Most Florida newspapers did give the debate prominent front-page display, among them the Orlando Sentinel, The News-Press of Fort Myers, the St. Lucie News Tribune, The Ledger of Lakeland, The St. Augustine Record, The Tampa Tribune, and the Tampa Bay Times. The Sun Sentinel managed to squeeze a couple of graphs about the debate at the bottom of its front page, apparently unwilling to give up space for an adjoining story: “More inmates sue to get dental floss.”
On the same day that the Herald and Post kept the debate story off their front pages, Newsweek announced that it is abandoning print and going all-digital in 2013. Some believe that the same fate is inevitable for the print editions of newspapers. I think they are right. But whether the future is digital or paper, news judgment will be central to success. In this case, not putting the debate on the front page sent the wrong message to readers.
"That assumes they don’t read beyond the front page."
An editor wrote this? I have to assume he was making a 'King's X' behind his back, or having trouble stifling irrepressible laughter when he did. Either that or the basic idea motivating editors has changed a great deal over the years. Actually, strike that - it's easily explained if you assume that editors now figure that people get bored if exposed to political news, and that the front page should be reserved for the sort of story that really draws readers - what you might call the National Enquirer model. He might be correct.
#1 Posted by JohnR, CJR on Fri 19 Oct 2012 at 12:58 PM
Another child was recently killed because reporters think they are too important to communicate like a teacher. Her name was Tamryn Klapheke and she was killed because her mother neglected to take care of her. According to the Associated Press article, Tamryn had chemical burns on her body because her diaper was presumable not changed. The accumulation of bowel movements caused the chemical burn because of an acid or base chemical interaction with her skin tissue. Tamryn's mother had been under the supervision of the state's Child Protective Services. But they obviously did a lousy job. The case worker even terminated the supervision six days before Tamryn died "without a final inspection" to confirm that conditions had improved. However, this shouldn't be a surprise because the local office was severely understaffed. There was only six case workers when they needed sixteen. And statewide, there was approximately 1,500 caseworkers when they needed 1,900. Now, I am sure that most people are going to blame the Governor of state legislature of Texas for not spending enough money to prevent Tamryn's death. But this is a childish understand of how politicians work. They must support both tax cuts and subsidies for the most powerful special interest groups of they will be replaced in the next election by smarter politicians. Anyone who reads or writes horserace journalism will understand this darwinian approach to politics. Children are just too weak of a special interest group to deserve a tax increase. As for for voters, one man, one vote is a wonderful principle and a lousy incentive for become an informed voter. Especially when reporters are only interested in writing about something when there is a dead body to lead and bleed on a newspaper's front page. Writing stories to prevent a disaster is boring. In my informal surveys of friends and drinking buddies, I have never met anyone who knew anything about our programs for vulnerable children before a disaster happened. So how can voters protect at risk children when they don't know anything about a shortage in case workers. But this problem could be partially overcome if reporters were willing to publish an annual one week review of events and conditions in our country. Such a review would work like the report cards than teachers and parents use for rewarding and punishing students. And I think that voters would enjoy using a report card to reward or punish their politicians. And the report cards could include statistics every year on how many case workers are needed for adequate care. But reporters will never do this because they care more about themselves than their country. And the people who work at CJR, they probably think that Tamryn's death was just an improvement in the gene pool. While an article about two newspapers not puting information about a debate on their front pages, that is the kind of story that gives CJR people goosebumps.
#2 Posted by Stanley Krauter, CJR on Mon 22 Oct 2012 at 02:32 PM