Last Updated: February 03, 2000
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The front page
The front page is an occasional look at how our front pages reflect
our newspapers' values. If you would like to have your front page considered,
contact Al Siegal of The New York Times at 212/556-1049 or siegal@nytimes.com.
By Oct. 1, nearly two weeks after Hurricane Floyd's sweep up the Atlantic
coast, the storm had become a footnote in most media. At The News &
Observer in Raleigh, N.C., though, it had turned into the biggest story
of the year, bringing the worst flooding in history to a swath of eastern
North Carolina. That day's front page reflects the continued dominance
of this story and illustrates our preference for news-driven front pages
that balance major national and world stories with our coverage of North
Carolina.
We knew early that our 1A report would include more news from the flooded
areas: We had pulled most of our staff into covering the storm and its
impact. As the disaster lingered, coverage broadened to include fund-raising
efforts and help for the communities.
This day, two federal officials flew over the area, putting focus not
just on the misery but on rebuilding in floodplains. We had a related piece
about a local reservoir that managers kept overfull because of the flooding.
Its water had forced some local road closings.
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By midafternoon we also had a number of other strong news stories:
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The Japanese nuclear plant accident
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The anniversary of communist China
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The Mars mission craft's destruction due to non-metric measurements
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The local acquittal of a young hunter for involuntary manslaughter
At the 6:15 p.m. meeting, we agreed that this was the day the floods
would drop from the top of the page. The Japanese accident (which developed
through the night) needed some play to explain the incident, response and
uncertainty, so it went to the top.
The wire offers on China included interesting sidebars, and we
decided to give the anniversary a front-page presence with a photo and
text block at the bottom of the page, with inside refers.
We put a local story in the off-lead above the fold, reflecting our
emphasis on home-turf coverage as well as our zoning approach: Durham County
readers saw a piece on a local hospital's financial crisis, while Wake
County readers saw a situationer on the finance issues of a school board
race.
To that, we we added a story on a clerical goof that cost the state
nearly $600,000 for foster-child programs - an exclusive. The Mars mission
and hunter acquittal went inside.
And with the Floyd package we included a small bar chart showing the
September rainfall totals for our region, which until August was suffering
from a drought, and a good refer package to several storm follows inside
A and in other sections.
Sill is managing editor of The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
