Havelock Scoop

As newspapers strive to bolster their online presence, more of my Freedom ENC Communications colleagues are blogging. Here are a few newer blogs that pique my interest.

Huff’s World — Sun Journal sports editor Jess Huffman shares his perspective on local and national sports — and the task of reporting on them.

Press Play — Jose Perez of the Kinston Free Press writes this interesting and insightful technology blog.

Lost in K-Town – The Free Press’ Phillip Ameling provides a newcomer’s view of life in Kinston and eastern North Carolina.

Off the Cuff — Jacksonville Daily News crime reporter Lindell Kay discusses Onslow County crime in this, ahem, arresting blog.

For a more or less complete listing of Freedom ENC’s staff blogs, click here.

HaveNews.com, the online home of the Havelock News, premiered its new look today. All Freedom ENC newspapers are getting a facelift in order to make information easier to find and more attractive for our readers.

Along with the new look comes a homepage link to the Havelock Scoop, so I’ll try to update more frequently as Web traffic to the blog increases. Your blog comments, e-mails and phone calls are always welcome!

Former New Bern television host Will C. Morgan has died, the Sun Journal reported in today’s edition.

Many old-timers will remember Morgan as the host of “Will C’s Red Eye Cinema” on WCTI Channel 12, the local ABC affiliate. More recently, Morgan hosted “Will C’s TV Flea” on C-TV 10 Community Television.

While I never got to see Morgan’s late-night movie picks — having moved to the New Bern area in 2002 — I had the privilege of meeting and working with Will C. when I worked as a videographer and creative services assistant for C-TV 10 during the summer of 2003.

Will C. was the consummate professional, and he will be greatly missed — rubber chicken and all.

Well, I bet it’s nothing compared with the state I found mine in this afternoon.

It’s that time of year when Tar Heel State journalists enter the state press association’s annual newspaper contest. Here at the HaveNews, Ken and I have spent all day searching the morgue for old editions and clipping our contest entries.

Wish us luck — the contest deadline is Oct. 5. Maybe my office will be clean by then.

Proud members of Pirate Nation, River Rats fans and prep football diehards, check out Yeah, we’re on the record, a new blog written by Sun Journal sports editor Randy Jones.

There’s sure to be plenty about the Havelock Rams and their Coastal 8 Conference rivals, so follow that link and tell Randy what you’d like to see in the SJ’s sports pages.

Ken Buday took over as Havelock News editor this week, and he has some great ideas to help us make North Carolina’s best weekly newspaper even better.

Formerly managing editor of the Sun Journal, Ken has nearly two decades of journalism experience under his belt. He was my editor while I worked at the New Bern daily, and his talent and enthusiasm will be a great asset to us here at the HaveNews.

As we welcome Ken, we also say farewell to Sarah Maynard, who’s served as our interim editor since Pat Coleman retired in December. Sarah is a Photoshop wiz who designs a mean page, and she’ll definitely be missed here and remembered fondly.

I discovered a news release in the office fax today promoting GoodSearch, a search engine (like Google or Yahoo) that donates a penny to the charity of your choice with every query.

The release praises three American companies for encouraging their customers and employees to use the search engine. I’m not one for corporate back-slapping, but I’ll gladly plug the search engine itself on the Havelock Scoop — it seems like a worthy cause.

Powered by Yahoo, GoodSearch donates 50 percent of its revenue to various user-designated charities. The release claims 38,000 nonprofit organizations are on-board, though I couldn’t find the American Cancer Society when I tested the site today.

The Havelock News isn’t just a newspaper, it’s a multimedia news source dedicated to documenting local life in words, sounds, images and video.

Helping us to do so is the new addition of a Samsung videophone that I’ll soon begin toting around town. The sleek, gray marvel has a 2-megapixel digital camera for video and still photography and is both GPS and Bluetooth-enabled.

Pretty high tech for someone whose personal cell phone is a stripped-down model whose main selling point is that it was free with a two-year contract renewal.

So, if you see me raising the videophone in your direction at a public function, check out havenews.com to view the results of our foray into this new technology. I’ll do my best to keep my thumb away from the lens.