The same day President Barack Obama ordered a rollback of government secrecy, he also stepped into mess.

On Wednesday, three news agencies refused to distribute photos of President Obama in the Oval Office for the first time. The photos were taken by White House photographer Pete Souza. The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse photographers were not allowed to capture the president at work on his first day in the Oval Office, long considered the president's public office and generally open to some news photography.

Michael Oreskes, managing editor for national news at the Associated Press, was quoted as saying, "We are not distributing what are, in effect, visual press releases." The AP also rejected a photo of Obama re-taking the oath of office that was taken by Souza.

So how did The News Tribune obtain the photo, and why did we use it when other international news agencies refused?

Independent news coverage is very important to editors at The News Tribune. When other photos are not available, we will occasionally use photos from "official sources" such as the White House, Boeing, the NBA, etc.

On Wednesday afternoon, our wire editor Jonathan Nesvig, AME-Visuals David Montesino and I (photo editor) had a conversation about the boycott and whether to use the photo or not. We decided that it was a historic moment, with mood and significance. It's unfortunate that independent news organizations were not able to take photos of the same moment. Without an alternate source, we decided to use the photo to mark the day. The photo was distributed internationally by the McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT), a division of The News Tribune's parent company.

Dozens of newspapers across the country (newseum.org) made the same decision.

On Thursday, the AP, MCT, APF and others photographed the president extensively as he signed an executive order to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Friday, June 13, 2008

A1: "Gitmo ruling" headline says ruling grants rights, but the Constitution actually grants the rights, SCOTUS upheld them.

Loved the wire photo on the back of the A section of a dog look at salmon.

"How to pick" box was very useful information for readers with the TSA centerpiece.

B1: Loved the Nose graphic and column. Funny stuff.

Sports: Great centerpiece on the local golfer, Kyle Stanley.

Business: Too much exploded type in the centerpiece. Great idea for a story.

Go: Reader comments have tapered off about the change in format

Thursday, June 12, 2008

A1: Rainier rescue story was fascinating, well-written.

Rhubarb was great local story. Excellent photography.

Nice beat work from reporter Ian Dempsky yielded "Feds sue state" story.

B1: Nice centerpiece feature photo.

Sports: No comments.

Business: No comments.

Soundlife: Great subject for the Sound to Narrows. Be sure to check out the video.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

A1: Centerpiece was a well-written tale about a sad incident. Nice details in the story.

Fishing monkeys headline on the back of the A section had a great headline. Made us chuckle.

Good coverage on the Rainier story. Here's the latest story.

B1: Merryman column was an interesting story, points out the value in traveler's insurance.

Thanks to the Snohomish County Herald for helping us cover the Donalydia Huertas trial.

Sports: Great McGrath column.

Business: Voelpel column was interesting, great "green" topic.

Soundlife: Grilling tips seemed propane-intensive.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

A1: Lots of news in the A section. John Gillie and Dan Voelpel stories on the Euland resignation complimented each other. We had great sourcing for that story and broke the news early Monday.

Should the Russell story have a timestamp? Or the police chase story? It's still unclear when to timestamp stories in the paper.

Back page photo was shot by Janet Jensen. The Pursuit story had lots of great detail and many voices. Well done.

B1: Another newsy page. On B2, "Woman convicted of abuse" story could have been on B1. We'll cover the sentencing later this week.

Sports: Nice bold presentation on Ken Griffey's 600th homer.

Biz: Nice lede in the centerpiece on custom funerals and pre-funerals.

Soundlife: Nice look back at the Hilltop Artists in Residence Tacoma program.

Monday, June 9, 2008

A1: Some head scratching over the "Knowing our pain" headline. The group got it, but it seemed obtuse.

Debby Abe's story about senior projects was interesting and showed the inconsistencies of how this good idea is not well executed at some schools.

On A2, the Tall Ships house ad has an error. The URL for the tall ships web page is not active yet. We're working on it this week.

B1: Nice sense of place centerpiece on the Tacoma Armory.

Biz: We liked the headline on the Wilcox Farms CEO.

Sports:

Soundlife:

Sunday, June 8, 2008

A1: Earmarks centerpiece. Interesting and informative. The AP story on A9 claims outrage, but we just show the money. Does the AP story overstate earmarks as a reason for Congress' realignment during the last election cycle? Maybe. There were a couple of questions about the presentation too. What are those mugs doing for the readers? They represent, in order, earmark money brought to the state by our delegation. And the headline is a specific number, but the story explains that it's not the actual number.

There's a lot of great content to promote in the paper besides Big Brown losing. The group thought it would be better to tease more content inside. We prefer 3-4 teasers on the Sunday cover.

B1:

Sports:

Biz: The cell phone centerpiece was useful information for readers. Stay tuned for more cell phone law stories.

Soundlife: Fun read about miniature golf. The story needed a time element. The match happened last December, but that's not in the caption or story.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

A1: Photo of chilly kids is great, really nailed it. Sunshine graphic was nice addition to the page. Teasers are successful. Numbers are always great in teasers and these worked.

B1:

Sports: Jake Locker story was interesting.

Home & Garden: The before garden photos were too small. On the cover and inside they were hard to read.

Friday, March 7, 2008

A1:
Readable lede story on the Sonics. Nice job of writing and providing context for the story. Thanks to Scott Fontaine for helping out.

The bell story is a good yarn, following a story many of us remember. Interesting details.

