The new page one

Steve Smith described what he termed “pushback” from readers who aren’t fond of the emphasis on local news on the front page. Some questioned whether the item on principals who want to ban cell phone use among parents picking up kids at school is really more important than, say, Iran enriching uranium .

The operative theory is that as more people get national/international news from multiple sources throughout the day, running those stories as dominant items in newspapers makes us look way behind the curve. Often, stories evolve further by the time the papers hit the doorstep - I recall one morning that I heard about a shuttle launched being scrubbed on the clock radio, then picked up the paper to read “Shuttle cleared for launch” on our front page.

One might suspect that the readers complaining about wire news migrating inside might get their news exclusively from the paper, but Smith said that isn’t the case. “These are information junkies” making the complaints, he said. For them, the concern is about emphasis. They want the paper to maintain a global perspective rather than focusing closer to home.

Of course, we also have a contingent of readers who like the emphasis on local news. The stories on today’s front page are information you won’t get anywhere else, whereas many of the big wire stories can be found almost anywhere online, on TV, and in other papers.

“I’m not sure that tension’s going to evaporate anytime soon,” Smith said. But for now, the local-news-first crowd wins.

Smith said we’ll be taking a closer look at subscription stops (a nice way of saying “cancellations”) to see if the news mix is having an impact. We’re also going to re-evaluate the way the newshole is doled out between the sections later this spring, and look at ways to treat page A3 as a “second front” for national and international news.

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