Changes support Enterprise's success

This has been a week of changes at The Enterprise. Hellos and goodbyes were among those changes.

But one thing hasn’t changed: The fact that when there are changes at The Enterprise, the rumor mill starts grinding again.

We’re not closing. We’re not firing everybody. We’re not moving the whole business to Houston.

In spite of the fact that “leaving to pursue another business opportunity” is sometimes code for “got fired” in business stories, our publisher, John E. Newhouse II, really is doing that — pursuing another business opportunity.

But he’s hiring someone to do most of the work because what he’s really doing is the same thing he was doing more than three years ago when he became our publisher: retiring and enjoying life.

Our new publisher, Bill Offill (pronounced Off Phil) visited the building last week and seems like he will be a great addition to our office and our community. He’s been at the Houston Chronicle for more than 20 years and has worked in advertising, marketing and circulation.

Yes, we are consolidating more business services and procedures, as are most other corporations.

But, no, we’re not closing and we’re not moving. The Enterprise is here to stay.
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A reader e-mailed an angry letter to our Opinions Editor on Monday criticizing us for not covering an awards ceremony honoring teachers who received grants from a private foundation.

They were honored at a dinner at the University Reception Center in the Gray Library on the campus of Lamar University. The reader felt as though it was such a positive event we should have been there to cover it. In fact, according to the reader none of the media showed up to cover it.

There’s a good reason for that. We weren’t invited.

As a newspaper, we can attend some things simply because they are held in public, or in public buildings; or involve governmental bodies and/or elected officials. The law gives us the right to attend such things in order to represent the public and the public’s right to know.

But some things aren’t public. Even then we sometimes attend and cover such events if the organizers or hosts of the events are open to that. Sometimes we can merely identify ourselves as press and gain access for coverage.

Other times event hosts might prefer to keep things a bit lower key, more private, and either not allow media access — or as in this case, simply not notify the media that the event is taking place.

Does that mean we never cover private events? No.

First we ask nicely. If we are turned down but think the event needs news coverage, we exercise our Civil Rights and find other ways to cover it. We shoot photographs from public property. We speak to people who organized or attended the event either before or after it happens. We find a way to get the news.

In the case of the gathering about which the reader was complaining, the event was not significant enough to push the issue. We will, most likely, include the basics in a follow-up story at a later date, which is probably the coverage it actually deserved.
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Another editor and I, in what seemed like a gross misuse of our work time, spent probably half an hour Monday morning sorting out a problem with the publication of a birth announcement.

I call it a gross misuse because it probably shouldn’t take two reasonably intelligent editors that long to figure out anything, but it did.

Was it worth the effort? Absolutely.

As mentioned in last week’s column, one of the purposes of the print edition of the newspaper is to be the document of record. Births, deaths, marriages, divorces and such are an important spoke in that spinning wheel.

My very first editor, almost 35 years ago, explained the importance of that information to me. I, in turn, have explained it to many staff members many, many times since then.

Not everyone is going to be president, or mayor or the police chief. Not everyone is going to be in a serious car accident or get arrested. Not everyone is going to win a major award or receive serious news attention for their accomplishments.

But everyone is going to be born and everyone is going to die. In between many will marry and some will divorce.

Those little snippets of newsprint with that information will be clipped and pasted and stuck in the baby book, or the wedding book, or the family Bible to be preserved for all time.

Handle it correctly and most people won’t notice but instead will consider it one more routine item during that life event. Handle it incorrectly and the newspaper’s name will be a curse whispered on the lips of every family member for generations to come.

So, was it worth the time of two editors? Of course. Because now that announcement is clipped and stuck in the baby book where it belongs.

Remodeled site offers an updated look

Visitors to BeaumontEnterprise.com have had a couple of weeks to discover and explore the site’s new look, including multiple photographic entry points and more home page headline links to top stories.

The changes have been well-received, setting another record with about 4.6 million page views in the month of April.

In addition to that month-long record, The Enterprise’s online presence broke all seven daily records in April, exceeding a quarter-million daily page views three of those days.

The site’s all-time record was exceeded with a daily page view record of more than 265,000.

All that is a way of illustrating the growing number of readers who seek their news from the online version of The Enterprise, which is designed to appeal to a different segment of news readers.

