Daily News' Miracle on the Hudson Wins Headliner Award

The staff of the Daily News in New York won the National Headliner Award for Spot News for its coverage of Miracle on the Hudson. Bruno Bourachdene of the Daily News also won the photography prize.

My former employer, Newsday, won first place in the environmental category for Fallout: The Legacy of Brookhaven Lab in the Pacific, Thomas Maier and John Paraskevas.

Newsday's Union to Examine Paper's Finances

Newsday union leaders will meet with management Tuesday afternoon to examine the paper's financial status in preparation for talks aimed at procuring fair terms for the workers who report, photograph, edit, produce and deliver the Long Island paper every day, Local 406 GCC/IBT announced in a news release this morning.

George Tedeschi, the president of the Graphic Communications Conference of the Teamsters Union, will lead talks for Local 406 GCC/IBT. Bruce Lambert, a former Newsday reporter who helped launch the editorial unit of Local 406 in 1976 and was a union vice president for more than two decades, will assist him, the union said. Others who are expected to participate in the talks are Joe Molinero, director of the Teamsters Newspaper, Magazine, and Electronic Media Workers Division, and Jim Kimball, director of the Teamsters Economics and Contracts Department.

On Jan. 23, Local 406 overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to reduce salaries by 10 percent to 15 percent, cut vacations, and lengthen the workweek.

After the 473-10 vote, Local 406 members have been displaying solidarity by wearing the same color on chosen days. The group expects the spontaneous color events to continue through the talks.

The news release said that union leaders are ready to help Newsday management, which says the paper is financially troubled. A union accountant is ready to examine Newsday's financial statements when the paper agrees to release them. There are 550 reporters, photographers, editors, press operators, plate makers, electronic pre-press workers, truck drivers and building and maintenance workers represented by the unit.

Note: I was a member of the union for more than a decade.

Newsday Web Traffic Down 21 Percent Since Paywall Was Built

In other Newsday news ..

Its web traffic dropped 21 percent in November, the first full month since it erected a paywall on its site.

Nielsen data shows that Newsday.com drew 1.7 million unique visitors in November, well below the 2.1 million total for October. Page views were down to 18.6 million in November, which is a 34 percent drop from the previous month.

The year-to-year comparison showed a 43 percent decline in unique visitors in November.

Newsday is the first major newspaper in the United States to construct such a pay wall charging $5 a week for unlimited access to its site. The charge equals a weekly subscription for the paper. Newsday print subscribers and Optimum customers have total free access to the website.

In October I questioned whether outside readers would accept that structure. While I enjoyed keeping up with my former colleagues' work, I'm not going to pay $260 a year to do so in a tough economy. Visitors from outside Long Island will get their news elsewhere. And those visitors could represent a sizeable number of people who came to the site (maybe 21 percent?)

A reduction in pape views and unique visitors will result in loss revenues from advertising, and that's bad news for any newspaper.

The first month was rough for the website, and management can only make decisions on the paywall with more data. It will be interesting to see what now editor Debby Krenek will do with it if the ratings continue to fall.

Mancini Quits as Editor of Newsday; Krenek Takes Top Post

John Mancini had stepped down after five years as Newsday's editor, and Debby Krenek had taken his place.

Krenek also becomes executive vice president of digital media with oversight of Newsday.com. She was managing editor and senior vice president of digital media.
Krenek started with Newsday in 2001 as associate editor for special projects after serving as editor of the Daily News.

Here is the memo from Publisher Terry Jimenez:

Dear fellow Newsday employees,

After five years as our editor and 20 years with our company, John Mancini has informed us of his decision to leave Newsday. John's tenure here has been marked by many distinguished achievements, as he has skillfully guided our newsroom through one of the most challenging times in the history of the newspaper industry. He will be missed.

John has been responsible for leading a team that has delivered outstanding news products. With both our print and interactive media, his innovations in design and presentation, his courage and insight with regard to special coverage, and his overall leadership of our news team, day in and day out, have been exceptional. He has kept Newsday focused on what matters most to Long Islanders with coverage of issues such as the wasteful abuses of the state pension system and special taxing districts; the impact of Alzheimer's on Long Island families and the Long Island Railroad gap, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

In addition to overseeing some of Newsday's best journalism, John also helped us to adapt to a swiftly changing media landscape. The paper’s home delivery circulation growth and strong readership penetration are testaments not only to his abilities as an editor, but also as a thoughtful, skilled executive. John has agreed to stay on as a consultant to assist me with a number of special projects.

