Jenn had her Super Mom going on today. At one point, I found her nursing the kiddo while working on her homework. This after she spent all day cleaning house, mowing the lawn (I know, I'm a terrible husband) and grocery shopping. Me? I spent the first day of my paternity leave working on a freelance project, but I also had a few moments to squeeze in some other activities.

We visited our friend Maggie, and I helped her bring home her new server kitchen piece (think end table for the dining room, if that makes sense).

   Kind of like this thing here to the right, but not so much like a bar.


Anyway, bad thing about the errand with Maggie; her new furniture piece was broken. That was a bummer, but the store will replace it and I'll help her get her new one soon.

We also ran a couple of errands together, but mostly my day has been spent working on Pub Aux for NNA. I love this gig: I get all sorts of time to be creative, and I make extra money on the side. It's wonderful.

I did manage to squeeze in a few moments with Audrey, although she spent most of the day sleeping. It's almost 12:30 a.m. as I write this, and she is wide awake. She's lying on the bed with her mother while I do my work (and post this blog). I think Jenny is passed out, and rightfully so. She worked hard today.

Audrey got to go over to her friend Maggie's house for the first time today. Here's a 30-second video of Audrey just doing her thing.


 

I got the chance this week to write the Dear Reader column in this week's Weekend Missourian, which also appears here on the Missourian's Web site. It's all about our earthquake-coverage efforts last week when a 5.2-magnitude trembler hit the Midwest.

Speaking of the Missourian, be sure to check out our Who We Are special section. It's good stuff.

I've spent the last few days working on my self evaluation, and I just e-mailed it to my boss. I thought I'd share it here for those of you who wonder what the heck it is I do all day.

Self-assessment for Jake Sherlock
Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Dear Tom,

My primary goal for the next year is to be better about things I can give up and to work smarter, not harder. Three things I’d like to give up for next year (and I hope the newsroom is willing to give up with me):

• Technological headaches. We need a stable Web site. We need a stable editorial program, and Falcon is not it. And we need computers with the most up-to-date Web browsers so that we can actually see and proofread what we’re publishing online. And when the techno headaches do come up, we need to be better about multitasking. If we expect our students to be good “ers” out in the industry, they have to learn how to multitask.
• Sacred cows. I was a big advocate of everything flowing through the copy desk at this time last year, and in hindsight I now believe that was wrong, wrong, wrong. I felt we needed that level of control to make sure we didn’t embarrass ourselves. And while our editing is as strong as it’s ever been IN PRINT, our Web site is hardly all that it can be. We as a newsroom need to be better about our online presentation. We need to be smarter about online headlines, linking and making sure our visuals – especially graphics – are actually readable online (especially in Internet Explorer). If we’re going to get there, we need the whole newsroom contributing, not just e-mailing the copy desk.
• Miscommunication. We have a budgeting system on Google Docs, an intranet that is in its infant stages, a professional management Web site to organize our Four Wheels initiatives, plus blogs, blogs and more blogs. We need to get these things under one roof – even if it’s an “extended” roof (i.e. linking up our intranet with Google Docs). And, from there, we need to actually commit to using it instead of just saying we will.

My other goals for the next year include:

