Editor's desk: Week of June 12, 2006

>> Post a comment or question


Friday June 16


The stats are in, and here's what was most-read this week on nzherald.co.nz:

1. Blackout hits Auckland began on Monday morning as a weather story mainly about snow in the South Island. By 9am it had become the story of Auckland without power, updated several times an hour until it ended up with the headline "Power slowly being restored". This story was viewed almost 100,000 times, and the associated picture gallery was also extremely popular. And there were lots of interesting comments on our Readers' Views page, including some from those who thought we needed to spare a thought for people in much worse circumstances.

2. Auckland's power hangs by a thread was of course the Tuesday morning follow-up to the above story.

3. Sex-for-travel probe at Air NZ. Guess we know why that one was so popular.

4. Police hunt 'filthy savage' rapist. Police inspector Neil Grimstone says what he thinks of the man who raped a Pukekohe woman in her home.

5. Email scams hit bank customers. No matter how many times this happens, a few people get sucked in. The moral: never respond to an email message that says you need to update your bank details by clicking on a link.
- - - posted 1.10pm by Neil Sanderson


Site changes: You may have noticed a slight change to our page design a few moments ago. The Search box and Subject Index link have moved down the page slightly to sit just above the Latest News column at the right hand side of the page. This puts these important functions closer to the news content to which they relate. (If you haven't tried the Subject Index, it's a great way to explore nzherald - we've organised all of our stories into more than 1500 subjects.)

We also have a new space for simple text advertising at the top right of each page where the Search box used to be. If you'd like your ad to appear on nzherald.co.nz, please visit our Advertising page for details of the various services available.
- - - posted 12.30pm by Neil Sanderson


Netscape, a name familiar to web users in the late 1990s until the company lost the "browser war" to Internet Explorer, has - effective today - become a news portal built on reader preferences. The site works like Newsvine in that readers submit links to stories they've found on the web. Other readers (social editors?) then vote for their favourite stories, pushing them up the rankings. Where Netscape differs from Newsvine and Digg, however, is that a team of eight full-time and 15 part-time "anchors" review the stories, checking them for accuracy and adding information to the summaries that appear on Netscape.

One aspect of the site is likely to annoy content creators and publishers. Netscape only permits its readers to see the full story from the original site within a Netscape window with a Netscape web address. Most websites that aggregate content provide visible links to the originating site.
- - - posted 11.56am by Neil Sanderson


Even if you've never had the slightest interest in soccer, you have to admit that those World Cup fans do get up to some strange things. Check out the video evidence at nzherald.co.nz/worldcup.
- - - posted 10.50am by Neil Sanderson


Reader comment: I enjoy having the Herald as my homepage as I can scan the headlines, selecting to read only those articles of value to me. So it has quite ruined my breakfast to see the headline this morning "Rapist demands to see womans face", I DON'T NEED OR WANT TO KNOW THAT KIND OF HORRIBLE DETAIL. It is also unneccessarily making public, personal details of a horrific experience one poor woman has endured. I feel anyone who WANTS to know these details out of personal interest, should have a psychiatric assessment. Ultimately I feel this kind of reporting is aggravating the wider social problems of negative attitudes towards women and sexuality. Rape is not entertainment.
- - - posted by Rebecca

Response: Thanks for the comment Rebecca. The headline is actually the other way round, i.e. Rapist demanded woman look at his face. We used this headline because it highlights information that we did not have when we first reported this crime yesterday. I believe it is an important element of the story because the victim says she feared that if she looked at her attacker he would kill her. Crime details are unpleasant reading, but they are part of telling the story as completely as we can. Our headline lets our readers decide whether they wish to know more by clicking on the story to read it.
- - - posted 9.00am by Neil Sanderson


Thursday June 15


Veteran Australian journalist and New Statesman columnist John Pilger tells the Press Gazette how he has turned to the web - and in particular to bloggers - to find out what's really going on in Iraq:

"If you go online you can read someone like Dahr Jamail — he's a Lebanese American who speaks Arabic — and he has been reporting on the net since the [Iraq] invasion. He's the one I turn to because he reported from inside Fallujah, where journalists either don't go or go with the American army or the British.

"Another I used in the book I edited last year about investigative journalism, Tell me no Lies, one of the non-journalists was a young British woman called Jo Wilding. At the time she was just filing. She was living with a family in Baghdad and then was in Fallujah and she was just filing every day. It was some of the most seering eye-witness journalism I have ever read. It told me what was happening in the country."
- - - posted 1.34pm by Neil Sanderson


Today's edition of e.g. in the print edition of the Herald may be destined to be a collector's item. So too this Saturday's Time Out. The publications are being merged into a new Time Out that will be included free in the Thursday Herald starting next week.

As Entertainment Editor Russell Baillie explains, the new Time Out will include the weekly TV listings which have been part of e.g. -- but with even more Sky channels and a comprehensive guide to each day's viewing. Time Out will continue to provide music and movie coverage, plus performances, events, exhibitions and places to eat and drink -- but you'll get it on Thursday instead of Saturday, so you'll have more time to plan your weekend.

