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January 04, 2006
A daily snapshot
Last night before I left the Monitor, I stopped by the news desk and suggested that the night editors keep an eye on the story of the trapped West Virginia coal miners. We didn’t have the story scheduled for page one, but I wanted the editors to move it out there if the miners were found, dead or alive.
At home, I was soon mesmerized by the Florida State-Penn State football game. I’m not sure why because I dislike the Seminoles. I’ve been a Florida Gator fan since the leather-helmet era. But this was great defensive football, with tenacity, athleticism and determination on display through three overtimes. During commercials, I usually flip to another channel to check the news, but last night I was reading a book, my favorite form of multi-tasking.
Early this morning my wife and I got up for our walk. The first thing I heard on the radio was news that all but one miner had been found dead after earlier reports that all but one had been found alive. I wondered aloud during our walk whether the Monitor had been caught in between on this story. In other words, had the story of the miners being found alive broken in time for the press run and the awful truth come later?
Sure enough, the lead headline in my paper read: “Dozen miners found alive, families say.”
I was glad the headline included the attribution “families say” and that the story, a combination of wire reports assembled by Monitor editors, pointed out that there was no official confirmation that the miners had been found alive.
I was also reminded that while many things have changed in the news business, an essential thing about the daily newspaper remains true: It is a snapshot of a day’s events. The last deadline – the moment the press rolls, or in this case, the moment a diligent editor replates the front page to get in the latest news – is the shutter snapping on the day. If something happens between 1 a.m. and morning to change events, so be it.
I’m guessing most readers could easily piece together the sequence of events that led to the outdated headline on today's page one. As for the editors, the final headline was anything but outdated when they wrote it. Even though I’m sure they groaned when they awoke to the news today, they made the right call and did a good job with a late change.
Some readers, incidentally, received an earlier edition of the Monitor with the headline "Miner found dead; hope for others fades." Ironically, this earlier story would have held up till morning.
Technology does not require the Monitor's other arm, our website, to be a daily snapshot. We posted the real story at the top of the site's front page first thing this morning.
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A couple of related points about the news choices we made for today's paper:
The mine story had originally been scheduled to go inside the paper. To make room for it on the front when the news changed, the editors moved the story of the guilty plea of Washignton lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Today’s other page-one wire story was about Dick Clark, who, despite the effects of a stroke, had hosted the ABC New Year’s Eve telecast from Times Square. Certainly the Abramoff story was bigger news than the Clark story. But having seen Clark myself Saturday night and winced at his slurred speech, I figured many people would be interested in the human story behind his TV appearance.
Four other factors made it easy to move the Abramoff story:
1. It had been in the news most of the day, thus many readers already knew about it.
2. The main new information the public wants about the story is which members of Congress and their staffs will be caught in the Abramoff web. Today’s story includes nothing new on that.
3. We could give the Abramoff story strong play on page A2.
4. With our new format, we could put a headline above the nameplate on the front page directing readers to the Abramoff story.
Posted by Mike Pride at January 4, 2006 09:11 AM
Comments
Interesting glimpse into the complexities of newspaper decisions - and into the benefits of identifying sources of information.
Posted by: Ontario Emperor at January 4, 2006 11:10 AM