I'm really gripped by this series. When I first saw that they were doing a 22-part series, I thought it had to be a typo - what sort of story could they run that would hold a reader's attention for 22 consecutive issues? But this is really interesting. Maybe what newspapers need are more of these serial, narrative stories. And of course, I'm glad to see the visuals they're running with them as well, though I was expecting more photos on the Web site. I suppose they're adding on to the album as they go.

Thanks, Jonathan!

Really glad to see other visual journalists reading the series. It really has been a labor of ..... hell. LOL . We joke all the time about the irony of the series' name.

Jokes aside, it's a great piece of narrative. No doubt.

As for more photos, a photo editor culled through more than 1200 photos. The photos were taken by people during the storm and the horror after. Then we had to match what we felt were more dramatic photos up with each chapter.

Did I mention there were no cutlines nor did we know who took them? So we went a News Research person to New Orleans to figure all this out, and MAN did she do a fantastic job.

FYI:
Nicole Bogdas has Day 2 up on the Region 3 site.

http://www.sndregion3.blogspot.com/

We're up to Chapter 6 and it moves inside starting tomorrow. One open page most days. Half-page other days where photos were just impossible to find.

Applause, applause not only for a truly compeling topic, but for the expert editing. 22 parts sounds so intimidating - but 1/2 to 1 open page each day is definitely digestible.

The AJC's never looked so good. You can see that the addition of Kenny, Shane and others is really making an impact.

"We're up to Chapter 6 and it moves inside starting tomorrow. One open page most days. Half-page other days where photos were just impossible to find."

Hmmm... why not leave it out front? Sure, kick it totally inside if big news happens, but why not plan to leave it out front? I suspect you'll have a pretty loud promo out front for it each day, but still...

Editor's decision. Plain and simple.

We didn't fight it. We're bringing it back out on occasion when the chapters warrant it . I know Chapters 12 and 13 are under consideration. They are the huge arc of the story .

yep, big promo. Check out Friday's A1 on Newseum, and you can see the promo. It will rotate each day around the page.

Kenny & Co.: Big congratulations to all of my good friends at the AJC! Giving readers these personal stories is a great service. It's great to see the space commitment for something so worthwhile. I can't wait to read the rest.

Thanks, Kris!

Hope you're doing well in DC. Ahhh, spring in DC ..... nothing like it. :-)

It's been a very time-consuming project,. It's well worth it when we get wonderful praise from readers, among those being visual people like those who have responded here.

Hoping everyone is getting a chance to read it.

I'm going to post some inside pages on NPD soon. Keep an eye out for 'em.

K

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