From BEER MONEY at the Tribune to ON THE AVENUES at NAC -- how my weekly column came to be.

In response to an inquiry, here's a repeat (26 December 2016) of the story about how ON THE AVENUES came to be. NA Confidential is winding down and will soon cease operations in the current format, although there'll be an archive at my new web site, currently under construction.

ON THE AVENUES will reappear at the next joint, so stay tuned.

---
 

NA Confidential was born in October, 2004. Almost 11,000 posts later, the experience sometimes verges on the coherent, but at the start I had little idea how to proceed, beyond writing for posterity about what was happening right here in New Albany.

Consequently, after five years of beating the bushes, my big break beckoned as 2008 drew to a close.

New Tribune guest columnist in January. (December 8, 2008)

Last Friday afternoon I met with Steve Kozarovich, publisher of the New Albany Tribune, and agreed to write a 900-word column on a weekly basis, beginning Thursday, January 8, and running on Thursdays thereafter. It is a (modest) for-pay gig, joining paid columns I write biweekly for LEO and quarterly for Food and Dining magazine.

This announcement is provided as a courtesy to the publisher, who now has the opportunity to begin fielding complaints before the column actually appears.

From January 2009 until February 2011, I met 111 consecutive "Beer Money" column deadlines at $40 a pop, then decided to run for city council, necessitating a suspension of my weekly Tribune contribution.

Today's last Tribune column for a while: "Let’s all say ‘yes’ for change." (February 17, 2011)

 ... And so, here's the finale ... for now. I expect to be back (a) after a primary loss, or (b) after a general election loss, or (c) after a general election victory. After all, there is a precedent for public officials (Ed Clere) writing a weekly column, is there not?

BAYLOR: Let’s all say ‘yes’ for change

This will be my last column in The Tribune for a while, and there’s a reason for the hiatus.

I've decided to take a dram of my own medicine and file to run for city council in the coming primary — yes, as a Democrat, and for an at-large seat.

Because this very newspaper has a policy against permitting its columnists to conduct campaigns in print, and actually enforces it more often than the city’s own long neglected codes, I must return temporarily to the realm of the blogosphere.

And in the blogosphere I was destined to remain, because concurrent with my hiatus, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. cashiered Kozarovich and combined our local newspapers into a new entity, the News and Tribune. It was to be headquartered in Jeffersonville, instituting a Clark County-centric focus that has become steadily more annoying to New Albanians during the years since, and it caused my column to walk the plank.

This just in: Merger kills a newspaper column. (May 23, 2011)

Damn, I knew I should have actually won that election ... then I could still have a newspaper column, just like Ed Clere, although I'm told that the beer column idea is still on the table for the Spectrum section.

The now departed Coach K used the word "hiatus" prior to my council bid. I had to fetch a thesaurus to know what he meant. Now, somewhere, he and Lucy Van Pelt are holding the football aloft and laughing.

Just my luck. Who'd have known that Linus's older sister worked for the Retirement Systems of Alabama?

Is it time to go underground, yet?

To Matt Nash: It's all yours now. Torture the troglodytes often, will you ... and try to give us some New Albany news, okay? The Clark County stuff's already getting old.

Right now, the regular columnist spots are full. I can't pick up anyone else and still get in letters, cheers and jeers and any editorials in a timely manner.

I still had to drop another columnist (McDonald) on top of when you and Kelley Curran decided to run for office because space became less available after the merger. I'm also trying to keep a balance between Clark County folks like Dodd and Harbeson and Floyd County writers like Amy and Nash. And, of course, I have a freelancer/stringer budget to worry about.

It's possible a spot would open up in the future and I'll let you know if that happens.

Shea Van Hoy

I spent a few months licking wounds and plotting revenge against the perpetrators, then realized there was much yet to say and write. The answer was to DIY, in this blog forum.

The newspaper's dead and buried, so welcome to electronica. (May 26, 2011)

Beginning last week, my Thursday column was reinstituted in this space. The column ran in the News and Tribune from January 2009 until February 2011, when it went on "hiatus" during my run for council. Earlier this week, I learned that the hiatus had been transformed into permanent absence owing to changes in the newspaper's structure.

This just in: Merger kills a newspaper column.

As a writer, deadlines have a wonderful way of concentrating thought, and so it is my desire to get back into the weekly column habit. This blog's the place for it until something else comes along.

Furthermore, conceding that the newspaper's current staff will disagree with me, the consolidation of two editions into one of the same size inevitably will have the effect of reducing coverage of New Albany (and to an extent, Floyd County) affairs. Stated simply, New Albany has lost its newspaper.

