More from 'Times on the Trail'
Here are three good things about the new Times on the Trail page that I didn't notice or mention last week (followed by a digression on newsroom culture and weblogs):
-
A prominently-displayed "Write to us" button at the top right corner.
(I wrote. Real people replied. OK, so I'd met one of them before and he
recognized my name, but the other guy was a total stranger, except for
his byline, which is back on the front page today with an off-the-campaign-trail Washington story.)
- The link to Campaign 2004, from LexisNexis. which is, as the site says, "A
great free service offering categorized news about the candidates and
the issues from hundreds of publications." On-campus folks take access
to LexisNexis for granted. This (temporary?) free collection of
campaign stories is terrific for everyone else.
- The link to Wonkette, a D.C.-based political gossip column by one of my favorite Web voices from the late, lamented (but archived) Suck.com... In fact, the whole "Regulars" column of links is worth a look, including some brand-name Times competitors, some off-beat sites, and some that are both (Slate's Electability Whack-a-Pol).
I'm still waiting for an "about this page" section... One that could do things like:
- Identify the Times
writers involved -- for instance, is the writer of a South Carolina
primary item a 20-year veteran on the politics beat, a 24-year-old
intern filing from South Carolina ... or a guy sitting at a desk in a
New York newsroom with a green eyeshade
labelled "Rewrite" and old-fashioned garters keeping his sleeves out of the ink? Either way, a picture would be nice.
- Discuss the criteria for being linked in that "Regulars" list.
(Does any money change hands? If not, how many fans have to write to get
Chris Lydon's Bopnews.com listed?)
- For the taxonomy geeks in the crowd, explain the heading nomenclature for items labelled "The Battlegrounds," versus "Political Points," etc.
- Tell if the same items are in the newspaper, just in case some eager scholar wants to footnote them in a term paper.
- Mention
how long a link to something like a campaign press release will stay on
the page, and whether there's an archive of those old links, should a
reader be looking for that Kucinich item I mentioned last time.
- Invite and link to corrections of previous Times on the Trail items.
Any page tagged "The New York Times" in gothic blackletter type is not going to be the bloglike "unedited voice of an individual"
anytime soon... Unlike television reporters, whose faces pop into your
living room, newspaper reporters may not think of themselves as
"public" voices. Many still draw a line between themselves and the more
public "masthead folks and opinion writers." As one said to me,
"Besides, there's so much opinion out there these days, no one's going
to miss mine." That's certainly the traditional newsroom culture I
remember, whether that means seeing the paper as a team product or as a "bar of soap" -- or just a personal preference
for anonymity.
Still, a feature like "Times on the Trail" doesn't have to "go blog" to use the Web's power of linkage to build
readers' confidence in its stories in this spin-wary age. Its campaign-trail short items
make it especially hard for a writer's
style and personality to shine through, something we called "the new journalism" two or three
"new journalisms" ago. Even if staff biographies aren't the Times style, how about personalizing the
"trail" a bit by providing the option of looking at recent stories
sorted by reporter?
In any case, the "Times on the Trail" page looks better this week than last and is on my bookmark list for future visits.
Meanwhile, if you've never written for a newspaper and want an ancient
hint of that "newsroom culture," try this passage from Richard Harding
Davis, star reporter of a century ago:
Now, you cannot pay a good reporter for what he does, because
he does not work for pay. He works for his paper. He gives
his time, his health, his brains, his sleeping hours, and his
eating hours, and sometimes his life, to get news for it. He
thinks the sun rises only that men may have light by which to
read it...
He should come right out of the University...
with the idea that he is a Moulder of Public Opinion and that
the Power of the Press is greater than the Power of Money,
and that the few lines he writes are of more value in the Editor's
eyes than is the column of advertising on the last page,
which they are not.
As in so many things about journalism, the whole story isn't entirely
naive or very idealistic (pick your adjective), but -- like weblogs --
it does have its moments of wisdom, fun and hope. It's "The Reporter
Who Made Himself King," available from Project Gutenberg.
5:05:33 PM 
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