Newspapers traditionally count readers by recording circulation. But that counts only the households or businesses that receive the paper, not how many people read each copy.

It also doesn't count Web readership.

That's about to change

From the Sacramento Bee:

The industry-supported Audit Bureau of Circulations, a nonprofit organization that verifies newspaper circulation, is about to roll out a system for counting papers' total audience. The system will go beyond paid circulation and include measurements of "pass-along" print readership -- reflecting the copies that are shared among friends or members or a household -- and the paper's local Web site traffic.

Newspaper executives admit the new system . . . will blunt the notion that newspapers are doomed -- and help them reverse their slide in ad revenue. They note that it has the endorsement of the ad community, which is a partner in ABC.

Read the full story here.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

A1: Fircrest speeding story pits urban myth against the facts.

Story about soldiers dealing with booby-trapped neighborhood in Iraq was scary and amazing.

B1: Merryman column answers some commonly asked questions about school zones. Very helpful to readers.

Memorial photo was interesting, different.

Glad we're staying on the Milligan story. Good update.

Sports: Nice to see a community sports feature on the cover. Check out the web video. The style of the tease to the online video didn't match what we normally do.

Business: Centerpiece on Washington State University Small Business Development Center was interesting and the firefighting gear business was a great way to get into it.

Soundlife: We liked the grilling tips.

Eagles: The federal government is expected to take bald eagles off the Endangered Species list. We'll update the local numbers of eagles.

NBA draft: We'll give you our best advance analysis of tomorrow's draft. And watch online today for any pre-draft trades.

City population: The US Census Bureau gives us updates today on the populations of each of our cities. Look for it in the paper tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

A1: Nice to follow up on the Gig Harbor video story. This was a complete and thorough story that sheds more light on this story from our public records request. Or was it too much rehashing of previous material? And did the headline and summary sentence make it sound like more videos were shown after the first incident? They weren't. It was before.

UW file sharing story was great hustle. We haven't seen it elsewhere yet.

Strong all-local front page. Strong local centerpiece.

B1: Strong centerpiece photo from the memorial at Ft. Lewis. Our photo staff shoots a lot of soldier memorials and once again, we have an emotional photo that doesn't feel like the same picture we've seen before.

Business: We liked seeing a story from our restaurant blog on the business cover. News-y story.

Sports: Where is Federer's fancy outfit? Is there a photo? Here's one for you all->>

Soundlife: Fun centerpiece story. More geek culture and we like it. Wish we had video online from this.

We also wish we had the review for the new Die Hard movie or at least a tease to it being online Tuesday and in the paper Wednesday. We think people would want to know that we have it coming.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

A1: Griffey story was the story of the day. Glad we had the A1 story, nice refers to online and Sports. Audio slideshow was excellent. Group thought the sound recorded by summer intern Alison Yin was really good. Check it out.

B1: Photo gallery online got readers in the train. Would have been nice to see the sleeper cars, but otherwise a nice story for B1.

Biz: Antique story is a good business trend story.

Soundlife: No comment

Sunday, June 24, 2007

A1: There was much praise for the reporting and designing of this mammoth story. Design and writing were scannable for quick readers, but enticing enough to come back to. Deep reporting, considering we don't have a social services beat. Reporter Sean Robinson told a gripping tale. Some thought it was overly long.

Group agreed that we need to continue to report this story. Question asked, why no photos of all these teachers and social workers throughout the story.

Property tax story was a great pick and its short length was nice counter to other A1 picks.

Page A17 is too deep in the A section for Iraq news in the Sunday paper.

B1: Fireworks story was direct and the story form worked well. We wanted more about where people can use fireworks in the county and that is coming.

The golf course centerpiece was fun. Glad photo was there for Ladenburg teeing off. Brent's story was nice. We loved the description of the man who had to swing in front of that huge group.

B2 story about the police officer assaulted by a juvenile was interesting enough for B1. Ended up all over TV and radio.

Sports: No comments

Biz: Favorite business movies made for a fun story for the business page. How many votes? About 60. Voelpel column on Wi-Fi was a newsy update.

Soundlife: Nice local people story on the Sisters of Vision. Unintended, but serendipitous counterpoint to the A1 centerpiece.