"Our newspaper is dead -- long live the Internet", or something like that.

For the time being, and perhaps for a long time to come, this blog is more important than ever before. While I don't have the time to transform NAC into a comprehensive news and commentary entity, repositioning my weekly column and moving it from Thursday newsprint to Thursday bandwidth is attainable, so that's how we'll start the ball rolling. In conjunction with social media, it's enough for now. I am aware of like-minded ideas for on-line publishing in the community, and will continue monitoring these in the hope that something comes to fruition.

But what to call this new column?

Later this morning, my Thursday column will reappear here. The old "Beer Money" tag, which referred to the limited usefulness of the bare farthings grudgingly paid by the Retirement Systems of Alabama to guest columnists in publications like One Southern Indiana Newspaper, no longer makes sense, seeing as remuneration has completely disappeared.

Instead, my new Thursday column will openly hearken back to the long-departed days of independent, truly local journalism in New Albany: "On the Avenues." Some of you will know what I mean by this. Look for the Green Mouse to make appearances, too.

In the days of my youth, back when the Tribune actually mattered, a lifer named Jack Powers was the staff do-it-all. He covered the social and political waterfronts in his column, "On the Avenues," with the help of an all-purpose editorial source and assistant, the so-called Green Mouse.

My column honors these quaint and mostly forgotten aspects of local journalism in New Albany.

From BEER MONEY at the Tribune to ON THE AVENUES at NAC -- how my weekly column came to be.

NA Confidential was born in October, 2004. Almost 11,000 posts later, the experience sometimes verges on the coherent, but at the start I had little idea how to proceed, beyond writing for posterity about what was happening right here in New Albany.

Consequently, after five years of beating the bushes, my big break beckoned as 2008 drew to a close.

New Tribune guest columnist in January. (December 8, 2008)

Last Friday afternoon I met with Steve Kozarovich, publisher of the New Albany Tribune, and agreed to write a 900-word column on a weekly basis, beginning Thursday, January 8, and running on Thursdays thereafter. It is a (modest) for-pay gig, joining paid columns I write biweekly for LEO and quarterly for Food and Dining magazine.

This announcement is provided as a courtesy to the publisher, who now has the opportunity to begin fielding complaints before the column actually appears.

From January 2009 until February 2011, I met 111 consecutive "Beer Money" column deadlines at $40 a pop, then decided to run for city council, necessitating a suspension of my weeklyTribunecontribution.

Today's last Tribune column for a while: "Let’s all say ‘yes’ for change." (February 17, 2011)

 ... And so, here's the finale ... for now. I expect to be back (a) after a primary loss, or (b) after a general election loss, or (c) after a general election victory. After all, there is a Clere Channel precedent for public officials writing a weekly column, is there not?

BAYLOR: Let’s all say ‘yes’ for change

This will be my last column in The Tribune for a while, and there’s a reason for the hiatus.

I've decided to take a dram of my own medicine and file to run for city council in the coming primary — yes, as a Democrat, and for an at-large seat.

Because this very newspaper has a policy against permitting its columnists to conduct campaigns in print, and actually enforces it more often than the city’s own long neglected codes, I must return temporarily to the realm of the blogosphere.

And in the blogosphere I was destined to remain, because concurrent with my hiatus, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. cashiered Kozarovich and combined our local newspapers into a new entity, the News and Tribune. It was to be headquartered in Jeffersonville, instituting a Clark County-centric focus that has become steadily more annoying to New Albanians during the years since, and it caused my column to walk the plank.

This just in: Merger kills a newspaper column. (May 23, 2011)

Damn, I knew I should have actually won that election ... then I could still have a newspaper column, just like Parson Clere, although I'm told that the beer column idea is still on the table for the Spectrum section.

The now departed Coach K used the word "hiatus" prior to my council bid. I had to fetch a thesaurus to know what he meant. Now, somewhere, he and Lucy Van Pelt are holding the football aloft and laughing.

Just my luck. Who'd have known that Linus's older sister worked for the Retirement Systems of Alabama?

Is it time to go underground, yet?

To Matt Nash: It's all yours now. Torture the troglodytes often, will you ... and try to give us some New Albany news, okay? The Clark County stuff's already getting old.

Right now, the regular columnist spots are full. I can't pick up anyone else and still get in letters, cheers and jeers and any editorials in a timely manner.

I still had to drop another columnist (McDonald) on top of when you and Kelley Curran decided to run for office because space became less available after the merger. I'm also trying to keep a balance between Clark County folks like Dodd and Harbeson and Floyd County writers like Amy and Nash. And, of course, I have a freelancer/stringer budget to worry about.

