Posted on: Sunday, July 01, 2001

After Deadline
Selection of front-page stories a collaborative newsroom decision

By Jim Kelly
Advertiser Executive Editor

I received a couple of complaints about a story by Mike Gordon on the front page of last Sunday's paper. Gordon and photographer Richard Ambo teamed up on a feature about Pete Hernandez, a guy who built a trapeze in his Makiki yard as a way of connecting to his family's roots as circus performers.

Some readers thought it was too light to be so prominently displayed on the front page.

"The most important news stories in Hawai'i and the world should be on the front page ... I certainly don't think this article qualifies," wrote one reader.

This goes to one of the most common questions I get about the newspaper: How are the front-page stories selected?

Like much of what we do, it's a collaborative process. At 3 p.m. each day, a group of a dozen editors and others gather to talk about the news of the day, what stories and photos we have and how they should be displayed. That leads to a consensus about what our front page will look like and, by extension, what we will tell readers were the most significant and interesting events of the day.

In determining the lineup for the front page, we're always aiming for "mix," a loosely defined concept that seeks five or six stories and photographs with a range of appeal.

There is always event-driven hard news — Macy's buys Liberty House. There is also what we call enterprise — stories developed by our staff on a broad range of topics.

And then there's what we sometimes call "the fifth story," that story that reflects something unique about our community, or provides a laugh, or is just a compelling read.

Local stories have an edge, but significant national and world stories will nearly always find a place on Page 1.

Some days it seems all the biggest stories involve disasters, depravity, pessimism or, worse yet, the endless gray churning of bureaucracy. We work hard on these days not to knock important stories inside and replace them with fluff, but to find something to leaven the front page.

But our readers trust us not to put the frivolous on the front page, and I think that's where some felt we crossed a line last Sunday. I was among the editors who believed the trapeze piece was just a nice slice of Honolulu life, an engaging tale of one man's little obsession. Was it important? Probably not to anyone but him. Was it too prominent on the front page? Yeah, in hindsight I'd say it could have taken up a little less space.

But was it misplaced on Page 1?

I don't think so. It gave me a smile after I was through with the "important" stories of the day. It made me feel good we could play up a simple story about a guy with a dream, someone who made it to the front page who wasn't elected, indicted, awarded or downsized.