We'll continue to have reviews and feature articles from Time Out in our Lifestyle section of nzherald.co.nz but for the TV listings you'll need to pick up a print edition of the Herald or be a home-delivery subscriber.
- - - posted 9.27am by Neil Sanderson


Today we'd like to hear your thoughts on the nation-wide strike by 17,000 junior doctors. Tell us how the strike affects you, and whether or not you agree with the doctors. To comment, please visit our Readers' Views page.
- - - posted 8.47am by Neil Sanderson


There are now two easy ways to find this blog. There's a link to it from the Opinion box on our front page. Or you can simply bookmark the address nzherald.co.nz/editor.
- - - posted 8.40am by Neil Sanderson


Wednesday June 14


And this from Kim Fletcher of the Guardian on the newspaper's bold decision to publish virtually all of its content online as soon as possible.
- - - posted 5.50pm by Neil Sanderson

Peter Cole of the Independent on Sunday has written a summary of recent news on the British online news scene. It includes the announcement that the Guardian Unlimited site will begin publishing most of the stories produced by the Guardian newspaper before they appear in print. Online publishing experts have been forecasting that one day newspapers would become the "final editions" of their websites - now we'll see how that works at one of the world's most popular news sites.
- - - posted 10.23am by Neil Sanderson


Tuesday June 13


Ana Samways, who writes our daily Sideswipe column (subscription required), and her partner, musician Steven Shaw, have launched a really nice looking blog at spareroom.co.nz. In addition to their commentaries on life and links to weird stuff they've found online, Ana and Steve post their own entertainment reviews (the Lounge) and a shopper's guide (Coolfinder). Definitely worth a look.
- - - posted 3.05pm by Neil Sanderson


Thanks to everyone who shared their information and comments on yesterday's power outage and traffic chaos with us. (I'm still having trouble believing those reports of snow in downtown Auckland though!).

The impact on Auckland's economy is estimated at over $50 million and business leaders want an investigation into how a single stray wire could paralyse our largest city's business district and several suburbs. We have full coverage in our Electricty section.
- - - posted 2.45pm by Neil Sanderson


Monday June 12


BBC journalists have successfully argued against the introduction of advertising to the BBC website, saying it could detract from the company's reputation for impartiality. The ads would have been visible only to readers outside the UK (i.e. to people who do not support the BBC through their taxes). The BBC is reviewing the move to commercialise services to some 40 million non-UK users per year, and may still offer ads on non-news pages of the site. The no-ads philosophy isn't consistent among public broadcasters, however. While the ABC (Australia) site is ad-free, TVNZ and the CBC (Canada) seem comfortable with advertising.
- - - posted 2.09pm by Neil Sanderson


Power is gradually being restored after this morning's fault on a Transpower line at Otahuhu. Lines company Vector says power to the Auckland region will return gradually over the next few hours. So if you've just fired up the PC again, here's our full coverage to bring you up to date.
- - - posted 1.05pm by Neil Sanderson


Thanks to everyone sending in info and comments on the power blackout. This helps our news team to continuously update the storm report. Skies are clearing over central Auckland but power remains off.
- - - posted 11.24am by Neil Sanderson


With traffic lights still out, the sound of skidding and honking horns at the intersection beneath my window is getting a bit much. So I thought I'd pass on this note from Police Inspector Turepu Keenan:
"A power outage which appears to be Auckland-wide and extending to Hamilton is causing disruption light-controlled intersections and creating traffic delays. Motorists are advised to watch following distances and drive with care. Callers to the Comms Centre are requested to desisit as we are being inundated with calls regarding this problem."
- - - posted 9.49am by Neil Sanderson


Our reporters are compiling information on the extent of the power outage that struck about half an hour ago. At this stage it seems that most of us in the Auckland central business district are without power (we're on an emergency generator here at nzherald) and that people as far south as Hamilton are affected too. Please take care if you're heading on to the roads. Traffic lights are out, and on a rainy day that's a dangerous situation. Remember to give way to traffic on the right!
And if you have any information on the extent of the blackout, or would like to share your story, please email me using the link above.
- - - posted 9.40am by Neil Sanderson


Liberal bloggers from the US gathered for a 3-day convention in Las Vegas at the weekend. The event, which drew almost a thousand people including politicans and journalists, was organised by the Daily Kos blog site and dubbed the first annual Yearly Kos convention. As Adam Nagourney noted on nytimes.com: "They may think of themselves as rebels, separate from mainstream politics and media. But by the end of a day on which the convention halls were shoulder to shoulder with bloggers, Democratic operatives, candidates and Washington reporters, it seemed that bloggers were well on the way to becoming — dare we say it? — part of the American political establishment."
- - - posted 9.00am by Neil Sanderson


Reader comment: I read Rupert Cornwell's article on our [US] marriage protection act, "Anti-gay law fell on its face, as expected". He makes it seem so outlandish - and very opinionated. What ever happened to fair and un-biased reporting? I don't think that it is outlandish. Why then are states passing their own constitutional ammendments - over 20 so far?
- - - posted by Brian and Kathleen

Response: This was indeed a commentary by Rupert Cornwell (rather than an ordinary news story). It was inadvertently classified as News when it was published on our website. It has now been moved to the Opinion section. Thanks for pointing out this error.
- - - posted by 8.20am by Neil Sanderson