Changes in attitudes, changes in ... looks

Readers of The Wilson Daily Times' print edition may have noticed some changes recently, and I'm not referring to the absence of veteran staff writers. Tuesday's edition provides a good example: The entire front page was taken up by a national story — admittedly a big, historic national story, but a national story reported by The Associated Press (with no attribution on the front page) nonetheless. The paper delayed publication by more than an hour to get the new president's swearing-in into Tuesday's afternoon edition. Although there was a pretty major local story — the biggest snowfall in Wilson in at least four years — no local news made it to the front page.

That's a 180-degree shift from the principles laid down for years at the newspaper, that local news is the first priority because it is news that no other news provider (Internet, cable or broadcast) had. It was a principle reinforced — actually mandated — by consultants advising the publisher. For the last couple of years that I was running the newsroom, we insisted on an all-local front every day. Even the front-page "teasers" referring to items inside the paper had to refer to local stories.

We caught some grief over this policy in the 2005 London subway bombing as we stuck to our policy of maintaining an all-local front page. On this occasion, if memory serves, we did "tease" the international story at the top of the page.

No doubt, Barack Obama's inauguration is a seismic event, but it's an event that every major news service in the country had flooded the market. For years, this and other good local newspapers have thrived on localizing national/international stories, but it's not necessary to "be there" to get a good story. An example: When UNC basketball coach Dean Smith announced his retirement, my sports editor insisted on being there to cover the story. He wanted to be able to say he was there for the big event. His story was, frankly, not as good as the AP's coverage, and by going to Chapel Hill, he missed the best stories — the local angles about "Mama D.," the Wilson woman who had cooked meals for Smith's teams for most of his tenure, and other Wilson residents who had played for or been close to Smith over the years. Those local angles could have given real life to the entirely predictable praise lavished on Smith in the main story.

Readers of the print version of the local story might also have noticed another change: The newspaper's two-deck nameplate, which was part of the 2003 redesign, has been altered to a colorful one-deck version of The Wilson Daily Times. I found the change amusing, as I had objected to the narrow, two-deck nameplate during the redesign process. My preference for the more customary full-width, one-line nameplate was both a personal preference and a commitment to  the paper's tradition, going back nearly 100 years. But I lost that argument and went forward with the nameplate the publisher and design consultant wanted.

So what's changed now? I don't know.

I am told that a new redesign is being planned that will entail a change in the paper's name to The Wilson Times. I'm also told that the redesign will coincide with a shift to morning delivery sometime this spring. It will be interesting to see how readers react to these changes.