Explain Yourself ...

Football heaven

Football fans are in hog heaven this time of year, and we don’t mean Arkansas. The popularity of football throughout Texas can be seen in the traffic we are generating not only to our Cowboys page on star-telegram.com, but also to our high school sports site, dfwVarsity.com. We had a successful launch of the site last season, and the audience continues to grow.

In addition to complete statistical information and individual team pages for almost 100 area high school teams, fans can interact on our message boards and by posting photos or video they have taken at games. And this year we’re really excited about the debut of High School Huddle, our weekly Online show that looks at the week that was in high school football and at the big games coming up this week.

If you haven’t taken a look yet, go to star-telegram.com and click on dfwVarsity, or just go straight to www.dfwVarsity.com. We believe we have not only some of the best high school football in the country here in North Texas, but also one of the best high school Web sites.

-- Ellen Alfano

Changes

We're taking some pro-active steps to improve our newsgathering and presentation, even as American journalism changes around us. We're preparing instead of responding. Today, our editor announced some leaderhsip changes. What it means: We recognize multi-media and online journalism are critical to how we cover news and how we share it. So we're putting two great people who are great journalists in charge of those areas. Here's the new lineup:

KATHY VETTER becomes managing editor/multimedia and will focus primarily on our video and interactive efforts.

GARY HARDEE, who until now was over the editorial operations of the Alliance Newspapers and served as publisher in Arlington, takes over  as managing editor/online.

OK CARTER becomes publisher in Arlington.

Wild about Harry

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m wild about Harry. Several months ago I ordered a copy of the last installment of J.K. Rowling's series about the boy wizard and I’m as eager as anyone to learn Harry Potter’s fate. I am tracking the progress of my copy and as of Thursday, it was in Mesquite. So, I’m hopeful that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be on my doorstep Saturday. <p>

As with any pop culture pheomenon, Harry Potter news is pretty much overshadowing almost everything else happening today, including the Dow Jones retreat from the record 14,000 it reached Thursday, David Beckham and his wife Posh Spice and the disturbing case of Michael Vick and dog fights. Our Web site has a story about how people are lining up a few hundred deep at book stores to claim their copy when the books become available at 12:01 a.m. Some people may shake their head and wonder about priorities, but I don’t see any negatives associated with the fascination with Harry Potter, and certainly none with the idea of reading a book.<p>

It’s true that Rowling is probably writing more for older teens and adults now and that her books are so long that the most recent movies have not been nearly as good as the first two, but Harry has made her supposedly the second richest woman in England after the Queen, so who’s going to quibble. My objective is to perhaps avoid news accounts on TV, in print and online that reveal the ending before I have a chance to find out for myself.

I’m just hoping it doesn’t end with a blank last page and we have to draw our own conclusions. One of those a year is enough.

-- Ellen Alfano

Newspapers face numerous challenges nowadays and one of them is how to prioritize stories on the front page, and the type of stories that should be there. Traditionalists in the print industry and among readers prefer hard news, of course, ranging from major national and international events to a dramatic local story. Some readers grouse when a sports story or celebrity news makes it on 1A even though those subjects have become an integral part of our lives.

That isn’t an issue, however, on the Internet. On any given day, the Star-Telegram’s home page is a potpourri of news reflecting the divergent interests of visitors to our Web site, many of whom also read the paper. While visitors to our Web site may complain at times about having difficulty finding stories (ease of navigation), no one questions the number of stories and links on the home page, or that they run the gamut of news coverage from what’s happening in the Metroplex to the latest from Iraq, how our local teams are faring, what are Britney and Paris are up to today and what our columnists and bloggers think about matters great and small.

On Thursday we generated something of a perfect storm when we ran a photo of Tony Romo and Carrie Underwood on the home page with a story from sports writer Clarence Hill. Romo is the Dallas Cowboys quarterback and we have come to learn that any story about the Cowboys will usually generate the most Web site “hits” on any given day.

Underwood was the winner of the American Idol competition two years ago and has become a country music diva virtually overnight. Romo was escorting her to the Country Music Awards in Las Vegas.

What a winning combination – sports, music, celebrity and a star from TV’s most popular show. Not surprisingly, that story was among the most read on our Web site. And while some people may wring their hands and shake their heads over our priorities in life, the facts are that as many, if not more, people will be talking, chatting or blogging about Romo and Underwood as they will any news story of the day.

-- Ellen Alfano

In the past week we’ve dealt with some very serious issues. A Virginia Tech student killed 32 students and teachers in the worst school shooting tragedy to date. But there is another story that has continued for more than a month now, and while it may seem trivial in comparison, it touches many of us living in North Texas.

