Editor's desk: Week of May 29, 2006

>> Post a comment or question


Friday June 2

The stats are in and here's what drew the most readers this week on nzherald:

1 Namibia 'bowed to pressure' from Pitt and Jolie over birth has been viewed a staggering 130,000 times, helped along by massive interest from overseas readers directed to nzherald by the Drudge Report.

2 All Black drama of handbags at dawn, by Jared Booker. Yes, we knew this would be popular. After all, it's got rugby, conflict, celebrities, plus the "you've got to be kidding" factor. This story could even make the top 5 next week too, as the famous handbag features in a Trade Me auction .

3 Zip codes to be introduced across NZ by Simon O'Rourke. Snail mail anyone?

4 Husband claims his wife was hired to kill him by Nicola Boyes. Suprression orders prevent the media from saying much about this, but our readers seem to be intrigued by the case.

5 Collins gets to captain All Blacks. No point trying to get New Zealanders excited about the Soccer World Cup when there's rugby news.
- - - posted 1.00pm by Neil Sanderson


Citizen journalism has won an endorsement with news that the International Herald Tribune has struck a deal with Korea's OhMyNews under which each site will link to content on the other. Although at least one report states the IHT will actually publish OhMyNews stories alongside the work of professional journalists, this story on the IHT's own site makes it clear that the deal is for a links exchange only. I wrote about the citJ phenomenon a few months ago on nzherald (subscription required). It seems to me the IHT is taking a suitably cautious approach.
- - - posted 11.00am by Neil Sanderson


Question: Why don't you publish the correspondence columns on your website as premium content? If you did I would probably subscribe but it is pointless to subscribe online when I have to buy a printed copy to read the letters.
- - - posted by Alan

Answer: You're not alone Alan. Many readers tell us they'd love to see the letters to the editor published online and that's certainly something that we plan to offer in the not-too-distant future as we add more staff to the online team.
- - - posted 3.19pm by Neil Sanderson


Question: I haven't seen any reporting on the quarter finals in Paris for the NZ Sevens? I may be wrong, but I'm sure that the games have been played, judging by the earlier reporting on the Pool games. Thank you.
- - - posted by Tony, Australia

Answer: You're right Tony. We were unable to find any match reports from the news agencies with whom we contract. We did, however, carry the results in our daily results page on Monday. And we've now added a brief report in our Rugby Sevens section.
- - - posted 1.49pm by Neil Sanderson


Thursday June 1

Our colleagues at the Listener (one floor above the nzherald team here in Albert Street) want you to vote for the most topical and interesting issues - and they've made it easy, using an online gadget called i-think. You can suggest a topic too. But is it really working? When I tried moving the various topics around the grid and clicking on "Submit" there was no confirmation that my opinions had been recorded. And on returning to the page, I couldn't see any change in the positions. What do you think?

For more on the i-think project, see Martha McKenzie-Minifie's story today.

While we're on the subject, Rod Emmerson today offers his own view on what New Zealanders find interesting in the news. (subscription required)


Wednesday May 31

The killing last November of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha - allegedly by enraged US Marines - has evoked comparisons with the 1968 My Lai massacre in Viet Nam. US authorities are investigating, and you can follow the story in a new feature at nzherald.co.nz/haditha or subscribe to related RSS feeds.


Tuesday May 30

Senior journalist Julie Middleton is leaving the Herald for New Caledonia where she will be the women's advocacy and communications officer at the of Secretariat of the Pacific Community. Among Julie's many excellent projects while at the Herald was the Long March series we published in April. We'll miss her and wish her well.

Karen Tay, who used to work with us at nzherald.co.nz and now studies at AUT University, today contributes an online-only profile of Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife.


Monday May 29

Just got back from a couple of weeks in Canada, and it's obvious the team have been working flat-out while I was away.

The chaos in East Timor has been front-page news with superb coverage from the Herald's Greg Ansley in Dili.

Budget day brought the predictable frenzy of effort here in the newsroom, with the Herald's Simon Collins assisting the nzherald team who published 36 Budget stories on May 19, plus dozens for follow up pieces in the days following.

And there was the dramatic tale of death on Mt Everest which clearly touched many of our readers. Deputy editor Paul Smith tells me more than 160 people used our Readers' Views page to voice their opinions on the decision by New Zealand climber Mark Inglis and others on Everest to leave a dying British climber.

There were also major efforts on the Rakon investigation led by Phil Taylor and the Indonesian earthquake. You can stay up to date on these stories with our RSS feeds.

While I was away the folks at Editor & Publisher announced the winners of the 2006 EPpy awards for interactive media. In the category of Best Overall Newspaper-Affiliated Internet Service with more than 1 million unique monthly visitors, the winner was washingtonpost.com.