A week-long examination of the quality of the Palo Alto Daily News resulted in four succinct points: 1) The news fails to affect the knowledge of 10,000 or more people 2) It deals more with human interest and stories akin to fingers in chili bowls than important events, like the war in Iraq 3) Its short stories fail to adequately source five interesting people, oh, and 4) The staff consists of just three new writers strategically interspersed with Knight Ridder, AP, and rewritten press releases.

Now, did you really need an intensive Grade the News Score Card and a Professor with a doctorate in journalism to help you come to the conclusion that the average story in a paper that circulates Palo Alto’s population of 60,000 might not have a high knowledge impact on one out of every six people?

Or what about coming to the conclusion that the Palo Alto Daily News is a business and interested in making a profit? And accordingly might not want to invest in a multitude of staff members or fund-intensive investigations of stories when a quick call to City Council can result in two quotes and sufficient time to write another news story before deadline?

Now don’t get me wrong, the exercise in Paul Kandell’s Beginning Journalism Class to investigate the quality of the local papers was definitely interesting. Regardless of the fact that a couple of the standards for a passing grade (for example, requiring five or more direct quotes for every ten inches of story) were set a little high, the investigation definitely shed light on how the Palo Alto Daily News is lacking, especially in comparison to very own high school paper.

To begin with, within one week the monotony of the writing style was readily apparent. The news stories, no less those on the front page, were so dry! Where was the captivating lead that is supposed to entice readers into the story? It’s hard to muster enthusiasm to read a story when the first word is a six-digit figure.

Additionally, the percentage of news stories that weren’t AP, Knight Ridder, or rewritten press releases, was so small, that students could run through an exhaustive analysis of the entirety within 15 minutes.

Even the news stories that were written by the Daily Staff were lacking. The large majority of the stories were crime and justice, stories that necessitate little more than an overview of police blotters and quick calls to the police station to gather sufficient material. If a Paly student writer thinks they can get away with one strategically placed phone call for a feature story, they have clearly never taken Beginning Journalism.

Additionally, inadequate sourcing (which was the case for 88% of the stories surveyed) indicated a lack of investigation.

Most depressing, while certainly not so shocking in lieu of most media organizations’ tendency to skimp on real news lately, was the lack of important stories that were covered in the Daily. Where are the stories on topics like war… kind of important considering right now we’re in a trillion dollar deficit funding one. Verde ran a whole edition on the army and enlisting in the military!

Even more disappointing was the percent of female sources — a scanty 22%. Especially in a progressive town like Palo Alto, we want to hear what women have to say! The Campanile never has a problem with getting female opinions.

I know, I know, we can’t really expect everyone to write as well as Paly students, and Campy does come out less often and therefore has more material to cover, but Palo Alto Daily News can definitely pick up their act a little bit. The first step in the right direction would be to hire a Paly student for the news section.