![DallasNews.com](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20100306015554im_/http://www.dallasnews.com/images/logo_printerfriendly.jpg)
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20100306015554im_/http://www.dallasnews.com/images/cgm/check_icon.gif)
Ask the Editor | ||
George Rodrigue is managing editor of The Dallas Morning News. He leads the team of journalists that produces the news, sports, business and features sections. ![]() |
Keven Ann Willey is The Dallas Morning News' editorial page editor. She oversees the Editorial, Viewpoints and Opinions pages, as well the Points section and letters to the editor. ![]() |
|
They will take turns answering your questions each week. |
||
Ask the Editor: Editorial Page Editor Keven Ann Willey
03:15 PM CST on Wednesday, December 10, 2008
I suffer from information overload. I'll bet you do, too. You try to read newspapers, various blogs and your favorite magazines to stay informed about everything people are talking about, and you just can't keep up.
It never ends. There's just not enough time in the day to troll all of the interesting sources of information to stay up on every interesting topic.
If only there were a single Web page that collected the best of the best commentary – print, online and broadcast – and posted links to, say, the top dozen best reads each day.
Wouldn't it be great if this site identified The Big Story each day – or maybe two or three times a day – and then provided links to several smart perspectives on that big story, irrespective of their source or format, so you could get a succinct picture of the range of debate?
And wouldn't it be great if the same site also included links to, say, another half-dozen Must Reads from the Web about a wide variety of hot topics ...
And if the site were easy to access ... equal opportunity in terms of pulling the best from the Left and from the Right and the in-between ... updated throughout the day for the freshest stuff ...
Yes, that would be great. And, guess what, there is such a site. We just created it. It's the new Opinion front page at dallasnews.com. Check it out at dallasnews.com/opinion/.
We think it's the only newspaper site like it anywhere on the web.
What's the big deal? We know that people who get their news and commentary primarily from the Internet take in information differently than people who get their news and commentary from more traditional media. We're trying with this new site to serve this online audience "where it lives" by adjusting what we provide to reflect these changing media-consumption habits.
Let's face it: The Internet is a wonderful tool because of the incredible diversity it offers and the "democratization" of that information. But the truth is nobody can read everything. So we're offering readers the benefits of online media – the vastly greater selection than traditional print can provide – while also helping readers find the best stuff among an impossibly large number of sources.
Here's how it works. Each morning, one of our editorialists is up by 5 a.m. to begin culling the best commentary from nearly 100 different online sources, including video from YouTube. By 7 a.m., we've identified The Big Story and linked to three or four different perspectives about that particular story.
Also by 7 a.m., we've also identified six or eight other Must-Reads from the Web on topics beyond The Big Story.
For example, our new site has featured the economic crisis as The Big Story several times in recent weeks. Because we're an online operation that "publishes" the day's page at 7 a.m., we can get the most up-to-the-minute analysis of the day's market conditions, especially if there's been unusual activity in the Asian or European markets overnight.
The best econo-bloggers sometimes don't get their takes on the day's domestic economic events posted until late in the evening, past the deadlines of press-dependent newspapers. But we can get their reflections posted in our 7 a.m. "edition" of our Opinion Web page.
And then there are the gems we call Must-Reads on the Web. We read scads of opinion-leading magazines that most people don't subscribe to and then link to the best of them so that our readers can peruse important and meaningful essays they probably wouldn't otherwise have seen.
Editorial columnist Rod Dreher, who's taken the lead in doing much of this early morning ferreting out of Must-Reads gives this example:
"Atlantic Monthly writer Caitlin Flanagan published in the magazine's December issue a fascinating critical essay about the phenomenally popular Twilight novels for young adults, and what they understand about the inner life of teenage girls that most literature for females of that age group doesn't," he said. "That piece was typical of what our new site can do that newspapers can't.
"For one, the Flanagan essay was far too long for a standard newspaper; online, though, space is not a problem. For another, the Atlantic reaches a relatively small audience, so it's unlikely that most readers of The News or dallasnews.com would have found their way to this remarkable example of cultural criticism relevant to the real lives of many American families."
Other interesting Must-Reads we've linked to recently have been Peter Beinart on the "Revenge of the Nerds" and Christopher Hitchens on "Inconvenient Truths: The media's disingenuous failure to state the obvious."
The idea is to provide you, the readers, with a one-stop-shopping site that's organized around your needs, not ours. It's your gateway to the every best commentary from around the world.
Best of all, it's free.
This new site marks a sea change from most newspaper Web sites because we're not shy about linking to non-Dallas Morning News material. In fact, we're shouting from the rooftops about that non-News material.
You'll still find The News' editorials and op-ed columns on the site, as well as our always popular letters to the editor and the first-in-the-nation Editorial Board blog. But we've reorganized the presentation to showcase whatever's the hottest topic of the moment – whether it's from The News, Slate.com, The Wall Street Journal , Mother Jones, YouTube, FrontBurner or somewhere else entirely.
So check it out and let us know what you think. Are there sites you think we should be trolling but aren't? Topics we should be giving more attention to? Less? Is updating the site three times a day enough, not enough, too much? Let us know.
But be sure you check us out more than once before forming your opinion or contacting us with suggestions. Remember that The Big Story changes out at least daily and sometimes more often. And while this blogger or that columnist may be featured prominently in the morning, an entirely different retinue of commentators may be featured later in the day or the next.
So I caution you against snap judgments. Remember: There's no ideological hammer being wielded here. The only bias is toward commentary that is smart, interesting and timely.
Keven Ann Willey is vice president and editorial page editor of The Dallas Morning News. You may e-mail her at asktheeditor@dallasnews.com.
![]() |
| | ![]() |
RSS | | | ![]() |
| | | | ![]() |
Send a news tip |
Create A Screen Name
Screen names can only consist of letters and numbers.
Your screen name will appear to everyone.
NOTE: You cannot change, delete,
or edit your screen name once you hit "Save".
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20100306015554im_/http://www.dallasnews.com/images/pixel.gif)
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20100306015554im_/http://www.dallasnews.com/images/pixel.gif)
Also Online
Ask the Editor: Keven Ann Willey on our new Opinion front page
Issues for 2010: DMN editorial board identifies its top priorities
2009 Texan of the Year: The Heroes of Fort Hood
Behind the Opinions: A User's Guide (.pdf)
More Behind the Opinions (.pdf)
Issues for 2010: DMN editorial board identifies its top priorities
Editorial Page staff: The people behind the editorial pages
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20100306015554im_/http://www.dallasnews.com/images/pixel.gif)
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20100306015554im_/http://www.dallasnews.com/images/spacer.gif)
You must be logged in to contribute. Log in | Register Now!
You are logged in as screenname | Log Out
You are logged in, but do not have a "screen" name. Create a Screen Name