing, the Daily Press consumer marketing and news staffs asked them to help define what the new print edition would look like.  A series of open houses scheduled in December throughout the market attracted small but very interested groups of readers. 

Through an honest exchange of insight and ideas, attendees of the December open houses helped deepen understanding of how the newspaper could better meet their needs. In asking them to examine and comment on prototypes of various section arrangements, confirmation was received that proposed changes, which included prominently displaying the local news that differentiates the Daily Press from other sources of information, while still positioning national and foreign news with the importance it deserves – were on the right track, noted Daily Press Consumer Marketing Director David Messick. The new arrangement is intended to make national and foreign news more prominent, without weakening the message that local news is what differentiates the Daily Press from other sources of information.

“We continue to listen and respond to what our readers tell us, and our promotional and editorial efforts will reflect that,” said Messick. 

What readers continue to see when they examine the new Daily Press is a front section that spotlights local news – the paper’s premiere product. 

“Local news rules, as usual, because our unique depth of local coverage is what sets us apart,” said Daily Press Vice President and Editor Ernie Gates in a Feb. 10  “letter from the editor” outlining the changes.
 
Obituaries and headlines from around the state are also packaged in the front section. In addition, readers told interviewers that they expect to see the most important story of the day on Page 1, and the DP presentation team is making sure it’s there, regardless of whether it’s of national, regional or local significance.  On Fridays, a redesigned Town Square section moves from Thursday to spotlight people, places and events in each of the communities that make up the DP coverage area.  The six zoned Town Square sections also have a more prominent placement.

The reader Feedback column keeps its familiar spot on Page A2, the inside front, though the celebrity news previously highlighted there has moved to the Life section to become part of the daily entertainment package. How to Reach Us, Your View reader photos, lottery results, the daily almanac and the quirky News of the Weird keep their spots on A2.              

U.S. and international news is now packaged in its own section.  The editorial and op-ed pages also run in Nation & World. Tuesday through Saturday, Nation & World also includes the Business pages, relocated from the back of Sports – another strong reader preference.  The weather page completes each day’s Nation & World package.

Though the Sunday Outlook section is no more, editorials and commentary – including views from the left and right – now have a home in Nation & World on Sunday, as they do during the week. The Book page and Puzzle page that had been in Outlook have moved to The Good Life section.

The Sunday Business pages are still a freestanding section.  Weekly stock listings have been moved from Saturday to join Sunday’s Your Money pages to complement the personal finance package.

A major shift in production procedures was required to print the new section arrangement, as well as to increase the availability of color to enhance news and especially to create more opportunity for advertising revenue.  The DP’s newspaper presses are typically configured for “straight” press runs in which two complete copies of each daily edition are printed simultaneously.  It’s an easier setup for the press crew to implement, and papers are printed, packaged and out the door in the fastest possible time. 

News Briefs

• NELA has completed installation of a Plate Distribution Unit and RAO-M 3-point Punch/Bender for multiple plate sizes at Valassis’ Anderson Printing Division in Livonia, Mich. Following Valassis’ acquisition of ADVO Inc., a leading direct mail marketer, the need to quickly store and retrieve plates with minimal operator interference increased dramatically. NELA provided an inline punch/bending, storage and retrieval system capable of automatically loading bent plates into plate storage carts.
  
  The NELA Plate Distribution Unit in combination with the NELA Punch/Bender is able to quickly transport the plates from the processor into the bender for one-step punching and bending and then on to the three-bay Plate Distribution Unit. The fully automatic plate handling machine transports the plates into carts that are docked right to the unit. Each cart is easily undocked and rolled away for storage or brought to press for plate mounting. Upon cart removal, additional carts are docked for run continuance. The customer can program his desired plate distribution pattern through the touch screen interface.

