A/V: Suddes Speaks at Centerville "Election News You Can Use" Event

Ohio political columnist Thomas Suddes reads from prepared notes during the League of Women Voters of the Greater Dayton Area's "Election News You Can Use" event on Wednesday night in Centerville, Ohio.

Veteran Ohio political columnist Thomas Suddes was the featured speaker to a crowd of 75 people at the League of Women Voters of the Greater Dayton Area, or LVWGDA, “Election News You Can Use” event held Wednesday evening at Centerville’s Magsig Middle School. Ron Rollins, senior editor at the Dayton Daily News, introduced Suddes to the audience that wanted to get the journalist’s take on the upcoming statewide races as well as his historical takes on Ohio’s election process and political issues. His weekly column on Ohio Statehouse happenings appears in The Columbus Dispatch, The Plain Dealer as well as the Dayton Daily News. Suddes was recently elected into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame and serves as an assistant professor and coordinator at Ohio University’s E.W Scripps School of Journalism.

SPJ Region 4 Spring Conference -- Dayton, Ohio

As the days of my self-imposed "hiatus" from online courses come to a close, I had been searching for an event that might "jump-start" the passion I had when I took up this initiative just 18 months ago.  Being a member of good standing in the Society of Professional Journalists (in a student capacity), I was already receiving email notifications about their annual Excellence in Journalism conference scheduled for late August in Anaheim, California.  Given several months notice, I would be able to set aside the shekels required to get me there plus a few days for sightseeing in the greater Los Angeles area to boot.  I was all ready to make the arrangements when I received another mailing in late March about an SPJ event that was happening practically in my backyard.

Et Tu, Gray Lady?

This weekly section marked a small, but noticeable, change for The New York Times print edition last week

If you have read any of my other posts on this blog, you might be aware that I am someone who is not a fan of change for change sake, especially when it comes to printed newspapers.  Last spring, I called out my local paper, The Dayton Daily News, for making cosmetic changes to their publication that, in my opinion, were unwarranted and simply a ploy to placate their readership's current whims.  In a follow-up piece, I expressed my displeasure with the folks at The New York Times Magazine for toying around with different fonts for its masthead in, what I hoped would be, a one-time experiment.  I haven't seen any subsequent violations of that "sacrosanct" journalism symbol since, but you can imagine my surprise when I took yesterday's copy of The New York Times out of its protective plastic sleeve and saw the wholesale changes they made to the entire paper (minus the news section, the magazine and the Book Review).

An Unnecessary 'Face Lift'

Is ANYTHING off limits, Ms. Collier?

Over the past few months, I've been getting emails and seeing updates from Jana Collier, editor of the Dayton Daily News, about improvements to the paper and updates about stories the news room is currently covering.  This is part of a self-promotion initiative started last November when the paper announced an increase in readership--the first such rise in the past decade.  The latest update I was notified about concerned changes to the DDN's "Life" section (expanded coverage and a weekly schedule for specific items--i.e. Life & Arts on Sundays, Life & Health on Tuesdays, Life & Food on Wednesdays).  All-in-all, none of these seemed to be very drastic and were merely attempts by the paper at organizing content and rebranding their local investigative and news coverage which, in the big scheme of things, did not detract from the aesthetics surrounding reading the Dayton region's "paper of record".  Unfortunately, that would all change this past Sunday.

BTS: Obama Columbus Rally

[NOTE: this 'BTS' has taken a LOT longer than I originally thought it would to compose and post.  A funeral, moving our daughter home from college and Mother's Day all subtracted time from my already meager allowance for blogging and this was an item that I wanted to 'polish up' before posting.]

So close...but still a 'no-go'

If you are a frequent visitor to this blog, you would know that I like to focus on certain areas for my reporting and politics is probably right at the top of that list.  Over the past five to six months, I've covered several events in my local area related to the current 2012 presidential campaign.  Back in November, I made my political reporting 'debut' at one of Herman Cain's last rallies before he suspended his campaign due to accusations of personal misconduct and infidelity.  In February, I attended a Newt Gingrich rally in Dayton when the former House speaker was still considered by many to be a viable candidate for the Republican nomination.  In early March, I went to two separate events in two different cities for Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney being held on the same day in the run-up to a contentious state primary contest.  So it would be no surprise to anyone that I would make the trip to Columbus two Saturdays ago to attend the "Ready to Go" rally for the kick-off of the Obama/Biden 2012 reelection campaign.

My Sentiments Exactly!

"Hi and Lois" courtesy of King Features Syndicate

It's not often that a comic strip attracts undue attention from me but yesterday's edition of Hi and Lois appeared to take a page directly out of my day-to-day life.  In the two panels above, we see a short but succinct representation of the current transition of the newspaper industry from a paper-based paradigm to one with an online domain.  'Thirsty' Thurston, on the left with his impartially branded laptop computer, represents the future of information distribution to consumers.  Hiram "Hi" Flagston, on the right with an equally impartial newspaper, is a fan of the more traditional medium.

You're Welcome!

I had a pleasant surprise this morning when I opened up my copy of the Dayton Daily News and saw a 'teaser' article at the bottom of the front page.  Julia Wallace, publisher of the newspaper, announced to the paper's readers that the Sunday circulation for the official reporting period from March-September 2011 had increased, the first such gain in the past 10 years.  She thanked the readership and directed us to go to the above page (AA4), where Jana Collier, the paper's editor-in-chief, explains the recent changes.

Interview: Jeff Stahler

Columbus Dispatch editorial cartoonist Jeff Stahler addressing 

the Columbus College of Art & Design audience

Sometimes opportunities just sort of jump up into your lap and this past Saturday happened to be one of those times.  I was attending the Columbus College of Art& Design’s annual Family Day and Homecoming weekend and it was during this event’s kickoff meeting that I found myself in the presence of a widely recognized journalist of the editorial cartooning variety.  Jeff Stahler, a CCAD alumni, was serving as moderator of a panel of recent graduates describing their lives after leaving the school.  An award winning cartoonist, Stahler draws regular panels for the ColumbusDispatch and a worldwide audience through Universal uClick (he also produces a daily freestyle panel called “Moderately Confused” for that same syndicator).  

Guest Paper: Columbus Dispatch

Living in an region within a few hours drive of four (Indianapolis, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati) of the largest 62 cities in the United States, I frequently have the opportunity to sample their journalistic offerings.  As someone who grew up with newsprint-stained hands, I prefer the physical copy to the online versions and currently subscribe to the local Dayton paper and the Sunday edition of the New York Times.  Whenever I visit those other cities, I try to buy a copy of their current edition as a show of solidarity for the traditional newspaper industry.

I made a short trip to Columbus yesterday for family-related business and made sure to keep that streak alive.  To document my support, I will post photos here to keep a running account.

A personal note:  while I understand the financial constraints that papers now face and novel ways they must now employ to attract customers for their advertisers, putting flaps or stickers or anything else on the front page detracts from the aesthetics of the reading process (the 'pre-processed' version is on the left above while the final 'converted' version is on the right).