Monday, June 25, 2007

A1: Eismann story was our second on the Sumner superintendent, but told a nice tale about his tenure in Sumner.

Billboard story was really interesting. A graphic showing the difference in square footage would have really shown readers the changes that are coming.

B1: News obit on Tacoma's jazzman, Melatarrus Washington, was nicely written. Zeeck expressed concern that the Monday papers are getting too state wire reliant.

Biz: What are the behind the scenes things that the Rainier's Aaron Artman is doing? That question left us wanting more.

Sports: How about those OSU Beavers.

Soundlife: We would have liked to see more how-to with the electronic music story or a ranked list of software. Turns out that a complete how-to sidebar was mistakenly left out of today’s paper.

Last week Gary Pruitt, CEO of The McClatchy Company, which owns the TNT, was part of a conversation about the newspaper industry.

Here's how he summed up our competitive position among local media:

“The daily newspaper in each local market is less subject to audience fragmentation than any other medium it’s competing against, because every other outlet favors more competition within their medium. More television channels, more radio stations, more Internet, more of everything else, but only one daily newspaper in each market for the most part.

“So we’re holding on to our audience better than our competitors. Our lead over the number-two outlet in terms of share of audience is actually growing, even though our audience in print is declining. And then when you add to that the unduplicated reach of our online sites, our audience is actually growing. While ad revenue may be the best indicator to your current performance, I think the best indicator of your future performance is your audience. More people want what we produce today than wanted it yesterday.

“That’s not the profile of a dying industry.”

Foster care: We're in court this morning with Chornice Lewis as the court decides whether or not she's competent to stand trial on charges she abused a young girl in her care. This is a follow to the story we ran on Sunday's front page detailing the abuse and what the state knew about it.

Tacoma Mall: The mall and the city have figured out how sewage from the mall ended up in Wapato Lake and are working to stop it.

Ferry: King County officials are considering taxing residents to pay for a new passenger-only ferry service.

Stock analysts who watch the newspaper business this year held their Mid-Year Media Review in New York City. As part of the meeting, the Newspaper Association of America also sponsored a roundtable, which focused on the future.

Gary Pruitt, chairman, president and chief executive of McClatchy, and Scott Flanders, president and chief executive of privately held Freedom Communications, represented the newspaper industry.

For a selection of quotes from Forbes.com, click here.

Here's the note we sent to staff this morning:

Mike Sando, our Seahawks beat reporter for the last nine seasons, is leaving The News Tribune to join ESPN.com. His last day will be July 1.

Mike has done a phenomenal job covering the team and extending the tradition of excellent pro football coverage at our paper. He has been an industry pioneer in the business of blogging and is responsible for a huge hunk of the traffic on our Web site. His "Seahawks Insider" blog has twice won national recognition as the best of its kind.

Mike's exact duties at ESPN.com are still being discussed. In general, he will be part of their NFL coverage team and will do many of the things he did for us for them, but on a national scale rather than focusing solely on the Seahawks.

Mike and his family will continue to live in this area. He plans to break the news to his blog "cult" this afternoon.

What our note doesn't say is what a great guy Mike is in addition to being a great reporter. He is, and we'll miss that.

Here's his post.

A bill that will protect the press rights of high school and college journalists has passed both houses of the Oregon legislature and awaits working out the details in conference before being sent to Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) for his signature.

If the details are worked out and the bill is signed into law, House Bill 3279 will become the first piece of legislation passed by a state to protect both high school and college student publications under one statute and the first high school protections enacted since 1995. But some experts have expressed concern that the amendments legislators have tacked on to the bill will water down its protections.

You can see the full story here.

The Washington legislature got a similar bill through the House, but it died in the Senate this past session.

Eismann: We take a look back at Don Eismann's long tenure as superintendent of the Sumner School District. He retires this year.

Caseload: The state caseload forecast council meets today. Joe Turner will report on the latest data trends for prisons, schools and other government services.

Isaiah: We catch up with former Curtis High School basketball standout Isaiah Thomas, who now goes to a prep school in Connecticut and has raised eyebrows with his play at several elite events.

