adrian holovaty

June 4, 2003, 12:39 AM ET

Finding the Web editor at FortWayne.com

Find The Web Editor's Name And E-Mail Address Week, which has been rather depressing so far, stumbles along today with a visit to FortWayne.com, a medium-sized news site based in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

On the home page, I almost immediately spot the "Contact Us" link near the top-left corner; this is a good sign.

Following that link takes me to a well-organized Contact Us page:

I stop for a second to ponder which of the three "Contacts" links to click -- "Fortwayne.com," "News-Sentinel" or "Journal Gazette." I noticed on the home page that this site features the content of both Fort Wayne's newspapers (which operate under a joint-operating agreement), but I'm not sure who oversees the Web site -- members of both staffs or an independent team. I make a guess and click "Fortwayne.com;" surely this page must contain contact information for the FortWayne.com staff.

Well, it does, technically, but seven of the eight e-mail addresses on the page are generic -- such as marketing@knightridder.com -- and only one real name is given. The only non-generic e-mail address belongs to the sole staff member listed under "FortWayne.com Team" -- a salesperson. Where are the Web nerds? Surely this salesperson cannot be maintaining the site by himself. I click the Back button.

This time, I try "About Fortwayne.com," which takes me to an informative FAQ page that does include some newspaper contacts, but no Web staff. I click Back again.

Now I try the News-Sentinel "Contacts" link. Aha! It takes me to a beautiful list of newspaper contacts, complete with full names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers. I'm so excited, I'm practically shaking. But wait...I see the publisher, the managing editor, the editorial page editor, even the secretary -- but no Web staff! I look up and down this page twice to make sure I didn't miss it, but the Web staff isn't there. I click Back again, dejected.

OK. Chin up. Maybe the Web people are on the other newspaper's staff. I click "Contacts" in the Journal-Gazette section, but the resulting page doesn't have any staff members' names, let alone e-mail addresses. I spot a "Complete list of newspaper staff" link at the bottom of the page; unfortunately, that page isn't any better. (In fact, it's pretty much, word-for-word, the same page as the previous one!) I click Back, and Back again, to return to the main Contacts section front -- a page that once looked so promising.

For the third day in a row, I give up. Again, I ask your help in finding that site's Web editors' names and e-mail addresses. Tomorrow, I'll wipe my tears and try again.