Highlights from this Sunday's Times (5/31/09)

- Michael Brick on water safari in Texas
- Peter Baker on Bill Clinton, who has now spent more time out of the White House than he did in there, and how his legacy has changed since Barack Obama became president
- Lizette Alvarez and Michael Wilson on New York City projects in the old days, as Sonia Sotomayor, Obama's Supeme Court justice nominee, remembers them — before they got their bad rap

Highlights from this Sunday's Times (5/24/09)

- Sara Corbett and photographer Gillian Laub on the segregated proms for students of Montgomery County High School in Mount Vernon, Georgia
- Lynn Hirschberg on Conan O'Brien's move from New York to L.A.
- N. R. Kleinfield on the Rev. A. R. Bernard, who leads the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn

Highlights from this Sunday's Times (5/17/09)

- Amy Harmon, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, on a family struggling to help their 34-year-old son, Joshua Thompson, avoid death by A.L.S. with an experimental medicine
- Bruce Weber's obituary of Sid Laverents, a peculiar homemade film auteur
- David Segal's profile of Daniel Boulud and his new New York restaurant

The new Newsweek vs. the old New York Review

New York Observer media reporter John Koblin delivers a hip introduction to the revamped Newsweek and its hotshot editor, Jon Meacham, in a voice that calls to mind Talese & Wolfe.

Contrast it with Janny Scott's 1997 New York Times profile of The New York Review of Books' top dog, Robert Silvers.

Highlights from this Sunday's Times (5/10/09)

- Margalit Fox's obituary of Martha Mason, who spent most of her life in an iron lung
- David Segal's hilarious debut consumer-advocacy column, The Haggler (notice his perfect use of the third person when referring to himself)
- Tamar Lewin's American Album on Miles Woolley, a teacher at a Miami high school who is opposed to military recruitment there because of his experience in the Vietnam war

A new age for the Missourian?

In my Intermediate Writing class yesterday, longtime MU journalism professor and narrative cheerleader Steve Weinberg spoke up about an interesting trend he observed in the Missourian.

A major narrative appeared on the front page of every Missourian for three editions in a row, he said.

First came a profile of Fred Parry in Sunday's paper. Then came Jessica Showers' profile of Jessica Huang, a fledgling writer of 10-minute plays, on Tuesday. And then on Wednesday came Jenny Rogers' profile of Charles Carter, a regular at the Salvation Army.

They came on the heels of last week's two-part series on the exoneration of Josh Kezer.

Steve said he hadn't seen this kind of work published consistently in the Missourian in decades.

The development, he suggested, could herald a new era of thoughtful, high-quality journalism for the paper. He seemed to read it as a sign of hope not only for it but also for print journalism itself.

I hope this is not an isolated development. I hope the Missourian will continue traveling in this direction for a while.

It's no surprise each of the three profiles topped the most-read list for several hours. People read good stories. People want stories. People need stories. The title of Joan Didion's nonfiction collection, I remember nearly daily, is "We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live." If we want to live, we're going to need stories.

Highlights from this Sunday's Times (5/3/09)

- Douglas Martin's obituary of New Age pioneer John Michell
- Outgoing South Asia Bureau Chief Somini Sengupta on Calcutta, her hometown
- Chip McGrath on Fenway Park

2009 National Magazine Awards

Check out the works that won 'em.

P.S. Chris Jones won the one for feature writing.

Esquire writer Chris Jones praises narrative

He is to become a professor at the U. of Montana. Read a journalism student's interview with him here.