Barry Bonds lied about taking steroids, that’s the top story on the front page of the dead tree editions of both of Seattle’s dailies. Well… duh-uh. However, in the online editions, the story about the home run slugger’s grand jury indictment was much less prominent — I actually had to Command-F his name (Control-F for all you Windoze lozers) to find a link on the P-I’s home page. Huh.
That’s the interesting thing about this exercise in reporting the morning headlines. I’d gotten so out of the habit of reading the print editions, I hadn’t realized how old their news was. The morning papers are really yesterday’s news, while the online editions better reflect today’s headlines. No wonder the combined online readership of the P-I and the Times (4 million unique visits) would place amongst the top seven dailies nationwide, while their individual online readership now ranks them 19th and 21st respectively, ahead of many larger dailies in larger markets.
And notice that while the Times continues to kick the P-I’s ass in print circulation, the P-I has jumped ahead in online readership. (You know… the future.) Why? Well it could be that the P-I’s website has done a better job recently of staying on top of breaking news throughout the day. And it could be that absent the distortions of the JOA, the Times loses its competitive advantage. But I’d wager that a measurable part of the P-I’s lead — about 140,000 unique visits in October — is due to the fact that local bloggers like me tend to go out of our way to link to the P-I instead of the Times. This trend started back when the Times was trying to kill the P-I by ending the JOA, but it’s been reinforced by the fact that apart from Postman, there seems to be an editorial policy of refusing to link back to us. Given my druthers, I’d prefer to link to the best article on any particular story, but, you know, it’s a two-way street and all that.
But I digress.
Other duh-uh stories dominate the print editions today, with the P-I informing us that Bosses spy on their workers, and Video rental stores are losing business to NetFlix, downloads, and video-on-demand. Not exactly a couple of blockbuster stories. Meanwhile the Times breaks the shocking news that holiday travelers should Be prepared for flight delays and lost luggage. No shit, Sherlock.
Elsewhere, War funding bills fail in the Senate (NY Times, 17.5 million uniques), Army desertion rate up 80% since 2003, the highest since 1980 (USA Today, 9.5 million uniques), and oh yeah, the Democrats step up attacks in last night’s presidential debate (Washington Post, 8.7 million uniques.)
I’m just sayin’.
Is that the same as Sguiggle-F? I never know what to call that key.
Dear Goldy,
Just a little writing 101, editorial tip. When introducing an acronym or abbreviation for the first time please spell it out followed by the abbreviation or acronym in parentheses. Excuse my ignorance but I don’t know what “JOA” means. And there is no indication of its meaning from context either. Or else you can always hyperlink the acronym as well.
Otherwise interesting post. The fact that Bonds faces 30 years in prison seems totally lame. I don’t endorse steroids but I think people are making too much of the Bonds thing. And what is up with the Senate. They need to get their act together and join the 70% majority who want our troops home.
Your gentle reader,
Gordon
@1 Yes it is. Its official title is “Command Key”
But is also occasionally referred to in its vernacular as
the spaghetti
the Apple key
the open-Apple key
the splat
the cloverleaf
the butterfly
the beanie
the flower
Here is a nice little history of the command key
@2…Gordan…
AP style book no longer calls for the acronym in parenthesis after using the term at issue.
JOA = Joint Operating Agreement, which is a federally authorized arrangement for newspapers designed to (1) keep ones that aren’t viable afloat (think subsidizing sinking ships) and (2)exempts them from anti-trust laws.
The Times and P-I have operated under a JOA for better than two decades, with the only noticeable benefit to a subscriber of one or the other being receipt of an extra set of funnies and the editorial page of the non-subscribing newspaper in the Sunday Times.
Old Seattle hands, as well as anyone who follows the news of newspapers, is familiar with the term JOA, which is too earily similar to the ever popular term, DOA.
The Piper
JOA = DOA, and Ryan Blethen = Patti Hearst.
My ex worked in the Hearst Building in NYC in the late ’80s, and would occasionally see Patty in the building. I always thought it would be fun to run into her, feign recognition, and loudly exclaim “Tania?”
Never had the chance, but it sure would have been fun to see her reaction.
