Talk:Louis B. Costello/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Wasted Time R (talk · contribs) 14:48, 3 October 2020 (UTC)

I have begun reviewing this article. Wasted Time R (talk) 14:48, 3 October 2020 (UTC)

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

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Neat article, but a few comments here and there

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

   A few MoS issues in the text, see below

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (reference section): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):

   A few MoS issues in the references, see below

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

   Some additional points could be covered, see below

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free content have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

   Additional image would be good and one caption can be expanded, see below

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

Re the lede and infobox:

by the end of his life, was one of the leading media figures in New England. isn't repeated or cited anywhere in the body. It's clear that he was a leading newspaper figure in Maine, but does that extend to all of New England? Did Lewiston papers have a substantial readership in other New England states?

In the infobox, banker should be added as an additional occupation. And a children count could be added.

Re Early life and education:

Is it known what subject his degree at Bates was in?

Re Career:

This section is missing any tangible indication of what the Lewiston papers were like when Costello was either business manager or general manager or president. Were they profitable? What was their circulation? What were the papers known for - did they win any prizes for local reporting? Did they have any pronounced editorial bent?

Similarly, it would also be good to have some indication of the size of Androscoggin County Savings Bank, and how well it did when Costello was its president.

A mention of the "A Leaf Out of My Notebook" pieces, Costello's reports from his travels around the country that were printed in his paper, seems worthwhile to include. (sourced by Lewiston Daily Sun obit)

A mention that he was a United Baptist and of his longtime role in the Lewiston United Baptist Church also seems like it should be included. It will not be out of place in the Career section, since religion was a fundamental part of life in small-to-medium-sized towns and cities and interacted with one's career. (sourced by Lewiston Daily Sun obit)

... when incumbent William J. Crawshaw, resigned due ... - that comma seems unnecessary to me.

Re Later life and death:

His son, Russell, succeeded him ... - I would make this a new paragraph, since it's dealing with what happened after Louis's death.

Re images:

Can a later-in-life photo for a top image be found?

The caption for the Bates Student photo should also mention that his future wife Sadie Brackett is second from right in the bottom row.

Re References and end matter:

{{{1}}}

fns 12 and 13 are missing 'via Newspapers.com' credits.

The Category:20th-century American newspaper editors seems dubious, since article never says he worked as an editor. I think this should instead be Category:20th-century American newspaper publishers (people).

Also Category:American bank presidents can be added, as well as Category:20th-century American businesspeople.

In sum, it's a nice article and I don't think too much additional work is needed to bring it to GA level. Wasted Time R (talk) 16:38, 3 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for your efforts, Wasted. Your feedback's definitely contributed to the article's improvement. I'm still working on addressing some of the things you mentioned. I have paragraphs on Costello's church membership and editorial content planned. Gonna mention "A Leaf Out of My Notebook," though because the Sun Journal's archives aren't indexed, I haven't actually found any entries, despite my searching. I'll post here once I'm all finished. Rockhead126 (talk) 23:04, 4 October 2020 (UTC)

Howdy, Wasted. I've added quite a lot to the article, trying to address everything you brought up. Tell me what you think. Rockhead126 (talk) 22:15, 11 October 2020 (UTC)

@Rockhead126: Good work, the additions have definitely made for a fuller narrative. A few follow-on or additional comments:

Children: Louise Russell – per Template:Infobox person, I think this should just say "2", since the children do not have articles of their own.

You can link to Lewiston Evening Journal. It's a redirect now, but someday it may have an article there.

leading media figures – using this term here is an anachronism. I did a search of "media figure" in Newspapers.com for 1950–1959 and there are zero uses of it in this sense (the 33 hits you get are all something else). Whereas if you do the same search for 2000–2009, you get a couple thousand real hits. So I would suggest changing this to something else, unless you feel strongly about using a current term.

His papers gained a reputation for being progressive but not so much as to alienate change-averse readers. – what does 'progressive' mean in this sense? I suspect it is in relation to looking at new business or editorial practices? Or is it a political reference, in the sense of the Progressive Era?

Writing under the headline "A Leaf Out of My Notebook," Costello shared with Sun readers reports of he and Sadie's cross-country travels, all the while remaining devoted to his home state, with editorials focused on portraying local communities in a positive light. – this makes it sound like the editorials were part of the "Leaf Out of My Notebook" series. Suggest splitting into two sentences and rephrasing for clarity.

Rabboni Lodge #150 – this should use "No." instead, per MOS:NUMBERSIGN.

lifetime of achievements, dedicated service – this is a little too praiseworthy in narrative tone, the honor can speak for itself. So I think you can just say "achievements" and "service".

In his will, he left $5,000 each – How much was his estate worth? Without knowing that, it's hard to know how generous these bequests were.

Re File:Louis_Bartlett_Costello.jpg, there is a typo in the Description on Commons (should be "publisher")

Re File:Lewiston United Baptist Church postcard.jpg, the Source on Commons should say that both the front and the back are viewable on the source site (thus making possible the statement that there was no copyright notice).

For what it's worth, the retrieval dates you have in the cites for newspaper sources are unnecessary. Retrieval dates are really only needed for web pages that aren't dated themselves – see WP:CITEWEB and the subsection on citing newspapers just above that. The downside of using them here is that they clutter up the References section visually with a lot 2020s when in fact most of the sources are from long ago. But these kind of retrieval dates are not disallowed and in the end it's the choice of the person writing the article.

Anyway, good work, we are close to being done. Wasted Time R (talk) 21:45, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

Made most of the changes you recommended. Re: the estate, the source for that bit of info says the estate's value wasn't estimated, and I can't find any other mentions of it. As for the paper being "progressive," I meant it in terms of social views. I ripped it directly from the Maine: A History source, which calls The Sun "one of the most progressive and forthputting of [the local morning dailies]." In the cited oral history interview, Faunce Poindexter described the paper as "liberal in a sense of viewpoints[...]on major questions like abortion, certain foreign affairs items," and said Costello encouraged "in the case of social matters, be[ing] on the liberal side to the extent of not condemning anything that was proposed as a change, but when it came to financial matters being conservative." Do you think changing the wording to "socially progressive" or linking to Progressivism would do? Lastly, re: "media figures," I chose that wording because saying "newspaper publisher" again seemed a bit repetitive, and I wanted to suggest Costello's prominence in the broader press/media world, though newspapers, of course, mostly dominated that domain during his lifetime. Another oral history interview I found but didn't cite describes how, in the 40s, his general manager acquired the license to WLAM, and Costello fired him because he was fervently anti-radio. Any suggestions? Rockhead126 (talk) 23:12, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

I think saying "socially progressive" would be good. If you were going to link to something it would be to Progressivism in the United States, but I would not do that, since it would appear to tie Costello to all sorts of stances that he may not have believed in. You do need to add the Pendexter oral history interview as a cite for both this sentence and the one before it (about journalistic objectivity), however.

As for Costello WLAM thing, I think you should include that in the article. It shows he was a true newspaper guy ... but I think it also demonstrates that he wasn't a "media figure". Saying he was prominent in the broader press world would be okay, however, because "press" was a commonly used term at the time that included radio and TV reporters even though the origin of the word was obviously in newspapers. Wasted Time R (talk) 11:03, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

Done. Tell me what you think. Rockhead126 (talk) 21:20, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Looks good. I made a couple of small edits myself which hopefully you are okay with and I have passed it for GA. Good work. Wasted Time R (talk) 11:52, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks so much for your help! Rockhead126 (talk) 18:30, 17 October 2020 (UTC)