• GateHouse Media, Inc., parent company of the Palmyra Courier-Journal, The Timesaver and several other upstate New York publications, has acquired Ad Group WC, from owner John Van Dusen, according to John Cribb of Cribb, Greene & Associates, who represented the seller in the transaction. Ad Group includes the Newark Pennysaver and the weekly Courier-Gazette newspaper, as well as the Sodus-Williamson Pennysaver and the Lyons-Clyde Savannah Shopping Guide.

• GateHouse Media Inc. has sold the assets of the Daily Press & Dakotan in Yankton, S.D., along with Vermillion Plain Talk and three other weekly controlled distribution publications to Yankton Media, Inc., a locally-owned group headed by publisher Gary L. Wood.  Wood’s partners in the transaction are Robb Hicks and Gary Stevenson of Buffalo and Sheridan, Wy., respectively. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Dirks, Van Essen & Murray represented GateHouse Media in the transaction.

• The Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record and The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., were among the winners of the 4th annual Adicio Best Practices Awards, honoring client Web sites that have excelled in careers, motors and real estate classifieds by incorporating innovative strategies to succeed online. The Greensboro paper was recognized as Best Careers Site (Small) – TriadCareers.com. The Post and Courier received honors for Best Real Estate Site (Large) – Charleston.net.

This Idea Could Lead to Advertisers Fighting for Space on the Same Page

Sean Ireland

By Sean Ireland
Special to the SNPA eBulletin

What better way to help people say, “I do,” than to share the stories of people who did?

That’s the unique way Publisher Ben Shurett of the Sand Mountain Reporter of Albertville, Ala., has found to produce a special wedding section that engages readers and advertisers beyond the standard content of wedding timelines and check lists.

As publisher of the Fort Payne (Ala.) Times-Journal, Shurett used the wedding stories of his readers to provide the core content of the newspaper’s annual bridal section, and found that the focus on these local stories offers more appeal to a broader group of readers, making the section more vibrant and interesting. “People really do like reading these stories,” he said.

The Times-Journal has continued the practice since Shurett became the Reporter’s publisher in 2006. “We just finished one in January,” said J.D. Davidson, Shurett’s successor. “The readers like it, and the people that have turned stuff in enjoy doing it.”

When Shurett first put the idea into practice, he recruited well-known people from the Fort Payne community to share their wedding memories, showing readers unseen private views of public figures. “We’ve been most successful with going to the local probate judge, the mayor, the school principal, the football coach, people who lots of folks know,” he said. “When you pick out a dozen prominent folks, it generates good readership, and then, in turn, that generates good advertising.”

Having introduced the idea to the community, the Times-Journal now seeks wedding stories from all of its readers. “We now solicit them to get different kinds of stories – humorous or romantic – and we usually get about a dozen submissions,” Davidson said. “Some are good and some are bad, and we pick the top ones that we can fit into a section.”

Regardless of whom they are about, wedding stories seem to be engaging to a wide range of readers. “If you want to get a conversation started with strangers at a table, just ask them, ‘How’d you meet?’ ” Shurett said. “Almost everybody’s got a funny or interesting story to tell.”

Davidson said the interest in the stories works well for advertisers too. “When stories are emotional, they keep people engaged on a page longer,” he said.

Production of this particular type of wedding section should start with the stories first, rather than advertising, both said. Shurett suggests beginning the process by sending a questionnaire to the people who agree to participate, but added that it is important to use those as just a starting point.

A good feature writer should follow up on each one. “You can put a good story together with just a questionnaire,” he said, “but you can put a great story together by starting with that and then talking to the couple.”

Once written and often packaged with wedding and current photos of each couple, Shurett said a layout of the section is put together with empty advertising blocks next to the stories. The mock-ups are sent out with sales representatives, who show potential advertisers exactly what the product is and where their ad could run. “There is a risk of some advertisers fighting for the same page,” he said, “but if you are having folks fighting to get into a section, that’s a good problem to have.”

For a wedding section, the list of potential advertisers is endless – ranging from the obvious businesses such as florists, dress shops and photographers to the less-thought-of furniture dealers or real estate companies.

And Shurett suggested that including the wedding stories of a few local advertisers can be helpful too, when they hear their friends and customers say they read about them in the newspaper.

