Sponsors help classrooms use the news

Virtually every teacher at every level of education will testify that reading is among the most important fundamental skills a student must master to be successful in school.

In many schools, newspapers play a role in that learning experience.
Through a national program called Newspapers in Education, or NIE, The Enterprise has for decades helped provide newspapers for use in classrooms across the region.

NIE currently provides newspapers to 101 classrooms in 47 schools in 23 communities.
Sponsors help fund the program, which basically has always been a less-than-break-even project for the newspaper.

Now with the advent of The Enterprise’s electronic eEdition, things have changed substantially.

In the past, carriers dropped bundles of newspapers on the front doorsteps of specific schools and hoped the newspapers would be directed to the correct classroom.
With the eEdition system, newspapers are electronically delivered to specific teachers, who can allow access by as many as 25 students who might want to review current events, writing styles, the weather, history or a variety of other subjects.

The newspaper pages are delivered electronically at night, ready and waiting when students arrive in the morning.

The eEdition has resulted in a surge of teacher requests for participation in the NIE program. Teachers see the need for and value of having newspapers available as a study aid. There is even an online teacher’s guide to help them incorporate the use of the newspaper in their classrooms.

Unfortunately, the number of sponsors to provide those discounted NIE subscriptions has not grown proportionally. The link on BeaumontEnterprise.com currently says, “NIE subscriptions are currently on hold. Please check back at a later time.”
Currently, a total of 22 sponsors have made contributions from $150 to $500 in support of the program. That covers current NIE participants.

Many more teachers are interested in bringing the program to their classrooms, but that can only happen through additional sponsorships.

Businesses, groups or individuals can help sponsor classroom subscriptions by clicking on the eEdition icon on our Web page and following it to the NIE sponsorship link. Or, if potential sponsors prefer, they can call 409-838-2830 or e-mail BColvin@HearstNP.com to get information about the program.

The cost to sponsor a classroom of 25 students for one school year (37 weeks) is $350. Sponsoring the same classroom for one week is less than $9.50. Sponsoring one child for a year is about $14.

Bringing a newspaper to one child in one classroom costs less than 38 cents per school week.

Obviously, we can’t have thousands of 38-cent donations to the program. But if a church, a Sunday school class, a club, or a group of friends want to coordinate their efforts to provide a year’s worth of newspapers to a 25-student classroom, many, many more students could benefit from the program.

There’s even a fairly strong possibility that groups could suggest a preference of school districts, or maybe even specific schools they would like to help.

A daily newspaper serves as a constantly changing textbook for students, enabling them not only to develop good reading skills, but to gain a better understanding of the world around them.

The Enterprise’s eEdition now provides those newspapers in an electronic medium that is environmentally friendly and in a form that better suits today’s teachers and students.

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This last week has been substantially calmer than the previous one, but some callers still seem to think that screaming and using inappropriate language is the best way to make their opinions known.

The topic this week has been sports. Either we have too much football, not enough football, or not the right football on our sports pages. Our stories are always slanted for whatever team the caller’s favorite played against.

One caller, after some serious screaming and abusive language on the Reader Representative line, asked for the sports editor’s number so he could call and tell him to “kiss my a . .”

Really folks, we’re happy to listen to your opinions, but that’s unnecessary. We value your input and are even quite willing to hear constructive criticism, but, please, less anger and more substance.

It works better for both of us that way.

Mistakes are not part of newspaper “plot”

Government today is anything but business as usual. People aren’t just interested, aren’t just concerned, they are angry.

The conspiracy theorists seem to think that members of the media are omitting or twisting news to suit some unstated but well-organized “plan” that will result in outcomes ranging from adoption of a government health-care plan to the end of life as we know it.

The reality is, in the chaos that is the news business, sometimes we just blow it. Unfortunately when we do, it undermines our credibility and compromises our efforts to represent the news as straightforwardly as possible. We know it frustrates readers; it frustrates us too.

The Beaumont Enterprise is a local newspaper with a regional reach. Anyone looking at it should be able to tell that almost instantly. The front page is almost always all local. The stories inside section A and on the top pages of our Web site are primarily local or regional. A national story seldom gets more than a mention on the “yourWorld” page — because we are a local newspaper.