KUOW's Weekday program, hosted by Steve Scher, today featured McClatchy's women reporters in Iraq.

He asked these questions to set it up:

How much of the reporting is done by people who speak the language or know the culture firsthand? Are we hearing enough from native Iraqis?

His intro:

Today we speak to Iraqi women and other Arabic speakers who have been reporting and blogging on the war, including two winners of the International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award. We'll ask about the state of affairs in Baghdad and beyond. And about the challenges reporters face working and living outside the Green Zone. Call in with your questions about Iraq.

Learn more and listen here.

Read Inside Iraq, the blog written by the Iraqi journalists covering the war for McClatchy newspapers.

We forgot to mention in the paper today that we had a neat online extra. Today we had a nice feature photo from the last day of school at Manitou Park Elementary School by staff photographer Peter Haley.

You can see the gallery here.

What we left out is a note mentioning the video our multimedia intern Jessica Luppino created after spending an afternoon interviewing children about their summer plans. Check out the video here to see what's in store summer.

Mount St. Helens: We'll try again tomorrow to run the story about the melting glaciers inside the volcano dome.

Ruston: One development falls by the wayside, but another moves forward. Condos on the way.

Strykers: We'll continue to watch for news out of Iraq about our Fort Lewis soldiers in the thick of the most recent offensive.

Foss boat: A local woman intends to lauch an excursion boat on the Foss Waterway in downtown Tacoma.

Griffey: Read our exclusive interview with Junior on the day before he comes home to Seattle.

St. Helens: Adventure writer Craig Hill climbed to the rim of the mountain last week with scientists. He'll write for tomorrow's paper about the glaciers inside the dome.

Dome: The Tacoma City Council will take up the issue of significant cost overruns on the renovation of the Tacoma Dome.

Domestic: Pierce County officials are expected to announce an employee benefits program for domestic partners.

Highlights: Editors at this morning’s meeting especially liked today’s story about using a transponder to speed up the process of paying tolls on the new Narrows Bridge. We also like Sunday’s all-star graduation package and Chambers Bay coverage. (Especially noteworthy for you, the web user, are the video with the all-star grads and the interactive golf course map.)

Lowlights: We forgot to include contact information for readers who are interested in purchasing a Good To Go pass. We have added that information to the online version of the story.

Aren't there any smart kids on the peninsula? Of course there are. To produce our annual all-star graduates package, our education team sends a letter to every high school in our coverage area. We don't hear back from some schools. That was the case this year with Gig Harbor and Peninsula high schools, which didn't submit any names for consideration, according to John Henrikson, Team Leader for education coverage.

A reader asked last week how we decide which stories go on the front page. Specifically, she didn't like seeing a Paris Hilton story there.

Here's how I responded:
Our highest priority when selecting front-page stories is that as many stories as possible be local. We produce news that our readers can’t get from other news outlets, so we focus on that.

We’re looking for news, something our readers hear first from us, ideally something that hasn’t been out on TV and radio all day.

We cover some topics more heavily than other papers do, based on the people who live here. Among those topics are the military, the environment and outdoors, aerospace and major league sports. And we want the newspaper to reflect the people who live here.

We’re also looking for just plain interesting stories that people will talk about. That's how Paris Hilton got on the front page - everybody was talking about her that day.

If you'd like to watch us put together a front page, you're welcome any weekday at 3 p.m. Call Grace Ryan at 253-597-8738 for an appointment.

Rainier: We're reporting on a hiker missing today on Mount Rainier. More as we know it.

Prairie: New local research shows that simply killing Scotch broom doesn't make way for nature prairie vegetation growth. The Scotch broom steals important soil nutrients that must be replaced. Look for the story in Tuesday's paper.

Pen schools: We'll look at anticipated budget shortfalls in the Peninsula School District and what they'll mean for students.

McClatchy unveiled a new Web site today, featuring the news reports of our Washington and international bureaus, and special content from McClatchy's 31 daily newspapers around the nation.

You can find it here.

It's an interactive site, so your views on the news, ours or others, is also welcome.

Here's the official welcome to the site.

