Gary Graham started today’s meeting by saying that he thought Shawn Vestal and Meghann Cuniff did a nice job of bringing together today’s local Ford follow .
Several people mentioned that Kathy Plonka’s feature photo of a leaf trapped in frozen water was nice.

There was a conversation about how the centerpiece photo for today’s business section is the same photo that ran last week on A1. It seems that between vacationing editors and the holiday’s there was some confusion as to if it had run and with what story it was supposed to run with.

Looking ahead:
More on the Spokane Tribe’s casinos and maybe we’ll get that payday lending story, too.

Be well.
Joe

This morning’s meeting was short and to the point. Gary Graham said he received a call from Geoff Pinnock with the news about Gerald Ford. Geoff said they were tearing up the front page and starting over. Tad Brooks cleared out some room inside the A section and a Ford package was born.
I mentioned that I liked the Fondue package from features. There was a 'cheesy' comment and then a smattering of boos and hisses around the table.
Dan Hansen mentioned that he liked Holly Pickett’s A1 photo that ran with the story on County job growth.

Looking ahead: We are working on amore local look at Gerald Ford’s life and There are some new county commissioners in Idaho that we are going to be checking out.
Be well.
Joe

With few people in attendance, the meeting this morning moved like a well made engine.
Conversation started with a trip around this morning’s paper and then moved on to the holiday weekend’s offerings.
Gary Graham mentioned that he liked the brevity of this morning’s A1 stories and Ken Paulman said he appreciated the That’s a wrap – and a waste story.
Dan Hansen said he thought the paper was full of a variety of news…then lamented that some of it wasn’t held for later in the week.
Stories of note from the weekend were the Hutton Settlement, The Cabela’s story and Monday’s Christmas Fund story.

At one point Gary mentioned that throughout the weekend he found himself looking for some diversity in the images throughout the newspaper.

Looking ahead:
We are working on stories about after Christmas shopping and payday lending.

Be well.
Joe

7 UP today featured a photo of an infinite number of Santas, which caused our editors to wonder if we have filled our Santa quota for the season.

"We've probably got one more" (reporter Jim Camden: One more photo or one more Santa?) before Christmas day, editor Steve Smith said, to which business editor Addy Hatch asked,

"What about a dog dressed as Santa?"

Assistant city editor Dave Wasson questioned the newsworthiness of such a photo.

"How many legs does it have?"

Super thin slices

• Frank Sennett's 7 column, "Should you eat the meat you meet?" speaks to "hypocritical carnivores."
• The Harry Potter story got the highest reader page count online. (see also poll, audio)
• Northwest front page's "Boy stuck in Denver after blizzard stopped flight" story would have had any parent reader going berserk, Smith said.
• Our new ski columnist is doing well, "a leap... from where we've been" compared to how outdoor coverage used to be, said business editor-to-be Alison Boggs.
• THE MARMOT INTERVIEW in The Slice, coupled with a return of the Angry Marmot photo just in time for the Christmas spirit.

There's a Christmas tree in one end of the newsroom, and the other end has a Festivus pole with a basket of muffin tops and Junior Mints for diehard Seinfeld fans.

There may be Yule log imagery put onto the high-definition television above the meeting table. Reporter Hilary Kraus said she preferred watching a football game to an animated Yule log.

"Maybe one of the football players will catch fire and everybody will be happy," features editor Ken Paulman said.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

The title of the seventh Harry Potter book has been released: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. No other details such as release date have been revealed, but speculation abounds.

•Vote in our poll: Which character will meet his or her end?

One of our reporting interns has been tracking down young readers - feedback on what they think and how they feel about the new book. Listen to audio: Reactions and speculation from local kids (contains spoilers from previous books)

Online reporter Amy Cannata is tracking down people whose travel plans have been disrupted by flight cancellations for Denver's airport.

Speaking of airports, Spokane International Airport's new wing and restaurants should open up soon after Christmas, according to what business editor Addy Hatch has heard so far.

Play: Did we underplay the Iraq story on the front page? Reporter Jim Camden said it might have been equally shocking if another president had said the same about World War II or Vietnam.

...unless President Bush said, " 'But we're not losing either,' " reporter Mike Prager said, which was included in the president's statement.

However the Christmas Fund story was "intensely local," said Carla Savalli, senior editor for local news, and the decision at yesterday's afternoon meeting was to promote the Fund as the top story in its last days before Christmas.

Private moments: Regarding the centerpiece photo on the front page, Savalli wanted to make sure "we didn't catch [the patient] in an intensely private moment," whether the photographer caught the patient at the exact moment she'd been told of her cancer or perhaps it was just a reaction to something else. It was indeed something else. (The photo shows a hospital patient in a bed, looking upward with her hand covering her mouth.)

