Dear readers: Sometimes I let you in on the in-house criticism that we routinely share at the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel. Here's the latest example./Eric

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Folks: Since I was away last week, and I read a bunch of the papers Sunday night at home, I thought it was a good opportunity for me to examine all the things we're doing, from big to small, and write a semi-detailed critique similar to what I did my first few months on the job (early this year).

I know that sometimes these comments sting a little, even if I don't name names when I criticize. While I don't mean to zing anyone, and the comments are not "personal," I do see value in these observations because there are lessons here for all of us, not just the folks whose work gets held up for praise or constructive criticism.

Sunday
I was impressed by the way both lead stories -- Colin Hickey on retail theft in the Sentinel and Meghan Malloy on women in prison at the KJ -- were reported, written, photographed and put together. If there was better A1 enterprise at a small daily anywhere -- anywhere -- than these two packages, from the leads to the nugget boxes, I'd love to see it. Well done, and both packages were team efforts. (Photos by David Leaming, Jim Evans.)

Consider this lead by Colin: "Craig Nadeau sees the telltale signs of shoplifting at Marden's Surplus and Salvage story in Waterville on a regular basis: empty boxes, discarded packages, old shoes in place of new ones." (That sets a visual scene doesn't it?)

Or this one from Meghan: "Maine women are gaining ground in an unlikely place: the state's county jails." (This lead is simple and to the point. We've stressed conversational prose in past critiques. This is conversational writing.)

Local column on B1 of both papers referred to Iowans as "white redneck midwesterners." Not OK. We would never allow something like that to be printed about a group with minority status. And it's not true. Education and income levels in many parts of Iowa probably meet or exceed Maine's.

Wednesday (out of order, I know)
Good mix of stories on A1 of the Sentinel. Again, Sentinel cutlines were too short and uninformative in the B section. Photographers, please: Cutlines MUST do more than say a man walks in snow on a bridge (when the photo clearly shows that). Copy editors and page designers: Please demand more of your colleagues than this, if you see it again.

Our inside-B pages in the Sentinel can be gray with long court listings and other "news of record" stuff that we know people read. But, on New England pages then, let's take the time to work in AP photos and graphics so they're not gray too (they had no photos this day).

I appreciated the alertness and effort to do something on local Sports today. Gary Hawkins' preview of some 5-K races in the area was an example of pushing out a local story when the fall HS playoffs are behind us. Thank you.

Good hustle and mix on A1 of the KJ too. I liked the fact that we hustled on the weather/storm/icy roads story (Betty Adams plus photo) -- BUT we had a duplicate photo. An accident scene photo ran on A1 and inside B. The desk should have talked this through better; news editors have to be careful if they tell a copy editor to run a photo inside. We need to be sure the A1 and B1 copy editors know what's going where too.

Another re-reminder: Play Maine biz stories ABOVE non-Maine biz stories on our Business page. Almost every time.

Thursday
The Happy Thanksgiving promo above the flag needed 1 more entry, from Sports or somewhere. The Holiday Gift Guide item wasn't enough. Also, we are matching the Sentinel royal blue to the Sentinel colors well but the red we're using in the KJ is nowhere near the magenta/red that the KJ has as its color brand...

I thought I'd been clear about this too, but our Editor's Note nuggets should not, and do not have to, run BEFORE the story bylines. They are to be treated as nuggets on the covers (B1 Sentinel story from Ecuador today). Treat them just like other nuggets but run 'em on the cover if the story is there.

Friday
We also continue to run stories too shallow at the bottom of B1. Here is a good guideline: At least 4 graphs of a story should make the cover before a story jumps. Don't run photos as large as we do (sometimes) to make this guideline happen reliably.

We have to be consistent with bylines, too: PPH writers are not "Staff Writers." And watch our caps and lower cases here.

Saturday
The lead of our game story from the Cony upset over Gardiner says this won't be considered one of the biggest upsets in the rivalry's history. But, we never say in the story which one(s) would be the biggest upset(s). That's frustrating to readers. If you raise something like that, you need to answer the question you indirectly pose.

Good writing by Travis Barrett on the "Upta Camp" story on Outdoors. It was a fun read. But the inside-the-camp photos were weak. Page designers should not emphasize weak photos. The shots of the guys hunting outside were better. They should've led the page. We need to improve our photo report for Outdoors and should consider stand-alones from our photo staff when the submitted photos fall short. This consistently should be one of the best-looking covers in the paper.