One reader called this week requesting information about how to find the link to the birth announcements on our Web site.

The answer is, there’s not one.

Our Web site and our print product, though they have some overlapping content, are two different products designed to appeal to different audiences, though they complement each other.

The printed newspaper contains information “for the record,” meaning information that a newspaper of record like The Enterprise supplies because it is important for documentation purposes. Births, deaths, marriages, lawsuits, bankruptcies and vote tallies for elections are good examples.

Similarly, the news content generally will be longer, more contextual and provide greater detail than the online counterpart.

BeaumontEnterprise.com, though lacking the complete news stories and record information in the print edition, provides quick news updates, searchable databases of information and experiential activities such as commenting, reader share photos, photo galleries, opinion polls and other online involvement.

They continue to be different products for different audiences, and we continue to strive to improve both products.
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Thursday will be a day of excitement and activity for area women as Christus Hospital presents its annual LiveWell Women’s Conference, encouraging women to find a little “me” time.

The organizers have extended reservation deadlines to allow for purchase of tickets at the door, though registering online more likely will get you in to hear your choice of speakers (christushospital.org/conference). Information also is available at (409) 899-7700.

In addition to Joan Lunden and other fabulous speakers, the event will feature my favorite activity — shopping — at a special market center.

I’ll be there a portion of the day along with long-time columnist and dear friend Jane McBride, who will be on hand to autograph copies of her book, “Grace, Gratitude & Generosity.”

Hope to see you at Ford Park for a day dedicated to the women among us.
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The Enterprise’s Readers’ Choice program kicked off this week with a ballot for Best Services in our Sunday newspaper.

Although this is, essentially, an advertising promotion, it involves a great many readers and businesses as well and is something that generates a high level of interest. It has been a much-anticipated community activity since 1990, marking its 20th anniversary this year.

Programs such as “American Idol” and “Dancing With the Stars” have made paying to vote for someone to win a prize more acceptable, but we’re not quite comfortable with that concept, so we’ve made a few adjustments to this year’s competition.

-- In the past, we ran each ballot several times. This year the printed ballot publishes once, on Sunday.

-- We’ve added online balloting to the process this year, limiting voting to one ballot per computer.

-- Yes, people — either businesses or individuals — can purchase extra copies of the newspaper for extra ballots, but we’ve also limited that.

-- We also reduced the number of categories, which we recognize will disappoint some people, but we feel that making the winners’ circle a bit smaller also makes our winners a more elite group.

Online voting in the Best Services category (BeaumontEnterprise.com/Readers
Choice) continues through midnight Saturday.

Three more categories, Best Dining & Entertainment, Best Shopping and Best Medical will follow, so watch your Sunday newspapers or go to our Web site in the upcoming weeks.

We hope that each of our readers will take the time to cast a ballot, either in print or online, and make their opinions known. We truly want the selections of the area’s best of the best to represent our readers’ choices.

Technology/tickets: Both create issues

The voice mail message on the Reader Representative line, (409) 880-0748, encourages callers to leave a message and says I will call them back.

For the most part, that is true. Sometimes, if it involves a correction on which I have gotten several calls, I don’t return every call, knowing that the printed correction in the next day’s paper will let folks know I got their messages.

Sometimes, if it involves another department, I pass the information to the proper person, who then takes on the responsibility of returning the call.

Beyond that, I make a sincere effort to return every call.

Unfortunately, several dozen callers now could easily dispute that.

Because I actually have multiple roles and responsibilities at the newspaper, I have two telephone lines in my office. Calls and voice mail messages come in on both and have to be individually answered and cleared.

About 10 days ago, on a Friday, it hit me that a lot of complaint calls seemed to be coming to me from other lines in the building as transferred calls. Then, the following Monday morning there were no messages on the Reader Representative phone line, which is highly unusual.

So began several days of checking and complaining and making it known that we should be concerned about a potential equipment malfunction. It is not without precedent that the first feedback I got indicated possible “user error.”

Any techniphobe who’s dealt with electronics knows that a good percentage of the time when something doesn’t work, it’s the operator’s brain rather than the equipment that is short-circuiting.