Every day, it seems, we read about another pet product being pulled off the market because it is tainted. We switched dog food in our household to a brand with all natural ingredients, and lo and behold, on Thursday that company announced a recall of its cat food. Now, we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Tainted food is a problem affecting people as well as animals. But at least we have a choice when we hear about packaged lettuce with e coli or a restaurant that was serving a batch of e coli infected onions. We decide what we eat and where we eat it.

But our pets don’t have that ability, unless of course, they’re sitting at your feet during dinner, looking for a few morsels of people food. Otherwise they trust us to take care of them, treat them well and not give them tainted food. Because tainted pet food is so widespread, it seems virtually impossible to find an alternative.

Prepare your own meals for your dog or cat? That’s not really feasible especially when you consider they may not receive the nutrients they need. The other revelation for me is that it really doesn’t matter which brand you buy – it seems one company is responsible for supplying most of our pet food.

I realize that relatively few dogs (and cats) have died, but how many dog years will be lost when our pets eat this stuff over time? Let’s hope pet food companies and pet stores help us to do more to ensure the health and well being of man’s best friend.

This time of year is called March Madness because of the NCAA basketball tournament, but I can attest that for the Star-Telegram Sports Department, the “madness” only increases when the tournament ends on April 2. As a former sports editor I can empathize with Celeste Williams, the Assistant Managing Editor of Sports, who won’t be able to come up for air for the foreseeable future.

April 2 is not only the day of the NCAA final, but it is also Opening Night for the Texas Rangers, who play their first game of the season in Anaheim against the Angels. Our sports staff will be up against a couple of tight deadlines that night.

The NHL regular season ends after the first week of April, and we’ll be gearing up to follow the Dallas Stars in their quest for the Stanley Cup. Less than two weeks later, the NBA regular season ends, and the Dallas Mavericks – who have the best record in the league – will enter the playoffs to not just reach the Finals as they did last season, but to win their first championship.

The week of April 9 NASCAR arrives in Fort Worth at Texas Motor Speedway for a week’s worth of preparation for the Samsung 500, Sunday, April 15. Lone Star Park starts the thoroughbred season April 12. And the month ends with the NFL draft on April 28 and 29, when we’ll see what priorities the Dallas Cowboys have placed on filling needs for next season.

In addition to daily coverage, our sports staff will be producing specials sections for baseball, basketball and hockey playoffs, the Samsung 500, and comprehensive coverage of the NFL draft. There is no off-season for sports.

-- Ellen Alfano

When the McClatchy group purchased the Knight Ridder newspapers -- including the Star-Telegram -- we knew that in time our Web site www.star-telegram.com would move to a new platform. That is the first step in what eventually will be a makeover of our Web site, which will be redesigned and easier to navigate.

Now, changing to a new platform means a lot of furious work and attending to details for our online staff, but for visitors to our Web site, the expectation is that they will not notice any changes. The transition has gone smoothly, mainly because of the dedication of our online staff. Their goal was to make sure users really couldn’t tell the difference in the site.

Nonetheless, users have encountered a few problems, like broken links, as they have moved around the site. Readers who find a broken link are taken to a page that redirects them to our home page. A few people have sent e-mails letting us know they have found problems, and we appreciate their help. The sooner we identify a problem, the faster we can address it.

For the next month or so, bookmarked stories can be found by changing the "www.dfw.com" in the URL to "www.realcities.com." Then, stories will be available through our archives. In the months ahead http://www.star-telegram.com will take visitors to our newspaper Web site, while www.dfw.com will be the home page for an exciting new site now in the planning stage. Our goal is not only to give readers a comprehensive and easy to navigate print product, but an even wider range of information and interactive opportunities online at both destinations – www.star-telegram.com and www.dfw.com.

Ellen Alfano

A perfect storm

Newspapers face numerous challenges nowadays and one of them is how to prioritize stories on the front page, and the type of stories that should be there. Traditionalists in the print industry and among readers prefer hard news, of course, ranging from major national and international events to a dramatic local story. Some readers grouse when a sports story or celebrity news makes it on 1A even though those subjects have become an integral part of our lives.

That isn’t an issue, however, on the Internet. On any given day, the Star-Telegram’s home page is a potpourri of news reflecting the divergent interests of visitors to our Web site, many of whom also read the paper. While visitors to our Web site may complain at times about having difficulty finding stories (ease of navigation), no one questions the number of stories and links on the home page, or that they run the gamut of news coverage from what’s happening in the Metroplex to the latest from Iraq, how our local teams are faring, what are Britney and Paris are up to today and what our columnists and bloggers think about matters great and small.

