Readers: From time to time I share critiques that I've previously sent to the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel staffs./Eric
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Folks: Before I get going, I want to say that I am pleased with the quality, variety and amount of work we're doing. That includes photos, stories, page designs, listings — across the board.

Our newsrooms could be distracted by many things. We're also "running" with two new city editors, a vacancy or two, some illnesses and surgeries. What we're doing is no small feat. Thank you, and let's stay focused.

With that in mind, here goes a pretty thorough critique — positives and negatives. It's all in the spirit of continued improvement and serving our readers as well as we possibly can.

A general observation to get started: We use too many acronyms — in stories (LD 1978, HR 205, SAD 57, etc.). Period. But we definitely should NOT use acronyms in headlines as we did several times over the weekend (e.g. "PSAP probe possible.") An exception might be using one of the well-known ones, like the FBI, AARP or NAACP. But beyond that, no, even if they fit in a one- or two-column head. When in doubt, read your AP Stylebook. Here's part of what it says: "Do not follow an organization's name with an abbreviation or acronym in parentheses or set off by dashes. If an acronym would not be clear on second reference without this arrangement, do not use it."

Another issue with headlines: We use the word "said" in them awkwardly at times.

I want to take a moment to praise the A1 design of the Kennebec Journal Saturday. Bruce Mastron (I believe) "sold out" his A1 to the GOP convention in town and why not? It was our best news event, the guy who basically finished No. 2 for the Republican presidential nomination was speaking on deadline.

We chose a two-story package with a six-column (big) headline and two sidebars. Bruce's proportions were right on and his use of a large photo and small one of Mitt Romney. TIM and SCOTT: Please talk to your staffs about how Bruce did this. Look at his point sizes of the subheads. Etc. Well done.

Meghan Malloy of the KJ staff turned a piece that would update Kennebec County's "co-occurring disorder court" into a profile of a man who's in it. That was a good call; people are more interesting than programs. The piece was sensitive, as by definition people in this program have mental illness, substance abuse and other issues.

In this case, it was even more sensitive: The subject has tried to kill himself and talks about it openly. Before we published, Meghan called him back and explained the impact of having this in print — and on Google, for a long time. The subject said he knew that and we could proceed. This is the kind of newspapers we are: We go into sensitive areas, but we handle them carefully and we discuss the ramifications of what we print -- among ourselves, with sources, with others. We are deliberate, not arrogant. We hold stories for a day or even a week if that means triple-checking facts. This is how good decisions are made and mistakes are avoided.

The A1 Sunday KJ layout was unorthodox. Nothing wrong with it, though I really like the lighting of Jim Evans' GOP convention photo and the photo itself. Perhaps we should have led with that and made Brian Traweek's photo secondary? Easy to second-guess people on deadline, though.

We did not say "First in a two-day series" atop Portland's A1 piece about binge drinking, in the KJ. We did include that in the Sentinel. Should've been there; a page proofer should've caught that.

In case you haven't noticed, we are promoting USA Weekend on A1 most (though not all) Sundays. It may sell newspapers when the covers are interesting, and we though this piece looking back on Frank Sinatra was.

The two-column/story package on our op-ed page about LURC and the North Woods was excellent and the timing is good. This is an example of heads-up editing, tapping the right people to write the right pieces at the right time. I read both and learned a lot.

Alan Crowell's piece on small, rural schools seeing steep enrollment drops is a good example of enterprising off your beat. Sometimes, community reporters can complain that their beats aren't fertile ground for enterprise. "If I only had the ____ (bigger) beat, I'd do great enterprise." It's rarely the case; every city and community has good stories and experiences trends that can be developed for A1.

Sharon Wood's graphic added enormously to Alan's piece. One nitpick about the article: I felt the state enrollment context was a bit too low in the story. It was there, but low.

Headline sizes on B1 of the Sentinel Sunday too subdued and similar.

Did we play the Fort Kent flooding big enough? Obviously, the BDN hit it hard; it's "their" territory. But so did Portland. We covered the flood on A2 and Sunday in the B section. With photos. Just asking...

The graphic with the Business furniture story was confusing. It said "March-February" but also had "Year ending" numbers below it. And had other "peak sales" figures too. Yikes! Too much work. I gather the furniture fiscal year for some odd reason ends at the end of February, so the "March-February" subhead tried to imply that. But I read it and thought about it a lot to get to that point. Graphics need to be EDITED so the average reader gets the point quickly and in complementary fashion to the story.

We were a little too thin inside the KJ B section Sunday.

Real Life flag used the bold font instead of the correct one, so the letters touched. This happened several times with Local and State after our design changes, but now it's emigrated to Real Life.

Was it me or did the bridge stuff take up a lot of space, and have a lot of white space, inside Real Life today?

The new Arts page inside Real Life looks good and is well-chosen. A piece about an artist who's fighting domestic violence nicely combines arts with a real issue.

Bill Stewart turned in a nice piece about Ian Wilson, the Waterville coach. I do wish we'd said where he went to college. BUT -- I didn't think it worked as the KJ centerpiece. The rain over the weekend probably was a factor, I know. Great for the Sentinel, but there was not enough Augusta stuff Sunday for the KJ. Even the game featured in the Sports banner was Lawrence and Skowhegan. We should at least have put the former Oak Hill softball player's story next to the Sports flag in the KJ.

Hey, here' a question: We do a great job following kids from local high schools who go on to play baseball, softball and lacrosse at college. But what if they do track and field? Not saying we can list all of them but are we watching those stats and times?