Covering the Cutts trial online at the Rep.

The following post appeared on the Bowling Green alumni blog of former BJ staffer Beth Hertz. Scott Brown, a BGSU alum, is really sold on web news which he practices at the Canton Repository. The Rep is doing a good job of handling news online. There has been more online than in print about the Cutts trial for murder of Jessie Davis

You Can't Print THAT

From Scott Brown, Class of '98

"Kill that bitch."

I bet that grabbed you. Now, imagine that as a headline in 120-point type at the top of Page A-1.

That didn't happen at The Repository this week, although it was briefly discussed. At issue was a witness in the murder trial of Canton police officer Bobby L. Cutts Jr., who is accused of killing his 9-months-pregnant girlfriend and the unborn child. A friend had just testified that a month before the woman disappeared, Cutts said he wanted to "kill that bitch and throw her body in the woods."

Nine days after the girlfriend, Jessie Davis, was reported missing, her remains were found in an Akron park.The quote was the most sensational part yet of a trial that has us devoting two reporters, one photographer and one editor full-time, not to mention a third reporter who has had to testify because he interviewed Cutts during the search.

The headline didn't fly for all the obvious reasons (it ran as a pullquote on A-1). But we did use the headline in a story that was posted at our Web site, cantonrep.com, about 15 minutes after it happened.

Why use it on the Web and not in print? For a lot of reasons, not the least of them being our hope to be more edgy with our Web site than we are with the print edition.Viewers seemed to like it. Our numbers shot up. About an hour after the story was posted, we added audio of the "kill that bitch" quote. The next hour was the busiest in the history of our Web site.

Oh, and the actual A-1 head? "Threats revealed." Old gray lady, that print edition.