On Thursday we generated something of a perfect storm when we ran a photo of Tony Romo and Carrie Underwood on the home page with a story from sports writer Clarence Hill. Romo is the Dallas Cowboys quarterback and we have come to learn that any story about the Cowboys will usually generate the most Web site “hits” on any given day.

Underwood was the winner of the American Idol competition two years ago and has become a country music diva virtually overnight. Romo was escorting her to the Country Music Awards in Las Vegas.

What a winning combination – sports, music, celebrity and a star from TV’s most popular show. Not surprisingly, that story was among the most read on our Web site. And while some people may wring their hands and shake their heads over our priorities in life, the facts are that as many, if not more, people will be talking, chatting or blogging about Romo and Underwood as they will any news story of the day.

-- Ellen Alfano

In search of untainted pet food

In the past week we’ve dealt with some very serious issues. A Virginia Tech student killed 32 students and teachers in the worst school shooting tragedy to date. But there is another story that has continued for more than a month now, and while it may seem trivial in comparison, it touches many of us living in North Texas.

Every day, it seems, we read about another pet product being pulled off the market because it is tainted. We switched dog food in our household to a brand with all natural ingredients, and lo and behold, on Thursday that company announced a recall of its cat food. Now, we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Tainted food is a problem affecting people as well as animals. But at least we have a choice when we hear about packaged lettuce with e coli or a restaurant that was serving a batch of e coli infected onions. We decide what we eat and where we eat it.

But our pets don’t have that ability, unless of course, they’re sitting at your feet during dinner, looking for a few morsels of people food. Otherwise they trust us to take care of them, treat them well and not give them tainted food. Because tainted pet food is so widespread, it seems virtually impossible to find an alternative.

Prepare your own meals for your dog or cat? That’s not really feasible especially when you consider they may not receive the nutrients they need. The other revelation for me is that it really doesn’t matter which brand you buy – it seems one company is responsible for supplying most of our pet food.

I realize that relatively few dogs (and cats) have died, but how many dog years will be lost when our pets eat this stuff over time? Let’s hope pet food companies and pet stores help us to do more to ensure the health and well being of man’s best friend.

Sports madness

This time of year is called March Madness because of the NCAA basketball tournament, but I can attest that for the Star-Telegram Sports Department, the “madness” only increases when the tournament ends on April 2. As a former sports editor I can empathize with Celeste Williams, the Assistant Managing Editor of Sports, who won’t be able to come up for air for the foreseeable future.

April 2 is not only the day of the NCAA final, but it is also Opening Night for the Texas Rangers, who play their first game of the season in Anaheim against the Angels. Our sports staff will be up against a couple of tight deadlines that night.

The NHL regular season ends after the first week of April, and we’ll be gearing up to follow the Dallas Stars in their quest for the Stanley Cup. Less than two weeks later, the NBA regular season ends, and the Dallas Mavericks – who have the best record in the league – will enter the playoffs to not just reach the Finals as they did last season, but to win their first championship.

The week of April 9 NASCAR arrives in Fort Worth at Texas Motor Speedway for a week’s worth of preparation for the Samsung 500, Sunday, April 15. Lone Star Park starts the thoroughbred season April 12. And the month ends with the NFL draft on April 28 and 29, when we’ll see what priorities the Dallas Cowboys have placed on filling needs for next season.

In addition to daily coverage, our sports staff will be producing specials sections for baseball, basketball and hockey playoffs, the Samsung 500, and comprehensive coverage of the NFL draft. There is no off-season for sports.

-- Ellen Alfano

Web site changes

When the McClatchy group purchased the Knight Ridder newspapers -- including the Star-Telegram -- we knew that in time our Web site www.star-telegram.com would move to a new platform. That is the first step in what eventually will be a makeover of our Web site, which will be redesigned and easier to navigate.

Now, changing to a new platform means a lot of furious work and attending to details for our online staff, but for visitors to our Web site, the expectation is that they will not notice any changes. The transition has gone smoothly, mainly because of the dedication of our online staff. Their goal was to make sure users really couldn’t tell the difference in the site.

Nonetheless, users have encountered a few problems, like broken links, as they have moved around the site. Readers who find a broken link are taken to a page that redirects them to our home page. A few people have sent e-mails letting us know they have found problems, and we appreciate their help. The sooner we identify a problem, the faster we can address it.

For the next month or so, bookmarked stories can be found by changing the "www.dfw.com" in the URL to "www.realcities.com." Then, stories will be available through our archives. In the months ahead http://www.star-telegram.com will take visitors to our newspaper Web site, while www.dfw.com will be the home page for an exciting new site now in the planning stage. Our goal is not only to give readers a comprehensive and easy to navigate print product, but an even wider range of information and interactive opportunities online at both destinations – www.star-telegram.com and www.dfw.com.

Ellen Alfano