“It’s a different kind of wedding section. We can all do the ‘Here’s how you buy your dress,’ but this is just a fun read. It carries the same bridal theme but it’s fun to read," Davidson said. “With these you are drawn to these mini-novels, and, through the advertising, now you almost have two sections in one. You have the short stories plus you have the same type of information (about finding a wedding dress or what the groomsmen are responsible for doing) that you’d have with the other types of stories.”

Of course, the section can also include the standard helpful articles about wedding planning and the big day. In fact, the Times-Journal produces two bridal sections per year, one with wedding stories and the other with more traditional wedding-planning information.

Shurett said newspapers in larger markets could do the section and stories more frequently than once a year. He said the idea for centering the section on wedding stories came from The Birmingham News, which does it more frequently and invites readers to write or call in with their personal stories.

Ideas for this this section of the eBulletin are invited. Some ideas are generated from idea-exchange forums for publishers, which SNPA is instituting across the South for newspapers of various circulation sizes. The forums are designed to encourage publishers to meet with their counterparts at same-sized newspapers to share ideas and best practices and converse about relevant issues. The programs will make it convenient for virtually every SNPA publisher to participate in one-day, small-group discussions with other publishers – with minimal travel. If you would like to submit a great idea, send it to cindy@snpa.org. If you'd like to host a forum, contact Edward VanHorn at edward@snpa.org or (404) 256-0444.

Senators Seek to Overturn New FCC Media Ownership Rule
The Associated Press reports: "A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday introduced a resolution to stop regulators from easing media-ownership rules in the nation's 20 largest cities." Read more from AP.

Press Releases, Cost Cuts and the Search for Values Boundaries
Declining resources are creating some newsroom necessities that are uncomfortable for a lot of editors and reporters. Shortcuts which would never have been considered 15 years ago are becoming a part of daily operational procedure. The dilemma is what ethical values and boundaries survive these shortcuts and which ones become quaint artifacts of a wistful, too-good-to-be-true past. Read more from Tim McGuire's "McGuire on Media."

Balancing Act
Some newspapers are methodically going greener, reducing energy consumption and saving money. Read more from presstime.

'We Must Bring Local News to Life' Journalism
David House, reader advocate for the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, says the point of his column in the paper "is to be worth 50 cents. That way, if it was a slow news day, the reader still feels like there was something worthwhile in the paper. Ideally, I want to comment on the local news of the day, or tell a good story that relates to current news." Read more from David House.

Reader's Corner contains, from time to time, links that require registration on another site. Registration rules and requirements are established by the host site and participation by eBulletin readers is entirely voluntary. Articles cited here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SNPA or its Board of Directors. Links refer the reader to the source material.

The Problem With 'Raw' Data Online

Doug Fisher

By Doug Fisher

As I write this, South Carolina's Legislature is about to block public access to the state's concealed weapons permits.

The bill's sponsor cited a Roanoke, Va., newspaper's posting of that state's concealed weapons permit database online one year ago. (The paper took the data down after a public outcry, and Virginia quickly put the database under wraps.)

Brant Houston, then director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, laid out the argument for keeping the records open in 2004 in News Media and the Law magazine. It's important to be able to report on the use of concealed weapons by felons and domestic abusers, he said. It's also important to check how the permitting process itself is operating.

Keeping those records secret, Houston said, "doesn't make any sense . . . especially when you're dealing with dangerous weapons."

But just as dangerous a weapon to freedom of information might be the proclivity, as newsrooms become "information centers," to throw anything and everything online. If it moves, digitize it.

Generally, data are good. They let people go beyond what we can tell them in a story. They can find information they need or develop their own data-driven narratives, much like the Knight-funded Everyblock project now does in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

Much of the information that flows from the government's gathering and production of data needs to be in the open and easy for people to use.