After much checking and test voice mails and e-mails throughout the building, the determination was that, indeed, there was a problem, as I suspected.

The voice mail messages for the Reader Representative had been misdirected to a “ghost” voice mail box where they had been peacefully piling up for about three weeks. That might as well be a lifetime in Reader Rep time.

So, I listened to, noted, and handled each and every one of those dozens of messages. I’m still wading through the ones that I can do something about and have decided to dismiss those that are no longer valid, with an apology for our failures.

We will all try to do better. Sorry.
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Trustworthiness is, without a doubt, the single most important characteristic of a newspaper. Our readers’ ability to place their trust in us to deliver their news accurately, completely and on time is what fuels our business.

That’s why we might sell advertising in support of the news, but we do not sell news. It’s why, when there is a full-page advertisement obviously designed to look like news, we insist that it be labeled as “advertising.”

News space is not for sale to a business, to an individual or to a political entity. In order to be a viable, trustworthy news source, we have to be able to publish our stories unencumbered by such commercial strings.

When we decide something is newsworthy we write about it. Similarly, less newsworthy people or events are less written about.

This past weekend, that came back to bite us, or at least nibble at our toes, when a reporter was denied media access to the ZZ Top concert at Ford Pavilion on Saturday night. Our reporter could have walked out and gone to write a story about something else ... like one of the 12 other musical performances listed in our Saturday calendar of events.

Instead, she bought a ticket and did her job. The cantankerous promoter, who made it clear that The Enterprise did not receive press credentials because the three advance mentions we gave the concert did not constitute enough publicity to “earn” a pass, probably would have preferred to deny us entrance. Ford Park officials upheld the promoter’s right to do that.

We could have walked away in retribution for that treatment, but we like to think we behave more professionally than that. The appearance of the group, which in 2005 sold out a concert at Ford Park with 12,000 tickets, was newsworthy. Our readers would expect to read about the concert in Sunday’s paper. So the reporter found a way to get inside the concert and do her job.

We feel pretty good about that. In fact, in many instances, we don’t allow our staff members to accept free admission into events.

Our reporters and editors have to know that they are charged with writing about events truthfully and accurately without pressure from someone who feels they have “paid” for coverage with meals or admission to events.

Promoters might determine who will get access to their events based on advance coverage, but newspaper editors will continue to decide who will get coverage based on news value — not free tickets.

The Enterprise creates one more miracle

The first issue of The Beaumont Enterprise was dated Nov. 6, 1880. It actually published Nov. 7th, a day later. It was a Sunday, which caused outrage among some members of the community because publication was on the Sabbath.

Times and technology have changed substantially since those days of hand-set lead type, but occasionally getting your newspaper to you is a greater challenge than anticipated.

This past Thursday was one of those days.

Ordinarily copy editors come to work sometime around 2:30 p.m. and complete the production portion of their job around 10:30 p.m. They are the people who take all the stories and photos and put them together in a neat package called your newspaper.

There was nothing ordinary about Thursday.

By 6:30 p.m. the majority of the reporting and editing staff had already completed the day’s work, but the copy editors were just getting into theirs. Then the computer system through which we create the newspaper died, crashed, became completely inaccessible.

Of course, being a corporation, we had a backup plan. Problem is the backup plan wasn’t working either.

Almost three hours later, things were getting a bit stressful as we faced the possibility of not being able to produce our Friday newspaper. Plan B became Plan C with personal e-mail addresses becoming the manner of communication.

The computer program remained inoperative until late into the production cycle. We produced The Enterprise three hours past deadline, inconveniencing carriers and disappointing customers, for which we apologize.

In spite of the obstacles, unlike our earliest predecessors, we got the newspaper out on the day it was dated.

Our editor has been known to say that what we do every day is a miracle: pulling together information from many sources, produced by many people; packaging, printing and distributing it within a 24-hour cycle.

Wednesday it took a bit of divine intervention to pull off the miracle. We thank our readers for understanding that, and for their patience.
* * *
Our Friday paper included a large black and white photograph of a Tea Party rally in Arizona, along with an Associated Press story about the national Tea Party gatherings in recognition of Tax Day.

An inset included some additional information about the gathering of Tea Party supporters at Ford Park.

