From today’s Signal, the announcement of a daily e-newsletter, the phallically-named “Qwik-e” (dubbed personally by Ian Lamont):
The Qwik-e presents a fast-paced roundup of breaking local news headlines, the latest updates on developing stories, community calendar listings, and previews of news, sports, entertainment and lifestyle stories plus photographs slated for the next day’s Signal newspaper.
Was I the only one who immediately thought of the SCVTalk Daily Brief?
More:
Adding to the Qwik-e’s interactivity and fun is the daily “Where in the SCV is THIS?” photo contest. Readers can click to send an e-mail with their guesses about the location of today’s photo, and go to the “Where in the SCV is THIS?” page on The-Signal.com to find out the location of the previous day’s photo.
Perhaps this is just a coincidence, but IHeartSCV ran a three-part SCVenger Hunt contest too. Hmm…
From the managing editor Lila Littlejohn:
Qwik-e combines the best aspects of quality journalism and digital-age immediacy and interactivity with a sense of humor that’s in keeping with the online medium
Hearkens back to Lamont’s warm blogosphere shout-out:
After all, it is not bloggers who will be trusted and respected to provide solid, interesting, valued and accurate reporting. It will still be the professional journalists in the working media.
As far as I can tell, up until now, the Brief was SCV’s only daily news mashup that blended external and local content into a succinct, SCV-centric summary of the past 24 hours.
Since the Sunday print edition, the online version of the launch article was curiously updated to include the genesis of the concept.
Kudos to The Signal for putting together a promising product. Even with this addition, though, The Signal remains a one-way reporting source for news without the debate and banter that defines the Humble SCVTalk.com.
A daily email from the signal? Annoying… I hope they don’t try to spam me.
Does anybody read that paper any more anyway? I cancelled my subscription years ago and wait for the relevant stories to pop up on Jeff’s Daily Brief. I gave their e-edition a shot, but it was just as empty as the paper and harder to read.
Nothing the signal can come up with will replace SCVTalk’s Daily Brief. Great job Jeff, Tim, Nickeldime and anyone else involved!
I’ve never seen the Signal so self-songratulatory, especially for something that doesn’t exist yet. I’m sincerely excited for this, but TMS has always been slow to “get” technology. The current website is a trainwreck. Several years in, it still doesn’t work properly with Safari (and they know this). Doing this by email seems like an old school throwback, but I might enjoy it.
I did get a chuckle out of this: instead of a single link to sign up, their “free and easy” method is as such:
Qwik-e signup: free and easy
Readers have four easy ways to sign up for The Signal’s free Qwik-e newsletter:
* Click on the “Interactive” drop-down menu on The-Signal.com’s main navigation toolbar
* Click on the tile ad on the right side of the Web site’s home page
* Click on the “Sign Up for the Qwik-e Newsletter” link at the bottom of this or any article on the site
* Click on the “Sign up…” button in this story’s “Related Content” box
…complete with a broken link to their homepage. Worse still, “Interactive” is both a button AND a pull-down menu. Once you figure that out, you will find that the “Interactive” button takes you to a broken page. Also, there is no ad on the right side of the home page. More still, there is no “Sign Up for the Qwik-e Newsletter” link at the bottom of each article, much less that one.
So as a public service, I offer this link:
http://tinyurl.com/yba5fqa
If it doesn’t work for you, I’m sorry. I did my best.
following that link will lead you through a confsing signup process that appears to open you up to Signal Spam, with no mention of the Qwik-e.
Why thank so many people if you weren’t even finished?
Mike,
It’s also telling that the use of Constant Contact as their backend is so opaque (and overtly discussed).
Transparency in technology is sublime …
It should be mentioned that KHTS has had a daily email news brief for some time.
Also, the photo contest they propose as part of their “quality journalism” is really a copy-cat of Jeff Lui’s successful daily “Where in SCV is Jeff Lui?” contest on Facebook. So, if these “best aspects of quality journalism” were in written form, they would be called plagiarism!
A rag in any format is still a rag. Stop wasting time and money on e-crap and start requiring that each journalist ask at least one question from an opposing viewpoint – especially on city issues.
The expression “not worth the paper it’s written on” applies here. In this case, its not worth the email… which is entirely free.
Not only does the Signal not ask questions of those with opposing viewpoints to present a balanced article they refuse to print letters explaining the facts behind any opposing viewpoints. They don’t even tell you until after you keep asking for weeks where your material is. They don’t do any research into the topic but simply print as fact the sensationalistic aspects of the story without any interest in the actual facts of the matter. Shameful.
ScvTalk is lightyears ahead of the new Signal Qwik-e newsletter. It is clear that all the ‘movers and shakers’ in the SCV are regular viewers and many times commentators. I still like to get the Signal on weekends (for the coupons mostly) and subscribe to the e-edition, but it will never comptete with ScvTalk on the lively discussion of issues.
Thanks Jeff, NickleDime, and Timmy.
sarahpoof:
The KHTS newsletter is KHTS-centric. I haven’t seen the Qwik-e product yet but the hype references it as more of a mashup of non-Signal content.
