Tag: nevadaappeal

The Nevada Appeal has been going through a lot of changes on their website, tweaking the design and adding new features. But it still seems like nobody over there is able to wrangle their RSS feed. For months their stories have been coming into Google Reader five, six, seven times. So I'll sit down and find 178 new articles from the Appeal, but discover that it's the same 25 stories repeated over and over and over.

The technical reason for this is that their system is adding a little bug to the end of all the URLs, like http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20091102/NEWS/910319927/-1/rss02. Then an hour later the bug will change, to rss04. Then rss01. Then RSS01, in all capitals. And every time it changes, Google Reader sees that the permalink, which is supposed to be a unique identifier, has changed. So it thinks it's a new item and it adds it back to the top of the list. And what you end up with are RSS hiccups all the way down, and that makes me dread reading the Nevada Appeal's feed because I know what a slog it's going to be, seeing the same headlines 8 times over.

I'm sure there's a technical solution, a switch they can flip in their system that will get rid of those little rss01 suffixes. It's been happening since June and it's driving me buggy!

I'm not sure what the iAppeal, the new weekly e-mail newsletter from the Nevada Appeal, is going to be like, but I'm signing up to find out.

If you're on your front porch looking for your newspaper today, quit looking. You won't find it. Today is the first week of the Appeal's new schedule, where the paper will not be published on Mondays and Tuesdays for the foreseeable future. Sunday's edition was extra thick to make up for it, and they do have new stories on their website today, like they promised, although it seems to be significantly less than usual. You can even download and print the daily crossword.

You'd think this would be the kind of thing they would announce on their website, but instead this announcement can only be found buried on page 3 of today's paper. It seems that today's Nevada Appeal is going to be the last Monday edition for a while, as they're shutting down their presses on Monday and Tuesday to cut costs. They promise their newsroom will still be keeping a seven-day schedule, and this will just mean increased online coverage on those two days.

The full text of the announcement follows:

Dear Reader:

The Nevada Appeal will be adjusting publication days. Beginning the week of May 4th, the Nevada Appeal will become a 5-day-per-week publication, printing Wednesday through Sunday.

While we did not anticipate announcing an additional change after our recent redesign, this decision is based on several new developments. First, economic conditions have resulted in the recent closure of several large retailers that previously supported the newspaper with advertising. Second, the decline in advertising support on Monday and Tuesday has caused us to publish very thin papers early week. This is not in line with our standards or your demands. By putting more resources into our Wednesday through Sunday newspapers, we’ll be able to provide more robust products in print and electronically.

Many newspapers throughout the country are making changes just like this to adjust to the times. As readership habits change, environmental concerns increase and our economy adjusts to a new reality, we must be flexible. In fact this is the very reason that after 144 years, the Nevada Appeal can claim itself as the oldest, continuously operating business in Carson City. Flexibility has always been a part of the Nevada Appeal’s success, as it’s had many different formats and publication days based on present demand. What has not and will not change is our commitment and passion for covering local news.

The Nevada Appeal news team will still function on a continuous news cycle. Each morning, as usual, the latest news will be available to you, albeit online on Mondays and Tuesdays. In print, we’ll be delivering more robust newspapers on the days we do publish, with more local news and information. This puts us in a better position to break news online and make better use of nevadaappeal.com, which is a tremendous resource for our readers. Many of the features readers enjoy, such as crossword puzzles and horoscopes, will now be available online.

On Sundays, you’ll find a special “Early Week Extra” wrapping your inserted advertisements. Inside, you’ll see extra crossword puzzles, Sudoku, Dr. Gott, Annie’s Mailbox and our new favorite, Pickles comic strip. Printed on a heavier paper stock, you can save this piece and continue your morning habits on Monday and Tuesday.

We want you to be reassured that we value your business. Our goal is to provide you with meaningful, relevant local news and information. Although our costs have increased, we have not passed on any increase in subscription prices to our readers in more than three years. We will continue to keep the subscription rate the same. We encourage you to take advantage of our low EZ Pay rate, which is an automatic payment plan that will save you money each month. The current EZ Pay rate is $8.00 per month or just 32 cents per paper. Please feel free to contact our Circulation Department at 882-2111 if you would like to sign-up for EZ Pay or if you have any questions about your subscription. As always, please feel free to contact me or one of the Nevada Appeal managers listed below. We are available to answer your questions and concerns.