It's possible a spot would open up in the future and I'll let you know if that happens.

Shea Van Hoy

I spent a few months licking wounds and plotting revenge against the perpetrators, then realized there was much yet to say and write. The answer was to DIY, in this blog forum.

The newspaper's dead and buried, so welcome to electronica. (May 26, 2011)

Beginning last week, my Thursday column was reinstituted in this space. The column ran in the News and Tribune from January 2009 until February 2011, when it went on "hiatus" during my run for council. Earlier this week, I learned that the hiatus had been transformed into permanent absence owing to changes in the newspaper's structure.

This just in: Merger kills a newspaper column.

As a writer, deadlines have a wonderful way of concentrating thought, and so it is my desire to get back into the weekly column habit. This blog's the place for it until something else comes along.

Furthermore, conceding that the newspaper's current staff will disagree with me, the consolidation of two editions into one of the same size inevitably will have the effect of reducing coverage of New Albany (and to an extent, Floyd County) affairs. Stated simply, New Albany has lost its newspaper.

"Our newspaper is dead -- long live the Internet", or something like that.

For the time being, and perhaps for a long time to come, this blog is more important than ever before. While I don't have the time to transform NAC into a comprehensive news and commentary entity, repositioning my weekly column and moving it from Thursday newsprint to Thursday bandwidth is attainable, so that's how we'll start the ball rolling. In conjunction with social media, it's enough for now. I am aware of like-minded ideas for on-line publishing in the community, and will continue monitoring these in the hope that something comes to fruition.

But what to call this new column?

Later this morning, my Thursday column will reappear here. The old "Beer Money" tag, which referred to the limited usefulness of the bare farthings grudgingly paid by the Retirement Systems of Alabama to guest columnists in publications like One Southern Indiana Newspaper, no longer makes sense, seeing as remuneration has completely disappeared.

Instead, my new Thursday column will openly hearken back to the long-departed days of independent, truly local journalism in New Albany: "On the Avenues." Some of you will know what I mean by this. Look for the Green Mouse to make appearances, too.

In the days of my youth, back when the Tribune actually mattered, a lifer named Jack Powers was the staff do-it-all. He covered the social and political waterfronts in his column, On the Avenues, with the help of an all-purpose editorial source and assistant, the so-called Green Mouse.

My column honors these quaint and mostly forgotten aspects of local journalism in New Albany.

Next: The Top Ten ON THE AVENUES columns of 2016.

Shea Van Hoy bids farewell to the newspaper that has bid farewell to New Albany.

My old pal Byron used to deploy a witty piece of stock dialogue, reserving it for just the right moment, as when walking into a bar at closing time, only to learn that we'd missed last call.

Is it any wonder I'm bitter?

Way back in June of 2011, a few months after the New Albany Tribune and Jeffersonville Evening News were ginzu-knived and power-blended to create what functions today as the Clark County Picayune, it was announced that the publishing schedule would be revised so as to disseminate the news via the US Mail, with the Sunday edition disappearing entirely.

News and Tribune eliminates Sunday, adds Monday, calls it "robust." I call it very bad writing.

In a consideration of all this, I wrote the following.

Reckon that's the real dollars and cents reason for all the smoke, mirrors and bull feces, right?

Another bottom line decision from the Retirement Systems of Alabama, just like the one that has deprived New Albany of its local newspaper for the first time since before the Civil War.

Well, I can speak only for myself and the missus.

I've persisted as a subscriber solely because of the Sunday edition, being an old fart and actually enjoying the feel and smell of newsprint with coffee on a lazy morning off. Bill Hanson's "robust" explanation quite simply is a contrived insult to the intelligence of any thinking human, especially New Albany's newspaper readers, who already are the major losers in the pension fund-driven "combining" of newspaper operations.

My, my. We've doubled down on those losses lately, haven't we?

Fast forwarding to 2016, since Daniel Suddeath departed in September, 2015, New Albany has not had a dedicated city beat reporter. This has included two election cycles and times too numerous to count when this blog, Insider Louisville, Business First and even the C-J have scooped the News and Tribune.

Of the stories being hawked by N & T to the public on a weekly basis, the ratio of Clark-to-Floyd coverage tends to be at least 2-1, though often 3-1 or more. Taken together, the recent combined weight of cooking school (wtf?) blurbs and breathless live tweeting about a reality television show (both occurring in Clark County, of course) has easily outstripped increasingly paltry coverage of  New Albany.

