Wednesday, September 12, 2007

No Britney Spears on page one today

The Joplin Globe bounced back from brain freeze today with no mention whatsoever of pop has-been Britney Spears on page one, and plenty of Joplin news.
It was an all-Joplin page one, a rare occasion since the days when Publisher Dan Chiodo indicated there was not enough space in the Globe for local news and that is why the unnecessary Joplin Herald was created.

Jeff Lehr and Debby Woodin provided complete details on the arrest of a gunman Tuesday following the shooting of a police dog. Joe Hadsall's coverage of the Joplin R-8 Board of Education meeting was also featured on page one, and believe it or not, there was even a story on MSSU's observance of the anniversary of 9-11 (an anniversary which failed to make page one of Tuesday's paper, sacrificed to the newsworthiness of Britney Spears).

The Globe would find that providing more Joplin information on page one might actually give readers the impression that Joplin news is a priority for the newspaper. A regional concept is fine and commendable, but even readers in area towns should expect Joplin news to be on page one of a Joplin newspaper, unless there is a story of tremendous importance (for instance, the Anderson Guest House fire, or the closing of a major employer).

Hopefully, today's page one will not turn out to be an aberration.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It was a vast improvement but I think it was just to ease over the total disaster from the day before. I do not think the globe cares about Joplin at all, same as our tv stations, all area stuff barely any local. A mix would be fine but their version of a mix is one day Joplin the next day area, mix each day, now that would be a mix.