A new feature on our Web site called “Help Our Habitat” debuts Monday. (Actually that's when we'll announce it in thepaper. You can see it now on the Web site, here.)

The site was the brainchild of Susan Gordon, our environmental reporter.

She regularly gets appeals from local environmental stewardship groups seeking volunteers to help with conservation and restoration projects. Because of limited news space in the paper, Susan couldn’t always say yes to every request. Still she recognized the larger social good of connecting willing workers with groups seeking help to improve the environment.

“Virtually every weekend, and some weekdays, volunteers are hard at it: pulling English ivy, yanking out Scotch broom, planting trees, throwing salmon carcasses in streams (to increase nutrients) and monitoring water quality,” Gordon said.

She thought the Web would be a perfect place to help stewardship organizations connect with volunteers. The result: the “Help Our Habitat” page.

Seventeen groups – including the Tahoma Audubon Society, Nisqually Stream Stewards, and Citizens for a Healthy Bay -- have signed up to list their environmental stewardship events on an interactive map. (See the complete list here.)

There’s a link from the map where you can apply to add your group, and your own list of events, to our site.

There’s also a video produced by the MediaLab at Pacific Lutheran University. It features three of the stewardship projects. (It will be up on the site within hours of this post.)

The News Tribune's book on construction of the new Tacoma Narrows bridge was on the presses Tuesday.

The 176-page book, "Masters of Suspension," is the work of reporter Rob Carson and photographer Dean Koepfler, who have been covering the bridge since construction began five years ago.

It looks at the technical challenges of bridge building and the people who tackled them.

We expect the book to go on sale locally in late July or early August.

At our morning critique session, most of the time was spent talking about streetcars and fireworks.

Several editors liked the front page story and presentation on Tacoma streetcars. (Click here to read it.) Kudos to page designer Nancy Nilles for suggesting blowing out the route map, since that's what people spent time looking at this morning. Some of us were left wondering what streetcars would accomplish that buses and other forms of public transit have not. Central team leader John Henrikson said there will be time to dig into those questions, assuming this streetcar idea ever gets traction.

We also had a long discussion about the fireworks story on B1. (Click here to read.) This one surely strikes a chord. Reporter Joseph Montes said he could read much, much more on the topic; he wants to know specifically which fireworks will be banned. Our managing editor, Karen Peterson, said maybe the way to approach it next is to tell readers what they still CAN light off for the upcoming holiday -- or where they can go to make things go boom without punishment.

Look for more coverage in our pages as Independence Day draws near and enforcement begins.

The top local stories on Page One of Tuesday's News Tribune:

• A lot less gambling, and little more pub grub and tap beer. That’s the conclusion about bars, restaurants and gambling halls across Washington in 2006, the first full year under Washington’s voter-approved smoking ban.

• Lt. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby Jr. assumes command at Fort Lewis during a difficult time for the post, which has thousands of its troops fighting in Iraq.

• Washington state will move its presidential primary up three months, to Feb. 19, in hopes of generating a surge of voter interest.

The assembled editors, team leaders and other staffers huddled around the table Monday morning to critique our Saturday, Sunday and Monday editions (June 9-11).

Some highlights, with the most recent paper first:

MONDAY, JUNE 11
Kudos to the team leader who coordinated the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium's top-secret beluga mission. And of course to the reporter and photographer who covered it in the dawn's early light Sunday morning. (Click here to read it.) We are disappointed, though, that we didn't do a better job telling readers about it in Sunday's paper, since we had a story and photos on our website early that morning.

The story about the stray bullets in neighborhoods outside the Tacoma Rifle & Revolver Club was popular on our website today. (Click here to read it.) Our managing editor wished for a more detailed map, showing the houses in question in relation to the gun club and the direction of fire.

SUNDAY, JUNE 10
We liked the package on the Toledo, Ohio bridge. (Click here to read it.) Photographer Dean Koepfler catches a nice range of images and moods around his hometown of Toledo. One team leader said when he heard about this story he wasn't sure why he'd care; but after reading it, he did, because reporter Rob Carson does a subtle job of comparing/contrasting with the new Narrows bridge. By the end, you're almost angry that our bridge didn't have more community involvement.