By the way, here is Shea Van Hoy's finale. He says the newspaper's doing a great job. You be the judge.

VAN HOY: A fond farewell to News and Tribune readers

As a personal postscript, when Steve Kozarovich engaged me as a columnist in 2009, it was still the New Albany Tribune. When I ran for city council in the 2011 primary, the column was suspended according to the usual rules. Then I lost in the primary, and my column should have resumed, except that in the interim, the newspapers had been merged by CNHI.

Kozarovich was gone, and a new era was under way.

I met Shea Van Hoy at Bank Street Brewhouse, and we discussed the column's future. He intimated that there were difficulties rearranging the roster of columnists owing to space, which I interpreted as the new management regime's unwillingness to remunerate columnists at the same rate as before. It seemed a creative solution was in order, so I proposed one.

Seeing as I'd already been writing about beer for LEO and  Louisville Food & Dining, and thus had displayed a proven ability to keep my NABC day job separate from my writing gigs, I offered to Shea that I'd relinquish the "general interest" newspaper column, and trade it for future considerations, namely, a weekly column about beer, food and drink in the area.

I made this offer from two motivations.

For one, it would broaden my own skills in the genre, because for me, deadlines are good.

Moreover, it would allow the News and Tribune to be the newspaper of record for what I thought was about to explode in both New Albany and Jeffersonville -- and has, in spades, during the five years since then. I've often been wrong, but not about this one.

In the end, I voluntarily killed the column and made Shea's life easier. In return, five years later, the now departing editor hasn't once followed up, not even once, on what I'd imagined was at least a potential talking point.

Back to Vonnegut: So it goes.

Maybe I should have moved to Jeffersonville. Come to think about it, Ed Clere never got his column back, either.

I wonder why?

"Got to get out of this satellite town." And Shea Van Hoy did.

Simpler times.

Tonight on Twitter, the newspaper's editor announced his forthcoming departure from Community Newspaper Holdings Incorporated.

Newspapermen come and they go, and while it's true that we often had our differences, it's all water under the toll bridges. Let's think about the community; one door closes, and another one opens. Maybe the newspaper finally is below the salary cap, and New Albany can have a city reporter after 201 days.

After all, they can't take reality incarceration TV and Taste of Home Cooking School away from us, right?

Dear Bill Hanson: Put down that colander, give NA some equality, or just change the damn name back to Evening News.

'Bune says: It's all because of the Y.

A few days ago, the paywall's gate opened, and I was told that a plenary indulgence of five free visits had been granted. Now it has again slammed shut. Perhaps there'll be another spinning of the wheel. Maybe the curtain will be parted, to reveal Bill Hanson removing ad spam for paid on-line subscribers, thus allowing me to make good on my vow of comply, but verify (pop-up demolition).

There's a kind of hush -- all over the world, tonight. Somewhere, a dog barks.

Meanwhile, the newspaper's editor credits the opening of the YMCA five years ago with toppling numerous other dominoes. Do you agree? It's a good piece, and surely the Y provided impetus. What might be missed is the relatively small but symbolically important yearly tithe from both city and county -- an investment in economic development downtown. Almost like a plan. As though there actually is a plan.

Highlights from the hermetic journalism kingdom follow. Maybe you can read the whole essay, and maybe not. Let's all give that pensioner's wheel a mighty heave. Better yet, let's all have a drink.

VAN HOY: Belief in Y’s benefit has paid off, by Shea Van Hoy ('Bama Daydreamin')

— Although the YMCA opened just five years ago, it’s hard to picture downtown New Albany without it. When I took the job as editor of this newspaper in November 2005, there were some people that didn’t want to imagine it at all ...

 ... There have been some hits and some misses, for sure, but here’s a sampling of what’s followed the Y into downtown New Albany:

• A revamped — yet currently underused — riverfront amphitheater.

• A downtown farmers’ market location.

• A new park.

• A winery and a brewpub, and other options to purchase upscale carry-out beer, wine and spirits.

• Restaurants such as Feast BBQ and The Exchange Pub + Kitchen which are getting recognition far beyond New Albany’s borders.

• New French, Italian and Cuban restaurants.

• Trendy boutiques, consignment and gift stores.

• A coffee shop that’s open past lunch time.

• A music venue featuring national acts.

• New Albany outposts of popular Louisville spots Wick’s Pizza, Dragon King’s Daughter, Toast on Market, Quills Coffee and Regalo. All of these businesses chose to open in New Albany rather than another Southern Indiana location.

• Art installations.

• Bike lanes, although more are sorely needed.