When our reporters write stories, they might check Web sites or other publications for basic information, but if they use any of that information, they attribute it. For the most part, they go to original sources to do their own reporting.

We have no reporters in Washington, D.C., (or New York, or Iraq . . .) We don’t always have the means to do original reporting of national or international interest.

We are a Hearst newspaper and therefore have some resources, like a Hearst Washington, D.C., bureau for information. We also use information from The Associated Press, a news cooperative that helps us provide our readers with news from other areas.

What we don’t generally do is assign staff reporters to national or international stories, though they might pursue local angles on those events.

On Sept. 12, when thousands of taxpayers marched on Washington, D.C., to protest government spending, we missed the story. The Associated Press listed the march on its story budget, but our editors on duty missed that notation and left the story out of our Sunday paper, and then our Monday paper.

There was no plan or plot; they simply left out a story that should have been in the newspaper. Because the event was on a weekend, it took us two days to fix that mistake. Tuesday, after complaint calls and e-mails from readers, it was on the “yourWorld” page, as it should have been Sunday.

Additionally, early in the week, news surfaced about a video that showed alleged abuse of government funding by an organization known as ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).

The video, said to be secretly recorded by concerned citizens, surfaced through media sources and was interpreted by some as being supportive of the operation of a house of prostitution that would employ underage illegal immigrants. We ran a story about the group, but not as soon as we should have.

Late Monday, the U.S. Senate voted to block funding to the controversial ACORN group because of a voter registration fraud investigation. It was almost 9 p.m. Monday when AP moved the story, which was not listed on any earlier story budgets.

It should have been in our Tuesday paper, but it wasn’t. We blew it again. Twice in one week we left out stories that were important to our readers and that should have been in their newspaper.

We did, however, run a fairly lengthy story in our Wednesday paper including mention of the video, a follow-up story on Thursday and multiple letters to the editor justifiably critical of our omissions.

In between, I had so many angry, vile calls from readers accusing us of some kind of conspiracy that I wanted to run from The Enterprise building screaming.

Among them:

-- A woman who, because I told the truth and answered “California” when asked where I was born, said she therefore knew where I stood on these issues and that I should just leave Beaumont if I hated it so much. She didn’t even want to respond when I criticized her for pre-judging me based on that one statement. (Trust me, I consider myself a Texan.)

-- A caller who said she wasn’t calling me a liar, then called back and left me a message saying I was a liar and she hoped I went hungry someday.

-- A caller who said I am obviously a liberal (something people who know me would laugh about.) Truth is, I am liberal on some issues and conservative on the others — just like most Americans.

-- A caller who was going to call her attorney because I addressed her by name, based on the caller ID on my office phone. In her opinion that should be illegal.
-- A caller who was offended when I pointed out that I knew his call was based on comments from conservative talk show host Glenn Beck who that morning had told listeners to call their local newspapers and complain, and don’t back down and don’t be timid.

-- A caller who knew we hadn’t reported on the ACORN “scandal” because it wasn’t on our Web site, his only source of information because he doesn’t subscribe to our newspaper.

Angry readers who feel the need to vent like this need to recognize that the more they scream, the harder it is to hear their message. Just as in our case, their behavior undermines their credibility.

Based on this experience, this is my advice to readers:

-- Do call, please, when something concerns you, but don’t make it personal. My job at The Enterprise is to resolve problems and chase down solutions. I don’t always have immediate answers, but I do try to find them. Blaming me for newspaper decisions (or in this case, mistakes) is as wrong as blaming a refinery worker for air pollution or a grocery clerk for the high price of food.

-- Don’t assume the worst. We are human and we make mistakes. We try to correct them. In almost 30 years at The Enterprise I’ve never known anything to be part of a “plot” to slant the news in either direction. Frankly, we usually don’t have the time to be organized enough to carry out a plot even if we had one.

-- Treat me and others you encounter with respect, just as you have the right to be treated with respect. I have a very long fuse, it takes a lot to make me angry, but I was angry most of last week and it’s not an experience I wish to repeat.

A footnote to the ACORN story: The organization’s Web site says the staff member in the video was simply playing along with the two amateurs who made the tape. She said “They were not believable . . . somewhat entertaining, but they weren’t even good actors. I didn’t know what to make of them. They were clearly playing with me. I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me.”