On the business page, the centerpiece about started housing prices by Devona Wells was roundly praised. (Click here to read it.) It was one of the best-read things in the paper this weekend in our households, though we were all depressed about how little you can get for $170,000 or less.

SATURDAY, JUNE 9
Our managing editor, Karen Peterson, said reporter Debby Abe does a good job wading through the WASL high school numbers and giving a clear explanation. (If you missed the story, click here.)

A few of us team leaders wished, in hindsight, that we would have given readers a more immediate summary of election filing week in Saturday's paper -- or even by using a blog or our website to put it out there after the county auditor's office closed Friday. As it was, we waited for our big push until Sunday's paper. You can read about a big Tacoma showdown by clicking here, read a roundup of the most interesting suburban races by clicking here, or see the raw list of nearly all the candidates in the South Sound by clicking here.

Jacoby: Fort Lewis gets a new commander today, a general who comes to us from Alaska.

Two killed: We're in court today with a man alleged to have killed his parents on Christmas Day 2005.

Mariners: They have a one-day stop today in Cleveland.

The TNT will begin carrying "Parade" as a Sunday magazine supplement on July 1.

Read about it here.

See a "biography" of Parade magazine here.

We hope to continue running "USA Weekend" for some time after the change, but don't know if that will be possible or for how long.

The change is part of a larger deal with The McClatchy Co., our corporate parent. Most McClatchy papers carried "Parade" already, so we're among just a few that will be making the change.

Dan Voelpel was honored recently by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers as one of the top business columnists in the country.

The society recognized him for a body of work including a series of stories comparing Portland’s redevelopment to Tacoma’s.

Here’s what the judges said: “A unique and original perspective on companies and issues that are important to his local community. These are quite unique stories, each told in a compelling fashion and attention to detail and color, but each with an important business point as well.”

Here's a link to his columns.

The serialized stories we occasionally run in Tuesday YO! section return Tuesday with a new tale, “The Winner’s Circle.”

The new story is an 18-chapter saga about a boy named Ben who is taken in by a family that breeds and raises thoroughbred racehorses. Our last Breakfast Serial ended in January. Since then the YO page has carried an assortment of stories from the McClatchy Tribune news service.

“We’re bringing back the Breakfast Serial,” said Sue Kidd, the features editor who supervises YO!, “but readers will still find lots of familiar features on the YO page. We’ll continue publishing the Kids Across/Parents Down crossword puzzle, jokes of the week, occasional stories from McClatchy Tribune’s kids package.”

Rebecca Young’s reviews of children’s literature also run in Tuesday’s SoundLife section.

Sue also is planning a special feature for this summer: “We’re putting together a really fun and informative dinosaur page just before the opening of the “Walking with Dinosaurs” show and exhibit at the Tacoma Dome in July.”

If you just can’t wait to get started, here's a link to the first chapter.

Highlights from our discussion of today's paper

We always love it when the news gods cooperate with our talented staff and give us a variety of local news with which to fill the front page. Between transportation politics, a Kent criminal case, driving school shutdowns, amusement park upgrades and zombies in Puyallup, there was something to interest everyone.

Our Sonics beat reporter Frank Hughes has been in the front of the pack covering selection of the new general manager. He was one of the few to pick up on the demotion of beloved community figure Lenny Wilkens - our No. 1 thenewstribune.com today. John McGrath isn't that impressed with the new guy. For more, check out Frank's blog.

Page designer Carmen Dybdahl once again works her magic on today's SoundLife cover. She worked a poster and some novelty type into an effective treatment highlighting this weekend's comic show in Olympia. You'll have to refer to the hard copy to appreciate the work - the online version doesn't do justice.

After several delays earlier this week, the Air Force today scrubbed our ride-along to Afghanistan. Our hope was to be able to tell the story of local servicemembers serving far from home.

Reporter Craig Hill and photographer Peter Haley were scheduled to leave Monday with a McChord Air Force crew on a trip to Bagram Air Base in Northern Afghanistan with a few stops along the way. On Monday, McChord postponed the trip to Tuesday, on Tuesday to Thursday, and today officials cancelled it for good.

