Kurt Greenbaum: Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks to any of you (?) who might be out there this lovely Friday. I've been looking forward to this and I appreciate the questions that have been submitted already. I'll get to as many as I can during this hour -- and if there's duplicate questions, I'll try and address the answer to all of you. Don't forget to refresh your screen during the discussion (hit your reload button or press the 'F5' key). Let's go.

Matt Burgdorf: I understand the need to defray costs using advertising, but lately, every time I load the main page, a Hummer ad appears blocking my entire view (nice job avoiding the pop-up blockers!). Other sites I visit would have an ad such as this appear the first time the front page is loaded (totally understandable), but not every single time. Any chance this can be fixed?

Kurt Greenbaum: I've gotten a number of questions like this, so let's just go right out of the box with the answer and address it now. I don't know how long the Hummer ad or the other "rich media" ads are supposed to run. I could find out from my colleagues in advertising (I'm the news guy!) and let you know later.

I also realize that a lot of people don't like those ads. I've shared those complaints with my colleagues. My colleagues and I hope you'll try to tolerate the ads, and, perhaps even use and appreciate them for the information -- especially since STLtoday.com is offered free of charge.

The question also suggests that there are "better news sites around in Chicago, New York, Washington DC." That's an opinion, but I can tell you this: Those web sites use a lot of these "rich media" ads, too. So, advertisers must be finding them to be effective. On Tuesday afternoon, I saw a "Sprig.com" ad on the Washington Post web site that knocked the entire home page off the page like a window screen before I hit the "close" button.

In any case, I'll just renew my request to tolerate the advertising and my gratitude for your visiting STLtoday.com.

Anonaman: In light of the crash in the TOD Blog, does the PD have plans to increase the bandwidth/servers for their Blog section?

Kurt Greenbaum: Yeah, those kinds of crashes are a problem. I know my colleagues on the tech side of the house are watching that kind of thing. It's definitely something we'll have to address -- especially if it becomes an ongoing project. It's not always a bandwidth/server issue; sometimes it's a matter of underlying programming or other issues, so I really rely on my tech friends to look at it. I know they're watching it and we'll be working with them to get their advice on the best solution to those problems.

Les: It seems the little things on your website are not accurate and therefore questions the credibility of the website. For example, today, 4/24/07 at 9:12AM the front page of the website states that the current temperature is 76 degrees. All of the other local websites and the weather website says it is 58 degrees. Not even close.

Why is that?

Kurt Greenbaum: On the day you posted this question, I also got an e-mail about the same issue. I'm grateful to both of you (or are you the same person?). I'm always grateful when we hear feedback about the site or corrections from readers.

Obviously, we want to get it right and in this case, we didn't. The reason: A technical problem that was preventing our data feed from getting to the right place. That's not an excuse. It was still wrong.

Shawn: Hi Kurt...long time listener, first time caller. Picture is nice. How ya been?

Later

Kurt Greenbaum: Hmmm. I wonder if this is the Shawn I'm thinking it is? Welcome, Shawn, and thanks for calling. I've been just dandy.

Boyd Jones: Kurt, you walk a tightrope between deciding what is a hot topic that will draw interest and participation, and what is inflammatory and sure to bring out predictable responses from some of the same people. Do you envision any changes in the TOTD format that will encourage civility and that might invite participation from a wider audience?

Thanks for a job well done.

Kurt Greenbaum: Thanks for the kind words, Boyd. The blogs in general are one of my favorite parts of our site, because it really gives our reporters and editors a chance to interact with readers -- and for readers to interact with each other.

Writing the Talk fo the Day is among the highlights of the day for me, because it gives me a chance to reflect on the news of the day and, frankly, guess about what people will be talking about the next morning.

I haven't given much thought to how we could change the format, but I'm open to suggestions. Whenever you get two or three people with different opinions together, you're bound to have conflict. I try and watch the comments as closely as I can and when I catch personal attacks, I'll get rid of them.

Getting new people? I wish I had a good answer for that. Candidly, that's why we only require light registration in the blogs in order to post -- we want to let people easily participate on the spur of the moment. But, again, if you have ideas about how to draw a wider audience, I'm all ears.

