I neglected to mention this last week, but I enjoyed seeing a picture, albeit a small one, of the Joplin High School Football Homecoming queen on page one. Joplin stories should always be the bread and butter for The Globe, and though obviously a high school sports homecoming is not going to be treated as a major event in Joplin, it is still important to a sizable segment of the Globe's readership.
Most small dailies and weeklies play up football and basketball homecomings. At The Carthage Press, we had blanket coverage of the ballgames, one or two photo pages, thanks to Press photographer Ron Graber (now managing editor), and an interview with the newly-crowned queen. Sales were up for the issue and it was a proper way to play up a major school event in a small town.
I followed the same approach with Lamar homecomings when I was at The Lamar Democrat. Unfortunately, the homecoming is no longer considered to be a major news story at that newspaper, just an advertising vehicle to sell a few support ads in the newspaper that is published just before the game.
Sports Editor Chris Morrow did a fine job with game coverage, but the queen photo did not run on page one, was extremely small, and was farmed out to a commercial photographer, the same approach the newspaper now uses for many other events that were once covered by the news staff.
If you can run 25-inch stories on the Dade County Commission on page one (which the Democrat does in nearly every issue, it seems), certainly there should be a spot for an event that draws more than 1,000 people to Thomas O'Sullivan Stadium.
There is a place for Greenfield news, as well as news from Golden City, Lockwood, Liberal, Jasper, and Sheldon in The Lamar Democrat, but the number one priority of a local newspaper has to be local news.
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