Punny: Editors gave John Blanchette's column good reviews. (see "Meryl. Meryl Sheep")

Professionalism: Kudos went to the copy desk for catching a serious error in this morning's lead story on page B1, (Budget has millions for Spokane), caught at the last minute before publish time.

"They saved us," assistant city editor Dan Hansen said.

Plot: In less serious news, we have a "potential scandal" with our North Poll, if the web team finds that people have been voting multiple times.

Small town: When it rains, it pours for Kevin Coe. Today's package includes video, audio, Video Journal from the archive, a slideshow about the Special Commitment Center, and a Doug Clark column ("Day in Kevin Coe's courtroom an unsettling encounter")

Small world: Editor Steve Smith pointed out that Kathryn Clark, senior class vice president at University High School and quoted in the Genocide Project article on page B1, is also his next-door neighbor and a staff member of the Vox.

Round numbers: Good news came in the form of circulation figures for the Spokesman-Review.

Figures refer to the number of copies distributed on one average day. S-R broke 95,000 copies for weekday, 121,000 for Sunday, 106,000 for Saturday.

Do we know how these numbers are distributed throughout the community?

No, but for 13 straight weeks, the number of activated subscriptions outnumbered the number of cancellations, Smith said.

Coming today: More Coe coverage today from court.

Editors enjoyed today's centerpiece about noise level for children's toys as a different twist on a holiday story. Some Spokesman-Review staffers were trying out an Astro Blaster late last week to see exactly how loud they were.

"They didn't seem all that loud to me, but I've suffered hearing loss," said assistant city editor Dan Hansen. Other editors also mentioned that the loudness of the toy depends on the size of the room, whether the toy is used in a car, or the volume of the child using the toy.

In other holiday news, there was conversation about Christmas fund stories and whether there was too much focus put on the role of the Spokesman-Review. Editor Steve Smith said he is always a bit discomforted when the newspaper is mentioned in such a story.

Business editor Addy Hatch gave a different perspective, that there is a level of commitment from the company that is not often mentioned.

"We don't talk about it," Smith said.

Other thin slices from our morning meeting:

• Storm coverage from Saturday was well-received among the staff.
• Editors enjoyed Sunday's Hanukkah story (Hanukkah celebrants find warmth in rituals)
• Saturday's Northwest section had two rape stories above the fold, which was "jarring on a Saturday morning," Hansen said. Reporter Jim Camden mentioned the word 'rape' appeared in both headlines.
• Doug Clark is working on a musical parody to the tune of "Maria" from West Side Story. Does he have to pay royalties? No, Smith said, parodies would be exempt from that.

The morning meeting started with a discussion about how the new the new president of WSU was selected. The question of transparency in the process came up to which Steve Smith said, "It may have been legal but that doesn’t make it right."
Addy Hatch asked if it were more important to have the search open and risk losing a well qualified candidate or select someone in a hurry in a less transparent way. Steve answered that on an issue of public decision making he will fall on the side of public agencies being open.

There were several comments -- none of which will appear here – made about the Deputy said he was led on story on B1. The consensus seemed to be the story was a good read.

Looking ahead:

Shawn Vestal and Colin Mulvany are on the way to Missouri to find out more about Elson S. Floyd and the Jim Camden is out at the Air Force Base looking into some gift bags for deployed troops.

Be well.
Joe

Today the meeting started out with talk about the SCAPCA story (A1). Jim Camden remarked that he was glad to see it got the placement he thought it deserved and Mike Prager thought the names of the board members should have been published with the story.

Dave Wasson talked about the subhead on the Beam kills construction worker story. He had received a call this morning complaining that it can be read in such a way that the dead man was responsible for the 2004 death at the facility. Wasson admitted that there was a problem with the subhead but said that any confusion was cleared up in the story’s lead.

The group then watched Jesse Tinsley’s new Video Journal piece A Little Salsa.
Looking ahead:
Shawn Vestal is down in Pullman looking for some time with the new WSU president and Virginia De Leon is working on a piece about the journey of a lifetime.

Be well.
Joe

This morning’s look at the newspaper started with Steve Smith talking about how nothing sells newspapers more reliably than babies and pets (referring to today’s animal abuse story on A1). He followed it with, "I don’t know about three legged dogs though."

Addy Hatch mentioned that she thought the Portland Archdiocese story should have run with the local sidebar -- instead of the photo -- to localize the issue better.

Steve talked about the new circulation numbers and mentioned that things seemed to be trending in the right direction.

