Resolving to find the silver lining

OK, it’s that time, when the pessimism of the last year gets overwhelmed by hopes for the New Year. Maybe that’s why Christmas precedes the turning of the calendar: It, too, offers hope.I’ll tell you my resolutions for the New Year, but you have to tell me yours, too:
1. Work harder and more effectively.
2. Play, watch and live more baseball.
3. Do more to help others.
4. Learn to shoot straighter (or at least with people I like less).
5. Be nicer to people who post mean things on my blog, Facebook page and/or messages boards and story posts.
6. Run more, stop less.
7. Cook more, eat less.
8. Pray more, drink less.
9. Catch more fish.
10. Do better journalism.

Oh, and PS: I was right about FSU.

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FSU over Wisconsin by 10 in bowl game

OK, so it’s the holidays and FSU is playing football again. All is perfect, right?
Florida State, 8-4, is favored by the odds makers to beat Wisconsin, 7-5, by 5 or 6 points in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando Saturday. I think it will be more like 10. Kickoff is officially scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
Wisconsin has a losing conference record and I place a lot of value on how you play against the quality teams in your own big-time conference. FSU was a play or two away – really one – away from playing for an ACC title.
Wisconsin will also be playing without senior linebacker Jonathan Casillas, a three-year starter, who is injured and recently underwent surgery.
FSU’s very young offensive line and first-year quarterback got better as the season went along.
The FSU team at the end of the season was so much better than the one at the beginning, and that tells you something about just how good the Gators are right now.
In any event, regardless of the outcome, you’ll find the most complete coverage of the game here on Tallahassee.com, Nolesports.com and in the Tallahassee Democrat.

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My Christmas gift to you: baccala salad

I’m off work today, primarily cooking – though I might find some time to go to the shooting range and/or get some bait wet. If not today, one day this week.
A family tradition, handed down through several generations, is serving several kinds of fish for Christmas Eve dinner. I love sharing traditions and learning about other families’ specialties, so I thought I would share one of ours.
The centerpiece of our Christmas Eve meal is baccala salad. Baccala is Italian for salted cod.
Cooking and – obviously – eating are two of my passions. The one inheritance that I wanted when my mom passed on was her recipe box. Her baccala recipe was the big prize.
No one thinks they will like this when they are first told about it. You have to taste it to appreciate it. My adult kids now demand it for Christmas Eve.
Learn how to make it by clicking on the link below:

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Thinking about the meaning of Christmas

I’m finding it amusing in an odd kind of way that the same people who spent 11 months of the year firing off e-mails opposed to anyone who would spend money on the poor or needy are now spamming me on the “true” meaning of Christmas.

I’m not asking for agreement that even in times of economic crisis we have to protect resources to ensure healthy and ready-to-learn children from all demographic and economic backgrounds. I just seek consistency.

Odd, isn’t it, that some think the meaning of being a Christian can be found in an e-mail decrying the use of the phrase “happy holidays” while applauding as government cuts money for early detection and intervention of developmental issues for children?

But that is where we are right now.

Consider that I get several e-mails a day from people telling me the problem with our schools is that children can no longer sing Christmas carols (which also is silly in my opinion – we should celebrate all cultures), but have gotten zero e-mails expressing alarm over impending cuts of millions of more dollars for teaching.

How do we explain that?

We are preparing to raid again the Lawton Chiles Endowment fund of perhaps $1 billion to fill shortfalls in the overall budget. The fund was set up using money gained through a legal settlement with the tobacco companies to provide a safety net for funding for children’s health and care.

Early learning – school readiness – is another likely victim of budget cutting during a special session of the Legislature next month. That means simply this: Fewer parents will find safe, nurturing learning places to care for their children, and fewer children will come to school ready to learn.

The cost of both cuts will be steeper with longer-lasting implications for families, schools and our economy.

Where are the e-mails on that?

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Be gone 2008

I for one won’t be looking back on 2008 with any kind of fondness. I’m eager for this bear of a year to be gone and over with.

You bet I’m expecting 2009 to be different and better. What choice do I have? Hope springs eternal, and is so much more fun than pessimism.

I’m counting on there being magic in the simple turning of a calendar page. In fact, I’m thinking of having a calendar-burning party just to rid the world of 2008. Just put all of those 2008 calendars in one big pile and set them ablaze.

In fact, I’ve already started using the 2009 calendar. Sure it’s a little confusing. This might be Tuesday or Wednesday for all I know. Fridays are always best. It is worth a little confusion to get an advance on ridding our lives of 2008.

