Thursday, December 9, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
K-9 story
This morning, I found two short, breaking news stories about a police dog that was wounded while searching for burglars in Maplewood. The stories are from:
The Star Tribune
The Pioneer Press
I like the lead in the Pioneer Press story the best because it sums up the most important parts of the story tightly and nicely. It is very straightforward, unlike the Star Tribune lead which uses a long, awkward lead that delays the real news until the second sentence.
Although I like the Pioneer Press lead better, the Star Tribune story is better overall. It has more information, quotes, and reporting. In this competitive news market, it's important to get as much info out as quickly as you can, and the Star Tribune does a good job of that with this story.
The winner this round: The Star Tribune.
The Star Tribune
The Pioneer Press
I like the lead in the Pioneer Press story the best because it sums up the most important parts of the story tightly and nicely. It is very straightforward, unlike the Star Tribune lead which uses a long, awkward lead that delays the real news until the second sentence.
Although I like the Pioneer Press lead better, the Star Tribune story is better overall. It has more information, quotes, and reporting. In this competitive news market, it's important to get as much info out as quickly as you can, and the Star Tribune does a good job of that with this story.
The winner this round: The Star Tribune.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
News and Chocolate
While browsing the Web looking for stories to write about this week, I came across a some delicious stories about a chocolate exhibition that recently opened at the Minnesota History Center. One story is from one the well-known Star Tribune and the other is from Southwest Newspapers in Shakopee, Minn.
Although both stories were well written, I was far more engaged with the Southwest Newspaper version. This version was better mainly because it incorporated a story about a real person in the lead. The narrative lead paired with quotes got me to keep reading and kept me interested.
Despite the conciseness of the Star Tribune story, I wasn't as compelled to read the whole story. Furthermore, the lead was a bit too cutesy for my personal taste. It sounded more like the opening narration of a corny movie than that of a news story.
The winner this round: Southwest Newspapers
Although both stories were well written, I was far more engaged with the Southwest Newspaper version. This version was better mainly because it incorporated a story about a real person in the lead. The narrative lead paired with quotes got me to keep reading and kept me interested.
Despite the conciseness of the Star Tribune story, I wasn't as compelled to read the whole story. Furthermore, the lead was a bit too cutesy for my personal taste. It sounded more like the opening narration of a corny movie than that of a news story.
The winner this round: Southwest Newspapers
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Charlie Sheen in the news
After hearing about another Charlie Sheen debacle on the news this morning, I thought it would be interesting to see how different print publications were reporting about this actor's troubling behavior. I will compare stories about Charlie Sheen and how he trashed a New York hotel room after using drugs and alcohol. The stories are from The New York Post as well as USA Today.
The New York Post dominated this story. The story gave the most interesting and important facts right away in the lead. The rest of the story went on to describe other good facts and quotes. I liked this story because it gave me all the info I wanted to know right away, and I didn't have any annoying or burning questions that the story didn't answer after I was done reading.
USA Today, however, did a terrible job of getting the important info out right away. The lead was too cute and feature-like for this story and it took forever to get to the good, interesting details about this incident. To put it simply, this story was just frustrating to read. I would read the New York Post any day over USA Today.
The winner this round: The New York Post
The New York Post dominated this story. The story gave the most interesting and important facts right away in the lead. The rest of the story went on to describe other good facts and quotes. I liked this story because it gave me all the info I wanted to know right away, and I didn't have any annoying or burning questions that the story didn't answer after I was done reading.
USA Today, however, did a terrible job of getting the important info out right away. The lead was too cute and feature-like for this story and it took forever to get to the good, interesting details about this incident. To put it simply, this story was just frustrating to read. I would read the New York Post any day over USA Today.
The winner this round: The New York Post
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
In the midst of the recent chaos surrounding Gopher football and head coach Tim Brewster being shown the door, every big news organization across the state has been writing their fair share of stories this week about the Gopher’s dire coaching predicament.
But when the news of Brewster’s termination first broke out late last weekend, two stories from different newspapers caught my attention in particular. The first story I read about the topic was plastered on the front page of the Minnesota Daily Monday morning, while the second version was a Pioneer Press story I read online later that day.
In all honesty, I have some mixed feelings regarding these stories in terms of which one is “better.” The Pioneer Press has a straightforward, hard-news lead and this story does not hesitate getting to the news—which is a key element in a breaking news story such as this one. It gives the who, what, when, where, and even the why in the first three graphs of the story. Overall, this story is short and to the point.
The Minnesota Daily, however, took a somewhat different route in reporting on the Brewster story. The way this story is written had a bit of feature-like feel to it, even though it’s essentially a hard-news story. In the second graph, it mentions Brewster’s record along with a bit of history about when he started. It also takes quite a bit of reading until the story tells the reader who will be filling in for Brewster, which was one of the big questions I wanted answered right away.
That being said, I must say that I enjoyed reading the Daily’s version of this story much more than the one from the Pioneer Press. It’s more detailed, has more interesting quotes from good sources such as the players and Brewster himself, and it touches on possibilities for a permanent coaching replacement.
Although the Pioneer Press published a solid, simple hard-news story faster than the Daily (the Pi Press posted their version online Sunday afternoon), the Daily’s version was more intriguing and fun to read.
The winner of this round: The Minnesota Daily.
But when the news of Brewster’s termination first broke out late last weekend, two stories from different newspapers caught my attention in particular. The first story I read about the topic was plastered on the front page of the Minnesota Daily Monday morning, while the second version was a Pioneer Press story I read online later that day.
In all honesty, I have some mixed feelings regarding these stories in terms of which one is “better.” The Pioneer Press has a straightforward, hard-news lead and this story does not hesitate getting to the news—which is a key element in a breaking news story such as this one. It gives the who, what, when, where, and even the why in the first three graphs of the story. Overall, this story is short and to the point.
The Minnesota Daily, however, took a somewhat different route in reporting on the Brewster story. The way this story is written had a bit of feature-like feel to it, even though it’s essentially a hard-news story. In the second graph, it mentions Brewster’s record along with a bit of history about when he started. It also takes quite a bit of reading until the story tells the reader who will be filling in for Brewster, which was one of the big questions I wanted answered right away.
That being said, I must say that I enjoyed reading the Daily’s version of this story much more than the one from the Pioneer Press. It’s more detailed, has more interesting quotes from good sources such as the players and Brewster himself, and it touches on possibilities for a permanent coaching replacement.
Although the Pioneer Press published a solid, simple hard-news story faster than the Daily (the Pi Press posted their version online Sunday afternoon), the Daily’s version was more intriguing and fun to read.
The winner of this round: The Minnesota Daily.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
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