Behind the Headlines

There has been a lot of discussion about the Internet and its impact on newspapers. Most of that discussion has centered around declining newspaper circulation as more and more readers flock to the Internet.

Not as much of the discussion has been about how newspapers can and are using the Internet to their advantage. At the Herald-Leader, our website continues to grow as it becomes more and more a part of how we cover the news for our readers. Kentucky.com had more than 77 million page views in 2005. When coupled with the readership of the daily newspaper that gives us a far bigger audience than ever before.

Kentucky.com allows us to bring the news to readers as soon as it happens. We post breaking news throughout the day as well as updating readers on what’s happening in the worlds of sports and entertainment. For example, kentucky.com was the first to report that Lexington had been awarded the 2010 World Equestrian Games. Our reporters file stories throughout the day on kentucky.com before writing more detailed reports for the next day’s Herald-Leader.

We also offer readers expanded coverage on kentucky.com. We often supplement our in-paper coverage with more photos, documents, and text of events that we did not have room for in the daily paper. Some of our columnist and reporters also offer readers additional coverage online via their blogs. Sports columnist John Clay, books editor Cheryl Truman, political columnist Larry Dale Keeling and pop culture writer Jamie Gumbrecht all blog throughout the week on their particular areas of expertise.

The next step for us is multimedia. We’ll be offering more audio and video of the events we cover in 2006. One recent example was the Valentine’s Day volunteer package that was published in our Health & Family section. That coverage was supplemented on kentucky.com with a photo slide show by photographer David Stephenson that was accompanied by audio commentary by the volunteers themselves. You can already see some of that work, plus additional photo galleries on the photo staff’s blog. Our story about the Dunbar High School team that was the first black team to play in the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Sweet 16 was supplemented online with video of the team playing in the tournament in 1961.

The Internet certainly offers challenges for newspaper companies, but it also offers us the opportunity to provide readers with state and local coverage of that is more immediate, deep and varied than we could have ever offered before the Internet.

Mike Johnson
Deputy Managing Editor