Posted by , a resident of the Atherton: other neighborhood, on Oct 13, 2011 at 10:23 am

This story is almost two weeks old - why is it just today appearing as new? This is an even lower new for the Almanac.

Are the Almanac editors out to lunch or what? At least you could bury the time element so it doesn't say old news in the lede.

Posted by Renee Batti, news editor of The Almanac, on Oct 13, 2011 at 11:07 am
Renee Batti is a member (registered user) of Almanac Online

To the above poster, I'm afraid you didn't read the story, or the headline, closely. This article is about the reunion earlier this week of the child and her rescuers. The Almanac reported on the successful search and rescue effort at the time the events occurred.

Posted by , a resident of the Atherton: other neighborhood, on Oct 13, 2011 at 12:13 pm

Yes, you are correct, but it's still a crummy lede. Mentioning Oct. 1 in the lede tells readers "this is old news."

If the story is about a girl being reunited with searchers then I think it should say so in the lede. You know, something fresh......like "A girl lost in the woods was reunited yesterday. . . "

Just my opinion, but I suspect many readers stopped reading this story when they encountered "Oct. 1" in the first sentence. I know you are a weekly, but you should still try to make the news sound new.

Posted by A reader, a resident of another community, on Oct 14, 2011 at 10:27 am

Umm...I had no trouble understanding exactly what the article was about and I read the whole thing. I thought it was a nice story about a proac tive way to educate the community about rescue services and a smart idea for this individual child to get a chance to thank her rescuers and meet them under less stressful circumstances.... I thought the article was interesting and enjoyable.