If you own an iPhone, be sure to check out the fine work of Web master Todd Griffith. He recently finished designing a Messenger Web site for iPhone users, iwcmess.com. Let us know what you think about the new Web site. We love feedback. For other phones, you can go to wcmess.com to get your news on the go.

Your Wise County Messenger won sweepstakes again at the Texas Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest awards ceremony Saturday in Austin. That is the 10th time in the newspaper’s history and eighth in a row dating back to 2002.

The Messenger competes in the large semiweekly division.

It was truly a team effort. Photographer Joe Duty received first place awards for sports and feature photography and a third in news photography, reporter Mandy Bourgeois received first in feature writing, sports editor Robert Morgan received first place in sports coverage, reporter Travis Measley received third place in column writing, I received second place in editorials and headline writing, production manager Todd Griffith and paginator Keri Willerton received third place for page design, Griffith won first place for best web site and the advertising and production department won first in advertising. The Messenger also won second place in general excellence.

The 825 points we received toward the “sweepstakes” count was more than any other paper received, including the daily categories. The total is the third highest we’ve received in the eight years.

Publisher Phil Major’s previous paper, the Clay County Leader, also won sweepstakes in the medium weekly category, and he received a first place for news photo.

The awards are nice, but it doesn’t mean much if we aren’t providing our readers with the content they want. So always feel free to let us know if you like something or not or if you have any suggestions on how we can improve.

From time to time, readers will submit poems as a letter to the editor. We’ve always had a policy about not running poems, and the latest issue of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors has an article from a newspaper editor addressing this. Actually, it was the response to someone who had submitted a poem to his paper. I thought he did a good job of explaining why newspapers don’t publish poems, so I thought I’d share it. It was written by Richard Mostyn, editor of the Yukon News in Whitehorse, Yukon.

“We publish all manner of letters in our paper, for issues, against and ambivalent.

But we don’t publish poems. There are several reasons for this. Poems often rely on strange formatting and poets are usually insistent on that (it’s often integral to the beat), and there’s no way to accurately reproduce it in a newspaper - besides, it’s finicky work for our layout guy, and he’s got enough on his plate.

Second, if the poem was straightforward and we published it, we’d be swarmed by dozens of angry poets angry because we hadn’t published their work.

We can’t win this battle.

Poetry is a legitimate art form. Done well, a poem can be magical.

But it isn’t journalism, which is a different type of art.

Our newspaper doesn’t publish poems. But it does try to work magic with journalism. And letters.

If you want to submit one to us, we’d be happy to run it.”

Production manager and graphic artist Todd Griffith has put together what we hope will be a useful tool for Wise County motorists. As I mentioned in a post below, we’ve started putting traffic reports in the Sunday paper complete with a map. Now we have the map online, and we will be able to update it throughout the week as we learn of new traffic conditions.

As always, reader input is welcomed. The online map has a place where you can report road conditions you come across. Let us know what you think of this new tool and any suggestions on how we can improve.

I always enjoy hearing updates from people I’ve interviewed for stories. Melanie Snitker, who I interviewed for a Mother’s Day feature story last month, told me she and her husband, Doug, became licensed foster parents Wednesday. Melanie, Doug and their son Xander are now waiting for the call about a placement.

As a matter of full disclosure, Melanie is a former member of the Messenger newsroom who left a few years back to start her family. We wish her and her family well in this new chapter of their lives.

Also, Melanie sent in the above photos she took on Farm Road 407 between Justin and Farm Road 2264 Wednesday night following the storms.

The Washington Post is reporting that the H1N1 virus, aka the Swine Flu, has been declared a full-scale pandemic by the World Health Organization.

The virus evaporated pretty quickly from the news headlines soon after it was discovered that swine flu was not as virulent as first believed. As of yesterday Wise County has had 5 confirmed cases (out of 2,050 confirmed cases in Texas) according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

With this news, expect swine flu to be back in the national headlines, but I wouldn’t expect anything like we saw during the first news cycle, unless people equate pandemic with panic. Then it’s anybody’s guess.

Stephen Colbert

Among the several journalism publications I receive regularly is the bi-monthly International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. The publication always has a journalism-related quote on the front page, and this month’s quote comes from the host of show that is a guilty pleasure of mine: Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report. The phrase was no doubt uttered at some point during his satirical show. Here’s his take on the state of newspapers:

“The impending death of the newspaper industry: where will they print the obituary?”

Ironically, the obituary page might be the last place you will see cuts from newspapers. They are traditionally one of the most read pages in the paper. Newspapers can change up their paper’s format, but they’d better think long and hard about making changes to obits. Even on our Web page, if you look at our most read stories each week, you will normally see at least one or two obituaries.

Here’s a copy of an e-mail I got from a reader last month regarding obituaries: “I wish the Messenger would tell more obituaries earlier. I don’t get my Messenger until one day later and after 3 o’clock in the afternoon — too late for me to know who and more about deaths in our town. The information about funerals and family are too late to attend. Please put the obits earlier in the update.”

We do, of course, list funerals in the Update Monday through Friday. As one familiar face in the Messenger is known to say, “I had to look at the Update to see if I was in there.”

Find peace any way you can in the face of road work.

We kicked off a new feature in the paper Sunday that we hope readers will find informative. We are trying to compile information about road construction or maintenance projects, or any other situation where traffic might be impacted, throughout Wise County. The plan is to publish a map each Sunday for the traffic situations motorists might expect for the coming week.

I’ll also try to put the report in written form in Monday’s Update.

Of course, as we learn of traffic situations, we will post them on Update as well throughout the week.

But we also need your help. You can help be our eyes on the road. If you come across a road construction project, road closure or other traffic situation we might have missed, let us know. Call or e-mail news@wcmessenger.com.

We’re also working on getting the map on our Web site that we can update as we hear of road situations.

By the way, the photo above was taken a couple of years ago in a construction area near New Fairview, I believe. The man striking the Lotus-like position (no doubt on a dare from photographer Joe Duty) is reporter Brandon Evans, who has been gone for a year but plans on returning to the Messenger this July. It will be great to have Brandon back - let’s just hope Joe doesn’t have him sitting in the middle of too many roadways.

After a three week absence, the comments are back on our Web site, and I’m glad to see it.

We have added a few rules that will be enforced. Our publisher Phil Major wrote a column in last week’s paper explaining the need for civilized discussion.

I think getting reader feedback is crucial to a news organization. Commenting on stories helps us know if we are doing our jobs to the best of our abilities. And it leads to news tips. Unfortunately that tool can be used to hurl insults at other people. That is why we’ve taken the steps we have to encourage the constructive discussion and curb the destructive discussion.

You will now be asked to provide your name, phone number, e-mail and hometown. Also, all comments will have to be approved before they are posted, so comments will not be instantly available after you post them, but we’ll do our best to have them up as soon as possible.

We’re hoping we’ve found a successful formula. Only time, and our readers, will tell.

By the way, it looks like the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has used the word “civility” with a revamp of its rules for letters to the editor, according to this editorial published Sunday.