Deciding what story is “worth” being presented on the front page is a battle every newspaper editor goes through.
In the case of the Mission Record, it’s a weekly decision – and it isn’t always an easy one.
It may seem obvious that the “most important story” goes on the front, but there are so many other factors.
Take this week’s edition. What happened in Mission this week? There was a huge police incident that lasted most of the night and caused a frenzy of comments on Facebook, the school board heard about the timeline for the building of a new secondary school, Vasaikhi was celebrated, MACL spent $50,000 on toys and supplies, provincial election boundaries were discussed, well you get the idea, things happened.
At first glance, the police incident was a likely candidate for the front. Unfortunately there wasn’t a strong photo to go with the story. Having a dark picture with some red and blue lights in the background hardly grabs the eye.
It’s also important to note that a top banner ad – something that we don’t do very often – is also on the front page this week, making the news space a little shorter and narrower than normal.
Another factor to consider is what ran last week? As an editor you want to mix it up a bit. You don’t always want a depressing front. Crime, fires, flooding, drug issues, they are all important stories but readers don’t want to be lambasted week after week by negative fronts.
Two weeks ago we ran a large photo of a carnival ride, the week before that a feature on suicide, today it’s a photo from Vasaikhi. There is no right answer, just best judgment.
A few years ago, I had a reader phone me, furious that we ran a feature on a pig on our front page. The person was livid that we wasted all that space on an animal story when an apartment fire was pushed back to page five.
The point is, the front page can range from funny to sad, colourful to dark. It can even be an advertisement.
Last week, our front page story was about flooding in Hatzic. However a full page ad was purchased – called a false front – which wraps around the paper, covering the actual front page.
As an editor, I’m not a big fan of false fronts because they cover the news story, but I understand the business side of the argument because they bring in revenue. The public also seems to understand.
On Dec. 16, 2022 we ran a false front for a local furniture store and everyone seemed fine with it. On Jan. 13, 2023 we ran it again with no issues.
Last week we ran a different false front and some members of the pubic seemed to object.
The difference?
Last week’s full page front was an ad for a cannabis store.
That weekend I received a few emails complaining about it, while a member of the Facebook group Mission BC & Neighbours posted of photo of it asking “seriously Mission Record?”
What followed was an fascinating, 159 comment debate on whether it was a good thing or not. Many people had no issue with a legal, legitimate local business buying an ad in the local paper. Others didn’t like cannabis being promoted on the front page, while still others said they just didn’t like false front advertisements.
It seems strange though that they didn’t complain about the furniture store.
Simply put, the front page can be impacted by a variety of factors – advertising, story content, photo quality and editor’s discretion. When I first started in this industry, I was told by my editor that you could give the same content to 10 different editors and get 10 different front pages, depending on their opinions.
With social media added to the mix, you can have thousands of opinions.
– Kevin Mills is the editor of the Mission Record