Author: Kathryn Jones Malone

We do love to moan about the pressures of the news business.

Come to one of our workshops, or maybe to a TPA meeting, and you’ll hear lots of talk about the problems of life in a newsroom.

Most of them deal with stress and time and money.  And listen long enough, and you’ll hear some whines about the good old days when life was simpler.

Yeah, sure.  Kerry Craig, assistant editor of the Sulphur Springs News-Telegram, sent the Center an email this week that’s a reminder that the good old days of journalism weren’t exactly stress-free either.

Fact is, they could be downright dangerous.

Kerry sent along a news article from 1891, found by a researcher working on a book and passed on to him.

The article, from the St. Louis Republic, was headlined “FOUGHT A DUEL TO DEATH.”  The deck: “Two Texas Editors Shoot at Short Range with Fatal Result.” Here’s the article:

         Sulphur Springs, Tex., Sept. 16 – This quiet little city was thrown into great excitement over an impromptu duel about 9:30 o’clock this morning between E.M. Tate and Everett Moore, respective editors of the Hopkins County Echo and the Alliance Vindicator, which resulted in the death of the latter.  Tate received a slight wound in the left arm.  Moore received five wounds, one in the groin, two in the side and two in the leg, and lived but a few hours.  The pistols used were large and deadly weapons.  There has been ill-feeling between the two men for some time, and they have been attacking each other very severely in their papers.  This morning at the hour mentioned they met on the public square and at first engaged in a fist fight.  Moore finding Tate to be the better man, backed off from him and drew his gun, but Tate was equal to the occasion and drew his gun by the time Moore could fire.  Both men continued firing until their weapons were emptied, Moore shooting after he had fallen to the ground.  Eye-witnesses to the affair are unable to say which was the first to shoot.  Tate says Moore fired first and that he acted purely in self-defence.  Tate surrendered himself to the Sheriff, and is now undergoing a preliminary trial.

The Vindicator isn’t around anymore, but the Echo lives on today as a weekly publication of Kerry’s Sulphur Springs News-Telegram.

Dueling editors weren’t exactly unique to Texas.  The history of American journalism is full of editors (especially in the South and West) for whom the term “newspaper war” was a literal conflict.

The arguments in print frequently erupted in fisticuffs on the street, and duels like this one were not uncommon.

One San Francisco editor even put this sign on his door:  “Subscriptions received from 9 to 4; challenges from 11 to 12 only.”

Writing is a skill, and improving writing is like improving any other skill.

Do you suck at dancing?  Nobody would suggest that you buy a book on dancing, or view videos on dancing, or do a Web search on dancing.  Now those things might help a little – they certainly couldn’t hurt — but if you want to become a better dancer you need to spend some time with someone who is a good dancer.  You need to watch that person dance, and get some one-on-one instruction, and then you need to let that person make some suggestions on your dance moves.

That’s the way you learn to dance, or to swim, or to cook or to drive.

And it’s the way you learn to write, too.

Books and workshops and webinars are good, but there’s no substitute for sitting down with a writing coach to talk writing.  Not writing in the abstract, but the city council story you just wrote.

The Center wants to help, so we’re launching a new contest:  Win a Writing Coach for a Day.

The coach is Paul LaRocque, a veteran of more than four decades in writing, reporting, editing and teaching.  He has worked at both community papers and metros, and he has written books on the editing process.  He has spoken at our workshops, and perhaps most importantly, he’s a really nice guy.  The kind of guy you’d like to share a cup of coffee with and talk shop.

The contest is simple.  You just give us a little information about your paper (your paper’s name and address, circulation, and editor or publisher) and tell us why you think you need a writing coach in no more than 500 words.
Your explanation should answer these questions:  Why does your newspaper need a writing coach?  What are the problems/issues you would like for your coach to address?  In what ways would you like to use your coach during his day in your newsroom?

Send that info to us at [email protected].  The winner will be announced on Monday, Aug. 2.

If you win, your writing coach will contact you to set up a time to visit your newsroom.  And you’re not out a cent — except for that cup of coffee.  We’ll expect you to cover that.

Part of your summer reading program should be the fluff that you might never get to any other time. Stuff with absolutely no redeeming value except that you love it. But in case you want to keep one book going that will help you professionally, especially as an editor or manager or publisher, here’s a good place to start. The blog Entrepreneur Corner has an article on the seven “must reads” for entrepreneurs. Some are management-oriented, and some, like Tom Friedman’s The World is Flat, just help us to understand the new world in which we all do business, no matter what our corner of Texas.

A new interactive map now shows broadband access throughout the state of Texas. You can check out broadband availability for any city, and even any specific address, in the state. The map shows that 96 percent of Texans can access broadband, but that still leaves out about 250,000 homes. Be sure to surf through the entire website — it contains loads of information on every county in the state, including detailed broadband-availability maps of your county. The maps are a project of the Texas Department of Agriculture. The department’s news release quoted commissioner Todd Stapes as saying: “High-speed Internet is directly related to business development and is a critical lifeline to vital services like telemedicine and education. Every Texan should have the opportunity to drive in the fast lane on the information superhighway; however, some Texans are stuck on a dirt road. This new statewide broadband map will help us bridge the digital divide for rural communities and households that remain unserved by broadband service.”

If you’ve ever wondered what sites get the most visitors on the Web, wonder no more. Google has compiled the list. No. 1: Facebook, with 540 million unique visitors.