I had a pleasant experience today with the online edition of a major newspaper. Sadly, it wasn’t the Los Angeles Times.

Catching up on my soccer reading I came across “How to make football beautiful again” in the Guardian Unlimited. The Guardian is not my cup of tea politically, but their soccer coverage is some of the best in the English speaking world. Something Sean Ingle, the writer of the piece and editor of Guardian Unlimited Sport, said about instant replay made me want to throw in a comment.

Difference 1: Ingle’s email address is in the article. Try finding contact info for a LAT reporter or editor!

Difference 2: he emailed back a reply that was not canned, but specific to my point. At my hometown paper, I’m batting 50% on even getting a response from the reader’s representative — and she’s supposed to answer email!

Difference 3: he considers this interchange with readers valuable: “(I) was hoping to put a selection of the 100+ emails I’ve received, lots with really interesting ideas, online — but sadly I haven’t had the time.” The last time we heard from an employee of the LAT, he was calling us “stupid” (albeit pseudonymously!).

Not coincidentally, in my view, Guardian Unlimited won a Webby yesterday for Best Newspaper on the Web. Agree or disagree with their politics, they’re doing something right.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 10th, 2006 at 8:35 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.