I liken these arrivals to dominoes falling, and the YMCA was the one that got the momentum going. These unique restaurants, stores and attractions breed more of the same ...

 ... The downtown New Albany YMCA serves as an example of return on investment for a community and standing up for progress, even when there is resistance. And Friday’s five-year anniversary celebration for the Y is proof that one decision can make a difference in a city’s future.

Hail to the thief. Long live the chain. I'm comfortably numb.

In conjunction this week with numerous other CNHI chain newspapers, the News and Tribune erected an on-line metered paywall. You'll even have to pay to read the explanation of why you have to pay, except that I already reprinted it.

To summarize conclusions gleaned from recent Twitter exchanges, the cost for electronic access is $10 per month, compared with $15 to receive newsprint according to the US Postal Service's delivery schedule. The "Front Page" it ain't.

Finally the most recent temporary publisher Bill "Sales, Not Content" Hanson has conceded that your monthly tithe will not buy a reprieve from the intrusive roll-over videos and pop-up/over/under, buzzing-gnat-like advertisements that justifiably render the newspaper's on-line interface a local laughingstock. For this reason, I'm in no mood to subscribe. I'm okay with the price, just not paying it to be insulted by a chain.

Last night at Twitter, Jeffersonville-based managing editor Shea Van Hoy reinforced Hanson's earlier insistence that working together, they produce an "excellent community newspaper," by cautioning me not to peek around the paywall.

I would ask, Roger, that you not post entire N&T articles to your blog, as you did w/council story. I'm fine if you want to post a link, as you have in the past. Otherwise, it's theft.

In short:

Roger, there'll be none of that. I've no intention during this life or any other to follow of once acknowledging that time in 2011 when I screwed you over about your column after you did me a favor, but if you would, please resume directing traffic toward our paywalled website, as NAC has done for nine years running with scant thanks from us -- but anything else is mere thievery, to be quelled by sending the Community Newspaper Gendarmes to your back door ... of course, as soon as we fly them up on coach from Alabama, to which a sizeable portion of the $120 yearly cost will be going to Dixiecrat pensioners, anyway, even as we continue to insist that somehow, in some convoluted and wholly imaginary way with fingers crossed behind our backs, we're not a chain.

Shrug. Yawn. Somewhere, a dog fertilizes a bush.

This topic effectively has jumped the shark, along with Doug England's future in politics and the notion that this city by sanity's edge actually possesses a downtown economic development strategy. With the periodic exception of lifers past the point of mobility, chain outlets typically are staffed by folks eventually moving elsewhere, to other chains, and so it will be with this one, too. Maybe the next batch will be better. Maybe not. Whatever. In the final analysis, it just isn't worth giving a tinker's damn one way or another.

As we await Trib Daniel’s inevitable rejoinders -- touchingly, he is the newspaper's Jim Fowler, wrestling diabetic hippos in the oozing swamp as his upper management emulates Marlon Perkins, sipping chilled daiquiris in the hovering executive copter -- permit me to note that I’m happy to comply with Van Hoy's warning.

Henceforth, I’ll offer only rough paraphrasings of whatever I read at the 'Bune and ‘Bamagator ... however I manage to read it, and as seldom as possible. After all, I'm far less a thief than a spy in the house of bile.

Cheers.

Rubber meets road as News and Tribune lowers a metered paywall on the populace.

In the unabridged cut 'n' paste below, the editor of the News and Tribune explains the decision to erect a pay wall, to meter your peeping inside, and to shift comments to Facebook -- where people with real names typically make none of the snide and nasty comments ... er, never mind.

To be honest, I've always maintained that I'd pay for on-line content provided two conditions were met.

First, that the price be lower than antiquated dead tree service, and second, that the publisher-Hanson-ordained video-arcade-style ads go the fug away.

C'mon, it's 2013; one shouldn't be compelled to worry where the mouse's eye roams, lest another of the 'Bama-pension-system-inspired childlike web annoyances be activated. It's just a flip of the switch, right?

So if I pay, jiggle the toggle and silence the dentist.

It appears the price indeed will be lower, and the editor has promised (they're periodically honored, except in 2011) to get back with us with regard to the Hansons, so I suppose we'll see what happens next. My guess is that Bluegill votes against using any blog revenue to pay for the 'Bune's Clark County-centric content, which is quite wise, considering the blog has no revenue. It's a labor of bile, this ... powered by good old-fashioned alcohol, tins of kippers and the occasional nap.

Ladies and gents, give it up for Shea Van Hoy ... but why not the publisher Hanson? I mean, it's proverbial.

---

October 16, 2013

VAN HOY: Website changes begin today; Full access starts; News and Tribune shifting to Facebook platform for web comments

By SHEA VAN HOY

shea.vanhoy@newsandtribune.com

— I had a Facebook “discussion” recently with a few people about the past, present and future of journalism.

Opinions differed on the state of journalism, but I think all agreed that the way news is delivered has changed drastically over the past 15 years.

At my first newspaper job in Kokomo in 1998, our website had just started, and we didn’t really think about writing content specifically for the website, and certainly not for smart phones or tablets, which were years away from becoming a primary means for people to consume news.

Most reporters did not take photos, none of ours shot video and the real debate in the newsroom was when to post an article to the website, as to not “scoop ourselves.”

Soon after I started in Kokomo, the newspaper experimented with charging a fee for viewing online content. It didn’t last long, and the newspaper’s site went back to a totally free platform.

Not sticking with the paid-site plan was a mistake, in my opinion, and the belief that newspapers should charge for online access has only grown on me. It costs money to report, produce and post stories, photos, video and columns to the website. The Internet has never really been “free,” and it’s becoming a more expensive venture with the way consumers want news delivered.

Our reporters, photographers, editors and designers work hard every day to deliver content that readers can’t get anywhere else — in the print edition and on our web and mobile sites.

With that in mind, starting today visitors to newsandtribune.com will see a notice informing them of how many articles they have remaining for free before they will need to pay for what we’re calling Total Access.

Subscribers to the print edition will see their rates rise slightly, but they also will get full access to digital content. We must increase our rates to pay for the technology required for us to stay relevant in an ever-changing media world.

Those subscribers will get the print product and online access. They will also have access to an e-subscription, which will look just like the printed product in PDF form. It’s perfect for keeping up with news happening at home in Southern Indiana while you’re away.

Those who have been reading the paper online and don’t pay for any subscription will now need to either subscribe to Total Access, or choose a digital-only option for a couple of dollars less per month.

This is the way of the world — media outlets around the globe are charging for online or mobile access to the valuable content they produce. We hope you’ll continue to find value in the community-based journalism the News and Tribune news organization produces every day.

Those with questions about Total Access or a digital subscription should call our circulation department at 812-206-2107 or 206-2108.

WEB COMMENTS SHIFT TO FACEBOOK

One of the highlights — and lowlights — of my day as an editor is reading and approving reader comments on our articles and columns at newsandtribune.com.

To clarify, it’s really approving most of them and deleting a few others.

Every so often, a reader takes offense to a comment posted on our website. Believe me, some of the ones we don’t approve would shock you. A handful of the comments are just sickening and make me wonder what would possess someone to take the time to make such heartless posts.

There have been comments making fun of an interview subject’s appearance; there have been taunts aimed at high school athletes; there have been threats; and there have even been very negative comments on a person’s obituary listing online.

That’s about as low as it gets.

As many people know, the process can be anonymous if the reader chooses to use a fake name or email address — or no name at all. There’s not any real accountability, but we’ve attempted to manage the system as best as possible and only rarely received complaints.

That doesn’t mean that there’s not a better way.

With that in mind, the News and Tribune is switching today to a Facebook-based system for commenting on our articles and columns. This means that those who wish to comment must have an active Facebook account.

The main benefit of this is less anonymity and more accountability from those leaving comments — something I hope we all can agree is a good thing.

I have no problem with readers making strong comments, but I have always felt it’s best that those comments come with a real person’s name attached to them — just as we require for letters to the editor and Cheers and Jeers submissions. Using Facebook increases the chance of that happening.

Just like always, readers can click on a story at newsandtribune.com and there will be an option to comment on articles and columns. These will not need an editor’s approval, but the comment will show up with the reader’s Facebook account name and profile photo.

As always, the News and Tribune reserves the right to delete any comment it deems necessary for removal.

We hope that readers agree that a move toward accountability is a good one.

— Editor Shea Van Hoy can be reached by email at shea.vanhoy@newsandtribune.com or by phone at 812-786-5593.

White bread, skim milk, light beer.

From the safe distance of Jeffersonville, the 'Bune's editor peels away no layers, asks no questions, and accepts a council expenditure at face value. Sounds almost like a corporate policy ... or a council habit.

CHEERS

... to the New Albany City Council approving $75,000 to help restore Second Baptist Church, another important part of black history in New Albany.

Commonly called Town Clock Church, the building served as a link in the Underground Railroad during the Civil War.

Preserving it will help tell a vital lesson for the city and its residents and visitors.

— Editor Shea Van Hoy

Here's a clue, albeit it one outside the box of the 'Bune's business as usual: Future site of church steeple viewing zone.

Gotta proverb for that? Meanwhile, New Albany’s bicentennial history, error-by-error.

It's hard to believe that Gregg Seidl turned down the News and 'Bune's invitation to serve on (another) select small advisory committee, one charged with suggesting weekly New Albany bicentennial story ideas to a congenitally absentee newspaper management cadre that bears bearing no real sense of New Albany.

Gregg WAS asked, right?

But of course he wasn't, and I knew that when I asked the question at Facebook. Gregg replied with tact, grace and dignity, and he is to be commended for taking the high road, as always.

I'll speak only for myself: This is not about Dave Barksdale, Vic Meginnity and Marcia Booker, the advisory committee members enumerated in the editor's explanatory piece (below). They'll come up with solid, predictable, conservative suggestions for a solid, predictable, conservative series, one best read while baking white bread out of surplus school paste and Coors Light.

Rather, it's about the News and 'Bune's typically and traditionally tone deaf way of doing business, and the city's utter, ongoing bungling of the bicentennial to date.

Gregg should have been consulted about the megabuck coffee table book that was farmed with borrowed money to an out-of-state, paid hack. He wasn't asked. Now he isn't asked to contribute to the newspaper's weekly effort, dooming us to the same view of the same people ... yet again.

I'd ask the newspaper's management to speak for itself, but frankly I'm afraid it might result in the publisher's daily social media Bible verses becoming pop-up ads at the web site. Then I'd have to get really annoyed. Are these people ever going to get it?

Now there's a bicentennial article idea, Amanda.

VAN HOY: New Albany’s history, week-by-week, by Shea Van Hoy (News and 'Bune)

The News and Tribune would like to thank the three committee members who helped brainstorm ideas for this list and will continue to be a wealth of information through the year-long series. We wish to publicly recognize David Barksdale, Marcia Booker and Vic Megenity for their participation and keen memories.

Truly, you can't answer the question without a scorecard.

Once upon a time, I asked a baseball manager to explain how he went about running his team's games.

When is the right time to pinch hit? How are strengths and weaknesses played against each other? What’s the ideal situation and pitch count for the hit and run play? Do you bunt for a run early against a better pitcher? In short, what sort of thinking goes into your maneuvering during games?

He thought about it for a minute and said this:

“Well, there are nine innings of three outs each inning. We play during the day, except when it's a night game. We carry 10 pitchers, 3 catchers, 6 infielders and 5 outfielders on our roster. The team bus is a Ford, and we like to eat at Denny’s after the game. Does that help?”

Coincidentally, here’s an explanation of the thought processes behind editorial decision-making at the News and Tribune.

VAN HOY: The beats go on, but sometimes change; A quick refresher on who does what in the editorial department at this paper, by Shea Van Hoy

SOUTHERN INDIANA — A Wednesday morning conversation on Twitter reminded me that there’s much that goes on at the News and Tribune — or any newspaper for that matter — that the public doesn’t know about or understand.

Newspaper cheers the advent of the Human Rights Commission.

'Nuff said. Now we'll see if the council is prepared to support the concept.

CHEERS

... to the New Albany City Council members for voting 8-0 to form a municipal Human Rights Commission on Thursday.

The commission will weigh human rights complaints that can be submitted by any New Albany resident. Upholding equal opportunity for education, employment and property acquisition are among the charges of the body. The body will consist of five members, two appointed by the mayor, two selected by the council and the remaining person elected by the four designees.

Along with serving a working function, the move is also symbolic for those who may want to live or work in the city. It’s a step forward in showing that New Albany can be a community that accepts those from all walks of life, of all races, of any sexual orientation.

It’s a small step for sure, because to change actions, you have to change attitudes. But it’s progress nonetheless in making people feel more comfortable and safe in the community.

It’s also a chance for other municipalities or elected bodies to follow suit.

— Editor Shea Van Hoy

Professor Erika's off his/her/its meds again, dancing naked at Linden Meadows.

Oh, dear. The crazy train's leaving the station again, and now it is heading for Shea Van Hoy's house.

LOCAL NEWS & TRIBUNE FAILS READERS ONCE AGAIN....

Yawn.

"Like throwing acid in a baby's face" is a far better descriptor of what it's like to read the anonymous rantings at Freedom to Screech, don't you think? After all, Linden Meadows actually could be reconverted to parkland for quite a bit less money than it would take to remediate the toxic waste at FOS.