Debby joined Newsday in 2001 as associate editor for special projects, following a successful career at New York Daily News, which included a 3-year run as editor in chief. During the past eight years, she has worked her way through Newsday’s ranks and was most recently responsible for leading the development and launch of newsday.com’s pioneering Web model.

I know each of you will join me in thanking John for his many contributions, and in applauding Debby on her exciting new role.

A letter from John to his staff and a press release announcing Debby’s appointment are attached.

Sincerely,

Terry

Here's Mancini's note to staff:

TO: Newsroom staff

FROM: John Mancini

It has been an honor and a privilege to work with you over the past five years as editor.

Now, I have decided to leave Newsday to pursue new opportunities.

Please accept my deepest thanks for your dedication, support and friendship over the many years I have been lucky enough to work at the paper.

One of the editorial staff's great strengths is resilience. The challenges are daily, your goals are ambitious and the product of your labor is vital to our readers. You have yet to fail them.

I ask that you continue to aim high and do all you can to help the newsroom's leaders in the coming weeks and months.

I leave Newsday with hope for the future but also much sadness.

It is no exaggeration to say you have meant the world to each of us who had the great good fortune to occupy the editor's chair.

Newsday Will Tweak Web Paywall as Conditions Warrant

Newsday will alter what's free and what isn't on its website after it unveils a new subscriber requirement next week, Debby Krenek, managing editor and senior vice president/digital media, tells Editor & Publisher's Joe Strupp.

Krenek, who has overseen the Web site since 2001, told E&P nothing is set in stone -- and the site may well make some paid items free, and vice versa, as time goes on.

"The Web is a moving, breathing thing. We are going to be able to watch and see what people do," said Krenek. "We are going to be tweaking based on what [readers] have to say. One of the great things about the Web is that you get immediate feedback on what your users are coming to you for."

For example, if a big story breaks that editors feel should require free access, they will allow it. "If there is something that is of critical need for Long Islanders to be aware, we would give them access," she said. "Some major disaster in the area, some health scare, anything we feel would be critical.

"We think it is going to be successful and a real value for Long Islanders," said Krenek, a former editor of New York's Daily News. "We have a unique opportunity to do it."

Newsday print subscribers and Optimum customers will have total access to the website while other customers will be charged $5 per week.

Jennifer Saba of Editor & Publisher talked to some media analysts who sai it's not as risky of a venture as it would seem at first glance:

Alan Mutter, a newspaper observer and author of Reflections of a Newsosaur. "It's not nearly as bold as an experiment as it appears to be," he said. Since Cablevision already reaches 75% of Long Island, there is a "much smaller risk of losing online traffic than the typical newspaper would."

Newsday can take such gamble thanks to Cablevision's online subscribers. If Newsday were to go this alone and not offer free access to Optimum Online users it would reach much less of its core market. According to Newsday's most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations Audit Report for the year ending September 2008, Newsday's average daily circulation covered 38% of Suffolk County and 36% of Nassau County.

Noted Ken Doctor, an affiliate analyst at Outsell Research and author of Content Bridges: "I think this is a one-off because of the unique nature of a cable company that owns a newspaper. I don't see it as a model that applies to anybody else."

What is interesting, said Doctor, is that Cablevision is essentially charging for access, not content. And it's using a model that is already very familiar to the newspaper industry: bundling.

Newsday to Charge $260 Annually to Access Website

[CORRECTION: Newsday will charge $5 a week. The original version of this post had incorrectly said $5 a month.]

If I want to read my old newspaper online, I'll have to pay $260 a year to do so.

Newsday announced today that it will charge that amount to access its content on Newsday.com. The subscriber model is effective next Wednesday.

"We are excited about this model because in addition to a unique ability to immediately reach about 75 percent of Long Island households, we believe the hyper-local approach is right for Long Island," said Debby Krenek, Newsday managing editor and senior vice president/digital, said on its website.

