What is the goal of newspapers?

I’ve been asking myself this question for the past few days. Frankly I’m not sure I know anymore and that really scares me.

Thursday was Gloria’s funeral. In case you haven’t followed the story, A Prayer for Gloria has been an on-going series we have been doing focusing in on the trials and frustrations of an 11 year-old girl with cancer and her family. What started out as a one-day piece we have developed into a long series-updating our readers on her battle. In addition to the touching images by our photographer, it included an incredible online journal kept regularly by the reporter.

I was a little surprised when I learned on Wednesday evening that Gloria’s funeral, essentially the last piece of the puzzle, was not being pitched for A1. What made everything more surprising was that nothing else was pitched either. So, there were currently no stories for A1 heading into Thursday morning. Which to me says that the editors felt that this story was no longer good enough to even be considered for the front page.

If you knew some of the stories we pitched and ran on A1 my confusion might make more sense. We recently had a story (with pictures) on A1 about the change of ketchup bottles and how they now come in upside-down squeezable versions for better pouring. Seriously, that story ran on A1.

To me, the Gloria piece represented community journalism at its finest. We developed a story, made our readers care and got them involved with the story. Our reporter got hundreds of letters daily about the story. Other publications from across the country were picking it up. Even other local media in Seattle were reporting on her condition. Top editors in our own organization were saying how special this story was. Browsing Craigslist, you could find random posts referring to Gloria and well wishes for her and her family. The community was talking it about. We were engaging our readers. We were making a difference.

For a newspaper, what more can you want in a story?

Having put most of the Gloria stories on A1 it felt strange to me that the funeral wouldn’t be out there, especially knowing that it was not competing against anything else.

So, I brought my concerns to my Managing Editor. I respect his news judgment just as much as I respect his dedication to running good photography.

He too, believed that it shouldn’t be pitched for A1. I explained my side of things. I wasn’t asking that it run on a1---but to not even want to consider it made no sense to me. Something better---something newsy could come along and bump it---but with nothing even to offer at this point. We are saying the story is no longer worthy. I left our meeting questioning whether or not I had good judgment. But when I reflected the reasons behind his and the other top editors decision---they didn’t seem rational to me. They seemed based on a minority of people’s views on the story.

I’m left wondering, what is the goal of the newspaper? Sounds naïve of me, but I became a photojournalist because I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to help people see things from different perspectives and push peoples thoughts about culture, religion, and humanity.

We shouldn’t be consumed with offending one or two readers when a story resonates with hundreds more. I really think newspapers are becoming panicked and instead of continually focusing on putting out a good product---they are too worried about offending and losing one reader.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard confusing sentiments from top editors and in various meetings. Countless times I have heard phrases like “that’s not good for the A1 mix” or “that won’t sell papers.” There is even a single copy sales meeting that editors go to once a week.

There is a good reason why the editorial side of the newspaper should be kept different from the advertising/sales side. We should be putting stories in the paper that tell un-biased stories and that will engage our community in some fashion. What sells and what doesn't sell shouldn’t affect the content of the newspaper.

I am not a sales person---I am a journalist.

are you an imposter?

I have been saying I was an imposter for some time....

...and now there is a quiz out there to prove it.

http://www.kalimunro.com/self-quiz_imposter.html

be proud, run big

Once again, in true Seahawk fashion, another game came down to the final minutes. A touchdown in the corner of the end zone gave us the lead at the near end of the game. Being a mid-day game, the light was cutting around the field. Which produced some great images, like the Shaun Alexander picture below running through the light. It also produced some nasty backlit situations, like the lead on the front page.

This was a situation were the final play was obviously important since it won the game, but if I had something super strong, I could probably have convinced sports into running that as the lead image. Problem was I had a bunch of great shots, but none that really spoke cover of sports potential.

The picture on the cover of sports---while telling in being the winning touchdown and has a nice in-your-face feel to it, has technical issues. It's horrible backlit---shot on an older camera and frankly isn't 100% sharp. (it was pushing being newspaper sharp.) You can see the receivers' face pretty well though, which was a good thing. So what to do in this situation? Run big and be proud!

When a copy editor came over to me and the other picture editor working the desk that night to compliment the great picture, we look at each other and realized that sometimes perhaps we are too hard on pictures and that non-photographer types can look past all the problems we had with the picture.



