The Observation Deck

john crino wrote:http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/11/1117_best_places_to_raise_kids/36.htm

There you go.

Best place to raise your family!

Rest my case.

.

Good catch!

I must have missed the story in the Plain Dealer about this. Did any one see it?

Bill Call is saying positive things on the deck.

This is disrupting the cosmic atmosphere. Run for your lives.

john crino wrote:http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/11/1117_best_places_to_raise_kids/36.htm

this finally appeared in sunday's pd

Talk about upside down leads. What is this all about?

http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=125669&catid=45

Kate,

I agree that the story by Kim was odd. Here is an email conversation Kim and I had about it. Maybe Ed needs to be more proactive at getting us some good PR.

------------------------------------
Parma mayor was the only one who sent a press release. Story was originally only going to be about Parma but I was the one who added the other local cities, as I thought they should be mentioned….
You bring up a good point though. It was a complete story, though, just not enough on other cities.
Thanks for reading.
Kim Wendel

________________________________________
From: Ryan Salo [mailto:ryan@ryansalo.com]
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 4:42 PM
To: Wendel, Kimberly
Subject: viewer question about an article

Link:http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=125669
Kim,
I am glad that you covered this story but I am really surprised at the spin you put on it. Did you attempt to get quotes from Lakewood’s Mayor Ed Fitzgerald? BusinessWeek ranked Lakewood #1 not Parma. It sounds like a press release the parma mayor sent out.
It would have been nice to have a more complete story here.
Thanks,
Ryan Salo
Lakewood Resident

Ryan, thanks for checking on this. Though if all a reporter does is regurgitate press releases she is not doing her job. In one of my first jobs I had to rewrite press releases for publication in a newspaper and I could generally identify the lead.

John, where was this in the Sunday PeeDee? The only thing I saw was a note in that Tipoff thing on Saturday.

Kate McCarthy wrote:Ryan, thanks for checking on this. Though if all a reporter does is regurgitate press releases she is not doing her job. In one of my first jobs I had to rewrite press releases for publication in a newspaper and I could generally identify the lead.

John, where was this in the Sunday PeeDee? The only thing I saw was a note in that Tipoff thing on Saturday.

In reality, most local news stories are directly taken from press releases either sent by local entities or sometimes even national PR firms. There are even video press releases where PR firms package video and text for the news stations who often just run them and read them verbatim. The classic tell for these is when there is video that you know wasn't locally shot (often of drug companies or medical facilities, etc).

With all the budget cuts, local news channels (and newspapers for that matter), are relying more and more on "getting" their news from PR firms.

Actually, if you believe the WKYC article, maybe it's not such a great honor....

"Towns with populations above 45,000 and median incomes between $40,000 and $125,000 were considered for the top cities list."

Here's a list of towns that meet the population figures and income (approximately, taken from 1999 census figures)...


Columbus
Parma - Population: 85655
Kettering - Population: 57502
Lakewood - Population: 56646
Mentor - Population: 50278
Cleveland Heights - Population: 49958
Cuyahoga Falls - Population: 49374

Still an honor, but they didn't have a lot of cities to choose from.....

Though it's worth noting that the criteria have a judgemental quality about them, in that they rule out small enclaves, and places where your child will grow up surrounded by either extreme wealth or extreme poverty. In otherwords, lots of people and middle class -ish income makes a good environment in which to raise kids.

Thank you Lakewood Schools! I don't think Lakewood would have this without the Excellent rating of our school system.

michael gill wrote:Though it's worth noting that the criteria have a judgemental quality about them, in that they rule out small enclaves, and places where your child will grow up surrounded by either extreme wealth or extreme poverty. In otherwords, lots of people and middle class -ish income makes a good environment in which to raise kids.

I thought this was an interesting value judgement as well...which runs contrary to the local conventional wisdom that children only thrive in homogenous upper middle class bedroom communities. Which may explain why locally it was received with a yawn.

website:
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/11/1117_best_places_to_raise_kids/36.htm


Best Place to Raise Your Kids: Ohio
Lakewood
Nearest city: Cleveland
Population: 53,000
Median family income: $68,883
Runners-up: Parma, Strongsville

Lakewood, on the shores of Lake Erie about seven miles west of downtown Cleveland, is an affordable suburb with tree-lined streets and great schools.

Median Income is wrong
Was unable to "read full story"


Seems this snipit was more about advertising for

OnBoard Informatics

then an actual fact based story or evaluation of Lakewood. It is misleading and inaccurat.

Of course the same is true of :
http://www.bestplaces.net/city/Lakewood-Ohio.aspx
Sperling's BestPlaces
The 2009 Lakewood, OH, population is 51,305. There are 9,413 people per square mile (population density).

How do these publications get away with mis statements? Is there no standard of fact left anywhere in the written word pertaining to Lakewood?