No surprise.
The Joplin Globe led its print edition today with a banner headline declaring "King of Pop dies in L.A."
The death of actress Farrah Fawcett was played with a photo right over the Globe in Joplin Globe, a nice design touch.
Normally, I would have played the Jackson death in a similar fashion, referring readers to a story inside, and devoting considerable space to it there. Page one should be dominated by strong local stories. Unfortunately for the Globe, it had none. The strongest story, the arrest of white supremacist Robert Joos, was not a top of page one story, and the others on page one, the possible reopening of a water park and Fourth of July celebrations were probably not even worthy of being on page one.
If the Jackson story had to be at the top of page one it would have been nice if it had been limited to two or three columns.
The Globe has been running a television advertisement which includes some of the headlines from great moments in history. The first man on the moon, a declaration of war, the assassination of President Kennedy- these are events that are worthy of banner headlines. THe death of Michael Jackson, major story though it is, does not come anywhere near that importance.
2 comments:
First, one has to understand who is calling the design and content decisions on Globe A1, that is one Gary Castor who has an ego so large, no amount of front page space is large enough for it.
His premise is simple, if it looks good, he wants the credit for it. Whether it is pertinent local news or not is not his primary factor in determining A1, something that looks good and could be a potential award winner takes priority in his book.
Springfield News-Leader led with budget issue and Gov. Nixon. Jackson was below the fold, still prominent, but in a more proper place. Just thought that was a nice comparison.
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