Our original plan called for one of our photographers to take a photo, but that didn’t work out. A reporter did attend and cover a portion of the event as planned.

We reported that was attended by “hundreds,” which, in the first hours of the event, was accurate.

Though we tried to get official confirmation of attendance at the event, neither Ford Park, where the event was held, nor any local law enforcement agencies could provide that confirmation.

In Saturday’s edition we ran a commentary on the opinions page reporting that thousands attended.

A very nice Tea Party participant with whom I spoke Monday told me they actually handed out tickets in an effort to accurately track attendance and they handed out 2,000 tickets.

We didn’t get a lot of phone calls or e-mails about our coverage of the event, though many of the dozen or so contacts were very angry.

What they lacked in quantity of complaints they more than made up for with their elevated anger levels.

Several complained that we did cover the event, expressing the point of view that the Tea Party is too right-wing and serves as an unofficial arm of the Republican Party and therefore should not be covered.

We, long ago, made the determination to consider coverage of such events, recognizing that interest is high enough to warrant coverage in spite of political trappings.

It became clear early in the day Friday that the complaints we were receiving were not from random callers, but instead were part of an organized campaign.

In fact, at one point, one of the nicer callers actually told me that — that those attending the event had been told to call the newspaper (and I’m sure other media) to complain if the gathering did not receive what they deemed to be appropriate coverage.

One very angry woman continually referred to herself as a “good American.” She and several others also threatened cancellation of their newspaper subscription as retribution for our perceived slight.

In the end, I could only tell that angry woman and others like her that I, too, consider myself to be a “good American,” and therefore believe strongly in our Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, and especially the first amendment allowing Freedom of the Press.

I suggested she might want to support that freedom by keeping her subscription.

Ultimately I, and others here, recognize that is her choice and her right only because we live in a country that allows that freedom.

News pros exercise best news judgment

Among the definitions of news is the reporting of a notable event. The fact that an event is notable elevates it to the point of possibly being considered newsworthy.

At The Enterprise, the newsworthiness of an event is determined, to a great extent, by a discussion of editors in one of several meetings each day.

Just as in most gatherings of coworkers, the editors have different backgrounds and different opinions, but they generally reach a consensus about what should be in the next day’s newspaper and how it should be presented. The one thing they have in common is education and experience that qualifies them to be editors. They are well versed in what is newsworthy.

Their qualifications are similar to what you might expect a minister to have in order to give you spiritual guidance; a doctor to give you health advice; or a butcher to tell you the best way to cook a particular cut of meat.

In choosing a newspaper to read, you also place a certain amount of trust in the editors of that paper to represent your interests as they make determinations about what belongs in that publication. You still can make your own judgments, just as you can tell the butcher you prefer chicken to beef, but we give you the menu from which to choose.

All this leads up to the story of another screaming telephone call that came into the office this past week. The phone actually rang in the newsroom and was answered by an editor who said she literally could hear the caller screaming before she even got the phone to her ear. She immediately transferred the call to me, where the screaming continued.

The conversation (conducted at a very high volume) went something like this:

Caller: I can’t believe that The Beaumont Enterprise put this big article in the paper about a sexual offender. You have a whole page with photographs and stories about a sexual offender in my Beaumont Enterprise. I just can’t believe you did this.

Me: (Trying to slip in a word in the time it took the caller to breathe, while frantically flipping through the Friday Enterprise trying to determine what on earth this woman was screaming about.) I’m sorry, ma’am, but could you tell me what page you are looking at?

Caller: I’m looking at page 1C, where you have more than half a page dedicated to coverage of a sexual offender, complete with a huge photograph.

Me: (Recognizing the caller as one of my “frequent screamers.”) Tiger Woods? You mean the story and photos of Tiger Woods?

Caller: More, elevated, angry screaming about the “sexual offender” and how she is appalled that he is in her newspaper.

Me: Ma’am, he might have behaved in a way that many people would find offensive, but he’s not a sexual offender. That’s a criminal designation. He didn’t behave very well, but he didn’t commit any criminal offenses. He didn’t break any laws and hasn’t been charged with any crime.

Caller: He’s a sexual offender. He committed adultery. That’s against the law. Why is there a story about him in the paper?