Richard F. Smith: A petty complaint: The headngs on your news section suggest geographic structure; yet, a link under St. Charles may refer to one of the other areas, which is annoying and suggests incompetent organization of information. Suggestion: Re-structure the pages under different headings and organization, or simply link stories from a general news page that reflects all local news.

Kurt Greenbaum: Thanks for your question, Richard. I think if I follow your comment, you're talking about some of the geographic references that may appear in headlines. And, if you're visiting the St. Charles page of STLtoday.com, I can understand why that would be troublesome.

I'll be perfectly honest and tell you that SOME of that is the result of how newspaper stories are fed to the web site. It's far from a perfect system right now, and perhaps too automated for our own good.

Some of it is also because our editors may think a story from one "zone" of our readership area may be of interest to St. Charles readers -- whether or not it actually happened in St. Charles.

To the first issue, I'm aware we need to do some work on that. Please stay tuned as we work on the best solution to that problem.

Amber: Who does your multimedia and why does the design vary from application to application? This latest Pujols graphic is an example. Does Jacob Piercy really know how to upload photos -- two are missing?

Kurt Greenbaum: We have a number of people in our newsroom who produce multimedia, including folks in Jacob's department (graphics), the online news department and photo. We also collaborate with reporters and editors to produce multimedia content. You can see our latest multimedia if you visit http://www.stltoday.com/multimedia.

As for whether Jacob knows how to upload pictures, I'll let you ask him (jpiercy@post-dispatch.com) that question yourself. :-) I can remind him that there's some photos missing from the graphic you're referring to (you can find it on our Cardinals page at http://www.stltoday.com/cards).

One of my colleagues, Denise Kosarek, sent me this direct link to the graphic you're talking about: http://graphics.stltoday.com/interactive/pujolshr2007/

Kurt Greenbaum: In the absence of more questions right now, I'll just mention that we're excited about some of the changes we've made to the site in recent months. The addition of new video to the site in the past three or four months is really just a beginning. We expect to build on that quickly over the next few months.

I'm also excited about our new live discussion software, because I've seen other sites really do great to create regular programming features with the audience.

Look for improvements in the business section of the site as well, coming soon.

Philip Barron: Two questions, Kurt:

The website has undergone a couple of revisions that have gotten rid of some of the "heaviness" of the layout, but it still seems awfully crowded. Any thoughts given to a design with more white space ala the Washington Post or the New York Times?

Also: Interactivity with readers seems the way forward with newspapers sites - in-house blogs with comments and the fourms and the like, and the Technorati tracking the P-D employs with AP stories. Do you expect to widen Technorati use to include stories original to the P-D? Also, what are the chances of STLtoday involving itself with local community blogs as is done at the Oklahoman website?

Kurt Greenbaum: Great questions, Philip. Thanks for taking the time to visit. Let me address the first now and the second in another posting....

I appreciate your comment that we've done some work to lighten up the page, but there's no question that we'll need to continue looking at ways to do more of it. Referencing my earlier comment, just the fact that we're adding new content to the site means we have work to do the on design.

For example, we've substantially added to the multimedia on the site, but we're not displaying it to maximum advantage.

So, the short answer: Yes, there IS thought to what the next steps in our design should be -- I just don't have a timeline for you on that.

Kurt Greenbaum: Now, on to your second question, Philip:

"Also: Interactivity with readers seems the way forward with newspapers sites - in-house blogs with comments and the fourms and the like, and the Technorati tracking the P-D employs with AP stories. Do you expect to widen Technorati use to include stories original to the P-D? Also, what are the chances of STLtoday involving itself with local community blogs as is done at the Oklahoman website?"

We haven't given any thought just yet to a relationship with Technorati, but you're right, interactivity is a huge initiative for all of us who work online right now. Let's face it, readers basically demand it, and it's in our interest to work with that need. I think our site can (and will) work on developing hooks with social networking sites such as digg or Newsvine so that readers can share stories in those venues as well.

Mike Leonard: The pop up Hummer ads have got to go.

Kurt Greenbaum: Well, I hear you loud and clear. See my earlier response to this question for more details.

Kurt Greenbaum: Well, that should wrap it up for the hour. Thanks to those of you who took the time to visit. I've enjoyed the chance to respond. And please take a look at our site for announcements about new discussions. Meanwhile, you can find me at kgreenbaum@post-dispatch.com or under the "contact us" links at the bottom of the page.