The $260-a-year price point represents $5 a week, which equals the paper's seven-day home subscription plan. The newspaper said most content of Newsday.com will be accessible only to those who subscribe to the print newspaper or Optimum Online, or those who are willing to pay the fee.

Some online content that will remain free includes the home page, weather, obituaries, classified ads, entertainment listings and school closings.

Newsday is the first major newspaper to take this step. Every newspaper in the country has been struggling with lost revenues in print advertising, citing the fact that more people are going to their websites to access news and information than paying for a print version. Other newspapers, most notably The New York Times, are considering some type of pay structure for their websites.

The announcement comes the same week that Editor & Publisher released its monthly website rankings in which Newsday registered a 25 percent drop in traffic from the previous month.

The argument against a move such as this is that consumers will probably become more selective in the websites they choose to read, especially during difficult economic times. Very few people will be willing to pay hundreds of dollars a year to read more than one or two newspapers online. This would reduce the traffic to all newspapers overall.

For instance, typically I visit Newsday, The New York Times, The Washington Post, POLITICO, my local paper and about four or five others each day. If each started to charge $260 a year for access, I only pick one to read (which one I don't know).

The other argument is that a paywall could reduce nation exposure and limit links to your site. This is not so much a concern for Newsday as it has for years placed its primary focus on local reporting.

What will be interesting to see is how the public reacts to pay news sites. No one knows if consumers will accept it at a level that makes it a success for media outlets, or if consumers will -- after years of free access -- equate it to paying to bring your luggage along on a plane trip.

Newsday Plans to Charge Readers for Its Online Content

Bucking the national trend in a time of economic crisis, Newsday plans to charge viewers to access its online content, Cablevision chief operating officer Tom Rutledge revealed yesterday.

Cablevision bought the Long Island newspaper in a $650 million deal last May. It wrote down Newsday's value by $402 million on Thursday, pushing its fourth-quarter results to a loss.

"Our goal was and is to use our electronic network assets and subscriber relationships to transform the way news is distributed," Rutledge said on a conference call with analysts. "We plan to end the distribution of free Web content."

Consultant Ken Doctor says it best:

Want to know how likely it is that Cablevision's new charge-for-Newsday-online will work? A few rational arguments to follow, but consider this number: The average unique visitor on Newsday.com spends four minutes, 25 seconds per month on the site. Ouch. That number can sub for lots of focus groups, price elasticity testing and the like. Newsday's would-be digital audience has voted with its fingertips. That number is up almost one minute from a year earlier, here courtesy of E and P's monthly Nielsen rankings, but still ranks Newsday as having the lowest online engagement of the top 30 newspaper sites.

Confronted with having to pay for a site you may use less than five minutes a month, you think you are going to pay for it? Wrong site. Wrong year. Wrong metro area

.

Peddie, Laikin of Newsday Honored for Corruption Series

Sandra Peddie and Eden Laikin of Long Island's Newsday have won the 2009 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting from School of Journalism at USC Annenberg. Their articles exposed widespread corruption and systemic failures in local special government districts.

The $35,000 award honors the year’s outstanding work in investigative journalism that led to direct results.

“In more than 100 stories over a year, the Newsday reporters uncovered and documented pervasive pension abuses, double-dipping by retirees and lavish spending by employees and retained lawyers of the little-noticed special districts that spend many millions of taxpayers’ money to provide services like water hookups and trash collection,” the judges wrote in their commendation, citing the breadth of the revelations and the resulting reforms.

“From story to story and one special district to another, their investigation grew organically to include statewide laws and practices,” the judges wrote. “Within months, the New York state legislature unanimously passed a pension-reform package and other legislation to address the abuses uncovered by Newsday. State government departments also changed rules and stepped up enforcement to end specific instances of corruption.”

"Rooting out corruption requires tenacity and dedication, and the team from Newsday exhibited those traits in abundance," said Geneva Overholser, director of USC Annenberg's School of Journalism. "Their work and the many other worthy entries show that investigative reporting -- so critically important to our nation -- continues strongly in cities across the country. We cannot assume that this will always be true. We are delighted that the Selden Ring Award serves to support and encourage this vital work."

Mancini Back at the Helm as Newsday editor

James T. Madore of Newsday writes this afternoon that he does indeed have a boss, and that boss is John Mancini. It appears that Mancini and executives with Cablevision, the owner of the Long Island newspaper, have patched their differences.