Think about this year locally (and excuse me while I vent and get this year out of my system so I can at last get the Christmas spirit).

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Economy, accountability and social well being priorities for 2009

Our team got together yesterday to talk about our future, the vision for how and what we will cover in the next year. Not that you care about the logistics, perhaps, but several of the editors brought in food; the concept was a family-style conversation.
The food was good. The conversation was better.
We do something like this each year; small groups brainstorm everything from structure to content ideas. This year, given the changes we face, the challenges are greater, but the opportunities are as well.
We spent very little time looking back at what we were. The economy has affected our business and will continue to do so, we expect, for the foreseeable future. There are – and will be – a lot of things we cannot control.
So we’re determined to control what we can, starting with the journalism we do. With fewer people, we won't be able to do as many stories and get everywhere to all things. It might be for some things we have to rely more on reader-submitted content to get a photograph or story about a community event.
There is no doubt that the daily printed newspaper is thin and will get thinner until the economy improves and advertising revenue picks up. So it’s important that we make the most efficient use of what we have. We want to put our reporting staff on impactful stories that require depth and context. That’s the vision and our future. Our challenge and opportunity is to shape the change that is coming to journalism.
Nice words. Here’s what they mean for us: We are restructuring what we do and how we do it around some centralized and critical topics. That's where the bulk our our reporters and editors' time will be spent. Whether in print or digitally, we think these are the things most important to our readers:
--The economy.
-- Government accountability and taxes.
-- Social well being, including public health and the environment.
-- Public safety.
-- Children and families.
-- Higher education.
-- Communities and neighborhoods.
-- Arts and culture/entertainment.
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Can Florida legislators get to the BIG game from here?

I know Florida legislators have a lot of their minds. We are facing a $2 billion budget shortfall (and counting), the prospect of state jobs cuts and dipping way too deep into reserves and special funds, such as the Lawton Chiles Endowment.

Sen. President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Ray Samson yesterday called a special session of the Legislature for Jan. 5 to 16 to deal with our problems.

I’m wondering if the leaders have thought the timing of this special session all the way through. There is a rather large football game planned for Jan. 8 at 2269 Dan Marino Blvd., Miami Garden, FL 33056, better known as Dolphin Stadium.

Ahem. Excuse me, guys: Orange Bowl. BCS National Championship Game: University of Florida vs. Oklahoma.

I sent an e-mail this morning to Sen. President Jeff Atwater, a UF graduate, asking if any special travel arrangements are being considered to get members of the Legislature to and from the game. So far, I haven’t heard back, but it’s still early.

About – and I check each legislator’s bio page online – 30 members attended or graduated from Florida, or at least that’s what is listed. I could be off a little, but that’s about right – give or take a little for double counting or missing a member’s page.

Can you say quorum issues?

By the way, I found no Oklahoma grads in our Legislature.
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How to save newspapers: buy one

Jeremiah Foxwell admits he enjoys being lazy on Sundays, just kicking back and reading his newspaper. But that’s not necessarily why he started a new group on Facebook.com called “I commit to buy at least one newspaper a week.”

“I started this group the exact second after I listened to my girlfriend, Emily Badger, who is a journalist, rant and rave about real-estate mogul Sam Zell,” Foxwell said in a Facebook message to me.

In April 2007, Zell purchased the Tribune Co. – which includes the Chicago Tribune, other newspapers and operations, 23 television stations and the Chicago Cubs – in a heavily-financed deal. The business lost value and was unable to pay its bills.

So it recently filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy laws while it tries to reorganize. In its filing, the company listed $13 billion in debt and $7.6 billion in assets.

“I felt that it is a tragic state when the everyday news turns into a commodity instead of a public service,” said Foxwell, who grew up in Tallahassee and Wakulla County, but now lives in Atlanta. “I do believe that the news print arts can be saved, but it has to start at a grass-roots community level.”

I was among the first members of his group, alerted by Foxwell’s mother, Chris Duggan, executive director of the Early Learning Coalition of the Big Bend. The group is growing rapidly as word spreads among journalists and others who love newspapers. It’s rather ironic, when you think about it: a viral marketing campaign in a digital setting to support print.

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Time to focus on journalism's future

Twenty-nine years ago this week, I started working full-time in a bureau office at a daily newspaper for the first time. I banged the keys on a heavy manual typewriter to type on newsprint that was fed into a machine transmitted over telephone lines.

It was revolutionary: No longer would anyone have to drive our copy the 30 miles to our main office.

