Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Transit vs. Tunes
Tuesday is my day to post on TRE, and it's also the day that Kyra Kyles's column runs in Red, so it's always tempting for me to just rag on Kyles by default. I'm only doing it again today because I found a superior example of how to write a rider-friendly CTA column--on Chicagoist.
After skimming Kyles's column--in which she proposes a playlist of crappy songs for crappy CTA situations, I found Chicagoist's post about a new bus-tracking system the CTA will be testing this year. Its headline, "The CTA Approaches Efficieny Zen," is a tad acquiescent, but the post itself does several of the things a transit column should ideally do:
1. Break news--which ran in the Chicago Sun-Times but not in Red or the Trib.
2. Express an opinion (or at least ask some critical questions)
3. Talk about other transit systems
4. Propose other policies or solutions to the given problem
Plus it doesn't advise us to listen to any Aerosmith songs.
ALSO: USA Today brings us this story about how newspaper companies are diversifying. Way down at the bottom there's a few paragraphs about mini-dailies, which say traditional reporters criticize minis' "obsession with local entertainment and pop culture." That's not a thorough way of summing it up. Red and other minis should cover pop culture and local entertainment, but should find an approach more interesting than that of US Weekly. And even if Red did that, there'd be plenty of work to do on the paper's presentation of hard news and opinion.
After skimming Kyles's column--in which she proposes a playlist of crappy songs for crappy CTA situations, I found Chicagoist's post about a new bus-tracking system the CTA will be testing this year. Its headline, "The CTA Approaches Efficieny Zen," is a tad acquiescent, but the post itself does several of the things a transit column should ideally do:
1. Break news--which ran in the Chicago Sun-Times but not in Red or the Trib.
2. Express an opinion (or at least ask some critical questions)
3. Talk about other transit systems
4. Propose other policies or solutions to the given problem
Plus it doesn't advise us to listen to any Aerosmith songs.
ALSO: USA Today brings us this story about how newspaper companies are diversifying. Way down at the bottom there's a few paragraphs about mini-dailies, which say traditional reporters criticize minis' "obsession with local entertainment and pop culture." That's not a thorough way of summing it up. Red and other minis should cover pop culture and local entertainment, but should find an approach more interesting than that of US Weekly. And even if Red did that, there'd be plenty of work to do on the paper's presentation of hard news and opinion.
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You've figured out my strategy for every Chicagoist post: break news, provide context, express opinion/crack joke. Basically I try my best to add a little value and not just paraphrase the Trib or S-T. The title is usually the last thing I do, and you're right, this time I should have said "Attempts" instead of "Approaches".
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for reading.
# posted by 
: 5:01 PM
: 5:01 PM
I think Chicagoist usually does a pretty good job of tailoring the news to a certain audience, which is what RedEye is trying to do, but Red puts less emphasis on useful information. I sort of wish Chicagoist had the money/desire to experiment with a full-time city desk, because you guys seem to understand how to present news to your audience. That strategy is a good basic guide to writing any news story. Maybe you could hold some sort of seminar for RedEye folk? :p
That's funny, now that I think of it, Chicagoist was sort of an inspiration for NUviews, in a way... I think that when you add a vital insight to a piece of news, that *is* news, your idea *is* news. Scott, your piece on Carville and Starr was probably the best example, just because so many people also thought they gave crappy speeches, and you pointed that out and did something with it.
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