Could readers decide the front page?

[CRAZY4MYKIDS]

Could readers decide the front page?

By PAUL BERTON


I found myself being politely challenged this week by a reporter who thought his story was worthy of the front page.

Believe me, it's a common occurrence here. It means we have a healthy newsroom with enthusiastic reporters.

I asked him what he thought should have been removed to accommodate it. He conceded it would have been a tough decision, but one he would have been able to manage.

Everybody is an expert, I replied. Indeed, in this business, everyone is.

Readers regularly challenge our judgment in letters to the editor, telling us we underplay or overplay events and issues.

Now it is happening more in our blogs. And we can see by the number of "hits" on various stories at lfpress.com what interests people the most: sex, crime, scandal.

But the immediate interactive advantages of lfpress.com may offer us a further opportunity to formalize the process -- and it has actually been done by some newspapers. They have posted possible front-page candidates on their website, and asked readers to vote, and then acted accordingly.

Here's how most newspaper front-page meetings work: the managing editor and editor-in-chief are presented with stories from various section editors who believe they warrant front-page coverage.

There's usually a full and frank discussion until a final decision is made, each editor doing his or her best to "sell" a story.

It's never easy. Usually, the front-page is oversubscribed. Sometimes, there's not much news at all.

We favour local news, but sometimes national news (such as a Liberal leadership convention) takes over.

Above all, we like good stories. Problem is, each one of us has a different idea of what's a good story and what's not, depending on our background.

Ultimately, we agree more than we disagree because we think like journalists. We do our best for readers, but we don't actually know what they want.

In the past, at this paper and others, we've run features called "You be the Editor" and asked readers to make tough decisions on journalistic ethical and moral issues, among others. The results are never unanimous.

An early poll via the Internet might be just the ticket for our front page.

It would undoubtedly reveal some surprises, but in the end, I think we'd still end up every day with a full and frank discussion -- there'd simply be more voices.