Length of Ariticles

[Richard Baker]

Your paper is informative and most of the articles have interesting titles and subjects. However, due to the length of the commentary by the people submitting their articles I would suggest you limit the number of words is allowed to use. The paper will be much more interesting, eliminate rambling, easier to read, and allow more people to have their thoughts and ideas printed in your paper. However, I could be mistaken and didn’t consider the Lakewood Observer as a short story periodical rather then a newspaper. If you can’t get your point across in 250 words, it may not be worth saying.

[Jim O'Bryan]

[quote="Richard Baker"]Your paper is informative and most of the articles have interesting titles and subjects. However, due to the length of the commentary by the people submitting their articles I would suggest you limit the number of words is allowed to use. The paper will be much more interesting, eliminate rambling, easier to read, and allow more people to have their thoughts and ideas printed in your paper. However, I could be mistaken and didn?t consider the Lakewood Observer as a short story periodical rather then a newspaper. If you can?t get your point across in 250 words, it may not be worth saying.[/quote]


Richard

This is one of the most repeated comments made about the paper. The length of the articles.

We have two problems that are being addressed. 1) Covering news we need to find more "Stringers" or reporters that can submit short to the point news story and coverage. As the paper is volunteer based we do not have the ability to assign stories to but a few people. Everything else you read are "stories" submitted by neighbors. We generally allow them the space they need to make their point, though some might run over. 2) The paper was developed to amplify civic intelligence and to tackle some of the tough subjects Lakewood must face down the road. These cannot handled in sound bites.

We knew going in that this project was not going to be easy, and that we could not, out of the box, compete with other news sources.The city needed a newspaper more than a magazine, and newsprint is far cheaper than sheet fed. So we dedicated ourselves to creating a hybrid between a magazine and a newspaper. So we ended up with this hybrid. Every advisory board meeting includes the discussion on how to get more news/shorter stories, or to go magazine(monthly) or newspaper(weekly). You are more than welcome to come to any of our open meetings where these things are discussed.

The final thought on the subject came from Gordon Brumm when he said we might not be able to compete with typical papers, but we should be able to do it better, and cover stories deeper.

With those thoughts, is there any chance on us getting one or two 250 word stories out of you each cycle?

Thanks for the note. It will be discussed, and is a goal we are shooting for.


Jim O'Bryan
Publisher