Me: Because he is commonly recognized as the greatest golfer in the world and he’s about to return to golfing in the Master’s ---- and it’s the SPORTS page.

Caller: Well, obviously you support this kind of behavior.

Me: (Elevating it a bit because I know from experience that logic won’t work with this caller.) Well, obviously you are pretty judgmental.

Caller: I BEG your pardon?

Me: I can tell you’re pretty judgmental if, by telling you that we ran a story about Tiger Woods because of his golfing abilities that you then leap to the conclusion that I personally support his sexual behavior. I don’t even like golf.

Caller: (Expletive and hang up.)

Yes, it was a difficult call to handle, though being familiar with the caller I saved myself the frustration of actually trying to reason with the woman because I knew it would be pointless.

I also recognize that it was substantially less difficult than the dozens of calls I would have had to handle from sports fans if we had not included a story about Tiger Woods’ return to golf in the pages of The Enterprise.

Newsworthiness: It’s our job. We aren’t always perfect, but for the most part you have to trust that we have reasons for what we do and try our very best to get it right every day.

When we flub, as we sometimes do, give me a call. I’m happy to discuss it with you, in a reasonable tone of voice.

Horse, or its mouth, might verify facts

Journalism, like many other events in life (childbirth comes to mind), frequently looks much easier than it actually is.

Sometimes those short two-paragraph stories take a dozen phone calls and a half-day of research. Sometimes those longer stories seem to write themselves.

One day last week we had an error in a front page caption misidentifying one of the bronc-riding cowboys at the YMBL Rodeo held in conjunction with the South Texas State Fair.

The photographer was absolutely sure the identification was correct. The cowboy had on a white hat and a red print shirt, and his right hand was taped and gloved. Although the cowboy’s face wasn’t shown in the front-page photo, all those identifying features fit another photo where the cowboy’s face did show.

Problem is, he, and more importantly his grandmother, insisted it wasn’t him.

So, over the photographer’s insistence, we started checking. It took two days and some very dedicated and cooperative YMBL members to get at the truth.

When every participant is wearing jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, a cowboy hat and boots, it’s a bit more complicated.

So, how do you identify a bronc-riding cowboy whose face is covered by a white cowboy hat? By the horse, of course.

The rodeo stock contractor identified the horse as “Doc Holiday,” which verified that the cowboy was Shane Chambliss, not Zach Dishman as the cutline said. Our apologies to Dishman, who got a score on his ride and wasn’t bucked off as was Chambliss who drew a no score.
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Then there’s always the true journalist’s axiom: “Trust, but verify.”

Last Friday we ran an Associated Press story about the death of famed oil well fighter Edward “Coots” Matthews. The story contained a paragraph I would classify as ambiguous, called to my attention by staff writer. In reviewing the story, I found another sentence that was completely wrong.

Feeling absolutely certain of the facts, I still did some research to make sure I was right, and found multiple sources that contained the incorrect information, making it obvious that those sources were the ones used by The Associated Press.

We have so many sharp-eyed, detail-oriented readers, it was a bit shocking that not one of them called me to point out the errors. We chose not to include them in the corrections listing for the day because explaining them would be lengthy and somewhat tedious, but we also felt it was something we wanted to share with our readers. So here goes:

The story said “Coots” Matthews and Asger “Boots” Hansen, oil well firefighters known as Boots & Coots, helped extinguish a flare in Algeria known as the “Devil’s Cigarette Lighter” in 1961. Actually the fire started in early November 1961.

The next sentence of the story points out that, “The geyser (of burning gas) was so great, astronaut John Glenn reported seeing it from space as he passed over the Algerian desert.” Problem is, John Glenn made that historic space orbit in February 1962, meaning the dates don’t agree.

An online video (http://www.metacafe.com/watch/231727/the_devils_cigarette_lighter/) includes clips from the History Channel that cleared up the ambiguity by noting that the fire was so extreme it took approximately six months to extinguish.

The next sentence, however, puts a good journalist on alert again. “After Iraq’s 1991invasion of Kuwait ...” The fact that we have some staff members who were in preschool in 1991 makes this a bit more difficult, but I happen to know that Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990 — the day my daughter was born.