The group has published a release stating that they have repeatedly been the victim of the “right wing media,” which, “has attempted to blame us for everything from the 2008 financial crisis to voter fraud.”

Doubtless, they consider us part of that “plot,” too.

Law shines light on public business

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A bumper sticker sometimes seen on cars in the region says something like: "If you can read this, thank a teacher." Today's column offers a bit of a twist on that theme: If you know what's going on with the government, thank a newspaper.

Open meetings and open records are protected by legislation that gives every person in this country a right to know what's happening in public buildings and how their tax dollars are being spent.

Open records rulings explain why readers can go to BeaumontEnterprise-.comand find out the salaries of county or state employees; TAKS scores at a child's school; library locations; or the number of foreclosures in their county.

A New York Times story earlier this month bemoaned the fact that many newspapers, facing financial struggles, have curtailed their efforts on behalf of open records.

Enterprise readers should know that though we've documented some of our challenges and cost reductions here, open records battles remain a priority.

The Enterprise fought to get TAKS results from one local charter school, feeling that parents of students enrolled there had the right to know about the measure of the school's overall performance.

Similarly, The Enterprise continues to work with the Texas Attorney General's office to gain access to Beaumont Police Department's Use of Force reports in an effort to review any patterns that might reveal themselves in those records.

The city of Beaumont has opposed release of those records claiming that they are part of personnel records and therefore not subject to public information rulings. The Attorney General, for the record, disagrees with that finding.

Citizens, and their media counterparts, need to be diligent about continuing to uphold this law.

*

In other newspaper-related news, an Associated Press story this week reported the results of a Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey that revealed that more and more people think the work of the media is inaccurate and biased.

In 1985, 34 percent of respondents to the survey believed stories were "frequently inaccurate." The July survey of more than 1,500 adults now says a whopping 74 percent of respondents "believe stories tend to favor one side of an issue over another." That result reflected a 66 percent increase on a poll two years ago.

Although Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, acknowledged that some of the problems can be attributed to belt-tightening budgets at newspapers across the country, he didn't think all of the blame belonged there.

"The great flood that goes under the heading 'news media' has been poisoned by junk blogs, gossip sheets, shout radio and cable-TV partisans that don't deserve to be trusted," he wrote The Associated Press in an e-mail.

Most professional journalists are keenly aware of this perception and seriously recognize a ed to be diligent with facts and protective of unbiased presentation of the news. We hope most readers will recognize that all "media" are not created equal.

Prediction shows inevitability of change

Michelle Duggar is pregnant with her 19th child; Jon and Kate are still fighting; and newspapers continue to change. Some things, it seems, are inevitable.

All the recent discussions about The Enterprise’s new eEdition generated a lovely e-mail from an older reader about the nature of change and how we must celebrate rather than resist it.

She wrote to share what she does and doesn’t like about some of our recent changes, but also offered this interesting tidbit:

“In 1953 I was a senior in the journalism school at the University of Missouri. There was a class — Future of Newspapers — we all had to take.

“Although there was TV in those days, there were no personal computers. The speaker told us that in the future there would be no such thing as newspaper delivery to the home, nor would you buy a newspaper at a rack or store.

“You would turn on your TV and the entire newspaper would appear on your TV screen and if you desired it, a printout would roll out beneath the screen.”

That’s not quite the reality of today’s newspapers, but it’s a pretty good estimation considering it came more than a half century ago.

More than one person has asked me if the eEdition means the end of the printed newspaper. No, at least not now.

Will it someday mean we don’t print a newspaper? Probably. Just as it probably will mean that we don’t print other books — even textbooks. With electronic downloads and a variety of devices available to store and display that information, one day it simply will no longer be practical.

It will be just another change that is inevitable.

When I came to The Enterprise almost 30 years ago, reporters still typed on typewriters (albeit electric ones) with carbon paper. Shortly thereafter, we began converting to computers, but it wasn’t a personal computer system like we use now.

It was a mainframe system with all the computer monitors linked to a room on another floor filled with big machines that were the “brains” behind all our work.

