Any of you have recommendations as to your favorite state newspapers? I’d have to say that mine is the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, all things considered. I’m able to get a lot of news on their RSS feed and Niki Kelly is an excellent state journalist.
The Indy Star site has, in my opinion, gotten harder to use. The RSS feed doesn’t provide as much information about the story, and the site is full of clutter and difficult for me to navigate. (For those who don’t use such things, an RSS feed allows you to read a site via a news reader with mostly text.) My local paper, the Lafayette Journal and Courier, has gone through a redesign that adds to the clutter, limits or eliminates the RSS feed usefulness, and makes it tough to access content. Maybe this is a Gannett wide phenomenon. The Evansville Courier Press provides fairly good RSS information and the site isn’t horrible. Same goes for the Indiana section of the Louisville Courier Journal. I haven’t tried in a while, but have never really gotten good RSS feeds out of the South Bend Tribune and the Northwest Indiana Times. Opinions?
The Indianapolis Star’s redesign is horrid. And I agree about the RSS feed, too. The Hoosier Political Report’s daily update is quite good and I also like the IBJ’s daily email update.
Now if the JG would just get rid of that wretched audio ad…
I want to mention ‘the little paper that could’, the Chesterton Tribune. Bare-bones (even primitive) design, limited geographical scope, true. But the writing is consistently first rate, accurate and informative. If only the big guys were half as good.
Masson’s blog.
Seriously, I have stopped reading newspapers. They can not let go of print, and keep trying to force online readers to use their product in a “print” way. My local paper wants you to view the print paper in PDF?!?!
I use national network and cable news to find a headline every now and then, and might dive into it deeper online. However, I have found that blogs give me the local coverage that local newspapers say only they can provide.
My favorite Indiana paper is the Bloomington Herald-Times. They provide excellent local coverage, a thughtful editorial section (the liberals say it’s too conservative, the conservatives say it’s too liberal, must be doing something right) and great comics and obits.
Alas, some genius decided that it can only be read on-line if you pay for a subscription. Thus I read the H-T only when I get a craving for ethnic cuisine and head south for the evening.
I agree with the you on Lafayette’s Journal & Courier. Their RSS feed is just plain broke. I would hate to think it’s intentional. But I know they (and every newspaper) are desperately clinging to their print subscribers. So some things in the dead tree version don’t make it or are buried on the site.
It could be laziness or that they don’t actually use their own RSS (or understand it). I used to work for a media organization (local TV station) as a webmaster. I can say I was one of a very few there that even knew what an RSS feed was. Try to explain it’s benefits and all you get are blank stares.
The J&C RSS feed also isn’t comprehensive. Not every news item appears in the feed. I’ve found that their daily headlines archive is better. I use a special bookmark that links me to the current day’s headlines. To do the same, visit this page to add a bookmark of your own:
http://www.focosi.net/jconline_headlines.html