Critique of Oct. 31 Parthenon Friday edition
Front page:
The staff did a pretty good job of incorporating Halloween
into the paper with the front page. A lot of the text was in orange writing and
they put a spider on the front page and said look for it on each page, so that
should have helped bring readers to look at every page. This is one of the few
front pages where all the writing on the page was easily readable. The staff
did a good job with the zombie image on the bottom of the page to continue the
Halloween theme. The staff continues to create solid front pages of the Friday
edition that typically have no stories on the front page.
Second page:
Three stories make up the second page of the paper. One
about a pumpkin house in the C-K area, one about the Zombie 5k run and one
about Allison Grimes and a rally she had in Ashland where former president Bill
Clinton endorsed her. All three stories have the typical problems that make up
the stories in The Parthenon. All three had wordiness and missing commas, etc.
The Pumpkin House had an attribution issue where writer could have introduced
the speaker much earlier in the quote. The Zombie 5k story had an organization
problem where important information about the run like the cost to run and
where the proceeds for the event go. Readers would like to know this information,
especially if they are interested in running and have to wait until the end of
the story to find out. That information should be in the first few paragraphs.
The Grimes story was good from an organization standpoint, it just had the
typical wordiness and unnecessary phrases that could have been left out to make
the story more clear and concise. The headlines on the page are pretty good.
They are simple, but given the small space they are good.
Third page:
There was only one story on the page as a half-page ad is on
the bottom half of the page. The lone story on the page is about the PR firm
hired by C-USA to bring attention the Marshall’s football season. The story was
well-written, as this is probably the version used after editing in the sports
writing class. The writer could have mentioned the name of the firm in the lead
instead of the second paragraph and then get into what the firm is trying to
accomplish. The headline on the page is sort of misleading. It says the Herd is
trying to bring attention to its season, but it’s really the PR firm. The
headline should say that instead of saying Marshall is trying to do that as
that is not what the story is about.
Fourth page:
The two stories on page four, Tubaween/Octubafest and one about
the V Club having a musical act on Halloween. Both stories were wordy despite
being short in nature. The V Club story had the time element at the end of the
lead, which should be moved closer to the verb and the cost of tickets wasn’t mentioned
until the very end and should be moved up early, so readers don’t miss the
price by not reading the entire story. Other than wordiness and an unnecessary
quote in the Tubafest story the stories were okay. The bottom half of the page
has a list of events at Civil War Days. No problems with it as far as AP style
goes, but it is a little dark and difficult to read in certain areas. It should
have been a lighter shade. The headlines are good, given the space, and tell the
reader what they need to know.
Fifth page:
The fifth page is usually taken up by a graphic listing the
events in the area for the weekend and this issue is no different. The graphic is
free of AP style errors and grammar, etc.
Sixth page:
The back page of this edition is ads for churches in the area. As long as the ads were created by the churches editors should not have to worry about grammar, but should check anyway to be certain the ads are 100 percent correct. The page is well layed-out and is fair as it provides information on a number of churches from different denominations.
Overall Thoughts:
The stories the paper had were well-written for the most part minus the wordiness, a few organizational and time element problems, an attribution issue and not identify the PR firm in the football story early enough. The headlines were good for the most part. I don't think any of them needed rewriting. The issue could have used more stories as there were only six and a couple of them were very short. But, this issue tends to be short with the weekend graphic and the front page not having any stories, typically. But, still a good issue.