Nice design on the teasers at the top of the page. Comics, basketball and movies with beer. Must be the weekend.

Nowthwest-y story about smelt dipping and the disappearing culture of that annual event.

B1:
The centerpiece is designed according to our prescribed style, but it didn't work because the copy block was too big. At the size it is, regular body copy and a headline would have probably looked a lot better.

We wished we had a mug shot of the ELF defendant.

Sports:
Great high school basketball coverage. Strong effort by all involved. We liked that there was a photo referring readers to A1 for the Sonics story.

Business:
The Pizza and Pipes story brought back memories for many of us. We probably could/should have made a centerpiece out of it.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

A1:
Photo editor (me) argued that we could/should have used one photo as a dominant photo. There were two bigger stories that we could have focused on with a dominant photo (McCain or Clinton) to give the page more impact. We use smaller photos of every candidate every time. Others felt that the overall display is good, especially using the numbers. Texas results could have used an asterisk, since the Texas caucasus will change the news of that's state's results.

Delegate count is more important than percentages at this stage of the game. Maybe next time we focus on delegates for our breakout numbers.

The kidney transplant story is interesting. Glad we had it. What's the wait for an anonymous donor in Washington?

B1:
Kilroy reference is funny, throwback. Not all our readers will understand that one.

Merryman confirmed that all the students quoted in the Emerald Ridge paper story about oral sex are 18. Nice follow from our columnist. Would readers be interested in an online chat?

Glad we had the clothing bank story. Something good in the paper that readers should know about.

Russ Carmack's photos from the voter's guide art were fun on the Show & Tell page.

Sports:
We liked the centerpiece treatment, using photo corners to make them look like scrapbook photos.

Business:
Interesting centerpiece treatment on the price of coffee beans. Making something out of not much.

Soundlife:
Ed's Diner blog post printed in the paper is a great addition to the food page. We're going to try to do it more often.

A1:
Good lede on the centerpiece story about the double-murder. The first couple of paragraphs really drew us in. We decided to name the victims before the medical examiner released the names because the hometown papers for both victims had already released their identities.

Jason Hagey's story on the Gateways for Youth and Families follows up on a larger story published last year. We should have pointed readers to the website to read previous stories.

B1:

Cure feature photo.
Sports:

Nice treatment of the all-area basketball teams centerpiece. Sometimes, we have a graphic that helps ID the players. that would have been nice to have had.

Business:

Gas price stories seem like a broken record, but readers continue to be interested.

Soundlife:
There's an opera based on the Bugs Bunny cartoon? Well-written story that left us all singing "Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!"

Monday, March 3, 2008

A1
AP package was interesting. The roundup was helpful for readers to be able to look up their districts.

B1
Nice to have a local angle on the stair climb story.

Sports
No comment

Business:
There was management advice and some interesting facts about the company

Soundlife:
Are our readers really going to a museum in Poland? It would have been nice to have had a local story there.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

A1
Great centerpiece on jail crowing and early release. The photo treatment was a great way to show early release, especially since there were no voices from people processed this way in the story.

The WASL story was great reporting and a scoop.

Muskrat above the fold? How about the election story.

B1
Story about student paper reporting on oral sex in the school was well done. Great sourcing for a Saturday.

Sports
Great high school basketball coverage. Incredible depth and visuals all week. More online coverage than ever before.

Business
Newsy page. Good local stories.

Soundlife
Great look at the art glass installed at the Murano downtown Tacoma. We were wishing there was more color inside for the photos on the jump.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

A1
Final story on the cost of housing the dogs was well done. We wanted the cost - $127,000 - in the headline. It's still a shocking amount.

B1
Cool photo.

Soundlife
Not a seasonal story. It would have been better in November. One also mentioned that it was hard to follow the jump. Not obvious that the package continued.

Friday, January 18, 2008

A1: Good pick to take the Husky Stadium story out front. The teasers were good, direct. Online today is also dressed up.

Write your own weather-joke or mistake? Joke. And a fun one.

Centerpiece on Alcohol Impact Area tells story from neighborhood point of view.

Ex-Cons: wanted Joe Turner to hit it harder higher in the story.

We need consistent style when we ask readers to comment on stories online.

Great photo on the back of A from the fire by Russ Carmack.

Southsound: Liked the packaging of the centerpiece. A2 story about three men charged with homicide should have been on B!. Ruston Police chief story was also great.

Sports: Bellarmine-Gig Harbor game sounds like a great one.

Biz: Interesting mix of stories on the page. Local feel to the page.

Soundlife: Reporter Jackie White writes about gray. We really wanted to know what the items were and how much they cost.

Go:

Thursday, January 17, 2008

A1: Group liked the overall design of the teasers and the "Dream On" part of the Boeing refer, but thought the delay was the oldest news in the paper.

Centerpiece design was great. Loved the photo and the breed mugs, but these are not the actual dogs and we should have said so. Could the kicker have been more specific to the cost, which is the central theme of the story?

South Sound: Story about the chlorine leak fine we well-reported and written. Reporter Susan Gordon writes with authority.

Centerpiece was great. It would have been nice to get the Tall Ships Tacoma reference higher in the story or in the display type.

Sports: McGrath column is a classic from him. There might me one too many photo of a coach in action on the cover.

Business: Nice page, design. Timeline is good.

Soundlife: The centerpiece about how to purchase a boat is great. It was an opportunity to do an infographic maybe with more detailed information, but we still liked the numbers and how it was written.