A dispute between Newsday's top editor John Mancini and owner Cablevision Systems Corp. over editorial content appeared to have been resolved Tuesday, when he returned to the newspaper's Melville headquarters.

Mancini, speaking to newsroom staff, said his absence since Wednesday "was due to a difference of opinion with ownership over the editorial policy of Newsday. That has been settled."

He declined to offer details of the dispute, but said: "No one outside the newsroom influences . . . our news coverage in any way." He added there would be "no change in direction. Our only concern is that we get it right. Let's do our jobs and tell the story straight."

Mancini acknowledged his disagreement with Cablevision executives had grown heated. When asked whether the words "you're fired" or "I quit" were used, he said "words to that effect were uttered."

Rumors have circulated that Cablevision was angry about coverage of a sex harassment lawsuit filed against Eddy Curry of the New York Knicks; the team also is owned by the Bethpage-based cable operator. Mancini declined to comment when asked whether Knicks' coverage sparked the dispute.

He said he had decided not to return to the newsroom "until I had clarity that the editor was expected to perform his job as he had done."

When asked when he got clarity, he said "this morning."

He said Publisher Timothy P. Knight and Cablevision had been supportive of his stance.

Mancini said he felt the disagreement had produced an "understanding" of the need for newsroom independence. He also said Newsday's coverage is "valued at the highest levels" of Cablevision. "They said they liked the paper."

NY Post: Newsday's Mancini, Henley Not at Work; Is Krenek Next Editor?

Keith J. Kelly of the New York Post is writing today that Newsday Editor John Mancini and Managing Editor Deborah Henley have not reported for work for the fifth straight day, fueling speculation that Cablevision has fired the duo. The story did note that Managing Editor Debby Krenek is Mancini's likely successor, and has been in meetings at the Melville office.

"It's bizarre," said one insider, who was left wondering who's in charge ahead of today's coverage of the history-making inauguration of Barack Obama as president.

Added another insider, "If any of the top editors know what's going on, they're not telling anyone."

Meanwhile, Debby Krenek, another managing editor, was seen in the paper's Melville, LI, offices after being absent Thursday and Friday.

Her presence yesterday fueled speculation that Krenek, who's primarily in charge of Newsday's online edition, might be tapped by owner Cablevision to replace Mancini.

"She's here, but she's in a meeting," said a person answering Krenek's office phone.

There has been no confirmation or comment of any kind from Newsday and Cablevision officials.

Rumors Abound About Status of Newsday Editor Mancini, Top MEs

Newsday's James T. Madore wrote today that Cablevision and Newsday officials would not comment on the status of editor John Mancini, and managing editors Deborah Henley and Debby Krenek. Whether the three were still employed was the subject of a story by Keith J. Kelly in Sunday's New York Post that was based on unnamed sources and speculation.

The gist of the Post story is this:

"Nobody knows what's going on," an insider said. "At first, we just assumed [the meeting] meant more layoffs, because advertising was off by 40 percent last quarter."

A rumor making the rounds had the Dolans furious over Newsday's coverage of a sexual-harassment suit filed against Knick center Eddy Curry by his former chauffeur. Cablevision, which owns the Knicks, the Rangers and Madison Square Garden, bought Newsday from the Tribune Company last July for $650 million.

When Mancini, Henley and Krenek failed to show up for work Thursday and Friday - as papers scrambled to cover the US Airways crash in the Hudson River - it ignited speculation that they were summoned to Cablevision offices Thursday and asked to justify their jobs.

Adding to the intrigue, Mancini's office had been cleared out by Friday morning. And by last night, voicemail was not connecting to any of the top three editors.

At least the Post was able to quoted "a rumor making the rounds." Madore's story responded with this:

But newsroom sources told Newsday that Henley was involved in the coverage Thursday of the US Airways plane downed in the Hudson River, and another source said Krenek was in New York City for scheduled meetings.

Voice mails for the three editors were back on yesterday after a wider outage had been corrected. Their names also continued to appear on the masthead.

Yesterday, Cablevision spokesman Charles Schueler referred questions to Newsday spokeswoman Deidra Parrish Williams, who declined to comment. Mancini would not address any questions. Publisher Timothy P. Knight, Henley and Krenek did not return telephone messages left for them.

