Final visit from Ukrainian newspaper staff

Five staff members from the Panorama newspaper along with two translators are in Amarillo this week for a visit to our city and to work with the Amarillo Globe-News.

The Globe-News has been participating in an exchange program with the newspaper from Sumy, Urkaine, this year. Earlier, myself and another newspaper staff member visited Sumy and four staff members from Panorama were here in July.

Now, the publisher of the paper along with four other staff members - one from advertising and three from the newsroom - are here this week as a final visit for the program, which is coordinated by the International Research and Exchanges Board in Washington, D.C.

Like the other visits, most of the week will be spent at the newspaper exchanging and discussing ideas.

But this time, the publisher of the newspaper, Yehven Polozhiy, will be speaking to communication, government and history students at Amarillo College, West Texas A&M University, Texas Tech, Tascosa High School and Amarillo High School.

It's a chance to learn about the differences in newspapers and other media as well as past and current political issues in the country of Ukraine and their importance to the region and the world.

They arrived Saturday evening after a journey of more than 24 hours. On Sunday, they visited most Amarillo landmarks for the Cadillac Ranch to the Palo Duro Canyon.

Sunday night ended with a meal at - you guessed it - the Big Texan. However, no movie stars this time around. (In July, the group saw David Duchovny, the star of X-Files whose family is originally from Ukraine).

Monday, they began work at the newspaper and visited with Mayor Debra McCartt.

For your weekend entertainment

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Washington Post story about the Panhandle: Is it good or bad?

When I worked at The Augusta Chronicle, the best time of the year was during the week of the Masters Tournament. It seemed like the entire world descended on the town, including a mass of media outlets.

One thing you could always count on - besides seeing a lot of green - is that one of the out of town writers would always do a story on what a crappy place Augusta was. My favorite one was from well-known writer Mitch Albom, who was a writer from a crappy town in its own right: Detroit.

He whined that there were more Waffle Houses than people in the town and there was nothing but wig shops and tattoo joints and so on ....

It seems that on regular occasions, writers come to the Panhandle and some of them do the same.

Here's a link to a recent travel story published in The Washington Post. I can't tell if it's positive or negative. Maybe you can help me.

Thursday's Best Bet: WRCA World Championship Rodeo

There are quite a few horse events around the area, but one of the best starts next week.

The Working Ranch Cowboys Association will present their 14th annual World Championship Ranch Rodeo at the Amarillo Civic Center Thursday Nov. 12 through Sunday Nov. 15.

This is an event held for the working cowboys and cowgirls from ranches all around the country.

The WRCA has signed a contract to have the event in Amarillo until 2012.

The festivities start Wednesday as the WRCA brings to town Baxter Black, a cowboy humorist who also writes a column for the Amarillo Globe-News.

Tickets are available through Panhandle Tickets. Tickets range from $14 to $26 depending on which day you go.

Thursday's Best Bet: Pirates of the Canyon

The 2009 edition of the Pirates of the Canyon hot air balloon event will run three days this year beginning Friday night.

And the good news is this year, the event will be held both at Palo Duro Canyon and at John Stiff Park in Amarillo. If you haven't been able to make it to the canyon the last three years of the event, you won't have an excuse this year.

According to the event's web site, more than 30 ballons will be participating and include the regular shaped balloons, but also ones shaped like a Pepsi can and another like the space shuttle.

There are events all three mornings, including a balloon "chase" at John Stiff Park on Saturday morning and a festival on Saturday afternoon.

It's a spectacular event and it's closer than ever this year.

Media Monday: Don't overreact to circulation report

The Audit Bureau of Circulation is releasing it's report on the latest circulation figures for the nation's newspapers and, at first glance, it may look like the numbers are falling off a cliff.

Today, you will see our brethren in the broadcast industry jump all over this story and talk about the demise of newspapers.

As I have said before: Not so fast my friend.

There are many reasons for this other than just some dramatic decline in readership.

First, many newspapers, including the Amarillo Globe-News, have increased the subscription prices. Others have increased their single copy prices.

Also, many newspapers are pulling back their circulation from outlying areas because of increased distribution costs. We've done the same.

Other newspapers are decreasing the amount of newspapers that allow a company to purchase and then send to customers who may not be receiving the newspaper. This is called a "third-party" transaction and newspapers have been decreasing this over the years.

Some newspapers are decreasing the amount of newspapers they sell through their Newspaper in Education program because of the cost of doing the program. Some now do it electronically, as we do here at the Globe-News.

Our most recent reports show our Sunday circulation at 49,084 and our daily circulation at 38,179. While both are down slightly, our figures are much better than the industry averages.

If you figure the average copy is read by at least two people, we reach almost 100,000 every Sunday and more than 70,000 daily.

Our montly reach on our web site, amarillo.com, is aboout 360,000 unique visitors, with about 80 percent of those not subscribing to the newspaper.

So in any given month, the combination of our web site and Sunday newspaper reaches an unduplicated audience of about 388,000.

Newspapers have more readers than ever before (but you won't here that today on the broadcast news).

What the national broadcast news reports won't show today is that audiences for their shows have been plummeting for years, often with decreases larger than the ones the newspapers are showing.

I'm sure Bill O'Reilly will blame the New York Time's decrease on their liberal bias, which has very little to do with how many people subscribe to the newspaper.

Thursday's Best Best: Texas Panhandle Volleyball

If you're looking for an area that the Texas Panhandle excels, you've got to look at women's volleyball.

From club to high school to home school and college, there's probably not too many areas in the country that rival the Panhandle.

So for this week's best bet, I suggest you take in a volleyball game this week. You can start with WTAMU's Lady Buffs, who play tonight at 7 at the WT Fieldhouse.

You can also catch Amarillo High vs. Odessa Permian Saturday at 2 p.m. at the AHS Activity Center or Tascosa vs. San Angelo Central at the THS Activity Center at 3 p.m.

And the area also has three defending state champions for the 2008 season: Bushland, Hereford and three-time defending state champion Amarillo High.

Both Randall and Dalhart are having great seasons as well.

So even if you're not a big sports fan, I think you'll still be impressed with the quality and effort of many of the local women's volleyball teams.