Your voices are being heard

I received a nice postcard the other day from a reader who wanted

me to explain why we didn’t cover the July 4 Old Glory Boat Parade

put on by the American Legion Yacht Club.

Her postcard wasn’t the first criticism we’ve received about the

annual event that features yachts decked out in red, white and blue

flags, veterans of wars and patriotic music.

Local historian George Grupe took us and other media outlets to

task in the July 11 edition of the Balboa Beacon, a community

newspaper run by the husband and wife team of Bill and Gay

Wassall-Kelly, for not covering the parade with stories and photos.

Bill Kelly also chided us in a letter to the editor on the Daily

Pilot Forum pages.

By the way, the Beacon, I noticed in its July 11 edition, did not

have photos of the parade either.

But I digress. Still, being sufficiently stung, let me try to

explain why we didn’t cover the event.

First and foremost on the list is that we had no advance notice of

it. No one sent us a press release or an invitation to cover the

parade. While that may seem like a minor communication breakdown to

some, a press release can often make the difference between gobs of

ink or a press blackout like the one seen on July 4.

As the one with longest tenure here besides the sports department,

I do have a certain amount of institutional knowledge of the

Newport-Mesa community and have even covered the boat parade in the

past.

But readers and event planners can’t count on me knowing what

every reporter or editor has planned.

I leave the day-to-day planning of the paper to others, especially

city editor, James Meier. Meier is what some may call an assignment

editor, doling out stories and ideas to reporters as he gets them.

If you have a good story and are looking for a way in the paper,

you can always take a chance and call me, but I recommend calling him

directly at (949) 764-4324 or calling our City Desk line that rings

in the entire newsroom at (949) 574-4286.

Features editor Jennifer Mahal is also a good contact and can be

reached at (949) 574-4282.

The other culprit that I see here is staffing.

As a small community newspaper we have limited reporters,

photographers and editors. So, even if you do call, we can’t cover

every event that happens in town, especially on weekends and holidays

when we run the paper with a skeleton crew.

It’s a weekly discussion here in the newsroom to decide what

events to prioritize for coverage. But I can tell you, the earlier

you get us information the better chance it has to get in.

Difficulties on July 4 are usually magnified because we need to

make sure we have staff members here at night in case a major news

event breaks, limiting the number of people we can have in the early

morning hours.

This year, we covered the Mariners Park kids parade and the crowds

who flocked to the beaches and boardwalk of West Newport.

While Grupe and others contend that coverage didn’t have the

patriotic flavor of the boat parade, it certainly has news value in

that hundreds of thousands spend their Independence Day in West

Newport and the rest of the Balboa Peninsula.

Still, there’s always next year. Just make sure you drop us a line

before the first boat sets sail.

* * *

Since the redesign of our newspaper unfolded two weeks ago on July

15, we have received many reader comments, most of them favorable I

believe.

Many readers like the new business section, Your Work Week, that

appears on Mondays. The extra days of Forum with letters and

commentary and the Politics page also seem to be a hit.

The new look of the paper also has garnered response, both good

and bad.

“I’ve lived here 18 years and I just wanted to call and say the

new look of the Pilot is wonderful,” said reader Susan Moore. “It’s

cleaner. It’s more up-to-date, easier to read and looks fantastic.”

Thanks Susan.

Another reader, whom I know and respect, wrote me to say he wasn’t

so pleased, saying our type and headline styles were boring.

“I know it’s a matter taste, but I am really disappointed that you

chose to go in that direction rather than looking to be more dramatic

and more interesting,” he said.

Hopefully, we can make up for that in the news content.

Others have asked why we took the American flag off of the boat on

our logo at the top of the page.

The flag was never intended to part of our permanent look. We

placed it there immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a

show of unity.

Taking it off doesn’t mean we are any less unified with our fellow

Americans, but as we changed the look of the paper, we just believed

that was the perfect time to return the logo back to its original

look.

Speaking of the logo, we have also received criticism over the

color of the sun that appears above the boat. Many want to see a

bright yellow sun, not the amber color that appears there now.

I’ll work on that. But as powerful as some may think we editors

are, changing the color of the sun is a pretty tall order.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. He can be reached at 949-574-4258 or

via e-mail at tony.dodero@latimes.com.