The first day is in the books

The first day is over! Hurrah!

All of you should give yourselves a pat on the back. This will be the first of many, and we will only get better from here.

That being said, there are some issues that arose in the first issue. This blog was created for me (the managing editor) and Chris Lusk (EIC) an opportunity to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of our journalism.

First things first:

PRAISE

Great job to Paighten Harkins on an excellent story about OU shoring up its defenses against winter weather. This is an informative story regarding an issue students, faculty and staff may not have at the forefront of their minds.

Sean Lawson's story about Donnie Crawford's death made it into the paper today. Lawson did a great job getting the story on a Sunday at the request of campus editor Laney Ellisor. Excellent job.

I really enjoyed Kayley Gillespie's column on food facts. It was informative and well written. However, while we are all entitled to our opinions, we have to be careful and make sure they are accurate. Gillespie said "every American who is persuaded..." to eat crap has the same confused brow and oblivious look. It may be true that a lot of American's don't understand what they are eating, that's the point of the article, but be careful attributing that to every individual.

VERIFICATION

The very first paper had a large error that really reinforces our need to verify our information. From the reporter level, through the editors and the copy editors, nobody noticed the Winter Welcome Week schedule was 2011's schedule, not 2012. This is a mistake that could have been fixed if somebody took the time to verify the fact. Mistakes happen and this is the first week, but we all must remember that EVERY fact in a story needs to be double checked. Don't take anything at face value, check it out. Be skeptical. It isn't an insult to the reporter or the source, it is just a fail safe to minimize mistakes. Verifying every fact will ensure a more accurate, valuable story and newspaper.

OTHER AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT

The unique resolutions story could have TOTALLY benefited from alternative story form. Instead of writing a narrative arc, this could have been a Sooner Sampler with a small story about the amount of people that keep resolutions. Get photos of those people and get their quotes next to those faces! Students love to see themselves in pictures and in the paper. The quotes and the information in the story were good, but taking that extra step to think of other ways to deliver that information could have developed a much better package. Hell, we used a photo from another newspaper, that's a bummer. Make sure you plan!

The feature story about Ken Parker was good and informative, but once the story started getting to his background, I started snoozing. Take out bio information from a story and move it to an infobox. I understand the reasoning behind having an infobox about the Tedx event, but the feature is about him and his bio information is more important. In fact, after cutting that info out and putting it in a box, I'm sure there still would have been room for the Tedx box.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is one of the best starts I've seen since I started working at the paper. We have such a great group of people working hard to produce an excellent product. There are going to be growing pains, but that comes with any new endeavors (and when you get old, my ankles hurt for no reason sometimes). Just remember, planning ahead and communicating with the visual desks and the editors will always produce a better product. Keep up the great work. I will have more thoughts tomorrow.