Editorial: How we choose the front page

Northern Advocate Editor Craig Cooper. Photo: John Stone

Peter Garelja makes a good point in today's letters column - he wants to see more light on the Northern Advocate's front page.

So do I, so we're off to a good start in terms of responding to Peter's needs, as a subscriber.

I enjoyed this observation from Peter.

"If you ignore the front page there is some quality journalism and good reading to be regularly had within this newspaper. However, the front page of any newspaper is its shop window. I strongly suggest that the Northern Advocate urgently employ the services of a glazier to put in a new window as the current one appears to be scratched, hard to see out of and needs to allow some more light coming through."

Peter is dead right - the front page is the shop window and is the primary source of enticement to casual sales buyers, that is, people who do not have the paper delivered each day.

Newspapers generally have a 50/50 split of casual readers and subscribers.

So therein lies a daily challenge - the balancing act of providing something on the front page to entice people to buy it off the news stand, but at the same time not alienating subscribers like Peter who are getting the paper delivered each day.

At this time of year, regional newspapers become acutely aware of the front page balance as the country goes into summer holiday mode.

We operate on skeleton staffing, there are fewer stories being produced and you tend to get less of the "light", as Peter puts it.

We reject some stories for the front page because they are too heavy, too dark.

Take Saturday's paper. The lead headline was "Vandals desecrate historic graveyard" and the lead photograph, that is, the biggest picture on the page, was of Dr Lance O'Sullivan and his success as a semifinalist for New Zealander of the Year.

So there's some balance there.

I did a survey of some other regional newspapers and headlines ranged from "Child dies in NI crash", "Bullet in back" and "Papamoa twister wreaks havoc".

The reality of the buying habits of our casual readers is that we have more readers when we publish these stories than we do when we don't.

It's a societal phenomenon that newspapers can't ignore because of the make-up of their readership.

But we also can't ignore readers like Peter, who recognise the quality of the Advocate beyond the front page, but get peeved by the front page negativity.

The good news, Peter, is that your local editor agrees with you - I'd like to see more light.

The front page window needs a good scrub, and as we say goodbye to 2013, I hope in 2014 you get to see more of what you want as a subscriber.