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February 20, 2009 at 4:58 pm #589848
SueParticipantI just saw the recent West Seattle Herald (print version) and saw that there are many letters to the editor about their recent article on papers vs. blogs – and they’re not very pro-Herald either, which was a nice surprise since they printed them. Several are from people who post here.
You can see them online at: http://www.westseattleherald.com/letters-to-the-editor – they recently revamped their website (no surprise) so you’ll have to click through each letter title on the left to figure out which one is about the article. (Why can’t they just have all the letters in one place?)
If you missed the original story about this, you can read about it at https://westseattleblog.com/blog/forum/topic.php?id=3783
February 24, 2009 at 5:51 pm #658564
noslokireMemberInteresting that the West Seattle Herald launched their new website this week as well, looks as if the blogs has better watch out! News is being updated so much faster, even saw them beat the WSB a couple times this week. Good for them because their last site was god awful to look at, the new one is so much easier on the eyes.
As a reader of both the blog and the paper, I think there is an overall yearning of people to return to their newspaper roots, especially when times get tough. Newspapers remind us of simpler times, before economic troubles and fancy technology. It will be interesting to see how this new site will balance that act of old vs. new…
February 24, 2009 at 5:56 pm #658565
JenVMemberin my opinion, the Herald can stick it – as can that other West Seattle site – I don’t like how they do business – attacking the WSBlog rather than perfecting their own business model.
February 24, 2009 at 6:06 pm #658566
inactiveMemberDid you notice that the original Editorial by Robinson is no longer available. They converted to beta for the new site and DUMPED it – at least as far as I can find, there is no longer any online evidence of Mr. Robinson’s tacky editorial. I find that to be truly cowardly, personally.
February 24, 2009 at 6:11 pm #658567
ellenaterMemberI am very disappointed in WSH. Their editorial was shallow and undermining-NOT in the spirit of and respect for good journalism. They CAN stick it. :)
February 24, 2009 at 6:17 pm #658568
noslokireMemberhttp://www.westseattleherald.com/2009/02/12/letters-editor/difference-between-blog-and-print
Wow, I didn’t expect to receive such a negative outpouring, I mean, seriously, its all business and nothing personal. You know though, this is one of the reasons why people like the newspapers, they put out stories for better or worse, and move on.
February 24, 2009 at 6:23 pm #658569
WSBKeymaster#2, would love to hear what you saw them “beat (us)” on and when. If we missed an important story, we will find out why and we will make sure it doesn’t happen again.
#4, the editorial is still available in Google cache:
To be fair, perhaps they lost it in the transfer between servers and content-management systems. Not sure how much of their pre-switch archives have made it into their new system yet.
This week’s editorial FWIW is a 180 from some of what was written in that one, pleading for reader “tips” and contributions, two weeks after dismissing WSB-style community participation in story coverage as unreliable, inaccurate, potentially biased. You can say whatever you want about us – we know what’s true and what’s not true. But that particular section of that particular item was not a slam on us so much as a slam on the many West Seattle community members who have taken the time in the past three years to provide information so that it can be shared with their neighbors in a place where it will be seen by thousands.
We are honored and humbled every day to have our inbox overflow with all manner of questions, tips, photos, suggestions … some of which never makes it to the site because it’s a rumor or a sighting that someone asks us to check out, we check it out, turns out unfounded, we write back to the original e-mailer to let them know what we found out.
That’s our definition of customer service, and also our belief of true involvement as a community news source. Thanks again to the thousands of people who are part of WSB, including those who take the time to read and may never e-mail, call, text, etc.
And now, back to the news!
February 24, 2009 at 6:25 pm #658570
inactiveMemberYeah, but where’s the original WSH Editorial which these letters are responding to?
That’s a total cop out on WSH’s part. Why edit the site so it allows publication of letters which are responding to an editorial, but not post the Editorial itself?
So they retract their own editorial? Interesting and revealing.
Edited: Ok, so one can find the original Editorial on google, but I think it be proper and right to make it available on the website, IF they are going to allow letters to respond to it. Doesn’t make sense to me. It just looks like Robinson is hiding his dirty foottracks, to me.
February 24, 2009 at 6:31 pm #658571
noslokireMemberGood point, I wonder if it got lost in the move. I’ll send them a message and see if they will repost it.
February 24, 2009 at 6:50 pm #658572
PatrickKeymasterThe editorial is back and is available at the Herald’s site.
