Quick thoughts

Shortly after the Daily Record started charging for its Web site, there was an option at the bottom of stories to leave feedback, similar to the Morning News' site. Thing is, I never actually saw comments left by the readers.

Well, now that option is gone, unheralded and unused. There was no reason given for its disappearance, but, then again, there was no announcement that it was there in the first place.

But still, there is no word the Morning News is changing its policy yet. There is also no indication how it would impact both newspapers if both sites don't end up charging.

A Question of Giving

There is more than meets the eye going on at the Rogers Public Library Foundation, or at least a lot of details to discuss by the looks of these two articles from the Morning News and the Daily Record (if you have a subscription). Maybe it's too early to say who's right and who's wrong. Certainly the mayor is not immune to rash judgments, but that does not make his every judgment without merit.

I offer this solution for the time being, at least until these issues are resolved. Those wishing to donate can give to the ever-popular Friends of the Library, which pays rent for its bookstore but has employed not one solitary employee.

There is also another, seemingly obvious alternative. The Rogers Public Library will take donations directly, which bypasses any organizations trying to inflate its donation proportions by dipping needlessly into its endowment.

Quick thoughts

Rogers is losing an asset in Morning News reporter John Henley. The ace reporter is leaving the publication to pursue a masters degree, which is an admirable goal, but certainly leaves the paper on less steady footing, as he was clearly the Morning News' greatest talent. Hopefully his replacement can fill the void.

Double billing

Go ahead and try to search for a past article from the Daily Record. Go on. I'll wait.

What follows is more of the haphazard self-destruction following the newspaper's quest for revenue from its online content. What follows, however, indicates the intention to charge subscribers twice for past articles (once for the monthly fee and once for the archived story). My anger subsides into sympathy for these people who show through their actions why newspapers have declined. I withdraw here and leave you with only this quotation from a random page announcing a story is now gone indefinitely.

This story is only available from the Benton County Daily Recordarchives. Articles will be available to purchase from the archives in the near future. Click the link below to search for this story in the archives. If the search doesn't yield any results, enter part of the headline and publicaton date in the search form or contact the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette library in Little Rock at (501) 378-3851 with the section, date and page information below.»Click here to search the Archives.

Quick thoughts

You'll just have to trust me on this one, because I'm sure the details will change. In browsing nwanews.com today — actually, while looking for the option to search back stories — I came across the following in the subscription form:

Please click here to subscribe to Arkansas Online without a print subscription.
Please click here to subscribe to NWAnews.com without a print subscription.

Please take notice that the two links go to the same form on two different web addresses, and all online subscriptions give you access to both the sites. For as much warning as the Democrat-Gazette gave its readers of the online subscriptions, you would have thought they would have figured out how to set up the forms. And if the web site confuses readers this much, how are people supposed to trust the content?

All in the details

What happens when a newspaper gets beat on a juicy story? Sloppy, catch-up journalism.

I originally thought this story was only a web update. Surely that must be the reason for the lack of details and, more importantly, sources. But even web updates must be sourced. Surely it wouldn't have been too hard to match the "according to a jail booking report" that appears in the Morning News story. But the Daily Record story was in today's paper, one day after the Morning News account. This now appears every bit as bad as the television news stories blatantly ripped off from the morning print editions.

While the newspaper industry is in the midst of a revolution, it is not the time for journalists or editors (as the case may be) to abandon the standards of responsible journalism in order to give unsourced information more quickly.