Heretical as it may be in some quarters, however, some information might best be left offline to preserve some public (yes, read journalists') access. (The South Carolina Press Association offered such a compromise as it tried to keep some access to concealed weapons permits. A few years ago, Ohio came to a similar, if imperfect, compromise; a "journalist" may view permit information – but cannot copy it.)

Databases with private identifying information are so sensitive that if we don't think things through, we risk losing not only the battle but also the war. A significant chunk of the public, besieged by reports of identity theft and threats to privacy, is more likely to see these things not as public service, but as privacy invasion.

"The freedom of information act," as one person commented on a blog during the Roanoke outcry, "is a necessary evil" – hardly a ringing endorsement and a position I suspect is more common than we know.

Another wrote: "If a crook had to go to the courthouse or the State Police to request this information, he or she would be far less likely to do so. But now that the information is so readily obtainable to the anonymous individual, it's easy for any goon to go to the library, get on the Web and prepare his or her new hit list."

It's the embodiment of what design consultant Ed Heninger calls the "cuzican" problem – just 'cuz I can doesn't mean I should. It also touches one of the digital dilemmas I've written about before in describing our research into newspaper archives and ethics questions: Stripped of "practical obscurity," many things that haven't been issues are likely to become so in the digital world. One is tossing raw, personally identifying data online where it loses the obscurity of being sequestered in a newspaper morgue. That has some legal scholars re-examining notions of privacy and liability and some legislators seeing opportunity.

West Virginia, for instance, also is considering hiding its concealed weapons data, though for now that seems to have stalled. Numerous other states already keep the information secret.

Like Roanoke, The (Nashville) Tennessean, put Tennessee's concealed weapons data online last year, only to pull it down after a public outcry.

In Hartsville, S.C, people on the community news site I run with the Messenger newspaper have complained about printing the police blotter. Rarely, they say, do papers update when people are cleared. In the digital age, where the damning information can live forever, they may have a point.

Michigan's Lansing State Journal took tremendous heat, including a scathing "open" letter from the state's chief justice, for putting state workers' names and salaries online. I think those records that get to the heart of government operations need to be accessible. The paper stood its ground, but said it all in one of its later headlines: "More context needed with database launch."

And that's the key question – do we need the data, or the information?

In Tennessee, where permit data remain public for now, a Knoxville TV station did not throw the records online. But in November, WBIR posted stories and maps so that people can search by census tract to find how many permits are in their area. Other census data give some perspective. No result pinpoints a specific person, and I've not heard of any outcry.

Investigative producer Jake Jost wrote:

"Ultimately, this story is about fostering dialogue on a topic close to all of us: safety. ...

"This story was possible only through Tennessee's open records laws. There has been talk in recent years of the legislature closing the record on handgun carry permits. ...

"An intelligent debate over policy is unlikely without good information. Without strong public records laws, we can't provide you with good information."

And if we rush online with every bit of data "cuzican," we may do those laws irreparable harm.

To see WBIR's package, click here.

Doug Fisher, a former AP news editor, teaches journalism at the University of South Carolina and can be reached at dfisher@sc.edu or (803) 777-3315. Past issues of Common Sense Journalism can be found at http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/csj/index.html

eBulletin Archives Now Available
Can't remember when you saw it in the SNPA eBulletin? Find it in the eBulletin archives. All of the SNPA eBulletins from November 2000 to the present are just a few clicks away. Here's how to access them:

• Log into the members section of the SNPA Web site – www.snpa.org. If you need your password, contact cindy@snpa.org. Choose "eBulletin" from the menu on the left rail of the home page.Enter your search term and press "Enter." Links to all the eBulletins in which that term appears will be listed. If you'd like to see all of the eBulletins, enter "eBulletin" as the search term.
• Have more questions? Contact anyone on the SNPA staff at (404) 256-0444.

List Newspaper Job Openings on the SNPA Web Site
SNPA member newspapers can post job openings free of charge on the SNPA Web site. To post your job, send the text of the ad to cindy@snpa.org. Most announcements will stay on the site for a month, but you can request shorter or longer runs. Click here to access the SNPA Jobs Board.