Categories: OLD Media Moves

Alternative story formats in Texas paper’s biz section

Terry Greenberg, the editor of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in Texas, writes Sunday about how the paper is using alternative story formats in its business section to provide readers more information — and free up reporters to do more in-depth coverage.

Greenberg writes, “If you go to the cover, you’ll see a package of some quick-read information at the bottom. For example:

■ A graphic reviewing the week on Wall Street.

■ A list of businesses about to approach to City’s Site Plan Review Committee.

■ The first of a number of projects heading for Lubbock’s Zoning Adjustment Board, with the rest on the following page.

■ Recalls This Week from our wire services.

■ A list of Chamber events this week.

“Last Sunday we had 9 items on the business cover. Today we have 12 — and most are new content.

“And what you see today is probably not the final version — this is a start.

“Not everything has to be written in the traditional newspaper story format.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.