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How much has newspaper technology changed since 1957? For answers, look to a black-and-white documentary unearthed by WDBJ7 as part of their current series, "Headlines in Hard Times: How The Roanoke Times is weathering the storm." The two-parter, reported by veteran Joe Dashiell, concludes tonight at 6.

While gathering background, Dashiell came across the vintage 21-minute "Times-World at a Glance" documentary. In the newsroom today, we have gathered around to watch it and talk about how much has changed (you'll see more women on staff) and hasn't (newspaper production and delivery remains a labor-intensive process).

At the time the documentary was filmed, the two Roanoke newspapers -- Times and World-News -- covered 25 counties in western Virginia and nine in southern West Virginia, according to the M.W. Armistead III, then the president and publisher of Times-World Corp. Buses and trains were among the means we used to ship the papers as far as 200 miles away. 

In the film, Armistead boasts that the Times-World plant of 1957 is one of the most modern news-gathering facilities in the South. The grainy footage provides a tour of the print newsrooms, advertising and production facilities, all still located along downtown Roanoke's Campbell Avenue.

Halfway through, the focus shifts to WDBJ radio and television stations, which at the time were corporate siblings under the Times-World banner. That changed in 1969, when our current owners, Norfolk-based Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, bought the papers. Federal cross-ownership regulations required Landmark to sell the broadcast outlets.

About a half dozen readers have called or e-mailed the past couple of days to ask why we didn't run precinct charts detailing this week's election results in Wednesday's newspaper. We decided not to publish those charts this year for a few reasons:

• We felt like we could make better use of the space they require (nearly two full pages) with more stories and photos;
• The time it takes to compile the charts often causes us to miss our newsroom deadline. And if we miss our deadline that starts a chain reaction that ends with readers getting their papers late;
• The information is available on the state board of elections Web site.

Let me know if you missed having the charts in print. There's an election every year in Virginia and I know the question will come up again.

A reader sent me an e-mail recently accusing the newsroom of political bias in our coverage.

He pointed out how Democrat Creigh Deeds' photo ran above Republican Bob McDonnell's photo in a front-page story detailing the gubernatorial candidates plans for improving schools. Because of that placement, only Deeds' photo could be seen when the paper was folded in newspaper racks.

"You see, your liberal slant on everything makes all of us think that something as simple as this has a political reason," he wrote. "My entire Hardee's biscuit and coffee group this morning thought so."

He's right that only Deeds' mugshot -- a newspaper term for a small photo inset in a story -- was visible above the fold.

He's wrong about why it happened. That decision on which candidate's photo to place on top was made based on the candidates last names, not their political leanings.

Read more »

We had a lively discussion at our afternoon news meeting Wednesday about how we should display the news of Sen. Ted Kennedy's death on today's front page. Kennedy's death was announced by his family around 1:15 a.m. Wednesday morning, after our final deadline for Wednesday's paper had passed.

So, the news had been all over television and the Internet for more than 24 hours by the time our paper hit doorsteps this morning. A handful of editors in the room argued that his death was a huge national story and deserved traditional centerpiece display -- four columns wide with a large headline, photo, story, timeline -- on the front page.

Others argued that the timing of his death -- coupled with the fact that he had few local connections -- was good reason to play the story inside the paper.

As you can see here, we decided on somewhat of a middle ground: A large banner over the paper's flag announcing his death and directing readers to more coverage on pages three, four and five.

That alerted readers buying the paper in racks or stores to the coverage but also allowed us to give a nice display to local columnist Dan Casey's feature on Dave Asbury.

What do you think about how we played the story?

"How stupid can the Times be," read the subject line of the e-mail.

It captured the intensity of the reader’s complaint about a feature photo we published showing a 13-year-old Roanoke boy jumping off of a second-story stairway onto a trampoline.

"Why on earth would your newspaper put something out there that exhibits such dangerous behavior," the reader wrote. "Your paper should be promoting safety as much as possible, not encouraging foolish, dangerous behavior that can cause serious injury or worse."

Jumping onto a trampoline from one story up is a recipe for a trip the emergency room. I wouldn’t want either of my daughters trying it.

However, the decision on whether we acted irresponsibly in publishing the photo isn’t clear cut.

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Steve Hemphill started as sports editor today. Hemphill came to The Roanoke Times as an assistant sports editor in 2004 after serving as sports editor at the Longmont Daily Times-Call in Colorado. He's a graduate of Colorado State University.

Hemphill replaces Jeff Gilbert, who is returning to his alma mater, Cedarville University, to teach journalism.

We began this month with a few changes to our  comics/puzzles pages lineup. One of them included dropping the Goren on Bridge column and replacing it with a new logic puzzle called Kakuro.  Our reasoning for the changes included the fact that the bridge column had received notably lackluster feedback on a reader panel we conducted earlier this year. We've also seen growing interest in mind-challenging puzzles such as Kakuro and Sudoko.

When we made the change, we left the door open and said we'd evaluate reader feedback over the next six months. But we've already heard enough: Since June 1, we've received more than 300 calls, e-mails and letters. We've even been hand-delivered a few petitions passed around at bridge clubs and nursing homes. (Actual subscription cancellations number less than a dozen.)

The bridge fans have spoken, and they'll be happy to hear the column is coming back. We expect that to happen with next week's editions, with the column moving to its new home in the classifieds section.

If you're reading this and know of a disappointed bridge fan, please spread the word.

And if you like Kakuro, let us know as well.

We published a story today by reporter Mason Adams based on information from three Roanoke City Council members who requested anonymity. Adams story broke the news that City Council will meet Monday to discuss ending City Manager Darlene Burcham's tenure.

We strive to avoid using unnamed sources in our stories because we know readers can't fully assess the value of the information we are providing without fully knowing the sources. Sometimes, though -- when we believe we can't get the information from on-the-record sources and we think it's important for our readers to know -- we will allow it. We always strive to have the information confirmed by more than just one person. And any use of an unnamed sources has to be approved by one of the top two newsroom editors.

Do you think this was a good use of unnamed sources?

You can read more about how we make these decisions in our news standards and policies.

Earlier this month we handed out the newsroom's Landmark Awards, our annual in-house competition to recognize top performers in writing, photography, design, headline writing and online innovation. The awards recognize a body of work (reporters must submit 10 stories, for instance) throughout the year.

Here's a list of winners and a few of the judges' comments. Congrats to all of the winners.

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From my column today, some perspective on where The Roanoke Times fits into reports on the newspaper industry's troubles:

In Roanoke, we go into mid-2009 carrying no onerous debt. We remain profitable. Our owner, Norfolk-based Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, is a privately held partnership. As such, it is not required to make quarterly reports to public stockholders. That allows us to think and plan longer-term.

We're gratified, and even humored by, an industry blogger's recent declaration that we're one of "10 Newspapers that Will Survive the Apocalypse."

Remember this as you read of the Boston Globe's late-hour negotiations with unions, or the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's struggle with bankruptcy. Their story is not ours. 

-- Carole Tarrant