A handful of readers noted the large staring photo of Saddam Hussein that played across nearly half the front page the day after his execution. Alongside the image of Hussein was the single word “Executed.”
The size of the photo and the headline style were more of a magazine or tabloid treatment than what most Tribune readers (and some editors) are used to, but looking at the newsstand, I found it certainly caught my attention.
On Wednesday, a large front-page photo of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was accompanied by this text: “What Obama must do to win,” and two stories on his all-but-certain entry into the 2008 presidential race. Again, the unusual treatment and size of the image were a jarring but still rather appealing presentation, at least to my eye.
The front page is the newspaper’s face and its prime real estate.
The decisions on what to put there are usually the most controversial of the day. What deserves to be on the front? How important or compelling is it? With major news instantly available, how should editors deal with stories when so many readers already know the essential details? The news of Obama’s move had been reported on the chicagotribune.com Web site at midmorning Tuesday. So the goal for the next morning was to provide not only basic facts but also more context and nuance.
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Beyond the content, how the page looks, especially with the use of photographs, prompts strong opinions. What strikes one reader as attractive may be a pandering display to another. Each newspaper has a personality and there is always a risk in experimenting.
Editors, conscious that reading habits and expectations are changing, are looking beyond traditional presentations to give readers more than Internet headlines and television sound bites.
But every front page is a daily judgment call, and rarely do all editors or readers agree on the decisions. One day not long ago, a reader objected to the prominence of an evocative story of a man and his family facing illness and his imminent death. It was “very depressing” and unsuitable for the front page, the reader insisted.
But others applauded it as the best story in that day’s paper. “Never has a newspaper story brought me to tears as yours did today … ” one message read. “[I]t put into words the thoughts and doubts I have regarding death, the existence of God, and the afterlife. Thank you for publishing it.”
Some readers complain there is too much politics and policy on the front page, but others suggest that deviating from the traditional definition of hard news makes the front page too soft and not relevant to them.
It is also upsetting to some readers if anniversaries of significant events in the nation’s history are not on the front page, whether it is the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, or the 62nd anniversary of D-Day. Other milestones, such as the 3,000th U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, elicit claims of political bias for putting them on Page 1 or for leaving them off the page.
A sympathetic story doesn’t necessarily garner sympathy. “I won’t even bother reading this `sob story’ for illegals,” read one angry message about another hot-button issue, immigration. “How dare you have the audacity to put something like this on the front page.”
Inside the newsroom, the process of making those front-page judgments is transparent. Editors gather at midafternoon to consider the day’s news and enterprise articles.
Each department editor, from the foreign desk, national, business, the Washington bureau, Metro, sports and features, offers or “pitches” their Page 1 possibilities, altogether about 12 to 15 stories. The photo and graphics departments also present their work that is usually tied to the stories being offered.
Other editors, including me, ask questions, raise doubts and suggest changes, and then vote for the five, sometimes six, stories they believe should be on the front. While the idea of a mix of stories on the front page is longstanding, how to present those stories with photos, interesting headlines and graphics is a challenge.
But the votes of those editors are only advisory. The senior editor at the meeting listens to the discussion and the votes and then chooses the stories she or he wants.
News and other developments occur, so the decisions arrived at by 4:30 or 5 p.m. often change considerably before the first deadline of 11 p.m. The front page is the stage to entice readers to major stories and to the hundreds of other articles and elements inside the paper. Seeking non-traditional presentations and creating new attitudes toward reporting and storytelling that surprise and attract readers may be essential to the survival of the newspaper industry.
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Timothy J. McNulty is the Tribune’s public editor. He listens to readers’ concerns about the paper’s coverage and writes periodically about journalism issues. His e-mail address is [email protected]. The views expressed are his own.