Once again, no sources were quoted by name, which in itself isn't a ringing endorsement. I'd hate to see Mancini go. One, on a personal level, we worked side-by-side at Newsday for years (he did rise much higher in the organization than I did!), and I always liked the guy. But on a professional level, he's one of the best in the game. He can get to the root of any story, especially a New York story, and he knows what readers want and need. It would be a shame if he lost his job because he stepped on Cablevision's toes over the Curry story. If it is the case, the three of them are better off leaving.

Mike Schroeder Rides to the Rescue of Connecticut Newspapers

Mike Schroeder, a longtime colleague of mine from Newsday, rode into New Britain this week on a Calvary charge to save a chain of Connecticut newspapers that was days away from closing its doors. Schroeder, the owner of Central Connecticut Communications, has entered into a letter of intent to buy the Bristol Press, the New Britain Herald and three weeklies from the Journal Register Co.

He's one of the top journalists I have ever met. He brings a level of excitement in the newsroom few other executives can. He's not afraid to take risks when necessary, he'll roll up his sleeves with his staff, and he certainly can breathe life into a news organization that was close to shutting its doors.

Details of the purchase plan have not been released, but finalization of the acquisition is expected in two weeks, according to a report in the New Haven Register.

Schroeder was publisher of the free daily newspaper BostonNOW, and previously held editorial and management positions at Newsday, ranging from copy editor to chief of staff.

"We look forward to building upon the rich history of these properties as local businesspeople,” Schroeder told the Register. “We plan to work with current staff, readers and advertisers to produce papers, Web sites and other media that successfully educate, inform and entertain the communities they serve.”

Anonymous Sources Speak Volumes About Your Reporting

In the past week we have seen two stories in the media that were based on anonymous sources grab the nation's attention. Both have problems in them that make some editors uncomfortable. One was in news, the other in sports.

Arthur Staple of Newsday, who is a great reporter and someone I had the pleasure to work with for a number of years, lead off his piece on Brett Favre and his relationship with his New York Jets teammates with this on Jan. 1:

If Brett Favre wants to play another year with the Jets, he'll have to work a lot harder to win over his teammates than he did this season.

"There was a lot of resentment in the room about him," a Jets player told Newsday yesterday. He requested anonymity because team owner Woody Johnson has stated publicly that Favre is welcome to return next season if he wants to. (Favre reportedly will take until the end of February to decide about returning.)

The 39-year-old quarterback is not as welcome with his teammates, according to this veteran. After the Jets traded for Favre Aug. 6, the sure Hall of Famer made no effort to ingratiate himself with the already assembled team, the veteran said. He said Favre spent most of his down time at the practice facility in an office specially designated for him near the equipment room, not with teammates in the locker room, even after the media departed.

"He never socialized with us, never went to dinner with anyone," the player said. Asked to describe Favre in a word, he said: "Distant."

The quotes were splashed all over ESPN the same day, running on its bottom ticker throughout the bowl games for millions to see. But were they really fair to Favre? Staple did not indicate any effort to contact the quarterback for comment, even though all but a couple paragraphs in the 550-word story was devoted to one player's anonymous complaints after the end of a disappointing season. HOT 97, a local radio station, managed to get one player to talk on the record, and Staple even quoted those comments, was there any attempt to get someone else to speak on the record?

Over to a more serious story. The Drudge Report, which is seen by millions, ran its piece yesterday on Ann Coulter being bumped by the TODAY show. Drudge cited an anonymous "top network source" and a "TODAY insider" to paint a picture that Coulter was banned from NBC and MSNBC for life because of her political views. No where in the story was there any indication that these sources had anything to do with the cancellation. NBC is a big organization, were they the decision-makers in this incident?

When journalists use an unnamed source, it's usually for the purpose of gaining some kind of information we couldn't receive on the record. Anonymous sources should only be used when we cannot report on information that is reliable and newsworthy otherwise. In the Favre case, it seems as though Newsday should have been able to get someone to go on the record. This is not a delicate inside government issue that affects the public, this is football. As far as the Coulter case, it certainly newsworthy, but given the partisan history of both the pundit and the network involved, clearly there had to be two sides of the story. Even the report hinted at that with the one line that said: "Others inside the peacock network strongly deny the book's theme is at issue." Why wasn't someone quoted to expand on that?