(below) Had the Seahawks lost this game----this picture would have been perfect 6 columns on the cover.----

ugly deadlines

First of all----the main picture above me, I just love. Hard to tell from it so small---but the dudes eyes are locked onto the ball. Very nice. Its a shame it only ran so big on the first edition of the paper-----

Night deadlines can be nasty. Especially if they are on a Saturday night. I moved out to the west coast thinking that the deadlines would be so much easier and better---but that's not true. Our deadlines are actually earlier than most east coast papers (factoring in the time difference).

So, both the college football teams we cover were in southern California. One game was at 530pm the other at 715pm. We need color pictures for the first edition by 7pm. So, one game is already not happening (the UW game, which is more important to our paper.) So coupled with night shooting, nasty deadlines and transmitting issues from hell one of our photographers had---it wasnt a fun Saturday night for me.

Here are some of the pages. Directly below is the cover for the final edition.

tough choices

I can't think of any situation where I would want to run a wire picture over a staff photographers picture. Although, sometimes I just don't see any way around it. After all, I work for a newspaper and our prime objective is to tell stories---that includes telling stories of the game.

So last weeks Seahawks game came down to the wire. Seahawks were driving the ball in the final minutes of a close game---looking as if they were going to score a touchdown. On a simple play that has been done thousands of times, the teams two superstars---Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander---goof up a hand-off and fumble the ball away. The other team scored. Game over.

This is no knock on the photographer. He is one of the best sports photographers I've been around and there would be no logical reason for our one photographer at this away game to have set up behind this play. It would have been an extreme low percentage shot---and could've missed us the winning the touchdown had he been out of place and things have done slightly different.

But sometimes, it is no ones fault and things just happen. The wire captured an image that summed it up. While our photographer was right on the play---it was backs of players. This picture of the fumble really did tell the story of the game.

Our photographer sent in a picture of Hasselbeck walking off the field, head down in disappointment. It wasn't the best dejection shot. Losing game 2 of the season doesn't mean that's the outlook on everything. So I am not sure the mood was quite accurate of the overall game story- especially when Alexander was smiling and laughing after the game.

It's not an easy decision to make. Our photographers work very hard shooting the best possible pictures from each game. I hate to have to run someone else's picture after we spend a lot of effort into getting what we have. With all honestly, I hope this is one decision that never gets any easier for me to make.

the miracle

Gloria passed away last week. I've been amazed how many people were touched by her story. Columnist Jerry and photographer Steve have really done a remarkable job and have really drawn in the community to this little girl. It's been very humbling and incredibly moving to be a part of the experience.

Above, is how we ran the story the day after she died. Our photographer Steve photographed the parents in a hotel room where they were staying for the night. But we still wanted to focus on Gloria and how she lived and cared for so many other people. We never ran this picture in the segments.

And while this was Gloria's story, I can't help but to remember Emily. The 5-year old girl with cancer I photographed and whose story I told while working in New Hampshire. The stories are very similar. Emily came from a large, very religious family. I am not as good of a writer as Jerry and not as good a photographer as Steve - I know that Emily touched many lives as well. Most imporantly, she touched mine. No question, I am a better person because of her.

Below, is Emily during ballet class, exactly two weeks before she died. Enjoying life to the very end.



You can read the story of emily here: http://www.carrieniland.com/stories.html

more football pages

More football pages-

glorious gloria

So, this is another Gloria segment that ran in the paper. She is still in the hospital and its really touch and go. For me, being the editor on this story was a great retreat from the daily ins and outs of sports. But it was also the story greatly resemebled a story I worked on many years ago.

What has been increasingly tough for me, is that other editors have been helping out with the editing of the story. Since football has begun I no longer have weekends off. So combined with being gone two regular workdays and my late shift, it has been tough for me to attend all the meetings necessary for the story. The other photo editors I work with are fantastic and while I know the story is in good hands, it is hard to let go of something you really love and believe in.

seahawks

Our first home NFL game. A nice early game made for a rather easy, uneventful day. I like the energy that football has--and this game was mostly about the new people on the team and how they contributed to the win.

big first weekend

Our first big college football weekend kicked off with both University of Washington and Washington State University playing in Seattle. Made for a fun crazy weekend. Our space whole for football has shrunk a bit since last year, but I'm happy that we are still running big pictures inside as well.

the big man

The last special section. Well, we knew from the beginning that Walter Jones was going to be the main subject of our section. There is no theme to it. We wanted to focus on a nice clean picture that really spoke about the strength of the team and perhaps the best player ever for the Seahawks. I like the way the cover turned out. I think it works well with what we were trying to get across.

