In the News

Welcome back, Larry

Dave Olson — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:22:45 +0000

The Salem News has a new features editor, and he should be a familiar face to readers of this paper and music lovers on the North Shore.

Larry Claflin Jr. worked for the News in the late 1990s, helping design our pages and writing about outdoor activities like hiking, biking and canoeing. We’re glad to have him back in the fold.

Our features pages are already full of local stories, photos and columnists. Larry’s goal — The Salem News’ goal, really — over the next several months is to bring even more of a local touch to those pages.

We’re confident that as a local guy — a Marblehead native who lives in Salem and is co-founder of the Salem Jazz and Soul Festival — Larry can do just that.

Anyone with ideas for or comments on the features pages can reach Larry at 978-338-2681 or lclaflin@salemnews.com

Reader call of the week

Dave Olson — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:03:37 +0000

An alert reader of Saturday’s Salem News noted the juxtaposition of the stories about high school students raising money to help stave off teacher layoffs and the 20 Salem State kids who packed into an elevator last Thursday night, causing it to fall two stories.

Instead of taking housing away from the Salem State students, the caller suggested, why not make them perform community service — namely, raising money for the Salem schools?

It’s food for thought, at the very least

‘Lives’ of the North Shore

Dave Olson — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:02:27 +0000

It is common practice for newspapers to write a “feature” obituary on the news pages — even on Page 1 — when a prominent citizen passes away, or when one of our neighbors dies in tragic circumstances.

In the past year, The Salem News has written stories on people ranging from former Beverly alderman Ed Doherty to Swampscott’s Jennifer Harris, the young Marine helicopter pilot shot down in Iraq.

Sometimes stories like these help bring communities together to mourn; at other times they remind us of the sacrifice and hard work of prominent civic leaders.

For too long, however, we’ve paid scant notice in our news pages to the passing of so-called “regular” people. (Note: This does not include our obituary pages, which are already among the most widely read in the paper. There are improvements coming here, too, which I’ll talk about in a week or so.)

The truth is there are no regular people. When we fail to realize that, to put into context what a passing means to a particular community, we’re all a little less connected.

That’s why we’re introducing a new feature called “Lives.” Every Monday, we’ll be telling the stories of North Shore people who have died recently.

Our first piece told the story of Nina Vickers of Salem.

There are few rules for “Lives.” Our main goal is to remind our readers — and ourselves — what makes the North Shore a special place to live.

There is a story in every life.

Sometimes, we just need to slow down to notice.