Obviously, the Air Force has more than reporters in mind when it schedules these flights. We respect that and look forward to trying the whole thing over again soon.

The top local stories from Page One of Thursday's News Tribune:

• Home prices keep going up in Pierce County, but sales are in a downward spiral.

• Four more Stryker brigade soldiers have been killed in action in the Iraq war.

• A second person is facing charges in the drug-related death of a Puyallup teenager.

• The Pierce County Council will take two competing plans to a regional transportation meeting Friday.

• It's been a long time coming for Rudy Nevarez, at 78 the oldest graduate at the University of Washington Tacoma.

We had about 10 phone calls today asking what happened to the Amish Cook column, which I edit every week for the Wednesday SoundLife section.

I usually get her column by e-mail on Mondays from her editor, Kevin Williams. But instead, I got this e-mail on Monday:

Hello - For reasons unknown, Lovina's column did not show up in the USPS on Friday or Saturday as usual, even though Lovina did send it....One of those inexplicable USPS delays.

It's unusual for something like this to happen with any of our other columnists. If we don't get a column from Larry Meeks, for instance, all we have to do is call the syndicate. They'll e-mail us another copy right away. But in keeping with Amish tradition, Lovina doesn't own a computer or a telephone. Her only method of communication with us is through her editor and the postal service.

I've had a conversation with her editor Kevin about sending us a "backup" column that we could use if there is a delivery problem in the future. Readers expect a columnist to appear every week and we always try to deliver. A backup column seems like a good plan.

There is something else we usually do when we have a columnist go missing. We typically run a box telling readers when the columnist will return, but we forgot to run the box today. For that, our apologies.

She will return next Wednesday, watch for her then. In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com. Or give me a call at 253-597-8270.

Thanks for reading us.

The top local stories from Page One of Wednesday's News Tribune:

• Construction crews unearthed a plastic bag full of human bones Monday at the site of a planned shopping center outside Puyallup. Detectives are investigating the apparent homicide, which may be decades old.

• The toll on the new Tacoma Narrows bridge will be $3 for passenger cars and trucks - $1.75 for automated toll payers - and, yes, emergency vehicles will have to pay, too.

• Rattling the neighborhood with fireworks could become a lot more expensive in Tacoma this year. The City Council is getting ready to vote on an ordinance that would make Fourth of July celebrants liable to some hefty fines.

One advantage of Our Digital Future is that it allows interesting material to live on beyond the daily print cycle. Here's an example: We posted Sunday's Generation X commentary in a more prominent spot on the home page. It's now getting additional page views and discussion.

The most prominent photo on our Sports page was of pitcher Felix Hernandez. Photographer Dean Koepfler wonders whether that was appropriate given his less than stellar performance. On the other hand, all eyes are on the young star - whether he's winning, losing or injured.

This entry is by Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy's Baghdad bureau chief from August 2005 to January 2007. (She is now Pentagon correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers.)

WASHINGTON - Six Iraqi women who've worked in the Knight Ridder and McClatchy Baghdad bureau have won an International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award, the foundation announced Thursday.

The foundation said Shatha al Awsy, Zaineb Obeid, Huda Ahmed, Ban Adil Sarhan, Alaa Majeed and Sahar Issa have dodged gun battles and tiptoed around car bombs to do their jobs in the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, yet they remain committed to telling the Iraqi experience in the face of relentless threats.

"They are driven by the desire to report accurately the situation in Iraq, to tell others what is happening in a world that is dissolving around them," the foundation said.

The women are the keystone of McClatchy's Iraq bureau, particularly as it has become harder for Western journalists to travel in the country. Through their reporting and blogs, they've helped both Western correspondents and readers understand what it means to be an Iraqi after Saddam Hussein's regime fell.

=> Read more!

Highlights from our morning review of the weekend's papers.

Our man in Olympia, Joe Turner, is one of the few press corps types who actually seems to read budgets, cover to cover. Where other people see mind-numbing numbers, he sees stories. His Sunday piece on the hike in speeding fines is a prime example.

The horti-reporters from our Get Growing blog were all over the weekend's Point Defiance garden show like Tagro on tomatoes. They produced a great live report on the blog, and put highlights in the paper.