The newsroom was equipped with bells and red lights that were supposed to warn us when the computer system was going down, but the reality was, they generally sounded and flashed about 30 seconds after all the computers locked up. Those days were filled with a lot of frustration — and almost-finished stories lost in the chaos that had to be written again.

In the 1920s Enterprise building, the third floor where the newsroom now is housed actually once held linotype machines. Those were the days of hot type — melted lead used to form the letters that would eventually become the newspaper. A skylight in the newsroom — with windows that used to open to let the heat escape, is a reminder of those times.

Next week, The Enterprise continues to change, not a great deal, but slightly. Next Monday’s page 2A will feature a new “Driver’s Seat” column sharing information about road construction and potential traffic problems. That Friday, we’ll return with an updated version of the popular “Asked and Answered” column, so get your questions ready. In between there will be some other modifications we think will improve our product.

We hope you like the changes. There will be more, because that’s what we, not just newspaper people, but human beings do — change, grow and thrive.

In responding to the kind reader who shared her story about the 1953 version of the “Future of Newspapers,” I shared my own story of a similar experience.

Years ago, probably in the early 1980s, a speaker at a professional conference was billed as a “futurist” — someone whose role was to follow trends and predict what might be the next big thing.

She made what at the time seemed an incredible prediction.

“Someday,” she said, “we will all have our own phone numbers and everyone will have their own telephone. We’ll all get a phone number and we’ll have it our whole lives and people will be able to call us anytime, anywhere.”

Changes, good or bad — they are inevitable.

eEdition generates comments, questions

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Enterprise readers have had more than a week to explore and experiment with the newspaper's eEdition. Their reactions could probably best be characterized as "mixed," though most were generally positive.

The move to the electronic product was characterized as everything from "sneaky" to "a great idea."

One reader, who called the change "sad," complained that people who can't afford to purchase a paper will no longer be able to read the full newspaper on BeaumontEnterprise.com.He (or she) is correct, though the entire newspaper was never online. We have made the decision to stop giving away to some people what we charge others for.

It's a change that, like most we've made, seems to make good business sense.
BeaumontEnterprise. com will still exist, but it's an entirely different product than the eEdition. It will still contain frequent breaking news updates, photo galleries, photo sharing, videos, blogs and other features, but it no longer contains entire stories that were published in the print edition.

As one reader put it: "They cannot afford to give away their reporting any more than Kroger can afford to give away food. Reporting costs."

For the reader complaining about being able to afford the news -- the electronic delivery price is about half of the cost of the print edition. EleceEdition tronic delivery is $8.95 per month. Current print subscribers who want to add an eEdition subscription receive a discounted rate of $4.25 per month.

If you still haven't tried it, check out the features of the service vby way of a demonstration at this link.

If you decide you're ready to commit to this new era of journalism, you can click the eEdition button at top right of the homepage or go to this link.

Or call toll free 1 (800) 891-3638.

One curious reader this week tried to read a little something extra into the launch of the eEdition.

She wanted to know if this means The Enterprise is discontinuing its print edition.
The answer is an emphatic "no." The eEdition is merely an alternative way to provide news to those who are interested in getting it.

It is a greener choice involving electronic delivery rather than paper.
It's also a good alternative for out-of-town readers who don't want to wait for the mail to arrive to read the news.

The eEdition is not a replacement for the newspaper; it's an alternative form of delivery.

* * *
More than one reader has called in the last week to complain about feeling left out.

All were subscribers who don't own computers and don't want to have anything to do with computers.

Their complaint was that, more and more, we seem to put extra features on our Web page that aren't available in our print edition.
That's true.

That's a big reason our Web site exists.

The print edition has a finite amount of space and that space has grown smaller as advertising has declined -- a sign of both the economy and overall societal changes.
The Internet, on the other hand, has virtually unlimited space.

That means we can include information such as the list of new Texas laws taking effect today, complete football schedules and databases with the salaries of Jefferson County employees -- things that we'd never have -- and never have had -- the space to put in the printed edition.

Readers who don't have access to a computer will miss out on that information, just as they miss the opportunity to get on-line-only values from stores or print their own coupons.

We're not trying to keep them from getting all the information we have available, we just provide that information in a variety of ways.
One of those ways is by way of computer.