• Continue to push immediacy and constant publishing on the Web. Our news cycle still resembles a print cycle more than a continuous, online cycle. We do great on big news stories, like the East Campus explosion. But on a day-to-day basis, we rarely see much copy on the desk before 3 p.m. We do well with getting crime briefs up fast, but we don’t do so well with getting investigative or enterprise pieces across. And, with the exception of big news, we don’t do well telling people what we know as we know it.
       I’ve tried this semester to be the immediacy advocate, bird-dogging stories as I can (like the earthquake). I also spent several weeks giving daily updates at the budget meeting on how many stories we had posted the day before and how many stories made the desk before the 3 p.m. budget meeting. I gave up on that initiative as it became clear to me that, frankly, nobody cared. If we don’t push it in budget, if we don’t push it on the students, if we as the Missourian faculty don’t stress it constantly to break out of our own print-first culture, then what’s the point? You don’t teach old dogs new tricks by asking them to do it once and hoping for the best. You have to repeat it over and over and over and over and over …
• Continue our community conversation efforts. As the leader of the community conversations team, I’d say we had a decent first year. We launched more blogs than you can shake a stick at, plus I’ve had the good fortune of having some interesting conversations with other parents through my column. I wanted to be more involved with Thomas Cullen’s civic journalism efforts as well but my other duties threw a wrench into that. I also oversee our MyMissourian print efforts. Our team needs to regroup and discuss new ways of engaging the community. A few things I’d like to see: More reader comments making their way into print, more citizen journalism content packaged with staff-driven stories, and better use of social networking tools to drive readers to our Web site (i.e. we have a Facebook page, but how do we actually use it?). Another important question to bring up: Should we allow readers to post comments anonymously (i.e. via avatar rather than real names)? It’s very much time to revisit this question.
• Promote our digital media. Once the new, more stable Web site is up and running, we need to do more than reefers in the print product. House ads, rack cards, radio ads (assuming we still can), and maybe some cross-promotional plugs from KOMU and KBIA would help boost our traffic. Additionally, it’s time to do something with Textcaster – our subscription base has been dormant for two years now. It’s time to either push that again or pull the plug on it.
• Push for “enriched quality” on the Web. Every story should have a Web headline (which means search-engine optimized headline), summary graf and links to other content, both on our site and off. Too often our content still looks like it’s ripped from that day’s newspaper, especially when we run an uber-generic headline like “sports briefs.”

To close out this year’s assessment, I thought I’d compile a list of things I worked on this year. Consider this my list of reasons why you should keep me around for another year:

• Web skills – I’ve gotten pretty good at video editing, and I haven’t even learned Avid yet. I’ve also gotten pretty good at podcasting. I have HTML down pretty well, and I’m starting to learn CSS on my own. I didn’t do much with Dreamweaver or Flash this year, but those are two areas in which I hope to improve in the next year. I also spend a lot of early mornings fixing Web problems before our traffic picks up, as my daughter’s early morning temperament and appetite allow.
• Internal communications – I got us started on Basecamp last summer, and I plan to start banging the intranet drum harder than ever when I get back from paternity leave. We are using it on the copy desk, but not to its full potential. But more importantly, I need to get the rest of the newsroom to buy into it. I’m currently working with one of our sports reporters to get coaches’ contact information on the intranet so that new sports reporters can hit the ground running. We need more resource material and conversation happening on our intranet site.
• Academics – I was once again involved with the FIG program, Walter Williams (my first protégé was a sports writer for us this semester) and I taught 4406 design in the fall (and filled in some this spring). I’m slated to teach the entire class this summer, which I’m very excited about. I also served on my first two graduate committees this year and am signed up for another committee for next year. I also did all the dayside copy editing scrapbooks this semester to share the workload with Laura after she took on the Faith beat.
• Instruction junction – Besides rewriting the django manual, I also held the Tuesdays with django training sessions, orientation training sessions, and training sessions on the desk. I’ve produced a slew of handouts and videos for various training purposes.
• Misc. – I still do a lot of the same tasks I’ve been doing for three years, including managing the TA schedule, helping Joy coordinate the designer schedule, handling vacation and intersession scheduling, managing space in the Weekend Missourian, overseeing MyMissourian content in print, filling in at night and on weekends for news editors on vacation, testing Falcon, and otherwise plugging in wherever I’m most needed.

If you have any questions about my accomplishments this year or my goals for next year, please let me know.

Sincerely,


Jake Sherlock

Wow! I can't believe Tony Bennett is coming to Columbia. Too bad the tickets are so expensive; this is one I'd love to attend, especially since we got married at the Missouri Theatre. I wonder if there is a discount for anyone who got hitched at the old theater. Considering this is a fundraiser to help them finish off the restoration, I kind of doubt it.

Oh well. At least we still have our old seats from the place. Not to mention tons of photos and lots of memories!

     

Here is a short slideshow I threw together this morning. It shows how our Web site evolved with election coverage on Tuesday night from the city election.

Click here to see the full results in a really cool interactive graphic our graphics team put together.