What a wonderful Friday afternooon surprise:
When I recently mentioned to a Chronicle colleague that I soon would be writing a blog titled About:Chron, he joked: “It’s about time.”
Yes, it is.
But more precisely, it’s about the Houston Chronicle.
I’ve been the Chronicle’s readers’ representative for three years. During that time, I have received tons of interesting and fascinating questions and ideas from readers. Common questions relate to the weather page, redesign of the newspaper, bias, comics, sports coverage, politics and photos.
We appreciate it, even the complaints. The feedback helps us to understand and better serve you.
About:Chron will be an extension of that communication.
Also there’s a new nightlife blog, called “bar tab.”
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: At the start of the year, we threw out some suggestions for improving the Chronicle. Here’s #2:
The reader rep should have more authority and more impact
One can’t help but suspect that the job of reader rep/ombudsman at most newspapers — and certainly the Chronicle — is a thankless task, for the person must take all sorts of grief from readers, without possessing any real power to fix any but the most egregious problems/errors.
That’s unacceptable. We think Jeff Cohen should boost James T. Campbell’s authority considerably at the newspaper, and give him a regular column (or even better, a blog) to address reader concerns and criticisms.
I’ve had a fair number of email conversations with Campbell about problems this blog has found at the newspaper, and he’s been professional and responsive. That said, the newspaper would probably benefit if that process were much more transparent. To that end, Campbell should have a column and blog where he regularly addresses reader complaints, and the Chronicle’s responses (because sometimes, reader complaints are not legitimate).
The Chronicle deserves credit for this smart move.
Welcome to the blogosphere, Mr. Campbell!
