Published August 20, 2010

WBUR’s managing editor, Dave Shaw, goes on the radio from time to time to talk about what stories are getting people jazzed on wbur.org. Here is his latest roundup of the week’s big stories.

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The hubbub this week was over our coverage of the weekend prison suicide of Philip Markoff, the former Boston University medical student accused of murdering a woman who’d advertised massage services on Craigslist.

A commenter using the handle Giri said media are “sensationalizing (Markoff’s) death,” adding, “There are many more criminals in the same jail for homicide. Why is this station not talking about any of those?”

[pullquote author=”Jim Breslauer”]”Compared to everything else that’s going on in the world … this suicide got top billing. It just made no sense to me.”[/pullquote]

Another commenter, Jim Breslauer, wondered rhetorically, “Is there nothing more important to report?” I spoke with him on the phone, and he elaborated: “Compared to everything else that’s going on in the world, whether it’s the 10th congressional district, whether it’s the gubernatorial debate that was going on. And this suicide got top billing. It just made no sense to me.”

The criticism was most pointed on Deborah Becker’s Tuesday interview with Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral, who runs the Nashua Street Jail where Markoff killed himself.

Becker pressed Cabral about jail policies, mental health services and why Markoff was no longer on suicide watch when he killed himself.

The interview was described in comments as “over the top,” “abrasive” and “out of line.”

A commenter named Lindsey Brown put it this way, “I found myself wondering if I had somehow mistakenly tuned into a Fox News report.”

He described his trouble with our story in greater detail in a phone interview.

“I got the impression that a conclusion was being foisted upon the listeners in an almost witch hunt-like fashion against Sheriff Cabral,” he said.

Our coverage of the Markoff suicide wasn’t the only story on people’s minds. Our profile of independent gubernatorial candidate Timothy Cahill also got plenty of attention.

There was the usual partisan sniping but also this assessment from Matt F.: “I’m surprised that WBUR left out the line ‘This ad paid for by Tim for Governor.’ ”

The same commenter left that same sentiment on our profile earlier this month of Republican Charles Baker. Who knows, maybe he’ll say the same thing about the profile we’re doing later this month on Gov. Deval Patrick.

I suppose you could call that balance.

Published August 18, 2010

After writing about the Worcester Telegram & Gazette’s new restrictions on free content (here, too), I asked our followers on Twitter and Facebook: Would you pay to read local news online?

I’ll let this Facebook screen shot speak for itself:

Well, the No's have it.

There were many more noes and only a few yeses. One common response: I can get the same content elsewhere.

Buster Pdahsc: No. I can read the exact same news in other newspapers or online news sites.

Austin Castaldi: I would find someone else who offers me comparable service for free. Supported by ads or otherwise. I have no doubt if it isn’t out there already it would appear.

@plannerbill: No, I wouldn’t pay for news online. Their will always be another source that has it for free

Jack Thompson explains a fundamental difference between old and new media:

Internet 101: the ‘net is a linked database. Removing to ability to link to your content removes you from the database, decreases mind-share and drops you into a black hole where the only people who’ll access your content are people who’ve …already accessed more of your content. Recursive content consumption is recursive. The ‘net is an attention economy, and locking your door means nobody will have attention to spare for you.

A few folks clarify that only certain stories go behind the paywall:

Helen: Only articles written by T&G staffed writers will be on a charge basis. Articles available in the local Telegram Towns publications will remain free. If you are a reader or web user, you’ll most likely notice no difference.

Laurie Levitre: If you read the article by the T&G, you’ll see that it’s only locally written articles that are charged, not AP, not breaking news, and then only after 10 per month. I think that if you actually go to the website you’ll notice that you can access a majority at no charge. Try it.

Twitter was more friendly to the pricing model than Facebook:

@AltoidLover: I paid for the NYTimes online and would probably pay for the Globe, as well. Sort of the NPR model, which I support.

@JHKleschinsky in Everett: I will pay for newspapers’ online content. Although it’s being delivered in a different format, it still costs $ to report the news.

@PavlikM: News sites need an easy way to charge small amts for each access. They deserve to be paid, but I won’t subscribe to individual sites.

And @kjp684 makes a suggestion that resonated:

I’d only pay for online newspapers if the pages were free of advertising as a result.

So no one wants to pay for news, even now, after these tries. What’s a newspaper to do?

Published August 17, 2010

Sometimes, just the press release is a great read. Here it is:

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Ray F. Fletcher, of Westborough, Mass., will be buried Aug. 20 in Burlington, Vt.

On May 10, 1944, he and four others aboard a B-25C Mitchell bomber took off from Ajaccio, Corsica, on a routine courier mission to Ghisonaccia, Corsica. They failed to reach the destination and were officially reported missing on May 13, 1944. Two days later, French police reported finding aircraft wreckage on the island’s Mount Cagna.

The U.S. Army’s Graves Registration Command visited the crash site in 1944 and reported remains were not recoverable. It was not until May 1989 that Corsican authorities notified U.S. Army Memorial Affairs Activity-Europe that they had found wreckage of an American WWII-era aircraft and turned over human remains collected at the mountainous location. They sent a survey team to the site and determined the terrain was too rugged to support a recovery effort. In 2003 and 2004, two French nationals provided U.S. authorities with crew-related equipment recovered from the crash site.

A Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) team excavated the location in September 2005 and recovered additional human remains as well as more crew-related equipment.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of Fletcher’s remains.

This month marks the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II. More than 400,000 of the 16 million Americans who served during the war died. At the end of the conflict, the U.S. government was unable to recover, identify and bury approximately 79,000 as known persons. Today, more than 72,000 World War II Americans remain unaccounted-for.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1420.

An Earlier Corsica Discovery:

• After 66 Years, A Mass. Soldier Is Finally Laid To Rest

Published August 17, 2010

I have been thinking more about the new Telegram.com pricing model. I don’t think it’s a new paradigm. I think it’s just another way to sell newspapers.

Let me break it down:

• If you subscribe to the print edition of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, you get unlimited access to the website.
• If you don’t subscribe, you can join the website for $15 a month.
• If you pay to join the website, you get a complimentary seven-day subscription to the newspaper. What’s more, if you do the arithmetic, it turns out the old-fashioned newspaper subscription is basically the same price (actually a dollar cheaper per month). The “online” subscription is billed monthly; the print subscription is billed semi-annually.
• Both subscriptions give you the exact same thing.

Either the T&G has done a bad job explaining the change or we have a done a bad job reporting on it. (I think it’s the latter.)

It’s important to note the 10-article limit for non-subscribers only covers stories with T&G bylines. Everything else remains free. From the site’s FAQ:

The free information includes breaking news bulletins, articles obtained from news services, obituaries, all advertising, local blogs, photo galleries and videos. All information from the newspaper’s weekly products, available on TelegramTowns.com, will also remain free.

So, honestly, if you’re reading more than 10 original Telegram & Gazette stories every month, why not give them 15 bucks? Local news is expensive.