Mike Wilson (2017)

Thanks for the question! It's a good one. Around here, we're always saying it's more important to be right than to be first. I don't think the audience is giving us much credit for having a story 90 seconds before the competition. I think the media organizations that endure will be the ones people can trust.

It's a huge responsibility. That night was really challenging because there was so much confusion and so little was clear. We tried to be open about what we knew and didn't know at any given time. We were very, very careful not to announce deaths or injuries until they were confirmed. Your first responsibility is always to the audience, but you can't forget about the families of the people involved.

I had a publicist for a well known musician scream at me because she resented something we wrote in advance of his Dallas concert. Her problem was she thought we were exploiting him. I was thinking -- Wait, I thought you said you were a publicist.

There are a couple of things going on right now. There's a trend toward people just wanting to see news that justifies or supports their worldview. Others are demanding honest, in-depth reporting from journalists because they distrust the government's or establishment's view of things. I believe the need for objective truth will always win out in the end.

A few years ago, the New York Times made a big splash with a story called "Snowfall." It was one of the first major media stories that used rich media in a comprehensive and interesting way. We all saw how well readers responded and starting building interactive displays for our stories. Now we have a content management system that allows us to make them pretty easily. Glad you like them!

Great question, and thanks for being a social studies teacher. You are doing hugely important work.

I consider myself lucky that I don't live with the cable TV news imperative to always say SOMETHING about politics even when there's nothing to say. I like print/digital journalism because we can be a little more careful about choosing which stories to do. We try to stay away from stuff that's purely political and report on the implications of what's happening in politics and government. Todd Gillman in Washington and Brandi Grissom in Austin lead teams that do this pretty well.

I like this question. Recently we moved away from Outbrain and started using a new service called Aggrego. It delivers news from sources around the country that we think readers might be interested in. The challenge continues to be filtering the content so it meets our standards. If you see stuff on our site that doesn't seem worthy of dallasnews.com, email me.

https://join.dallasnews.com/subscribe

I'm being a little cheeky there, but seriously, the most important thing anyone can do is support local journalism. Doesn't have to be the DMN, but please give your support to good local reporting.

Footrace: Meredith Land looks like she'd be good competition in a 40-yard dash.

Hot-dog eating contest: I'm going with DMN Watchdog Dave Lieber, though that's cannibalism.

Charades: Our own Robert Wilonsky. He's always acting out his feelings about Dallas.

This is a good question. We're developing Facebook groups around subjects of interest right now. Do you think a community government group would catch on if we posted links there and spent some time chatting with folks?

Not sure it's underreported, but I'll go with: income inequality.

As far into the future as I can see.

Couldn't you have come up with a better question?

It's a tough thing. We know our partner in Austin will do good work, but nobody likes the fact that it means fewer jobs in our newsroom.

The most-read story last year was kind of a random one: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/news/2016/01/11/mark-cubans-tips-for-eventual-winner-of-the-1-4-billion-or-more-powerball-jackpot

To your larger question, we don't judge our journalists purely on the number of clicks they get. We have a series of metrics we look at that rewards journalists not just for getting clicks, but for getting local, loyal readers. Readers of clickbait stories tend to read one thing and move on. We're trying to publish stuff that will make people loyal readers.

I'm far from an expert on this, but I've interviewed one. I asked this very question to Dallas Fed Chairman Rob Kaplan a while back. He is optimistic about economic growth here and thinks people will keep moving in. One of his concerns: Finding qualified workers to keep fueling the growth. https://www.dallasnews.com/business/jobs/2017/01/12/dallas-fed-chief-talk-trump-says-immigration-crucial-economy

Yes, it's very interesting to be in a blue city but a mostly red region. People's political views are definitely reflected in the way they respond to news. But we can't and don't tailor the coverage to either camp.

It's kind of cool to work for a company that was founded when Texas was still a republic. The biggest effect on us is probably just the pride we take in having lasted this long and in being trusted by a bunch of people. That's a privilege, not a right.

Being a journalist is an incredible learning experience because of all the ideas and people one is exposed to. I wish I'd known how much this work would blow my mind.

First, nerds is a fair description. We're honored.

The future of the Rock of Truth is uncertain. The space we're moving to is beautiful but not cheap. Some version or iteration of the Rock of Truth will be a part of our new digs.

Recommend you ask @natesilver538. I think he'd disagree that he blew it.

It's painful to talk to somebody who's canceling, especially if the person has been a subscriber for a long time. Re the second part of your question, we actually have plans to communicate with readers much more about the different parts of our paper and how they interact. Stay tuned for that.

Can't single one out. Last year, Miles Moffeit reported on how investors were buying rural hospitals and running them into the ground, to the detriment of their communities. That was really strong reporting. More recently, Tristan Hallman has been reporting on the Police and Fire Pension Fund crisis in Dallas, a story with huge implications for the city's future. Really important work. Dianne Solis has provided very strong coverage of the housing situation in West Dallas, which is changing fast and threatens some communities there.

First, no person is illegal. He or she may have done something against the law, but we're not going to call a person illegal. Second, "alien" makes it sound like the person is from another planet, so we avoid that word. If we know a person is here without documentation, we say he or she is an "undocumented immigrant." Finally, if the person has been judged by a court to be in the country illegally, we report that.

Dogs.

The proof photo, yes! We had to prep in advance. The update post is from today and you can see the rain has cleared up.

"Red Sox win," I hope

It isn't false balance to put a wide variety of opinions on the op-ed page. False balance is when somebody points out the sky is blue, so you report that and then go find somebody who will say it's polka-dotted.

The idea to build own CMS was driven by our chief digital officer, Nicki Purcell. It has totally transformed our newsroom, I'd say. We can tell stories much more easily and richly than we could with our old technology.

Thanks for the follow-up. Our site is now metered, so at a certain point every reader is asked to subscribe in order to keep reading. I think local journalism has value, and we need income to keep providing that information. So I'm encouraging people to subscribe rather than assuming they should get valuable information for free -- an assumption my industry unfortunately encouraged for a long time.

I try to remember that nobody cares what my view is and that it's irrelevant to the story.

Yes, we keep track of everything, so we know which letters get seen the most. I suppose a letter writer could become a columnist if the letter writer knocked our socks off with a proposal to become one. I wear very high, very tight-fitting socks.

My office, of course.

Here's one example: Last year we reported that CPS wasn't checking in on vulnerable kids in a timely way. One child was beaten to death in the interim. After we did our reporting, the state moved to hire more workers and give raises to the ones it has. You should subscribe so you'll know what the government is and isn't doing with your tax money. I'll be back in a minute with 1,000 other examples.

Maybe the Sunday paper is the only one you really need. If you combined that with a digital subscription so you could check headlines and keep up with the news during what I assume is a busy work week, I think you could stay pretty well informed. Thanks for being a Sunday subscriber!

The most important thing is to have work you can show -- written stories if you're a writer, packages if you're a broadcaster. I always appreciate a well written letter from a job candidate. Writing is important to me no matter what job I'm hiring for.

Hard to say what you'd miss, but I can tell you that if I didn't get the paper, I'd miss the enjoyment of just turning the pages and seeing what's there. I also appreciate the fact that the newspaper is carefully curated -- that is, somebody actually thought about which stories should go on which pages. Readers can always disagree with the editors' choices, but to me, that's part of the enjoyment.

I don't see it happening. It costs money to report the news, and this is a business, so we charge for the product we put out.