Sincerely,
Niki Gladys
Publisher, Nevada Appeal
ngladys@nevadaappeal.com
(775)881-1269

Carson City's daily paper, the Nevada Appeal, is going to start printing in a tabloid format every day beginning Wednesday. I'm always wary when I see any big announcement that involves the date April 1st, but I supposes April Fool's Jokes are usually made on April Fools, not in advance. And they're usually a little more outlandish.

The Appeal already prints a small tabloid edition, the "Nevada Appeal Today" that is given out for free in racks and contains nothing but wire stories. But now the paper itself is dropping the broadsheet format and going for a smaller size. The move is meant to save on paper and printing costs, and also gives them another opportunity to reorganize the front page and shuffle the sections of the paper around. The Appeal has been printed in tabloid before, from 1951 to 1961.

My opinions are all over the place on this. In this region there's always been a distinction. The broadsheets are the big dailies for the community, the ones you pay for, like the Nevada Appeal, Record Courier, and Reno Gazette Journal. And the tabloids are the free weekly papers, like the Carson Times and the Reno News and Review. So there could be a perception backlash against the Appeal for doing this, with people associating it with "those" papers, and feeling like they're not getting value for their money.

But at the same time, the newspaper industry needs to be shook up, and new ideas need to fall out of it. A move to tabloid isn't a wildly radical idea, but it shows at least that they're not completely adverse to changing. As time goes on the thought of getting a piece of paper on your doorstop every day with yesterday's news written on it seems to get more and more silly, and declining revenues and subscription rates are reflecting that. And the Appeal isn't going out of business like some papers, or going online-only like others that have had trouble. But if they're willing to go to a tabloid format now, maybe next year there will be some other experiment they'll be willing to try, and then another. Slowly the newspaper industry is going to change until the "paper" part isn't as important as the "news" part. And there will be many ways to get news from the Nevada Appeal, with paper being just one of them.

Photo by Flickr user Jeff Moser / BikeCarson.com

Jeff Moser of Bike Carson and Muscle Powered has a guest column in the Nevada Appeal today, all about his last 16 months of biking to work.

Over the last year, I’ve become more intimate with the city and the weather. I know how each neighborhood smells, where the shadiest trees are, and which streets have the prettiest houses. I’m more aware of elevation changes and road conditions. I can tell the difference in small temperature variations, and know just what to wear in any weather to stay comfortable. I have actual conversations with people that I see along the way, and even enjoy my daily scolding from the crossing guard that teases me about running late as usual.

Last year when the Nevada Appeal interviewed me about bicycle commuting, they asked me, “Why do you do it?” I was silent for a little while, and never did come up with a decent answer. I’d say that fun, self reliance, freedom, and opting out of the system are what motivate me the most these days, but I think the most accurate answer to the question of “Why?” is, “It’s just what I do.”

Bill Dolan writes the last article of the year on Carson City's history, about Carson resident Yee Bong who ran a cafe in Chinatown. And he ends on a note that makes it sound like this feature won't be coming back next year. He says "This column may appear from time to time as space and interest allows," but I think we all know that when it comes to covering history, newspapers have precious little of either.

Today the Appeal has an article on the Keeley Institute in Carson City, which was a branch of a nationwide chain that promised to cure alcoholism by injecting mystery chemicals into your body. There's also a look ahead to next week's Victorian Christmas Tour, where several west side historic homes open their doors to visitors. The tour is Sunday, Dec. 14 from noon to 5 p.m. Tickets can be had at the Foreman-Roberts House Museum and other locations for $12.

Sue Ballew today brings us the story of Nevada's seventh governor, Roswell K. Colcord, and the house he lived in, which still stands on Carson's west side. In the days before the official Governor's Mansion was built, whatever house the governor was living in became the "Governor's" "mansion", so this house held the title for the four years Colcord was in office.

Sue Ballew has the story of the Financial Panic of 1907, and how banks in Carson City were affected.