MG specialist Denise M. Reagan (top photo) was in Spokane last week to conduct workshops with writers and editors at The Spokesman-Review on short-form storytelling methods. She reports the debate was lively and that many people did a great job brainstorming different ways to tell stories outside of traditional narrative.

General assignment reporter Chris Rodkey, left, and veteran political reporter Jim Camden (second photo) discussed ways to make stories easier for readers to get through in the hands-on portion of the sessions. Participants worked to rethink the story conception process to spot opportunities for new writing forms.

But some of the reporting staff worried that the change to a 50-inch web width (due in late January of 2006) and the move to shorter forms threaten the reason readers are supposed to love newspapers, namely the depth of the print form. Reagan attempted to assure the crowd that the move to shorter forms was not in any way an abandonment of long-form storytelling. "These two things can exist in the same newspaper," she said. "In many ways, they can inform each other and offer scanning readers a reason to go deeper."

Thanks to Dan Pelle of the S-R for the photos from the Dec. 2 sessions.