Up next? Sonics special section......

foundations

This was a difficult story to illustrate. No question. An in-depth story about athletes and the foundations--some of them not currently in existence. And they were all over the country. This was story our writers started months ago and that we treid to piece along as the story developed. It ended up being a five day project. Luckily, a local major athlete was featured on each day-which made it simplier to have a lead image.

Our photographer did a really nice job with the portraits under difficult circumstances. Trying to get 5 big-time athletes is a feat in itself---but with limited time with some of them, like 3 minutes, he made them all look relatively the same, which helped the story carry over the five day period. It worked out nicely.









This is one that was tough. The story was suppose to run in the a section for all five days---but it jumped from the a1 cover to the sports cover half-way through. And then it became a secondary on the last day, which was unfortunate, especially since there was no significant breaking news that caused it.

more gloria

These are a few pages of the on-going story we are doing on a little girl named Gloria. We have run 3 more installments in the past 5 weeks. So, while the pictures may look repetitive all at once they are really showing different levels of her health over that time period. She has been in the hospital now for a good portion of that time. Hospitals can be interesting places for the media. The hospital has been giving us roadblocks too, which has made photographing the story harder.

Our main photographer shooting the story also took a vacation, so we had another photographer fill in. It is always hard to jump into someone else's story, I think. But he did a fantastic job.

Hopefully, she will be getting out of the hospital soon and we will have a positive update.

drama on the field...

The Mariners have been playing rather sporadically lately. They win a bunch and we think for sure they are going to the playoffs...then they lose a bunch and we think for sure they won't be going to the playoffs. (which is just fine for this Yankee fan.) Regardless, it makes it rather hard to plan for anything in October or to schedule.

During the first inning of this home game, our head coach gets the boot after getting into one heck of an argument with one of the umpires. It was an awesome spectacle.

I really like how this photo sums up the argument.

lunar eclipse

I stayed up all night to watch the total lunar eclipse. It was a beautiful night and was able to watch it all from the roof of my building. No clouds in the sky--which for Seattle is a pretty big feat. The eclipse was very cool.



This is another picture from the eclipse. Its hard to see, but there are stars all around the moon. Very cool.

football begins

Our prep special section cover. Our photographer did a great job under less than ideal circumstances. Hats off to him.

We didn't have a college special section this year. Instead, we folded it into our daily sports section. We kicked it off on a Sunday and tried to make it look more substantial than an average section front.

salmon run

I feel so bad for the salmon swimming upstream as hard as they can. After making through the fishing area, this big fish made it to what he thought was upstream. Many of the rivers in the area have fish ladders to help the salmon. This fish didn't get the message about that and was fighting very hard to swim up this waterfall where he would never be able to get back into the river (due to some nice man-made grates at the top of the waterfall).

These salmon are determined creatures!

falls

My mom was in town about a week ago and we were able to explore the city a little bit. We also got out of the city and headed into the mountains to relax. Here is Salish Lodge(top left) on Snoqualmie Falls.

commitment

Sports was writing a story about a minor league ball player near Raleigh and wanted us to get a picture of him. Now, like every newspaper going through financial issues, we don't hire freelancers for every request that comes our way. So, I spoke to sports on numerous occasions about where the story was going to be played. They assured me it would run on the cover of the section each time. With no other pictures of this particular player available, and after going through all the channels, we decided to hire a freelancer in North Carolina.

The freelancer did a fantastic job. The pictures were all really great and could run anywhere we needed them.

Jump to the budget meeting and they wanted to put the story inside only, apparently the story wasn't worthy enough. But after some tough negotiating, and frankly the best pictures of the day, the story started on the cover and jumped inside. The most important point I took away from this was giving and taking. Sports gave a little bit for the best photo to run well---and there are many times when the situation is reversed. It all comes down to cooperation.

756

There is a lot of controversy over Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's career home-run record. And personally feelings aside, it is still a major record in sports and breaking that deserves to be noted. And frankly, noted well.

Well, we had talked about how we would display the breaking home run for months. Seriously. Months and months. And the planned changed continually up until he actually broke it. This was the cover of our sports section.

One thing I did notice---with all the photographers at the game, the pictures were all mediocre.

friends

I have some of the best good friends. They are so much fun to be around. I miss them. Anyways, this is one of my dearest friends, Julia, doing cartwheels on my parents dock during my trip back east in July. She has apparently been doing cartwheels in pictures all over the world since she was a kid.

I've been doing a lot of soul-searching recently, which is why my blog has suffered. I will try to better about it.