@4 Piper Scott
Thanks for the insightful post. I guess I didn’t know that the AP style had changed. I just remember reading this in college and it always seemed like a helpful tip.
With the explosion of self publishing on the web I wonder if we will ever see a universal bloggers style guide come out. What we really need is a technology that auto links stuff like this to Wikipedia or some other reference source in a subtle way. Kind of like a secondary hyperlink. With all the info out there, I see no reason that the layman can’t become reasonably informed at the click of a button.
Also, it is GordOn not GordAn. Come to think of I don’t think I have ever met or heard of a Gordan. Seems like a weird name variation, kind of like how Ryin would look weird to most people.
6 She’s probably so accustomed to that that she has a stock comeback, like “wait a minute while I get out my machine gun.”
Video stores losing business…not a “Blockbuster” story? Was that pun strictly an accident?
Our son works for Blockbuster, and tells us that the company is moving to online rentals, using the stores as a way to pitch the service to everyone who comes up to the counter.
Gordon at 7 said:
“What we really need is a technology that auto links stuff like this to Wikipedia or some other reference source in a subtle way. Kind of like a secondary hyperlink. With all the info out there, I see no reason that the layman can’t become reasonably informed at the click of a button.”
Amazon.com has a script which can be inserted into websites which does something like that, if you are a member of their affiliate program. Of course, it is designed to sell books & other products. You insert the script on the bottom of your website, and then tag the words in the articles you want to serve as links. Then when you move your mouse over the word and pause, a pop-up box appears which directs you to links to related products. I imagine there are scripts by other companies which do something similar.
As for Goldy’s comments about on-line readership, I am amazed that the P.I. numbers have now exceeded that of the Seattle Times. I say that because for quite a few years, the Times took the position that the JOA prohibited the P.I. from operating it’s own website featuring news content, and when that was finally resolved the P.I. had some catching up to do in terms of online readership.
I find it slightly interesting that Lance Armstrong, a Texan who’s been known to go bike riding with our esteemed preznit, seems to have escaped scrutiny. Also, unlike the apparent majority of athletes being swept up in the current sports-drug dragnet, happens to be white.
Lance Armstrong is probably the most drug-tested athlete in the history of sports. You did know that, right?
Oh, and he’s white.
#6: Bumping into Peppermint Patti would be way more fun than bumping into Ryan Blethan. The horror.
You and I are old enough to know that the excremental P-I was, once upon a time, even worse. They used to run de rigueur editorials by Patti’s old man, Randy.
13 In general the P-I (and most likely the other remaining Hearst papers) have experienced a distinct fading of their much-discussed “yellowness” since the passing of “The Chief”.
@7 “With the explosion of self publishing on the web I wonder if we will ever see a universal bloggers style guide come out.”
Are you kidding? Most people blogging on the internet (well, the rightys, anyway) can’t even read let alone understand what a style book is.
“Despite the continued increase in desertions, however, an Associated Press examination of Pentagon figures earlier this year showed that the military does little to find those who bolt, and rarely prosecutes the ones they get. Some are allowed to simply return to their units, while most are given less-than-honorable discharges.”
(From Goldy’s link to USA Today news story; quoted under Fair Use Doctrine.)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Unless they call a news conference to denounce the war, in which case, the military tries to throw them in prison for 5 years. Criticizing the monkey-in-chief is a more serious than desertion in wartime, and MUCH more serious than corruption or stealing.
The Army desertion rate was the lead story on NBC Nightly News tonight.
13, 14 – Willie Randolph Hearst Jr. was an unreconstructed rightwinger. His old man was an unabashed yellow journalist but at least pretended to be for the little guy. The P-I is a more rational paper without Junior’s ramblings.
Pelletizer (TM): Are you kidding. Lefties have problems with simple two letter words such as “is & “if” for example. We all know who had problems with the word “if” right Pelletizer (TM)? Need a reminder?
@19 I do pretty good for a rabbit. You should try typing on a QWERTY keyboard with all toes and no fingers sometime. Of course, part of YOUR problem is that your fingers aren’t hooked up to anything intelligent.