Looking ahead:

Idaho football is looking for a coach and Peter Barnes is going to write about a property dispute in the Spokane Valley.

Be well.
Joe

Today’s morning meeting started with a Video Journal production by Jim Kershner and Colin Mulvany on the history of skiing.
The conversation then turned to the sports department’s blanket coverage of Erickson leaving Idaho.
Joe Palmquist said that Jim Meehan and Glenn Kasses were all over the Palouse this weekend trying to break this open.

Dave Wasson mentioned that he had already take a few phone calls about the Faith takes a manly turn. story in today’s paper. It seems there are a few readers that were put off by the idea of celebrating religion in this way.

Looking ahead:
Potlatch lands and house fires.

Be well,
Joe

The meeting started today with a viewing of the audio slide show companion to today's story by Tom Bowers
Downtown Spokane's rebirth: the East End.
Steve Smith mentioned that for the third week in a row the cover of 7 had the feeling they have been working toward and gave kudos to Jennifer Rochette for both that and the cover of 360.

There was a mention of Sara Leaming and Jody Lawrence-Turner's follow on the Kim double homicide. There was a general consensus around the table that it was a nice treatment of the story.
Ralph Walter was praised for his treatment of the Bing Crosby cover on the Today section (a photo illustration) but its use started a conversation about the newspaper's photo manipulation policy and what the readers understand to be a news photo and a not news photo. Dan Hansen said that he doesn't think the readers really make a distinction and Larry Reisnouer said that he was comfortable with illustrations on pages that aren’t in the news sections. There was talk about clarifying the newspaper’s stand on photo manipulation on pages other than news pages.

Looking ahead:
Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart get ready to rumble and grass burning review meetings are going on in Idaho.
Be well.
Joe

Today’s conversation jumped around a bit starting with the Cougs’ victory over the Zags and stopping at the Sushi story in today’s Food section. There were comments about nice stories in the sports section, The Erickson piece and the Johnsons find solace stories in particular.

Looking ahead:
Remembering Pearl Harbor and the Gonzaga women’s basketball team is playing tonight.

Two things stood out at the morning meeting were comments about the snarky nature of today’s sports section front and a conversation about the A1 graphic on that ran with the story on the girl was rescued from a submerged car.

Steve Smith noted that the story mix, including Norman Chad’s piece on Bryant Gumble and John Blanchette’s piece on Jim Walden.

The conversation about the A1 graphic was a series of comments and jokes about how the information in the graphic should be applied in daily life. One of the comments was that everyone should clip it, laminate it, and save it. Maybe in your car, with a hammer and a knife.
Steve commented that the group was having fun with the graphic but the story was horrifying. Steve also mentioned that the story didn’t mention the victim’s name but the victim’s sister was named. Scott Maben pointed out that the authorities wouldn’t give the reporter the name as a matter of policy.

Looking ahead:
Church fires and standoffs.

Be well.
Joe

The morning meeting started with the usual look at the weekend newspapers. There was praise from around the table for the Brian Plonka and Ben Shors’ project on the Christmas House (Sunday and Monday A1). Jim mentioned that the stories A mother’s kiss(Sunday B1) and a Sergeant’s reunion made for a heavy story mix.
On the lighter side, there was some talk about the Mystery at Elf Camp series in today section. Dave Wasson mentioned that it was being warmly received by the younger readers in his house.

Looking ahead: A sentence is expected today for Jonathan Wade Ellington in Idaho and a story about firefighters saving a child’s life.

Be well.
Joe

Today’s meeting started with a playing of Jed Conklin’s audio slide show about Craig Bickerton’s death. That's something you'll only see on the Web; no reporter was involved in the project.
The conversation then jumped to the Lewd e-mails story and Baughman coverage out of Kootenai County. The conversation circled around whether or not The Spokesman-Review would be posting the e-mails that are at the heart of the story. The decision not to publish them online because of their inappropriate content was made after several conversations last night. The options were to publish them as is (with all attachments and images/photos intact), blur out the naughty bits (or doctor them in some other obvious way) and publish them or not publish them.
In the meeting Steve Smith asked the room if there were any other ideas. Joe Palmquist suggested getting a group of readers together to look at them and then get their responses. Other ideas included publishing a few of the e-mails with some of the "more standard pornographic images" and making printouts of all the images and the e-mails and making them available at the Idaho office for anyone of legal age to see.
Ken Paulman mentioned that by getting stuck on whether to publish the e-mails we might be losing sight of the story a bit.

The issue was still under consideration as the meeting ended.

Looking ahead:

We are keeping an eye on the Kevin Stevens murder sentencing that should happen this afternoon and a utility tax story out of the business section. Be well.

Joe