Stephen Peeples, Qwik-e editor:
ps it’s a personal, juvenile thing, but I can’t help have this image in my mind:
Kwik-e
ND, you are terribly juvenile… but everyone loves a Squishee!
It is funny that you think of Kwik-e Mart. that when I think of The Signal, I always think of Ah Poo. The toilet kind, not the Kwik-e owner.
Wow. Peeples description sounds like what I do for the Daily Brief.
I should note that without The Signal, there wouldn’t be much in the Daily Brief to point to, so I appreciate those guys.
That said, may the best paid/non-paid blogger/editor win. Good luck searching for news in the afternoon by the way; most stuff gets posted early AM and I’ll still post it before they do. And if I don’t, my crack team of co-bloggers usually finds good things to post during the day. Ha!
For these times and for a community as disconnected and apathetic as ours, I think the Signal does good job with what they’ve got. I hope that they can harness this to be more immediate during the day, and maybe tease the next day’s stories. Problem is, they are up to their necks in gimmicks on the business side and this venture seems really promo-heavy. Let’s hope not.
Did you you all see what Gail Ortiz said?
“I like the name ‘Qwik-e’ — very clever and a little bit naughty.”
Hey this is supposed to be a family newspaper!
But I thought the same thing.
“Does anybody read that paper any more anyway?”
Yep. Been s subscriber since the earthquake. Not interested in Quik-E at all (at least not from the Signal). I love having KHTS send emergency notes however but not for normal news stuff. It takes me all of 15 minutes to read the Signal in the morning (if I can keep my dog out of my lap) which is about all I have time for, so, in that respect, it works for me.
I ditched the hard copy when it turned into the Fleming and society pages. Charity is best done quietly, not printed and sold as news. There are a few local magazines who package that quite nicely and in color.
Seems strange that The Signal would get rid of the TITTS and then follow it up with a Qwik E
Ian Lamont seems to have limited personal ties to the SCV. Has he moved here yet?
Lamont should have personally been at the economic summit held by Runner and Smyth. The reporting of this event in the pages of The Signal was beyond abysmal.
Economic summit? You’re so full of it petz. It was just a time & place for business owners to vent.
Cry me a river about their painful experiences
The Signal can never compete with SCVTalk.com. That’s because they are two different entities. I don’t think The Signal is trying to compete with SCVTalk anyway. They can’t.
Both have their advantages and disadvantages, and that’s what makes this beautiful. People have the choice to get their information from either source. Or both, since it’s a bit more interactive over here at the moment.
I just love how everyone rails on The Signal all the time. Like things would be different if you lived in L.A. and got your news from L.A. Times or the Daily News. People just love to bitch and will find anything to bitch about.
I applaud The Signal and SCVTalk for their work in the SCV. Keep it up!
The Signal just played Weebay to Jeff’s Omar.
Not another Wire reference Mike !
hmmm:
I’ll do what I can to help y’all. But, the game’s out there, and it’s play or get played. That simple.
or maybe this Omarism is more appropriate:
Ayo, lesson here, Bey. You come at the king, you best not miss.
I love it!
Hi, Jeff –
Thanks for the notes on our new newsletter, and I appreciate most of the comments from your readers. Let me respond briefly. While I’ve been a Daily Brief reader for years, the idea of a daily newsletter predates DB. The “Where in the SCV is THIS?” was an idea we copped from our friend Jeff Lui, after our photo editor suggested it, without knowing about Lui’s or IHeartSCV’s scavenger hunt. Jeff and Dan are name-checked and thanked in the online version of the launch story, which went live on the Web site Sunday morning, and is longer than the print version (space being an issue in print, not on Web). Unfortunately, a couple of the links were not yet in place when the Sunday story went live, and we apologize for that. The links all worked perfectly upon launch. Signup is indeed easy. Yes, it’s Constant Contact. It’s widely used and people trust it more than an off-brand. No, it’s not spam. No, no one should receive Qwik-e unless they opted in or are on a vetted opt-in list. We don’t spam. In any case, it takes one click to unsubscribe. Sarahpoof, we Simpsons fans here love the Kwik-e-Mart reference; this was not lost on Ian when he named it, either. All editors here hunt and gather news IDEAS from a variety of sources. Most Qwik-e news comes from The Signal and AP. Some, like the stuff posted in SCV Raw, comes straight from the cops or the city or some other public agency or nonprofit. Everything on the Web site is sourced. Where news comes from is different every day. Sure, the process sounds like what you do for Daily Brief; it’s the same process Web editors just about everywhere use to see what’s up and zero in on what may be of greatest interest to the largest number of their readers. We are posting more news in the afternoon, and that will continue to improve. We know our current Web site is a trainwreck, and Safari compatibility has always been an issue. We are developing a new site to launch this spring, and you will find many issues moot. Mike, it was Andie Bogdan of Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial who said she liked the Qwik-e name because it was a little bit naughty, not Gail Ortiz. Some of the issues with reporting are being addressed by management. Olenka, you’re right, there’s plenty of room and plenty of interest in this town for more local news, and we’re continually working to improve what we do. Thanks again for your interest, and I welcome constructive comments as Qwik-e evolves.