The front page of a broad-sheet daily newspaper has traditionally been treated as a window to what's happening in the readers' world, a collection of the most interesting and most important news of the day.
That seems to have changed.
Today (Sunday, Nov. 18, 2008) the Chicago Tribune, supposedly one of the leading metropolitan daily newspapers in the country, ran a one-story front page about the dangers some cribs pose to babies. It's a story that's part of an on-going interest of the Tribune. In other words, not anything new to regular readers.
In the past, it has been a point of emphasis for the folks who deliver the paper to make sure the front page is displayed through the plastic bag for subscribers to see when they pick up the paper off their front porches. Not today. The front page was so insignificant that it was hidden behind another section.
There was a time when printers, the folks who worked outside the newsroom and served a role between the editorial department and the press room, would put together the front page. Their rule of thumb was to make sure, when the page was completed, that a person could toss a quarter onto the front page and no matter where it landed, the quarter would touch a headline.
Now the visual school of thought has taken over newsrooms, claiming it's not a headline or subject that attracts readers but how the information plays visually on the page.
Meanwhile, the Tribune continues to lose readers and advertisers at an alarming rate and its financial losses of the last quarter indicate the need for even more layoffs, probably many more of which will come from the editorial staff.
Maybe whoever thought the new Tribune was a good idea will be the one who gets to turn out the lights.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment