Profiles and top stories

Tomorrow in class you'll read the profiles you've done of your classmates. On Monday you'll be attending the Pollner lecture at 7 p.m. in the University Center Theater. Pollner professor Eli Saslow of the Washington Post will give a lecture titled "Inside the Bubble: Covering President Obama." You'll write a story about the lecture and it will be due in class on Wednesday.

I know a few of you have posted your top stories for the week already. Those who haven't, please post under this message.

Anonymous posts

There's quite a lot of discussion in journalism about posts attached to news stories on web sites and whether editors should do away with comments altogether, or at least bar people from posting anonymously.
Here's an interesting story that the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times did as a result of an anonymous post.
What do you think? Is the web a place where anyone should be able to post anything, or would you force posters to register and use real names? Would you do away with posts on all stories, or perhaps some stories?

Post your top stories of the week

Press conference Friday

Our guest will be Jonathan Krim, senior deputy managing editor of Wall Street Journal.com (wsj.com). Krim joined WSJ after 10 years at the Washington Post and Washingtonpost.com, where he served in a variety of positions, including technology policy reporter for the newspaper, assistant managing editor of washingtonpost.com, and local innovations editor for both news outlets.

Before joining the Post, Krim was executive editor of TheStreet.com, an online financial news and commentary site based in New York, and before that he spent 18 years at the San Jose Mercury News in several senior editing roles. He was the editor and manager of two projects that won Pulitzer Prizes.

Krim is a 1977 graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism.

Please post below two questions you hope to ask him on Friday. We will be in DAH 316.

Keep in mind these tips

When writing your lead for the press conference, here are some things to think about:

• Don't write more than one sentence.
• Do use articles (the, a) and verbs and do state the day this occurred.
• Zero in on the most important news.
• Avoid generalities or topic leads.

Depending on the kind of story you're writing:

• Write visually if you’re describing a breaking news event.
• If you're covering a meeting or speech, pinpoint the news and attribute it to the speaker in the lead.

Type the lead and have it in a place that will let you drop it in an electronic file I create.
Also, make sure you have followed the steps to be able to sign on to the lab computers. Remember, you send an e-mail to jtech@mso.umt.edu and include your name, your net ID and the journalism classes you are enrolled in.
If you have computer questions, go to the tech wiki.

After-hours access to the building

Remember, if you think you'll want access to this building after 5:30 p.m., or on weekends, you have to sign up to get it. Go here http://jour.umt.edu/after-hours/
to sign up by Friday or you're out of luck.

Patricia Schroeder is coming to class

Former Colorado Rep. Patricia Schroeder will be in class on Sept. 10, accompanied by former Montana Rep. Pat Williams. You'll be expected to do background research about who she is and what issues she is most closely identified with. But assuming you were to write a story about what she had to say, what kinds of questions would you ask her that you think would most likely elicit newsworthy answers?
After you've done some research, post two questions to this blog by next Thursday at 5 p.m. That will substitute next week for your posting of top news stories for the week.