So, researching for verification, I again found information that incorrectly said exactly what the AP story said. In fact, Boots & Coots were involved in extinguishing approximately 700 oil well fires in Kuwait in the spring of 1991, at the conclusion of the United States’ first, very brief, Gulf War.

Journalism is more of an art than a science and sometimes involves truths that change. Meanwhile we do our very best to be as correct as we possibly can on any given day.
* * *
As the delivery of news and other information generously labeled as news continues to evolve, readers have ways to find out what’s going on in their world. Even mainstream media, such as The Enterprise, now include social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as part of the overall news distribution system and a means to connect with readers.

So now, according to a copyrighted London Times story, enters yet another option, Chatroulette. The site allows video conversations between users by way of webcam. Bored with the conversation? Click “next” and have a conversation with another complete stranger.

The concept was created by a 17-year-old Russian teenager named Andrey Ternovskiy, who’s now the center of a bidding war for what purports to be the next big thing in social networking.

Me? I’m a little nervous about anything that’s Russian and involves the word roulette.

Anger overshadows justifiable concerns

Righteous indignation is a gift of sorts that allows each of us to get fired up enough about something to make a difference. It has fueled changes for generations — from the Declaration of Independence, to women’s right to vote, to Civil Rights legislation and more.

In the last week we’ve all read accounts of indignation that went beyond righteousness to plain mean spirited, angry and violent. Regardless of how anyone feels about health care legislation and the means by which it was approved, most people would disapprove of adults acting like insolent children who didn’t get their way.

There are those who continue to call for investigations and lawsuits regarding the legislation and still others who seem to want to punish anyone involved. Thank goodness we live in a country where we can still express those opinions and let our leaders know of our concerns. But, we all know there’s a right way to do that.

That said, this national behavior is eerily similar to something that’s also happened at The Enterprise. People are angry, really angry.

They scream on the telephone; they use profanities; they demand that people be fired; they want blood. Though there might have been a few times in my 30 years here that justified that behavior, it’s rare.

One caller last week told me we were all stupid and that it was obvious that nobody up here even had a high school education — because our printed television schedule was wrong.

The caller, who said he had an MBA, was complaining about a printed television schedule being incorrect when my assumption would be that someone with an MBA would approach what is, essentially, a consumer complaint in a more professional manner.

He wanted to know how we could possibly have done something so stupid and how on earth it could have happened. I explained it pretty succinctly: one of the imperfect human beings who works for The Enterprise made a mistake . . . period.

It wasn’t a plot or a purposeful omission. We weren’t trying to ruin his day, or his life, or make him angry. A human being just made a mistake.

Other callers also have turned their complaints into personal attacks full of anger and name calling. In the last six months, I’ve been screamed at, cussed out and hung up on more than in all the previous years I have dealt with customer concerns.

So, here I am, in a newspaper column that is supposed to be about newspaper concerns offering a personal opinion and a bit of personal advice: Chill.

Seriously folks, take a deep breath and a moment to think and put things in perspective. This can’t be good for your blood pressure or your karma.

We make mistakes, bad mistakes, too many mistakes. But we also do a lot of things right. When we make an error, we own up to it, correct it, and frequently apologize as we continue to try to do our best job every day. When we fail, we start over again.

So, call, please. Don’t hesitate to let us know when we’ve made a mistake, but please, leave out the screaming and name calling. We have the right to expect respect just as you have the right to expect accuracy.
•
When people call to complain about the decreased size of our newspaper, or the content, or how much things have changed, it’s my job to take the time to explain to them why.

Everyone knows about the economy. Everyone knows about the changing face of media, the Internet, and the soaring number of sources that supply “news” and information.

But this week I heard about a project that might offer a bit more enlightenment about what’s happening to newspapers and how concerned people should be about it. A Web site called Stop The Presses shares information about the difficulties of the American newspaper.

A former Dallas Morning News entertainment critic and a Dallas documentarian have released a film, “Stop the Presses: the American Newspaper in Peril,” airing on some public television stations, that explores the plight of the American newspaper and the potential impact on American democracy.

It would be a good thing if some of the people who are angry about so many other things could work up some righteous indignation to realize how important newspapers are to this country’s communication system and way of life.

Freedom of the Press is a very important concept with newspapers at its foundation.