Anonymous sourcing is dangerous territory. Often reporters are being played by sources who have an ax to grind and want to use the media to push an agenda. Today, NBC announced that Coulter had been reinvited, and the controversial author noted on her web site: "Drudge gets results: TODAY show changes mind."

Reporters and editors face these issues everyday. They must question themselves: "Can I get this on the record elsewhere? Can I verified the information? Am I and my organization being played for a pawn in someone else's agenda?" The answers to these questions will tell you if using the anonymous source is necessary or not.

Palin's Daughter Pregnancy Stuns Political World

Rick Klein and Jennifer Parker, writing for ABC News, examine the ramifications of the news that Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months' pregnant and will marry her boyfriend.

Palin is an outspoken opponent of abortion, opposing the termination of a pregnancy in all cases except when the mother's life is in danger. Palin also opposed sexual education programs in schools, other than an abstinence-only curriculum, during her 2006 Alaska gubernatorial campaign.

Given all that as a backdrop, the tag of hypocrite may soon appear from the left. That tag is a political death sentence for anyone.

So far, the reaction has been predictable along party lines. Obama told reporters after a campaign event in Monroe, Mich., that “people’s families are off-limits and people’s children are especially off-limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as a governor or potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories.”

But fallout has started, and there will be no let up in the coming days.

Richard Gizbert, writing for the Huffington Post, says Palin is the new Thomas Engleton, and predicts she will step away from the race within next week or so. He pins the potential move on reaction from evangelicals.

But what hurts Palin's candidacy more than anything else is the breaking news about her daughter.

It hurts because Sarah Palin was a bone John McCain threw at the Republican right.

He had problems with evangelicals and thought she could help him there. And, for a news cycle or two, it worked.

But what are the evangelicals thinking now? A teen pregnancy for a prospective vice-president's unmarried daughter?

Even though some will say the decision to keep the baby is consistent with their beliefs on abortion, it's still not the news they want to hear.

Evangelicals are socially conservative. How many of them are calling members of their congregations today, asking whether this kind of thing would have happened had Sarah Palin given up her career to be there for her children?

Bart Jones of Newsday interviewed Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf who said that the revelation shows that McCain stubbed his toe on the selection process, and that ultimately it will doom his candidacy.

The selection showed a "major lack of judgment" and a "major failure to comprehend what the reaction would be," Sheinkopf said.

"You cannot excite the base of fundamentalist Christians by telling them your daughter is pregnant out of wedlock," he said. The entire episode "makes the McCain people look stupid."

McCain supporters have been spending the day defending her. Liz Halloran of U.S. News and World Reports, met with evangelicals today and discussed the issue.

"I don't think it [hurts] at all," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who hailed Palin's nomination.

The media's breathless reaction is proof that "you just don't get it," Land said during a U.S. News lunch roundtable here that also included Jim Wallis, president and executive director of Sojourners; Randy Brinson, founder of Redeem the Vote; and Chuck Donovan, executive vice president for the Family Research Council.

"We need to take the Juno option," Wallis said, referring to last year's popular movie about a pregnant teenager who gives her baby up for adoption. Said Donovan: "It doesn't matter if it's a conservative, liberal, or an apolitical family—these things happen."

Donovan and Land both referred to the national efforts by evangelicals to encourage women and girls to do what Bristol Palin, now five months pregnant, has done and keep the child. "Pro-life people don't see a baby as a punishment," Land said.

Carla Marinucci, the political writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, talked to Republican delegates in St. Paul, Minn., about their concerns. Most everyone was supportive of Palin and her family.

Most staunch Republicans in St. Paul, hearing the news, aimed to accentuate the positive: Palin's daughter is keeping the baby and getting married, a plus - the embodiment of family values, they said.

"I'm not a feminist, never have been, and I opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because it was bad law," said Jo Ellen Allen, a delegate from Newport Beach. "But women ought to be applauding her. ... This happens to the best of families."

"As a delegate, and as a woman, I respect them even more now,' said Miryam Mora, 26, a GOP delegate from Los Angeles, whose reaction mirrored many inside Xcel Energy Center. "It's a family with real issues and real problems ... but it's an amazing family."