Shea Van Hoy's missing commentary is right here.

It's a funny thing.

I read Shea Van Hoy's commentary this morning on my iPhone, but it doesn't seem to be there any longer after looking for it on the laptop. Of course, the URL might have changed for any number of good reasons, so I searched using the newspaper's  perennially woeful search engine, and there's nothing there, either.

(Here's the correct link; it went back up later in the day. Perhaps one day I'll be able to trust these people again. Right now, I don't): 


http://newsandtribune.com/opinion/x1296862975/VAN-HOY-There-s-a-lot-of-talk-out-there

And here's the text of the commentary, via iPhone. Just in case. Shea even mentions yours truly, because after all, I'm one of the columnists terminated.

Still awaiting that explanation, you know.

---

VAN HOY: There’s a lot of talk out there


SOUTHERN INDIANA — I wrote a column published in Wednesday’s paper noting that the News and Tribune plans to increase the number of editorials and columns from staff members in the coming year. I thought it was fairly straightforward, and still hope the public looks forward from hearing the voice of the newspaper more often.


What I didn’t expect was for the conversation on our website comments to immediately turn to a subject that has been discussed on this page before — our policy for columns from people running for elected office. Specifically, this relates to the former regular column from State Rep. Ed Clere, which was removed after Clere told me he was going to again seek office starting with the May primary, and also held a fundraiser for his campaign. As I have written previously in this space, I appreciate and respect the fact Clere told me this news in person.


What I can’t understand is the vitriol from some readers for the newspaper adhering to a policy that has been in place for years. It’s a policy that has been applied to other candidates who previously wrote regular columns — Roger Baylor and Kelley Curran, who both sought city council positions last year.


Let me restate the policy: If a regular columnist for the News and Tribune decides to run for office in the next election cycle — via filing, holding a fundraiser or simply saying he or she will run — they forfeit their regular space in the newspaper. Continuing publishing the column would be unfair to opponents of that candidate, whether they have declared or not.


I also want to answer claims via web comments on my column that people outside the newsroom had any influence on the removal of Clere’s column. That is untrue. It was a decision made by myself and Bill Hanson, our publisher. It was a very easy decision, actually, as we were simply following our established guidelines.


Our regular columnists make a commitment to write weekly or every other week, and that is much more difficult a task than many realize. If you don’t think so, ask Lindon Dodd, who has written for more than a decade, or even Baylor, who spent far less time as a columnist but told me once that after a while, column ideas can be hard to come by.


That dedication is appreciated by myself and our readers, but column space in the paper is not a right. It’s an agreement that either side can terminate at any time. My goal is to keep the Opinions page as free and open to public comment as possible, but fairness has to be considered when politics are involved.


The final concern from those making comments is a desire to keep up with doings at the Indiana Statehouse. That is important, I agree.


To that end, the News and Tribune has reporter Maureen Hayden at the Statehouse in Indianapolis every day reporting on what’s happening there. That’s not an easy task, either, but Maureen does a fantastic job. We also publish Statehouse stories from The Associated Press and other Indiana newspapers.


We hope you continue to read those reports and stay informed. As always, feel free to contact me if you have questions or concerns


— Shea Van Hoy is editor of the News and Tribune. Reach him at shea.vanhoy@newsandtribune.com or by phone at 812-786-5593.

Letters and election-related content in OSIN as the primary nears.

Hmm, you say that I can write a letter endorsing another candidate, just so long as it isn't me? That's good, because I have some perfectly impartial, politically neutral, non-ideological "reporting" to do. He he he.

Some election housekeeping, by Shea Van Hoy

As we near May 3 — Election Day if you’d forgotten — I wanted to remind readers of some policies we’ve had in place for the past few elections and set deadlines for submissions for the Opinions page.

Evening News uses the "P" word; Citizens Faux Accountability threatens remonstrance.

Shea Van Hoy does the impossible. He looks at the calendar, notices it is 2010, and draws patently obvious conclusions from verifiable experiences outside the narrow boundaries of our locality. But then he ruins it all and uses that damned pesky "P" word. Subscriptions will be threatened!

CHEERS ... to Clarksville’s plans to turn a mile-long stretch of Eastern Boulevard into a Wi-Fi hotspot, once renovations are complete there.

People out and about along the soon-to-be-new roadway’s sidewalks and nearby will be able to get free Internet access from laptops, netbooks or phones.

But, the real lure should be for businesses, which can choose to pay to tap in to a fast connection that they then could use to entice customers. As progressive cities have learned, it’s a valid economic development tool.