Editor's Daily Note 01/02/20

Author:
Mark Trahant
Publish date:
Jan 2, 2020

AGENDA

Regular meeting.

DAILY

We still need to work on our communication. If you are moving a story … remember that breaking news takes precedent. It’s fine to schedule, but if you can’t check Slack, let someone know so we can take the story offline. We had some good stories over the holidays that were bunched up with other good stories … it’s better for readers if we can keep a good flow. On the daily we are still shooting for at least one in three time slots: 7 am EST, Noon EST, and 5 pm EST. This year I think we should experiment and try placing our lead am story late Phoenix time … so no one has to be up early putting it in the cover position.

We also need to better plan the cycle for social media, esp. IG. (Twitter and FB have been fine. But even that could be improved by planning additional tweets and conversations with readers.)

Still it was a good holiday run.

We made it through the holidays … cues are empty. But lots of stories on our “to do” list. Among them:

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Zach Young, of New Haven, Conn., places a bet at one of the new sports wagering kiosks at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., in September 2021. Legalized sports betting continued its expansion in 2023 with six states either passing legislation or beginning to accept wagering, Fanatics got into the business and professional leagues and college athletics continued to further embrace the industry. (AP Photo/Susan Haigh, File)

Parole was denied for Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier who has spent most of his life in prison. (Photo by Amelia Schafer, ICT/Rapid City Journal)

A Census Bureau plan to move up the deadline to end “enumeration,” the process of counting U.S. residents, from Oct. 31 to Sept. 30 was put on hold by a federal judge. Critics, including the Navajo and Gila River tribes, had sued to block the move, which they said would lead to an undercount, particularly for minority communities. (Photo courtesy U.S. Census Bureau)

Presidential campaign staffing. This piece should set the tone for the year ahead. We are a month away from the first votes in the 2020 presidential election.

Congressional campaigns. We start the year with two candidates for US Senate (in the same state, same Republican primary) and eleven House candidates. Here is the latest list. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SWGDBDvTKhz9gSFHu55J5GIl8y656SJBvPyNfJJaZJQ/edit?usp=sharing

DATA

Preliminary data from 2019. We had 5.3 million unique users; 6.5 million sessions. Bounce rate was 34 percent (improvement from 56 percent last year). Our bounce rate will always be high because our archives are so useful to readers. People looking for, say, true story of Pocahantas will read that one story and then bounce.

Between now and Monday I’ll write a year-end report with our official numbers.

AHEAD

Lots of prep for board meeting, staff training on Jan. 23.