Editors at The Evening News meet each morning at 7 a.m. to decide what stories and photos to put on Page 1 of the newspaper that day.
We tend to select three or four local stories and one or two national or world stories. First and foremost, we’re a local newspaper. That’s why we exist, and that’s why the front page is dominated by local news.
But we’re also the only newspaper read by many of our subscribers, so we also try to balance the local news with at least a summary of the important state, regional, national and international news. When important events are occuring around the world, more stories from the Associated Press find their way onto Page 1.
This has been one of those weeks. The deaths of Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein, for example, both made page 1.
This morning the debate was between three national stories: The final funeral and burial of former President Ford; the Democrats poised to elect Rep. Nancy Pelosi as the first woman to run the House as they take over both chambers of Congress; and a survey of auto executives suggesting that slow sales would continue and more auto parts suppliers would face bankruptcy.
All important stories; only room for one on Page 1. It was a split vote among our editors, with one vote for the Democrats taking over Congress, two votes for Gerald Ford and three for the auto survey.
The logic: Mr. Ford’s various funerals had been on Page 1 for five of the previous six days. There was nothing really new in the Democrats taking over Congress; we had known about it for two months. The decline of the U.S. auto industry, while a national story, is also a local story for us. It affects many of our readers directly.
By the way, it’s not uncommon for the 7 a.m. decisions to be overturned by breaking news before we send the last page to the pressroom at 11 a.m.
“Fords Buried” could have been a twofer, given the stiff competition from the foreign automakers.
And if Harold Ford had pulled it out in the Tennessee Senate, race, I’d have gone with “Big Days for Fords.” It would have been a threefer.
Serious Question: How much do possible newsstand sales factor in when deciding the front page story? It seems that the Detroit papers always go for the glitzy sports story on page one to sell more issues. Does that impact the Monroe Evening News?
BTW, I’d note that the Democrat’s takeover of the House and Senate greatly increased local clout in both bodies, given Dingell’s seniority and the Levin and Stabenow leadership roles. That was a big-time local issue.
Good question, Mike.
A much smaller percentage of our sales is from newsstands, so we pay less attention to it than metro papers like the Detroit News and Free Press. We’re generally thinking of all readers, not just newsstand readers, when we make Page 1 decisions.
As a “home town” newspaper, we’re also much more sensitive to criticism of sensationalizing the news than metro papers.
Having said that, as the media landscape changes — and it’s changing fast these days — we’ll probably pay more attention to single copy sales in the future. There’s a national trend — we haven’t seen it much here yet – for busy people to cancel their home delivery subscriptions and buy from newsstands four or five times a week, skipping days they don’t have time. Of course, that costs more — you save money with the home delivery price.
(I’ve always thought that was odd — you pay less to get a product delivered to your doorstep???)