News-Record.com

Last week, a reader wrote a letter to the editor expressing disappointment that the newspaper is moving away from front page display of serious stories on national and international events, such as the war, the presidential election and Hurricane Charley. "I subscribe to read these stories with insightful coverage, not quasi-religious 'fluff,'" the writer said, referring to an article the previous Sunday about an ill boy who was buoyed by his faith.

Today, I got an e-mail from another reader voicing similar concerns: "The front page news items that are the leading stories on the Internet are often not mentioned and certainly not on the front page where they belong."

Both readers are correct about our evolving front page philosophy. In the past eight or nine months, we've purposely moved A1 beyond national and international news and into issues that directly affect people locally. With all the news sources out there -- from network news to 24-hour cable news to other newspapers to C-Span to the Internet -- we decided that the smart play is to emphasize local news. Actually, we emphasize stories that are local, serious and exclusive. Many readers can get the headlines about Iraq, Bush and Kerry, and Hurricane Charley before they go to bed. It has become increasingly difficult for us to tell them something they don't already know because of the easy access to other information sources.

What we can deliver is local: local news, local people and local features. We don't ignore the serious issues of the world. Coverage of the war and the presidential race have prominent places every day inside the newspaper. When important news develops on those topics, we don't hesitate to move it to the front. But we don't automatically layer those stories on the front page as we might have done a few years ago. That, in turn, allows us to display stories more prominently about local people and local decisions that are hard to find elsewhere. We think it helps people in the Triad understand their community better.