July 10, 2008
Welcome Back
The Best Practices: Editorial and Commentary blog is revived with an open invitation to share ideas and successes. Looking ahead is difficult as current cutbacks and space reductions make self-preservation seem most critical. But readers still want the best newspapers can give so it is important the ideas for best practices, particularly online, keep flowing.
Welcome back to the conversation.
It’s been four months since professionals gathered in Los Angeles to discuss the best practices being employed by editorial and commentary writers online. As you see in the earlier postings on this blog, the working groups came up with several interesting variations on the concept of “community” and how readers can respond to the opinions of others.
Though not new, the idea that editorial and opinion pages need to be more of a conversation than a lecture became a central theme of the discussions. As several of the participants noted, this often flies against the tradition of editors who believe their experience and position in the media gives them special insight into the issues of their community. Most agreed the changing expectations of readers are having a dramatic impact on the challenges facing the editorial staff. New media options are giving readers, especially opinionated readers, new places for their voices to be heard.
But as we discussed in our Los Angeles sessions, and as many editors have found since then, the readers they serve still believe their local newspaper is a vital part of their community and they want to be involved in the opinion dialog published by that newspaper.
These are challenging times in the newsrooms of this country. As staffs are cut and news holes reduced, every aspect of the printed news product will be scrutinized by publishers and by readers. If newspapers are going to remain a vital source of information in a community, they must continue to find ways to serve their readers. The opinion pages may well be one of the few places in the paper where truly local content can still be found. But as everyone in the newspaper world tries to do more with less, so will you.
In his presentation to the Los Angeles seminar participants about scenario building, Lawrence Wilkinson, of the consulting firm Heminge & Condell, described three key elements of strategy building:
1. Describing who we are: competences - strengthens and weaknesses
2. Deciding who we want to be: strategic intent
3. Defining where we have to work scenarios: the business environment
As you consider the future of your newspaper and its editorial section, these three elements are critical. These descriptions, decisions and definitions should be posted in a prominent location in your office. As you consider each attempt to improve your pages, reflect on these concepts to help focus your strategy.
With the renewal of this blog, the Knight Digital Media Center invites guest contributors to share their experiences with effective online editorials and commentary. Each week we will focus on a specific practice, present links to good examples and work together to move things in a positive, executable direction. A “success story” feature will highlight the efforts some of you have made to extend the reach of your editorials online.
Not every idea will be suitable for every publication, but the energy of shared idea generation will open the door to potential improvement for everyone who participates.
If you wish to share, please contact me at: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Please put “best practice” in the email subject line.
I look forward to hearing from you soon. Thanks.
By Michael Williams, 07/10/08 at 9:00 am
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As the newspaper world evolves, so do the roles of the opinion section and its writers. Blogger 
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