We see a strong future for local news and advertising

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

On the same day, the Rocky Mountain News published its final edition, the Advocate newsroom gathered to talk about our goals for the coming year. The timing was coincidental. Managing editor Thomas Martinez scheduled the retreat before we knew Friday ...

Are you surprised no one showed up?

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

We set up to broadcast live Thursday night's meeting for parents on Victoria's west side. In my experience, redrawing attendance boundaries stirs up a community. I've seen people almost come to blows about where their kids attend school. But no ...

What do you know about this landmark civil rights case?

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

I grew up in Topeka, Kan., but I don't recall learning much in public school about the landmark desegregation case of Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education. Only in college did I start to study the case in any depth. ...

Who remembers Town Talk?

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

A blog reader commented the other day that he liked the Town Talk in the Advocate. I had to ask Publisher John Roberts about this feature, which he said predated me by about 30 years here. Town Talk was a ...

Where else would you go for local news?

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

As I reviewed Wednesday's newspaper, I thought about a phone conversation I had the day before with a longtime Victoria reader. The edition is packed with news from front to back. Here are just a few of the highlights:  A ...

What are your memories of your hometown newspaper?

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

I enjoyed the online discussion this weekend with a regular blogger who goes by the handle of Pilot at VictoriaAdvocate.com. We have a team of editors who take turns on the weekends serving as the lead moderator of our site. ...

Will you invest in your public schools?

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

I'll be attending the Victoria Independent School District Education Foundation luncheon today at the Victoria Community Center. I'm honored to serve as a board member for this new nonprofit dedicated to helping our public schools. The goal of the organization ...

UHV supporters look closely at House committee assignments

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

The new Speaker of the House's committee appointments don't look favorable to the expansion of the University of Houston-Victoria. Reporter Rubi Reyes updated this legislation in a story Thursday. Reporter Allison Miles is trying now to reach a variety of ...

Why Texas Legislature should pass Free Flow of Information Act

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

Normal0As a new member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas board, I'm spreading the word on our key issue this legislative session. Here is background information provided by FOIFT president Laura Prather. All of this and more is ...

Support your right to know and the ability of journalists to find out for you

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

Journalists must build trust with their sources to get the tough stories, the ones that help our democracy work. That's why Texas needs to join the other 36 states and the District of Columbia that have laws protecting the confidentiality ...

The wisdom of the crowd

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

I've been experimenting with integrating Twitter into my blog. For some frustrating reason, our system strips html out of the posts. However, interactivity editor CJ Castillo suggested adding the feed to the blog settings so that the Tweets appear at ...

Can I feed my Tweets to my blog?

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

Twitter Updates follow me on Twitter If you don't know about Twitter, join the fun. Sorry for the test here, I'm unsuccessful so far in getting Tweets to post. Clearly, I need more technical help. Stay tuned.

Do you know a way to collect a day's worth of Tweets and turn them into a blog post?

By ChrisCobler in Your Advocate: an editor's blog

Is there an application out there that automates this process? After burning up Twitter with Tweets during the Super Bowl, I thought again about how it would be nice to aggregate all of these conversations into one post without copying ...