Print promotion for online

We've slipped a bit in print in our promotion to online "extras" like multimedia, story comments, galleries, etc.

A quick look at today's Wausau edition shows the good and the bad:

The ones we hit:
A reference to Everyday Choices online with the Everyday Choices story on our Community page.
A reference to Get Published (without much explanation) on the Life cover.

The ones we missed:
Sinz story on 1A - no refer to Varsity.
Pete's column - no refer to the story online (there was a little conversation on the original update).
Walking club on 3A- no refer to a gallery shot earlier in the week.
Sports - not a single reference to Varsity, anywhere, in the section (which featured a couple of nice prep sports stories).




I can't point to these missed opportunities as a concrete reason our online numbers have dipped in recent months, but these omissions in print certainly do not help.

What can we do? Maybe you have ideas. Post them here.

I think we could communicate more thoroughly through our budgets. We should try to keep all the different layers of our site top of mind. And, on my own to-do list, create a new furniture piece that allows us to promote more specifically to online elements (for example, a piece that could have been used with Pete's column to drive people to the Local News page of our site so they could find the entire story with comments). And I'll be back here, in this blog, with a critique of our efforts, good and bad.

It's Northpoint Drive

After seeing it go back and forth and back again, I asked Linda Taylor how we should identify this certain street in Point. She said Northpoint Drive. Northpoint. One word.

Boxers or Briefs

Okay, fine, the title was a bit of a bait and switch. Nothing underwear related here.

Here is my question to the copy desk as a whole:

How difficult would it be to post briefs (I'm thinking especially local briefs here) as individual stories in Saxotech, rather than one "local briefs" story? I ask because these are often among the juiciest items of the day and often we're dissecting the briefs file and turning them into separate stories online anyhow.

Let me know if logistically you think this could happen. Then we'll proceed. Or not.

— Brian O.

Obit glitch

Although we need to be extremely careful when editing an obituary, we still need to make corrections when necessary. An obituary set to run in Monday's Stevens Point Journal misspelled the name one a leading American company: Anheuser-Busch. The obit read "Anheuser Bush."

The importance ...

It pays to know some things that are quite obscure to others. Take Thursday’s GO cover for Marshfield. The story promoting “The Importance of Being Earnest” misidentifies one of the characters: Lady Bracknell is named Lady Brackington. Fortunately, I know this play well enough to know that is not right.

Rob

Brief note on elections

I sent election coverage assignments by e-mail. But I'm leaving it up to Kerry to divvy up the copy desk assignments.

I will be around with other editors to help proofread pages.

I anticipate ordering pizza for the crew.

Are there any particular questions or concerns to address from the copy desk side prior to Tuesday?

— Mark T.

Gold stars

A few more kudos to share:

* Sirena helped out the night desk Saturday by proofing wire pages even though I'm sure she would have rather been at home. A little bit of help can go a long way.

*Jeff in composing for once again proving to be a last set of eyes on a page. On Sunday night, he caught a misspelled word in a headline that made it past a paginator, proofer and the person who sent the page.

* Tim is doing a great job learning to do wire and he and I were able to get out both WDH and CWS on Saturday night before 10 p.m. That's what I call teamwork!

These are just a few highlights of the recent weeks. Feel free to mention anything you feel deserves recognition.

--Kristy