February 24, 2009 at 6:52 pm #658573
inactiveMemberFebruary 24, 2009 at 7:11 pm #658574
inactiveMemberHere it is, if anyone out there hasn’t read it yet and is interested to see how Mr. Robinson manages to deliberately and specifically berate and deride online advertising in journalism as fundamentally futile, then proceeds to put up a new website a week later loaded with online advertising. ???
Odd. Flawed. Shallow. Small.
http://www.westseattleherald.com/2009/02/10/opinion/local-newspapers-blogs-and-future
Maybe this should be under rants, huh? Oh well. Next time, I promise. ;)
February 24, 2009 at 8:15 pm #658575
WSBKeymasterI should note, the current editorial that I mentioned in a note above (which asked for people to send them news tips) is currently (as of noon Tuesday) 404’ing. It was there last night when someone sent me the link
http://www.westseattleherald.com/2009/02/22/opinion/new-web-site-needs-community
and it was “called out” from their home page. Don’t know if it will appear in their print edition. But sorry to have even jumped this far into the discussion, I am going to do a lousy job of serving you guys if I am not paying the utmost attention to what we’re doing, not what anyone else’s up to – forgive me, carry on!
February 24, 2009 at 9:38 pm #658576
mrhinehMember“would love to hear what you saw them “beat (us)” on and when. If we missed an important story, we will find out why and we will make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Don’t take this personally, but there’s a TV station in town that constantly crows “You’ll only hear it here” and frankly, it is such a turn off. I rarely listen to them any more unless surfing. Don’t let “one story” upset the cart. Or you may have to change this to the “News Blog”.:)
February 24, 2009 at 9:49 pm #658577
WSBKeymasterOh, I played the TV “first on whatever” game for years, and I do agree it can be absolutely obnoxious. And that languaging does show up here sometimes, although I’ve seen some misinterpret “as we first told you” as meaning “as we told you first” – NOT the same thing – we often back-link to our original coverage (when we “first” reported X, as opposed to our second story or third story or …), because we know that the volume of stories goes by fast and many people might have missed the original report.
That aside, I do want to know if we missed an important story because while there is always going to be a difference of some sort between news organizations on their coverage decisions – particularly discretionary items, and enterprise features – we do pride ourselves on having broken (or been the only ones to cover, period) numerous major stories in the past year-plus. I do keep a very close eye on all news sources mentioning West Seattle so that we don’t miss a beat but I sincerely want to know what the previous poster thinks we either missed or were “beaten” on, so we can keep learning and getting better.
This even applies in smaller things … last weekend I got a note from someone saying “hey! the Humane Society Maxmobile is in The Junction!” We didn’t know about it in advance and so it wasn’t on our events calendar, or in the Weekend Lineup. But getting that note made it possible for me to realize that’s yet another media e-mail list we need to be on … so I have contacted the Humane Society’s marketing folks, and we won’t miss any future West Seattle events. One step at a time …
February 24, 2009 at 9:58 pm #658578
noslokireMemberHey they put that article back up, I see someone already mentioned that. Took 14 minutes from send to reply, pretty impressed.
February 24, 2009 at 10:01 pm #658579
noslokireMemberAnd by the way, by “beat” I was more referring to their apparent increase in speed as opposed to your lack of. You’re all pretty good on the response, but it used to take 4 days to get something on the West Seattle Herald site, whereas I am now having a reason to read both each day now instead of one daily and one weekly
February 24, 2009 at 10:03 pm #658580
JanSParticipantTR, as with all things in life, we sometimes pay more attention to the negative and ignore the positive, i.e., you were perfect on your “eating plan” for 6 days, had chocolate cake on the 7th day…what gets noticed? the 7th day. Or you’re a stay at home spouse, and you cleaned, did the laundry, but dinner was late on the table…what gets noticed? Or you’re at work and you have handled 5 different projects in the day, four completed, but what does the boss call you on the carpet for? yeah…right.
You do so many things right, that sometimes we just take it for granted that you will continue to do that, and only point out the things that people think you haven’t accomplished. Yes, it’s thankless, and deserves more. So don’t let the bas*ards get you down…just keep on keepin’ on :) We love you out here…and we have your e-mail for those fast breakin’ stories :)
February 25, 2009 at 8:36 am #658581
Garden_nymphMemberJanS- well said
MrHineh I like you more and more, each time you post!
RAVE for WSB for all the amazing coverage, and for creating a place to bond (and learn from- I’ve learned a lot!) with our neighbors. I “live” on it and know that I wouldn’t thrive without it! I shudder at the mere thought of life w/o the blog! (shuddering) Forget food, water and shelter, I need the internet, e-mail and WSB blog! OK, maybe some of the chocolate cake JanS mentioned for day seven… and a little water ;)
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