Five years later, I joined an experimental division of our company called Gannett New Media. We were writing news that would reside on our computers – never printed on a press – until our customers dialed into our computer to download the information at 300 baud.

It was revolutionary: No longer would anyone have to rely on a physical delivery system to get their “newspaper.”

In the mid-1990s, my newspaper in Huntington, W.Va., began serious experimentation with delivering news via the Internet. We published, for example, our first live “game blog” from a Division I-AA national championship football game in 1996.

It, too, was revolutionary: We had readers from around the world and, for example, got e-mails from sailors aboard ships in Southeast Asia.

By then, we were already in the midst of a disruptive-technological event, but too few of us knew it. Some thought the Internet a mere fad. Part of the problem in my industry is that too many people are still trying to figure out whether the revolution is real or permanent, and either way, how to avoid being a part of it or, worse, how to impede it, at least passively

What we need to be doing is figuring out how and where great journalism – public service journalism – fits in, how to make it relevant to our digital readers, not lamenting its demise or protecting what used to be.

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Posted via Pixelpipe.

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Getting viral: Why I'm posting this blog here

What's Gabordiblog and why am I posting photos on a site other than Tallahassee.com?

I'm glad I asked. Well, I couldn't wait to see if you asked or this might have been a very short blog.

First, here is the link to Gabordiblog. Just click on it or save this address: http://gabordiblog.blogspot.com/. Those of you reading this here, of course, already found it. The photos are posted right below.

I'm using the Blogspot tool on Google -- which we used prior to adding the Pluck social networking tools on Tallahassee.com -- use like I'm using Twitter.com and Facebook: to reach out to new potential readers and draw them to Tallahassee.com.

It's all about being viral, linking, networking and following. All good things.

I just started doing this and back on Blogspot. As with Twitter.com, you can "follow" updates to this blog from Blogspot. On Twitter, you can follow updates to this blog at this link: Twitter.com/bgabordi.

We're suggesting to all of our Tallahassee.com bloggers that they use these tools to expand their audience, especially if you blog on topics that appeal to people from anywhere. That's part of being viral. It helps create your own network.

The great benefit of Tallahassee.com, of course, is that it's local first, global second. Other sites work in reverse. What's posted on Tallahassee.com gets you in front of about 600,000 unique visitors each month, mostly local people and almost all of them -- local or not -- having intense interest in local information.

Today on Gabordiblog I posted photos of the FSU women's basketball team's win over Penn State. I'm using Gabordiblog as a "mirror" blog of this site, except much shorter posts, usually.
Those FSU photos are also posted at Tallahassee.com/gabordi.

The photos were shot from the stands with my iPhone, sent via Pixelpipe to a Flickr page licked to Tallahassee.com.

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Sure, I'll explain my decision to help Leon County Schools

A lot has been made by posters on Tallahassee.com about my involvement in the selection of a communications director for Leon County Schools. Some have demanded an explanation. I’m fine with that.

Because I’ve worked in the media for more than 30 years, I was asked by Superintendent Jackie Pons to help interview the finalists for the position and offer an opinion on their qualifications.

There were four finalists; I interviewed three of them. The fourth was an out-of-town person interviewed by telephone.

I was only trying to help.

A TV reporter asked me what benefit I expected from interviewing the candidates. I thought it a rather strange question, but the answer is neither I nor the newspaper got -- or expected -- anything from it. What possible personal benefit could there be? To what end?

The decision to fill the position – which was in the schools budget and not new job – was made by Pons and the School Board. I had nothing to do with that. That’s policy. That’s not what I did.

All I did was interview candidates for an open job as volunteer citizen member of the committee.
I gave my opinion on their qualifications as a media professional and executive. My opinion was that Gary Yordon was the best person for the job. It’s as simple as that.

Some of the posters on Tallahassee.com have suggested that by helping to interview job applicants that I somehow compromised my reporters. How so? How is that even possible?

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If not biomass, what?

If we shouldn’t get our energy from fossil fuels, such as oil, gas or coal, because we are running out of resources and because of the long-lasting and damaging effects on the environment, where do we get it?

Nuclear is bad, we are told, because of the potentially catastrophic nature of an accident, and so no new plants have been built in two decades.

Wind does not work here most of the time.

Solar can help, but thus far it has not been shown to be commercially viable on a large scale, as a replacement for existing power sources.

And we have just – or are about to – run off a planned biomass plant by Biomass Gas & Electric, one of the nation’s leading biomass companies, which uses renewable sources of fuel to produce energy.

So I’m back to: Where are we supposed to get our energy from? What are our options?

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