[Arizona Republic was biggest to short news; bigger view]
President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court was almost certainly the biggest national story yesterday, a Sunday -- traditionally the slowest news day of the year.
But that far-reaching news didn't warrant so much as a brief on the front pages of a majority of Gannett newspapers, I found today in a review of the Newseum's Page One collection of the company's dailies. The no-show list comprised 38 of the 59 papers -- 64%. Three of the dailies published briefs -- including one of Gannett's biggest, The Arizona Republic. The remaining 18 papers published full stories.
Related: Here's a full list of the 59
How would you have played the Kagan story? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
I think the lack of play here on this huge breaking news story on Sunday night is because of the regional copy desks. Just look at the Wisconsin group for example.
ReplyDeleteThere are three regional copy desks in Wisconsin: Green Bay/Appleton, Oshkosh, Wausau.
The papers laid out in Wausau (Wausau, Wis. Rapids, Stevens Point, Marshfield) did not run the story, either because the person in charge deemed it not a big deal or at 9 p.m. CST, decided it was too much work to tear up pages that late.
Same thing probably happened in Oshkosh (Oshkosh, Fond du Lac Sheboygan).
The Green Bay/Appleton paginators decided it was an important story obviously or maybe since they are closer to the central printing facility, they had the time to redo pages. It appeared in Green Bay, Appleton and Manitowoc. Not any other Wisconsin paper.
Not all the blame should be placed on the decision makers at these regional copy desks, however. I wonder how many editors actually thought to do some work on a Sunday afternoon/evening and make sure this important story got in their paper. News doesn't restrict itself to Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. yet some editors still religiously stick to that schedule and fail to lift a finger on the weekend.
The Non-Gannett, locally owned Kenosha News did not play it on A-1 -- wire stories often don't get out there -- but did give it lead story treatment on its only wire page for today's paper.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone with access to this morning's USA Today-produced nation/world page: Did the Kagan nomination story appear on that page?
ReplyDeleteNo, the USA Today page was not updated to include the Kagan story -- interesting since it was a 1A story in Monday's USA Today.
ReplyDeleteto 4:24 - this is so right on - and they make the decisions that pile on the work
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many editors actually thought to do some work on a Sunday afternoon/evening and make sure this important story got in their paper. News doesn't restrict itself to Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. yet some editors still religiously stick to that schedule and fail to lift a finger on the weekend.
Actually the Nation/World page from USA TODAY was updated with Kagan. It was late at might so many
ReplyDeletepapers may have just skipped it.
Fort Myers replaced an oil spill update with Kagan. Was last-minute because AP did not move a story that did not include anonymous sources, a no-no at FM. The Kagan story, contained to the front, ran in both of the paper's editions. Also included a foto. You might see more and more indepth stories the further west you go depending on the deadlines.
ReplyDeleteUSAToday: An Economy of Information...
ReplyDelete