In the interest of improving The Badger Herald as a source of quality journalism, the position of ombudsman was established last semester to act as a kind of public editor — an editor whose role is both critic of the publication and advocate for the reader.

Since the creation of the Herald in 1969, it has always run "in-houses." These are, in short, ads that function to advertise some aspect of the Herald itself — like its radio program or available ad space — or sometimes just for fun.

Mostly, these in-houses have a much more practical application: to fill up space. It is typically the obligation of the Managing Editor or Editor in Chief to create a mockup of the newspaper's pages each night. This includes a layout of where each of the sections will have space to place their stories and where the ads will be placed inside the paper. When individual editors have insufficient content to fill their space, in-houses fill up the remainder.

One section in which this should rarely occur is the Opinion section. The reasoning is simple: Who wouldn't want to get their own work in the newspaper? There are plenty of people on the UW campus or in Wisconsin with strong views on a wide range of subjects. The same, one can also argue, may be said of the Arts and News sections. Each should have sufficiently strong editors, writers and research to justify filling the space in the Herald's many pages.

Unfortunately, this semester has seen an abundance of large in-house ad placements, most noticeably in the Opinion section. Some have served the practical, even amusing, purpose of advertising the Herald Editorial Board's radio show on WSUM. Others have simply sat on the page to fill up space. Whatever the reason, the number and size of these ads has grown significantly this semester.

This is primarily a failing of the Editorial Page Editors. There may be a reason behind the problem: The Herald no longer has a dedicated day for printing guest columns and letters to the editor. At the time I worked as Editorial Page Editor, the "Feedback Friday" concept had been fairly well established. Every Friday, the entire page was devoted to publishing letters to the editor and guest columns. We would run guest columns and letters to the editor on other days of the week as well, but Friday was always a no-Herald-staff day. In anticipation of the Friday paper, we had to work every day of the week to recruit guest columns from important campus, local, state and even national figures.

With Mac VerStandig taking over as Editorial Page Editor last year, this policy ended, and with some good reasons. It has long been known within the Herald's staff that Thursday's is the most-read paper of the week and that Friday's is the least-read. This usually has a direct impact on the size of the Thursday paper — and, in turn, on the size of the Opinion page for that day. Mac argued, and I now agree, that guest columns and letters to the editor should be given more equally distributed weight throughout the week. Thus, Mac ended "Feedback Fridays," and began publishing more guest commentary throughout the week.

But this is really only a good practice if the editors in charge of the page can carry it out. Judging by the number of large in-houses published in the Herald's pages this semester, the Editorial Page Editors are not doing enough to recruit more guest writers to offer commentary. How about something by local state legislators on the UW budget? Or a piece by some City Council members on public transit? Perhaps even a guest piece by gubernatorial candidate Mark Green or all-but-announced presidential contender Russ Feingold? All of these people would offer a unique or interesting view on subjects relevant to students.

To their credit, the Herald's editorial page editors have done an excellent job of bringing some issue balance to the page. Since March 1, the Herald has published three opinion columns about major world issues, 12 on national issues, seven on state, and 20 on campus or local issues (excluding Ed Board opinions). While I would personally like to read more about foreign policy or state politics, that's just me. I'm sure most readers have found that the page has done an excellent job of touching on hot local and national subjects.

Nevertheless, Herald Editorial Page Editors would do justice to the page by going out of their way to seek new opinions from relevant guest writers. It would add value to the page and get more students interested in the section.

Paul Temple ([email protected]) is the former Editorial Page Editor of The Badger Herald. He is a 2004 graduate of the UW and lives in Madison.